The Errorist Strikes Again!

I found this YouTube channel, and it made me laugh. So, I'm spreading it here, and suggest if you like this sort of humour, go subscribe to her channel.

As for me, I'm still dealing with health issues, which are probably related to living long enough to be classed as old, but I am writing again. Spending a couple of hours each day butt in chair, hands on keyboard. Reading through a story I left unfinished, and making sure to finish the work.

What does this mean for my readers?

The next book will be The Bureau. My homage to Lovecraft and the TV series The Professionals. I'm currently near the end of editing Act 3, and I'll finish the rest in due course.

Note, weasely words avoiding a hard deadline, because I don't make promises I can't keep.

Once finished, I'll have my Alpha reader check for typos, and then look to what formats I'll release it in. I'm not sure I can justify the cost of setting up paper versions, so I might only release it as an ebook. It is what it is.

Once done, it's back to Two Moons, which I need to redraft. Basically, throw away the old versions and start from scratch. The good news is, I have a much better idea of where I want the story to go.

It still won't be the action fest of Bad Dog, because Anderson is not that kind of character, but it's going to reveal more of what's going on behind the appearance of the pillars. Insert evil chuckle.

That's all. Catch you on the bounce.

Indian Summer Rain

This is a notice that I've been invited to write a short story for an anthology. The shift from trying to write my novel, to actually writing a short story to meet the set deadline has rather discombobulated me.

Also, much to my surprise, new ideas for the story are springing into my mind.

So, the words are being put on paper (metaphorically that is), and as all writers know, the words must flow.

This notice is to inform you all that I'm really hard up against a deadline, and any correspondence I owe will be late. I apologize for this delay. Remember the words must flow for stories to be written.

RT: 5,569 words

Picture a clue to amuse, a space filler, or to be ignored: delete as appropriate.

Pontificating About Writing

I've been getting back into my writing. I wrote a new opening to Two Moons, because the old one wasn't working for me. And, I don't mean the old one I previewed here in November 2019. I've written at least two other starts since.

But they weren't working for me.

Why? Hard to pin down, but a number of factors were at play. This is a sequel to my trilogy, but it will likely be read as a standalone. The central protagonist is Glen Anderson, Tachikoma's squeeze.

He's an analyst who likes to keep things secret.

Ironically, it means I'm having trouble knowing what to write about his views. You know, they're classified, so he doesn't tell himself what he's not supposed to know. Okay I stole that gag, but it still a great gag.

So to summarise: last time I counted the word total for Two Moons at 32,714 words. New opening chapters, a revised structure, and stuff chucked out means that the running total is now 37,859 words.

Depression made me her bitch, but finally coming off the anti-depressants and my inner child feels like coming out to play.

Here's hoping I can come off that medication without a relapse. It's a thing.

State of the Writing

New news: I've managed to get my ass into gear and I'm now working on my Cthulhu mythos novel, The Bureau. Currently editing/revising chapters: three down, a bunch more to go.

Two Moons is in the equivalent of pre-production hell. New ideas, new science discoveries, and new unintended consequences are driving the project around in circles.

I have also gotten to grips with one of my stalled short stories, but other projects are taking all of my time.

Being the long time SF fan I am, who went to her first convention in 1976, I've also been working on making and painting models for playing tabletop miniature wargames, see here. And let's not start on all the other things I'm into.

Writing Log 210516

Nothing to see here. Just me recording my first week where I've tried to write everyday.

Target 400 words per day

Weekly target 2800

Monday    177

Tuesday    0

Wednesday    261

Thursday    0

Friday    0

Saturday    0

Sunday    0  

Total    438

Had a week with few spoons.

Writing Log 210509

Again, nothing to see here. Just me recording my second week where I've tried to write everyday.

Target 400 words per day

Weekly target 2800

Monday    0

Tuesday    987

Wednesday    0 (Reading research for Two Moons).

Thursday    43

Friday    175

Saturday    0

Sunday    0  

Total    1205

Writing Log 210502

Nothing to see here. Just me recording my first week where I've tried to write everyday.

Target 400 words per day

Weekly target 2800

Monday    0

Tuesday    443

Wednesday    268

Thursday    214

Friday    771

Saturday    695

Sunday    0  

Total    2391

February Has Come: A Reflection

It has been a long while since I've been able to objectively assess myself. What I have gone through over the last two years has left me being drowned by my emotions. But, it's not all about me, the last year has been difficult for everyone due to Covid19.

It is what it is.

Looking back, I can see my journey when my rheumatoid arthritis flared up, and my immediate reaction to the steroid injection. Still, I was optimistic that the treatment would work. I trusted my consultant and her team because I have worked in the NHS and know the system. 

While my physical symptoms did improve, what I didn't notice was the decline in my mental state.

I'm pretty resilient about setbacks, but hadn't realised that my mood was being affected by the medication. Being a former nurse, I'm aware that when nurses become ill they somehow always seem to get the worse of it.

It's a medical trope of sorts. 

Joked about amongst staff when someone becomes ill, because humour among medical professionals tends to be dark.

When my mood worsened, I went and saw my doctor. I probably scared the bejesus out of her when I told her what I was going through.

She wanted to refer me to mental health team, but I said there was no point, given that I had no intention to act on my negative thoughts and, perhaps arrogantly I stated why waste their time with me when they have others who don't have my knowledge to cope.

Even at my lowest, I still retained enough perspective to be objective about my distress. So yay me! So looking back on 2020. What a year!

I find it difficult to sort out what I managed to write, but it is easier to look at what I published.

In January 2020 I released book four in my World of Drei series, Mission Two. I also released the compilation of the first three World of Drei books, Year One: The Last War.

Writing wise I finished nothing, as I had nothing new to publish.

However, I started a short story about the lost robot team from Strike Dog, which currently stands at 1,346 words.

I'm fiddling with the draft of Two Moons current version stands at 22,885 words; a variable figure as I shuffle scenes between it and the next Tachikoma novel, Red Dogs that stands at 13,964 words. The shuffling of scenes is being driven by the difference between an action led story team, versus a mystery led story team.

Started an edit on the 69,664 words of my novel The Bureau, but it got put aside, lost from being overwhelmed by all the furore going on in the world.

Made notes and a rough draft outline for a set of wargame rules, currently running at 8,381 words.

Obviously, I wrote 32 pieces for this blog, and put up 43 model making and painting posts on my Paint it Pink blog. Can't tell you how many words because I seem to have lost the will to compile the word counts for 2019 and 2020.

Again, it is what it is.

The bright part of 2020, for definitions of bright where Terms & Conditions Apply, was pushing myself to do a bunch of online writing courses. To better the quality of my writing by acquiring the skills to improve characterization, my descriptions of setting, and understand how different genres drive the structure of a story.

This leaves me with the task of assimilating all this learning into my writing, which is a thing in and of itself. That's where I am now.

Hopefully, I will be able to move forward as the world around me improves.

Working on my Mojo

 

Since Christmas, things have been getting better, but I still haven't quite managed to get into my writing groove. However, I have started making models of the character mecha in my books. You can see what I'm doing over on my other blog.

I like turning ideas into things. The act of creating a model inspires ideas; a bit like playing when I was a child. My imagination takes over, and ideas for stories take shape.

In the meantime, I'm editing my next novel, The Bureau.

I've also started a short story called, Omake; the tale of a little lost robot and its companion. I shall try and sell that to a magazine.

And finally, I've been working on Two Moons, restructuring the order of scenes and inserting new scenes in the earlier parts as foreshadowing for what happens later.

Two Moons Progress

When writing a story I prefer to start with the seven point novel structure.

My first three novels were action adventures. This means you have a leader who is surrounded by a team to solve the problems they face.

Two Moons, and my other novel The Bureau, are effectively mysteries.

So a center person solves the puzzle, and has others do the physical action, provide humour and perspective, with a fixer, and a boss that the team reports to. This has totally discombobulated me.

Last time I mentioned Two Moons, I was at 14,856 words. I've stalled and restarted this work several times over the last few months just because the narrative is driven by a different set of needs.

Who would've thought, huh!?

Anyway, I'm now entering the middle of the story, running at 32,714 words. Here's a taste of the opening of Two Moons.

TRANSCENDENCE 

I wake in the darkness, stretched out on a cold surface. The air musty from the passage of time. Only the sound of my breath fills the silence.
   "Is anyone there?' My voice echoes around me.
   A soothing voice replies, "You are safe."
   Emotions rush through me. A sadness that is full of grief and loss. "Are you my mother?"
   "No, I am a machine. You can call me mother, if you wish."
   My senses adjust, the reality of the room coalesces around me. Machinery lines the walls, and in the center I lie on a table, with tubes that snake up from my body into a machine.
   Confused, I ask, "What is happening? Where am I?"
   "You are being cared for. The facility exists to create life."
   The answer triggers a flood of jumbled memories.
   This is where we changed the genetic heritage of my kind. A place where the seeds of all life can be shaped. A place where our learning is recorded for all time.
   I am last of my kind, trapped in a secure facility, all alone, waiting to die.

Some Progress

 

In a couple of weeks I will see my rheumatology consultant for a review. It's been a year since she started me on medication and roller-coaster ride doesn't really quite capture the picture of what is has been like. For those of you old enough to remember corporal punishment at school, think being smacked across the back of your hand everyday while riding a roller-coaster.

OK. Perhaps that's over egging it a bit.

So what little I've done is disappointing at one level, but the fact I've done something at all is a testament to my sheer bloody mindedness.

Looking back over the last year this is where I am:

Two Moons: 16,146 words
Red Dog: 9,581 words
Dead Dogs: 3,443 words
The Bureau: 67,943 words

I've mentioned previously that I was up to around 20,000 words on Two Moons, but realized I was mixing up my stories and have spent a lot of time breaking apart what scenes went with which story. Hence I now have three novels as works in progress.

The Bureau has grown but I haven't gotten around to finishing the revision, which has mostly been driven by what I learnt after three months of doing various online writing courses with Dean Wesley Smith and Kathryn Kristine Rusch. Their workshops are excellent.

My target was to write 1,400 words per week. We are at week 33, which means I should have 46,200.

If I'm generous, I've managed 25,328 words. Though if I take twelve weeks off for the courses then that comes 16,800 lost, so a revised target number would be 29,400 words.

Short by four thousand and a bit words. It is what it is.

Writing Update

 

As one of my friends commented, I've been missing in action over the last few weeks. A combination of things involving medication, other demands, stuff like archery (well out of practice after an enforced four month break).

However, things are starting to look up. I've been practicing my craft and have done a couple of online writing courses that have helped me be more objective about my writing.

Last time I wrote, I'd reached 16,294 words into Two Moons, at one point I went up to nearly 20K. But after having an insight into how the story would unfold I put those words into the sequel. So now I stand at 18,998. It is what it is.

A Journey to the End of Time

Found this while meandering around the internet. It runs a little under half-an-hour, but the visual representation of going forward to the end of time is stunning. Truly awe inspiring.

It's existential stuff like this that drives my fictional scientific extrapolation behind my stories, which probably makes me a bit weird.

In the meantime I've been busy. First with a presentation on anxiety and depression for Imperial College, London. The talk went well, and as it was recorded it may even appear on YouTube at some point.

Writing is progressing slowly.

I've taken the running total of Two Moons from 14,856 to 16,494 words, over the last couple of weeks. A combination of distractions: the presentation, hospital tests, and researching information to be able to write convincingly about astrophysics and archaeology, which I enjoy for the simple pleasure of learning new stuff.

One final thing, I have an author GoodReads page here. That's all for this week, catch you on the bounce.

Now Watching

Now that The Bureau is with my Alpha reader, so after a long break I'm in the process of reacquainting myself with my Bad Dog universe. I've started writing Two Moons, and I've got 14,856 words knocked into shape.

Two Moons is a side-story or spin-off from the main story and so it doesn't focus on combat armour suit action. The plot is basically a mystery, so this is very much a new challenge for me.

In the meantime, we've been rewatching an old favourite, Babylon 5. Hard to credit that the original pilot was shown in 1993 and that the series ended in 1998. However you count the years, it's a lot.

There's even been mention of Babylon 5 on Geek dot com. I'm not sure that I agree with the assessment of it being an intimidating show, or the need for a must watch episode list, but whatever floats people's boat – if it gets them into the show.

While the CGI is lacking by today's standards, the story remains compelling. We're pretty much mainlining three episodes each night and are currently halfway through season four. Got to love the Shadow ships, which remain one of the most interesting bad guy ships ever seen on screen.

I'd forgotten how good the story was/is. It's also recharging my creative juices, as in giving me a lot to think about in terms of where I want my story to go. My motto now being, think bigger! Think evil!

The Bureau: Draft Finished

Susan working on her longbow.

We were away this weekend on a longbow making course run by Pip Bickerstaffe and Ben Lamb of Bickerstafee Bows at the The Longbow Shop in Birkenhead. It was a long drive up on Friday due to the number of roadworks. It seems there's a drive to make our motorways "smart," which will be great when its done, but now is not so great.

Anyway, the two day course saw us shaping our bows from pre-prepared laminated staves, and you can see more pictures here.

In other news, I have for all intents and purposes finished the first draft of my next novel, The Bureau.

For definitions of finished that means it's heading off to my Alpha reader for feedback. It may come back with requests to expand the story, because I have a tendency to write terse descriptions that can leave out details that a reader needs. Deborah Chester would no doubt call it bland description.

Writing, it has a learning curve.

We shall see.

Finish What You Start

Made me laugh.

The words they torment me. Squiggling words that elude my search. But, words I must write if I am ever to finish the work before me. As you can guess, still not finished.

Excuses you ask? I have a few.

I went to the Schrödinger Lecture 2019: The Cassini Spacecraft Mission at Saturn at Imperial College, which ate into my writing time (I'm so not a morning person, and do most of my writing in the afternoon and evening).

Then I managed to spend a day noodling what to do with my World of Drei series. Thinking about when I will compile a print version? Vellum had an update, and I spent time checking out the new features.

After that I spent some time over on Patricia Wrede's blog. Lots to read and think about. This post in particular struck a cord.

So last week I only managed to write 1,036 words. I now have one chapter to revise, and one to finish.

Not Yet Done

Picture of the sky taken by Susan. Look at all those stars.

This week I managed 2,249 new words; running total for The Bureau, 66,012 words. The novel now runs in at 41 chapters, and I don't think I will need to add anymore, I just need some more words to round out the plot.

So yay, way to go!

Yes but, I've failed to finish, again. Clearly the stars are not right! As you can see, there are a lot of them.

What I have learnt this week, is never overestimate how close to the end of a story you may think you are, because the chances are you have further to go than you think. 

For The Bureau, this problem is largely down to writing new words that required me to go back and put foreshadowing details earlier in the story. From this one can infer that I'm a just in time world builder, which came as a surprise to me.

I tend to think of myself as a person who thinks about setting. I read and research stuff, but in this case, The Bureau's gestation has been so long that I've moved on as a writer. So, one big problem is making sure that the bits I wrote earlier match those bits I've written later.

It's a tough life. Ha!

The Stars are Not Quite Right

The London night sky, and no you can't see that many stars with the naked eye.

My first version of The Bureau was written as a graphic novel, planned to be a six-issue series, I wrote three 28 page episodes. When I word processed the script this became 15,214 words, but only 7,905 words of that were prose. The reduction came from the removal of frame descriptions (size and placement instructions etc.).

My first draft grew to 12,285 words when I created the first Scrivener document, and I expanded it to 46,803 words, and before I went back to a day job it had grown to 51,008 and 37 chapters. My goal for January has been to finish the project.

I've failed. Hence the the title of this piece. But, even in failure there is progress.

I now have 39 chapters and 62,053 words down. I'm so close to finishing the story, but the ending is proving elusive.

Every time I think I have it, I remember I must go back and add an element to foreshadow what I want to describe. In the process of doing so I keep finding errors, typos and missing words, which of course throws me out of my creative writing.

This means I need to push a bit harder and get the job done. Wish me luck.

Progress Report

I have an American first edition, alas unsigned.

So as we come to the end of January I'm still writing. Very slowly by my standards or expectations, but I am writing again. I even had an idea for a short story, which is unusual for me as I don't really do short stories.

Last week I beat my target and more importantly, I managed to get my current novel to a point where it looks like I can finish this week. We shall see.

I spent last week reading Neil Gaiman's and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens, which lightened my mood, and this weekend I re-read Wolf in Shadow by John Lambshead, which remains a delight with its witty observations of wargamers in watching an intrusion from the otherworld at the ExCel centre. It made me laugh.

Writing Mojo Week 2

Reflections of light to match my reflections on writing.

Last week was a bit mixed. Tuesday I went out with my beloved to pass through Parliament Square on the day of the Brexit vote, and then to take in an exhibition at the British Museum about Ashurbanipal the last king of Assyria, which meant when we got home I was too tired to write.

Wednesday I struggled to wrest 200 words, but did so late in the day. I realised I'd allowed myself to get distracted. The lure of editing distracting me from my need to write new words.

Thursday, half the day was spent at the hospital with two appointments. Everything checked out OK, which is good, but the loss of time and feeling drained from it all was bad. So last week I managed to write 1,473 words, meeting my basic target, but not really getting into a good writing streak.

I came across Patricia C. Wrede's blog, which helped me to put some difficulties into perspective. If you're into writing then I recommend checking it out. Link here.

Next week I shall try and put some of her ideas in practice to get my writing streak going.