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Wednesday 22nd January, 2020

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On behalf of Finn, he ain’tent dead yet.

In fact, this week has been pretty good and the weekend just gone involved his first walk in about a fortnight. He made it to the nearest patch of grass with a few lie-downs along the way. Gazed at the mud longingly and then got forced to walk back (with more lie-downs). He’s still picky – I would go so far to say faddy – with food and having to be hand fed otherwise he doesn’t eat at all, which kind of nixes the anti-inflammatory part of his painkiller egime. So. Hand fed – and what he doesn’t like ends up with me or the other two depending on whether it’s intended to be eaten by humans or not.

ASIDE: I feel I should make it clear, again, that I am not eating dog food. Just the quiche, cocktail sausages, cheese, sausage rolls, pasta sauce, whatever, that Finn turns his nose up at.

We have also moved on from paracetemol tablets (half a 500mg tablet is one dose) because it makes him suspicious of all later food. He’s now on “paracetemol in suspension” (i.e. Calpol), getting up to 250mg in a dose. He does not approve of the strawberry flavour but at least it doesn’t make him distrust the food I give him.

In other news, I have booked Satellite 7 (more info here: [External Link]) and a hotel room in the nearby Premier Inn, so it looks like I shall be going to Glasgow in May. Possibly see you there.

I think I mentioned at the beginning of the year that Mab Morris [External Link] did some substantive editing of City of Dreams for me. I understand she has some openings for more substantive editing in the not too distant future, so I urge anyone who’s got a manuscript they’re a little stuck with and not sure how to make it work better – or even at all – to get in touch with her. Her rates are on her website (the last link) but she generally prefers talking on Facebook, so here’s that page as well: [External Link]

Wednesday 1st January, 2020

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Happy New Year!

It’s a little late in the day to get the post out but… I had other things to do. Dogs walked, minor DIY done, things measured for more DIY, Doctor Who watched but also… writing things. At least everyone on the globe is now officially in 2020, so, you know.

Happy New Year!

And now on to the writing things what I have done. I’m not in any position to give you an accurate forecast of the future but I know that my main WIP that I’ll be working on in the next few months will go by the working title of “The Three Lancers”. There is now a tag although it remains to be seen whether I’ll manage to make site updates often enough for it to get much use.

Anyway, in the last year, I have re-read The Three Musketeers and the story The Duellists is based on, and I’m part way through Les Liaisons Dangereuses. It looks like they’re all going to be a strong influence. I keep talking about it being Not The Three Musketeers, so it’s going to be pretty blatantly based on those group dynamics.

I have a bit of stuff lined up in advance for Plumtree, my Patreon project [External Link], and the next passage goes live (to backers) on Monday.

My other side WIP at the moment is going through some substantive edits of City of Dreams. I last worked on that back in 2010 and the first draft actually dates from 2009. Twards the end of last year, Mab Morris [External Link] offered to go through it for me and I’m now working through the resulting notes. I hope to be able to declare the latest draft finished in the next few days. And I definitely recommend Mab to other writers, particularly anyone who’s thinking of going the Indy route (which I am unlikely to, as I am not brave enough) and needs an editor to check things out. It’s a hard skill to master, stepping back from your own work to see where the structural issues are. Sometimes it’s good to get an outside observer to help.

25 Ways [Not] To Kill A Vampire has been passed along to readers, so that’s gone from my mind and my work queue until I find out if other people think the story was worth telling, too.

And with that, time for me to disappear – maybe I’ll reappear in time for next week.

Monday 8th August, 2016

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I got a bit distracted last week, so here’s a round-up of the last two weeks.

I’ve read the six nominees for the British Fantasy Society (BFS) [External Link] Award for graphic novel / comic. I’m not going to tell you what my thoughts were other than it was pretty clear why they were all picked. (You can find the shortlists here: [External Link]).

I have read a fencing acquaintance’s WIP through – and she was kind enough to send me through a novella she’s published along with the works of a couple of her writing friends / fellow writing acquaintances. Worth a look if you’re into that kind of thing:

  • Mab Morris’s The Red Khemeresh (Goodread’s page here: [External Link]) is a fantasy set in a very large world she’s building but this corner of it bears some similarities to the Steppes. I was taken with the way the shamnism and magic of the world were described.
  • Kathryn Hinds’ The Healer’s Choice (Goodread’s page here: [External Link]) is closer to a late iron age / Roman invasion of Gaul or Britain parallel. The story has a flow that grabbed me – but it’s the first in a series so be prepared to wonder what happens next (in a good way).

    ASIDE: Incidentally, Kathryn is a historian. She’s got an interesting back catalogue of history books, too!
  • Claire Ryan’s The Melding [External Link]) is a world without the parallels – and a strong romantic plot. Again, it’s the first of a series.

I’ve read through my feedback on my Feathers WIP and had a crack at the next draft. Next thing is to let the Alex & Conn idea that seems to percolating come to boil. Maybe it’ll in time for a short story first draft for next week.

Final thing to mention: Fox Spirit Books will be celebrating the complete set of Fox Pocket anthologies in a(bout a) fortnight. See you there if you can make it!