Creative Madness

I was a bit ill yesterday after my beloved gave me an early Xmas present in the shape of some lurg that is going around Imperial College.  At least I can't complain that I never get given anything.  So I have spent extra time in bed and generally taking it easy.  This meant I missed going to the writers group meeting, but I'm sure they are all glad I didn't come along and give them all an unwanted Xmas present.  We also missed the Xmas Jomsviking readers group that we go along to, for the same reason; we like our friends too much to make them ill.

However, while I quite enjoy lying around being busy doing nothing, it has one side-effect.  I get terribly hyper with ideas running around my head.

So this morning I was drinking coffee, thinking about reading something, but my head was just full of ideas.  Crazy ideas that were a melange of things from my dreams, playing my favourite board game, and thinking about the film Surrogates that I watched a few of years ago.  I review it en passant here.  So this afternoon, rather than being spent reading a book, chillaxing on the sofa has instead seen me busy writing notes and laying out two novels in Scrivener.  One is about AI developments being used by the military that will not end well for the world.  The other book deals with living one's life in a world where everything you see is augmented and nothing you see is truly real anymore.

Then I decided in a moment of manic frenzy to compile my Bad Dog universe bible and twiddle with my Professionals meets Cthulhu novel.  My shoulders ache now.

Blood Ties

A bit late writing this week due to spending Saturday demoing a game called Ogre at the London Dragonmeet games convention all day, and Sunday was taken by entertaining two dear friends who we have not seen in a while.  Last week I had an indulgent catch up with lots of reading and trying to put the internet to rights.  Along with getting lost on TV Tropes for three days researching story tropes.  That link carries a memetic warning; you will spend more hours there than you intend to.  Consider yourself warned.

This week we've been watching Blood Ties, which was based on Tanya Huff's Blood series that started with Blood Price.  Anyway, the TV show runs to twenty two episodes over two short seasons.  For reasons best known to the TV executives the third series was cancelled, probably because there wasn't enough sex.  It's one of those shows that we loved for the relationship between the characters and the dialogue sparkles when the three main characters are kicking against each other.

On the reading front I have been carrying on with Chris Moriarty's Spin State, which due to the above excuses I've still not finished.  So I will come back again to it when I have.

Thanksgiving

This has been a busy week what with Thanksgiving on Thursday, going to a friends book launch on Saturday afternoon and then to our first Xmas party in the evening.  

All that and I finished the first draft of Ghost Dog.  So this week I only managed to write 3116 words, to bring the running total for the month up to 27,779 and a first pass word total of 96,910 words that got bumped up today as I did edits from my Alpha reader to 96,993.  Well pleased with my progress this year.  

Permission to cheer loudly all round if you would like to?

Reading this week I've started with Chris Moriarty's Spin State the first book of a trilogy.  I liked this book the first time I read it and have had to wait more years than I care to remember to see the third book arrive.  

Hence the re-reading of the first two books before starting the latest one as it has been a while.  I've felt that this series hasn't had the love it deserves, but there again that might be down to when it first came out, which was around the time Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon series hit the shelves.  

Who knows, I don't.  Expect a bit more on Chris Moriarty's novels over the course of this month.

On the watching front we sat down and took in both of the new V seasons.  

I found myself really enjoying re-watching season one and wondering why we had delayed for so long in getting season two?  I guess we just lost track of it.  It's a good enough show, just not a great show, but it has its moments.  I thought that the story arc development was too slow, which may have been a factor in it not getting renewed for a third season, but there again what do I know about American TV show renewal (not a lot)?  

I was surprised by the online commentary and the feeling that it had an anti Obama message vis-a-vis healthcare.

Being British this undertone completely went over my head and I still don't see it to be quite frank.

We then started watching season one of The Professionals.  A late seventies, early eighties cult TV show featuring Bodie & Doyle that has a great theme tune that worms its way into your head.

A couple days after we started watching this the actor who played Bodie, Lewis Collins, died.  I remember when I originally watched the show I wasn't all that keen on Bodie as a character, much preferring Doyle.  However, on this re-watching of the episodes my opinion has changed.  

I think Lewis Collins really shines in all the scenes he is in and I much prefer his character.

So there is evidence that one's opinions do change over time, because if you had asked me who my favourite character in the show was a couple of weeks ago I would have said Doyle.

So now I have finished my third novel my intention is to go back and use my new found skills and edit my first and get it ready for the Beta readers who I have lined up.  After that I intend to work on my Cthulhu meets the Professional novel a I feel I can now do it justice.  

I also intend to catch up with a lot of books that I've been meaning to read and I will no doubt refer to them en-passant here over the next few weeks until I get back into the saddle writing the next novel.

Finally, apropos this blog you may have noticed that I have been updating things by adding more labels to my entries, and in a few cases expanding titles, and or splitting the odd post into two.  I expect that the format of this blog will continue to evolve as I add more content next year.

The Day After Who

Well it has probably not passed by unnoticed by many people that Dr. Who has turned fifty years old, which certainly makes me feel old, because I remember the seeing the first episode way back in 1963 as a child.

The Day of the Doctor by Steven Moffat's was in one word awesome. 

 I sat and watched it with my beloved and we were both enthralled, and I remember muttering awesome as the first scene of the Dalek fleet doing their thing around the Planet Gallifrey came on screen.  

John Hurt's War Doctor, upstaging Tennant and Smith at every turn, awesome.  

Bilie Piper as the weapon, awesome.  

The Zygon breaking the fourth wall and talking about their performance and getting into role, awesome.  

The scene with Tom Baker as the curator, awesome.  

The arrival of all thirteen of the Doctor's TARDISs to save the day, awesome.  

The final scene of all the Doctors, both moving and awesome.  In short the show was the crowning moment of awesome that Dr. Who needed.  Colour me impressed as it hit all the right emotional spots.  I stand in awe.

In other news, struggling to finish A Game of Thrones, which I feel is about a hundred pages too long.  I don't know if this is down to watching the TV series, or what?  So I hope to read the next two books before watching the third series on disc.  It's not as if I find George R. R. Martin's writing difficult to read, so I'm a little puzzled by my response to finishing the story.

My progress ha been good this week with a total of 9,239 words that brings the running total up to 92,771 words.  So I'm well into the end run and finishing the first draft of my third novel.

Writing Log 131117

As you can see I've gone blond, and I'm not sure whether to stay blond or go back to being a red head.  Neither is my natural colour, that is sort of auburn, or was, but now with a large dose of grey, hence the assistance from my hairdresser.  

So purely in a sense of fun what do my readers think?

This week turned out to be a good week for banging those words out and progressing the third novel. 

Three chapters sent to my alpha reader, the first of which blew her out of the water.  Not literally, but she was at a loss for words.  So the weekly total was 9,693 making the running total 83,564.  Checking back on my previous two works I'm now at plus one week over the time it took to finish the previous novel.

Still reading A Game of Thrones, with 168 pages to go.  I finding it okay, but it drags a bit for my tastes.  Not that it isn't a good read, but it's not my thing; a certain lack of rockets, robots, or ray-guns.

This week we watched Warehouse 13 season 4.  

The start of the season didn't grab me, but it improved, as in it went back to what it did best and so the season ended quite well.  My complaint here is that the show tried to deal with quite serious themes, but the scripts and actors couldn't carry the weight within the format of what is basically a very light hearted family show.

As an addition I see that Doris Lessing has died.  

I had the great honour of being her minder at 45th World Science Fiction Convention held in Brighton, chosen purely on the grounds that I wasn't going to go all fan googly all over her.  I remember her as charming woman who was rather bemused by the idea of being invited to the convention, who enjoyed talking to people.

Lest We Forget

Remembrance Sunday, lest we forget.

Yesterday I was at a writers critique group day, my second as a visitor, before I have to choose to become a member, which I did.  If for no other reason that I need social contacts who get what I'm doing.  I enjoyed reading both the stories that were discussed and feel I have a good chance of fitting into this group.  Unfortunately, no more meetings until the New Year.

This week has been busy with me going to the inaugural lecture of Professor Alex Blakemore who kindly invited me to attend.  This was an outstandingly good lecture on genetics and copy number variants that I took a lot away from.

Writing wise I managed 4,743 words this week, which brings the running total up to 73,559.  I got some very positive feedback from the last chapter from my Alpha reader, which is always heartening.

I'm still reading A Game of Thrones, there's a surprise, not!  He does go on a bit.

Finished watching Arrow though.  An adaptation of the DC's Green Arrow that is very good.  The first four episodes were outstandingly good.  They gripped one from the get go and I was of the mind that this was as good as Person of Interest.  

However, while both shows share similar themes, technological Batman style vigilant, Arrow is bound by its tropes, whereas Person of Interest takes the tropes, twists them and then shreds them before moving on.  

So, if you are a superhero fan then Arrow is well worth watching, if you want to see a good superhero show and don't know where to start then likewise Arrow is a good place to start.  If you are not into superheroes you may find the story a bit melodramatic and farfetched.

Fireworks

Another week and another internet outage, which means this is a day late.  On the upside I've had more time to read, because not surfing the internet and putting it to right.  

So I'm now about two-thirds of the way through A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin.  It's what I would call a page turner, easy to read and pulls you along.  Interesting to compare how the characters are portrayed in the books versus in the TV series.  There are some differences, the biggest being the ages with everyone being younger, but more care worn.  The novel feels very much like a historical fiction with a soupcon of magic in the form of the White Walkers and the dragons.

Work wise I managed 5,794 words for what turned out to be another three day week due to having to go down to Aldershot to pick up my truck.  This months total was therefore 23.398 words, which brings the novel up to a running total to 68,828 words. So definitely in the home stretch here.  

I've just scanned my draft and realised that I'm further into act four than I thought and act five is on the horizon.  At this point I'm over schedule as both the previous two novels were finished by this time, but I feel this is the best writing I've done so far, as I've certainly upped my game at a couple of points through this story.  

Of course levelling up only means the obstacles get harder, but still it's a good sign.

We've been watching Arrow on our projector this week, until the bulb died.  So I'll say more next week about this series.  What I will say is that I found the first four episodes enthralling.  

So, to end this weeks blog, may I wish you all a happy and safe Guy Fawkes night, a peculiarly British tradition when we celebrate what can be seen as the failure of religious extremists to destroy the Mother of Parliaments and the survival of democracy, or the the failure by disenfranchised citizens to send the rulers of this country a message to the establishment of this country that they suck.