Sunday 16th November, 2014

Apologies for the quiet. I’m still in need of quiet time but life keeps getting in the way of everything but this. And it’s not like I had a lot to say for a couple of weeks, there!

Anyway, this week is a “Free [the] Fiction!” week. Here’s the updates.

  1. A Granted Wish, a novella length piece of mine, is now up on the Fox Spirit [External Link] web-site under their Free Fiction page. On my site you can find the “published” announcement and some story background (both with direct links to the right Fox Spirit page).
  2. I’ve made the first chapter of 25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf available on the site. It has all the usual plug links at the bottom of the page so, if you like it, you can get your paws on your own copy.
  3. I did manage to remember a couple of Sunday Stories in the last couple of weeks. The last story mentioned in an update was How Otter Made The World but Sunday 2nd was The Toy Plane (another one suitable for children) and this Sunday was Broken Bear (a heroic fantasy that probably isn’t suitable for children).

In other news, Wales rugby union performance has not been wonderful…

Sunday 5th October, 2014

I’m going to say this a few times more in case my friends are all hiding under rocks but… I’ve had a book published by the name of 25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf, thanks to the help and support of Fox Spirit Books [External Link]. The linked page will (eventually) get you to the UK Amazon but most other “local” Amazon sites should also … Continue reading

Three Little Pigs & Gone Fishing: Story Background

This is a little background on the thinking behind Three Little Pigs (published back in April 2010) and Gone Fishing (published tomorrow, 30th April 2014). More precisely, I’m going to have a bit of a look at the world building as specific to these two stories.

Publishing Details

Three Little Pigs was published by Crossed Genres [External Link] in issue 17 of their original run. This issue is no longer available.

Gone Fishing … Continue reading

Sunday 9th March, 2014

Not much going on this week. I’m tapping away (occasionally) on a project that you may never see. Once or twice a year I play with (tv or movie) script format and the current idea is one of those.

I have also been playing Civ 5 and various FB games that Ole [External Link] mentioned. Now that we have a shared household (6 computers and tablets combined on last count), it’s a little hard to avoid the temptation of trying these things out.

I also got some homework done, if you want a child-friendly piece of flash fiction.

Other than that, I have now introduce Ole to rugby and he appears to enjoy watching it. This weeks’ Six Nations results look promising for an Irish championship. I’ll keep my fingers crossed…

Sunday 9th February, 2014

Well, that first R&D “Untitled” novella I mentioned back in January. is done. It finished off at 22600 words. As this is a first draft it could end up a few thousand words shorter or longer by the time it’s well and truly finished. However, the first draft being done means it’s time for a break for a few days and then consider what project comes next.

If you’re bothering to look at my list of things to do on that link, by the way, I’ve started trying to rehome An Invisible Tide, so that’s no longer on the “to do” list at all. I’ve had a couple of additions to the list, that are just ideas sketched down at this stage, too. This is not including doing re-reads and perhaps salvaging older work. If I think about it too hard, I’m likely to start doing some of it, so I’ll shut up now.

The weekend went OK, although the rugby results weren’t exactly what I was hoping for (Ireland beat Wales 26-3, England beat Scotland 20-0, France beat Italy 30-10). Well, at least BOD’s on track for a glorious end to his International career.

And a reminder about the Esfinges Twitter Hours (on site link and details on the Esfinges blog [External Link]). The inaugural #HEMAHour went well but we could do with more people discussing women in martial arts in general for #WarriorWomenHour! If you’re interested and want to ask what things are like before trying it out, this is a good place to start.

Sunday 2nd February 2014

So, we’re into February already and I’m only about 1,000 words nearer to the end of that untitled R&D novella I mentioned last week. This sounds even less impressive when I admit that the finished first draft should be about 20,000 words – so I have 4,000 (ish) words to go – and I’ve been working on it since November. On the plus side, I have another idea on my project list that I think’ll fly. No news on that any time soon, though!

Actually, on the plus plus side, the Six Nations has started. (Wales beat Italy 23-15, France just beat England 26-24 and Ireland beat Scotland 28-6. End of Rugby transmission.)

On a fencing note, I am now the Twitter Pilot for Esfinges [External Link] – you may have noticed the announcements on both my and the Esfinges Twitter accounts [External Link] – and I’m up to mischief straight away. If you fancy chatting about Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) and / or women in Martial Arts in general, I’ll be running some twitter talks. I’ve posted an event link here and details can also be found on the Esfinges blog here: [External Link] You don’t have to be into these things already. If you’re interested and want to ask what things are like before trying it out, it’ll be a good place to come for some rough and ready information.

There are also some new events added. I’ve completed the Nordic Historical Fencing League [External Link] set of four (the first was Helsinki) with details for:

There’s also some fencing going on in Barcelona in June.

Sunday 26th January, 2014

Following today’s post about a new fictional world – or, at least, the new box to put my toys in – I thought I’d share my current list of projects to make up for the times when it looks like I’m doing nothing.

  1. A Pack Of Lies (Novel, Fur-Skins, Elkie 2), 1st draft – beta reading,
  2. Good Form (Practice script based on short story), 1st draft – stewing,
  3. An Invisible Tide (Short, sf), 2nd draft – beta reading,
  4. Untitled (Novella, R&D), 1st draft in progress,
  5. Untitled (Novella, R&D), notes,
  6. Brothers Under The Skin (Novel, Fur-Skins, Elkie 3), notes,
  7. Into The Greenwood / Queen of Fools? (Novel, fantasy), notes,

I’m about three quarters of the way through the first draft of the first R&D “Untitled” on my list. But I really do very little writing. I just peck away at it when I can, which is why things take a while to emerge in final copy.

My “to be rewritten” mountain is a similar length, if I keep it down to the work I’m intending to read through and then make a decision on this year – maybe even redo, time allowing:

You may recognise some of those from when I first got into writing with intent – back in 2007, no less. I suspect some of them count towards the first however many hundred thousand words that are supposed to be total crap. Some chunks of those are total crap but I want to see if there’s anything worth salvaging.

R&D: Development Issues

As ever, I had a bright idea. This one got a bit messy. More precisely, I had the bright idea of reusing technology that turned up in earlier stories and something I was drafting at the time. So…

The Framework

The science fiction stories I’m lumping together as background stories are as follows:

Sunday 19th January, 2014

Well, it’s been a fortnight since the last update post. Mainly because I’ve been distracted by being domesticated last weekend. This week, however, I’ve just been distracting with bad luck. Never mind, eh?

On the good side, a short story of mine was accepted for rehoming the week before last. For more information on the original call for submissions for “Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction” go here: [External Link] and there’s details of how to get hold of an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) here: [External Link]