Tag Archives: Critter’s Workshop

Sunday 10th August, 2008

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  August 10, 2008 - 20:18 | Site Diary
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Just the usual. And a note.

Something that didn’t make it on to the Writing: Projects page last week was my brief attempt at re-homing Elvish Virtues: Faith. The story was sent out mid-week and was back in the kennel by Saturday. As the editor helpfully pointed out, re-homing elves can be hard work as they’re a bit common these days. Which means that writers have to prove that (with links that may explain this all):

But you know what? I’m lazy. And my elves, although somewhat evil and therefore second category, are not so well written that I’m going to have an easy time rehoming them. So I have a cunning plan. And this is your advance warning.

Once the last of the Elvish Virtues (Charity) has made it through the Critters’ [External Link] queue, my pets will be unleashed on this web-site. This should be in the next six months or so. The dwarves may eventually follow them. Yes, I know it goes against my more normal pursuit of the “almighty dollar” – or at least recognition – but hey, it’s all basically background material for the main Hound of Kern trilogy. In fact, they did start out as me hammering out “historic” Elvish characters and some back story. You have been warned!

Sunday 27th July, 2008

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  July 27, 2008 - 13:55 | Site Diary
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Just the usual changes to the Diary and Projects this week.

For those of you a little more interested in what I’m actually doing that brought on the project updates, I’ve had Hope crittered, had a round of redrafting The Elvish Virtues as a whole and submitted Charity for Crittering. So far, it looks as if I’ll be attempting to rehome / inflict on an unsuspecting public some time in September. The related White Heart has officially begun its read-through prior to redrafting. To be completed… whenever.

And the upcoming Little Red Riding Hood anthology to be published by Drollerie Press [External Link] has been titled Straying from the Path. I’m looking forward to seeing my story and the others that have been selected!

No other news. Sorry. I shall try to be more interesting next week.

Sunday 15th June, 2008

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  June 15, 2008 - 13:19 | Site Diary
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So, how shall I start this week’s diary? Like the last two weeks, there are no appreciable changes to the web-site, although there are minor tweaks to the writing section.

Oh, and I’ve finally changed the photo on the About Me page. Not to anything particularly exciting. It now shows Pen-y-ghent. Look it up on Wikipedia [External Link] if you don’t know what I’m talking about. (Although, the wikipedia entry neglects to mention that “Ghent” is usually translated as “border” – and incidentally is often changed to “Kent” in other names, like the Lancashire river and the southern county…)

Off screen, I’ve been up to a little more, with The Longest Night redraft now five eighths of the way through. I can be this precise because it’s split into eight sections. Makes progress reports easier, if nothing else. And Asylum has now been through the Critters’ [External Link] ringer. It got a lot of responses, as did the last piece to go through (The Nesting Instinct), which leads me to wonder if – despite the mixed feelings of the critters – the fact that there were more words written about the piece in total than are contained in it is a good sign. It at least means that I write well enough for twenty-odd people to sit down and read it all the way through, after all.

Sunday 6th April, 2008

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  April 6, 2008 - 21:04 | Site Diary
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I’ve started this week without my dog. Don’t worry, nothing drastic – he’s just been at “Posh Pets Country Club” near High Hesket for the weekend. (This link [External Link] takes you to the company web-site, but the kennels themselves aren’t online at the moment.) I pick him up this afternoon. It’s been a trial run for a longer holiday in May. And there’s possibly another short stay in June when I go to attend a friend’s wedding. As usual, I have been suffering separation anxiety, but Finn is probably fine.

He left me with instructions to tweak his page, so I’ve changed the layout a bit and added a “Finn Recommends” bit to the links box. So far, we’ve just added Bark Busters [External Link], our dog school, but Posh Pets will probably be joining the list next week.

My writing projects page has been updated to reflect current status, but to round up: redrafting The Longest Night is still 1/4 the way through and the first draft of Charity is finished. At some point, I will be redrafting all of the Elvish Virtues based on the Crittering [External Link] that Faith received. Although they are only loosely linked, I need to work on them together to ensure the world is consistent. In the distant future, when I have them finished, I will return to White Heart, as they fix a large chunk of the background for the novel. This is provided I find time with all my other projects!

And finally, I have updated “my” CHARLESWORTHs again. I still have a few small groups of (currently) unrelated lines to add, but I am pecking away at them to check I can’t find an appropriate place to attach them to the listed lines.
There are a few other site tweaks – frex, I’ve added Reflection’s Edge [External Link] to my reading materials list – but it’s mostly basic tidying up.

Sunday 9th December, 2007

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  December 9, 2007 - 15:36 | Site Diary
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PLUG/REMINDER: The Girl From Yesterday is in the first issue of the Ranfurly Review [External Link]

Nothing much going on this week, web-site or writing wise. I’m polishing my intended Cone Zero [External Link] submission. It’s on draft 2 and seems to make sense. To me, if to nobody else. Faith is a bit of a pig. I’m still busy first drafting. It’s coming out it bits and pieces and then I’ll have to stitch it all together and (hopefully) make it work. And Hybrid is just made it to the front of the Critter [External Link] queue, so next week I shall be having another look at that.

Other than that, I’m busy with: dog, moving house, the usual flood of admin work that comes with the end of school term, and preparing for my next job.

Sunday 11th November, 2007

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  November 11, 2007 - 15:13 | Site Diary
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First of all, another minor tweak to the website design. Seems I made the box a little too wide for displaying with Yahoo!’s adverts. Hopefully this is slightly better. Let me know if there are any problems.

There is also an update to the Charlesworth page (one of my Families of Interest in the Genealogy section). It turns out that things have changed since 1891 (surprise, surprise) and the East Window of Bolsover St Mary and St Laurence Church is not dedicated to a Charlesworth family, but the first Baroness of Bolsover, who died in 1893.

And to round everything off, writing news:

  • The Gospel has been returned from critique-ing on Critters [External Link] and I am currently working on re-drafting it.
  • I’m almost finished with the second draft of White Heart and will be forcing it on friends and family shortly.
  • I’m in the process of organising The Longest Night (having had said friends and family check it over) for Crittering, although it won’t be up for a couple of months.

Sunday 12th August, 2007

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  August 12, 2007 - 13:37 | Site Diary
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No big changes this week, just catching up on links for the various e-zines, magazines and publishers I browse online, and adding another page of “useful” sites if you’re interested in the writing and fan side (one day, I may even get into it myself) of speculative fiction. These can all be found under the Writing section.

And no, I haven’t been up to much this week – walking Finn (who has no news of his own, so has abandoned me to sleep on my bed this morning) and read through Longest Night. Hopefully, I shall have a synopsis/page up for it next week.

I am also in the process of having the story A Council of Angels crittered [External Link]. I’ve had a few critiques already (it closes on Wednesday) and so far things look good. I hope to be doing the resulting redraft in the next few weeks.

Sunday 15th July 2007

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  July 15, 2007 - 11:46 | Site Diary
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First of all, Happy Birthday week to Dad!

And now back to business and, thankfully, I managed another Writing week, having written 2 more chapters of White Heart even though I got distracted by the Angels (from A Council… mentioned below) deciding they wanted another story. This has lead to another reshuffle of my projects page to put the stuff that happens in the same world together. It makes sense on the page itself, I swear.

I’ve had a rejection from Strange Horizons [External Link] for A Council of Angels. But having recently started at Critter’s Workshop [External Link], I decided to put it through the system. The resulting critiques will help me improve it and maybe I can find a home for it. I’ve also done my first critique for the site and I hope to improve my writing generally by just seeing how other people do it.

I’ve also put together a brief page on my GUMSLEY family. Dr Stuart WHOMSLEY, the senior partner in that particular venture, and I are having some difficulty researching the family backwards and outwards and would love to hear from anyone who might have a connection. Stuart’s contact details are on the page, along with his band’s website (Gratuitous Plug: Bossloper can be found at [External Link])

And finally, Finn, having not had anything to do but dictate my writing for a while (he’s a real martinet of a muse, that one, but don’t tell him I said so), is now having trouble with the game “Fetch”. He seems to think I have to chase him to get the ball back.