Edmund Lester

It is the last day of the month and so the last day or NaNoWriMo. I'm not going to make it to 50K and I'm happy with that. At the time of writing this I am on 47,737 for the month so within touching distance. The only thing is it's gone 10pm and I have no desire to pull an all nighter and use the difference in time zones between England and wherever it is the NaNoWriMo servers are to justify making it at 4am or something like that. I'm not a young man anymore and the days of being able to work to stupid hours and be in the office bright eyed and bushy tailed are long behind me. No I'm done for the night. I guess that mini-block in the middle of the month really did me in. So I am going to learn from this. I went in to the month thinking 50K should be easy. After all I'd written an 88,000 word novel from scratch in not much more than that. Well I am going to learn not to be so confident about it. Each project is different and takes the time it takes. I guess...

Well I gave it a good go today and added 2,944 words to No Man's Land, my bawdy scifi noir comedy. Here's the progress report summary Today - 2,944 NaNoWriMo - 46,384 Novel - 73,821 I'm going to fall short of the month's 50K target but not by that much. I need to write 3,616 words tomorrow but unfortunately I am also at work. If I'd thought about it I might have booked the day off so I could give a serious go. But I didn't so what can you do about it? It's irritating because the first week of writing this novel was extraordinary. I wrote more than 27K in eight days, and every single one of them was in October. By the time November started I'd used a good deal of my preprepared compound expletives and had to invent from then on as I went. I will learn from this. If I decide to go for this challenge again next year I will pick something that means all I need to concentrate on are the characters, the setting and the plot. Having to do all that an...

A little while ago I asked on Twitter whether it might be an idea to post some of the old book reviews I did on this blog. Well I received a number of likes and positive responses so I thought I'd dig one out and post it here. The book in question is by one of my favourite horror writers Graham Masterton and is called the 5th Witch. It was published by Leisure Books back in the good old days before things went a little wrong at Dorchester (read about it on Wikipedia here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorchester_Publishing ) I hope you enjoy reading the review and if you like the sound of it you can find old copies of it on Amazon for next to nothing (apart from postage) UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fifth-Witch-Graham-Masterton/dp/0843957905/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448810602&sr=8-1&keywords=graham+masterton+5th+witch US http://www.amazon.com/5th-Witch-Graham-Masterton/dp/0843957905/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448811238&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Fifth+Witch H...

Well I have added a further two scenes to my smutty little space detective intergalactic war brothel story. The novel is another 1,173 words longer now at 72,050 and my NaNoWriMo total is up to 44,613 which means I am only 5,387 away from my target. Well I am not going to rush it or get overly verbose to ensure I get there. I can't see the point adding unnecessarily to the story just to get to the 50K. I will only have to edit more when I revisit the novel and I can't see the point of that. I'm looking forward to the next few scenes/chapters as things are about to get a little wonky. Not much is going to be as it seems and it should call for a few more euphemisms. I've also managed a quick submission along the way - I sent the Intersection of to Disquieted Dreams. Let's see if they like it - fingers crossed. I also realised I'd completely forgotten about Sledge-Lit this month. I was intending to go along to that to make up for not being able to get to t...

Well the evening of watching some TV shows has finished so I thought I'd go over some thoughts. The Blacklist is getting rather convoluted at the moment - to the extent we had to stop it a couple of times to catch my mother in law up on things. Personally I'm enjoying it as I do always like a good conspiracy story even if I'm not a conspiracy nut as relates to the real world. I have this problem with some of the conspiracies people claim because of the sheer number of people who would need to be complicit. Have you ever tried keeping a secret when more than two people know about it. Faking a moon landing would have taken thousands. And besides there is actual evidence of it having taken place. Onto Doctor Who and thankfully they've managed to make two episodes in a row that are good. This had a definite Prisoner meets Dark City meets the Cube feel about it with maybe a touch of Groundhog Day for good measure. Bit creepy at times, bit Doctor Who concept and very enj...

Well this afternoon has been productive, both in terms of word count and plot advancement with plenty of euphemisms and creative swearing thrown in for good measure. I have added 2,457 words to the story taking the total up to 70,877. In doing it I have finished chapter 17 and written the first scene of chapter 18. Andmy NaNoWriMo attempt is up to 43,440. Yes it does seem doomed but I am going to try to get as close as possible by the end of Monday. I'm not uploading anything to the site or trying to get any kind of recognition for this anyway - other than the hope I might get it published somewhere I suppose - so it doesn't really matter. Aside from writing frenzy I have also sent in another submission - this one for the YA fantasy the Patternmaker's Daughter to Amberjack Publishing. Fingers crossed as always. I am going to find somewhere else to send my political sf novel Against the Fall of Empire before the end of the day. It wouldn't be fair for it to be the o...

Well, I know it is two o' clock in the afternoon and I've not written a single word of new fiction yet but I haven't been totally lazy. I have sent in two submissions already today Mr Stinky to Enigmatic Books The Intersection to Kraken Press And so far today I've not received any rejection emails (I know that's tempting fate) so not a bad day. Away from writing popped into Ashby de la Zouch this morning where there is a Christmas Market going on. Now I'm not one to scribble endlessly about the general stuff in my life, this blog is focussed on books, writing, scifi and horror with some music occasionally, so don't worry I'm not going to go into extensive detail about it. It was nice to see so many people enjoying themselves and I'm going to leave it at that. I only mentioned it because it did make things take just a little longer to do the stuff we headed into town for so introduced a slight delay. Whilst in there I did manage to indulge m...

Well, so far, it's been a reasonably good writing evening. I have written four scenes of the novel making up 2,200 words with plenty of creative swearing, animal namedrops, euphemisms and insults and all without using a word harsher than shit. When I revise this I will go back and take out the stronger language in the first few thousand words. I had originally intended for my narrator to be a thoroughly foul mouthed individual but it's become far more fun to have him create euphemisms than use the f word. So I am going to leave it with PG-13 level words (allow bastard, shit and bugger) but nothing worse. Okay it will mean it is still never going to head into PG-13 territory even with the toned down language but I think it will be far more effective. Anyway, the result of all this writing is as follows Tonight  - 2,205 words NaNoWriMo - 40,983 Novel - 68,4240 So my target for the month is now just 9,000 words off done. It's feeling a little more achievable. It wil...

Well it's another weekend which mean, hopefully, a good deal of writing to come in the next couple of days. It's started off okay. So far tonight I have added 1,120 words to the novel in two quick scenes, one of which was nothing but a rant from the narrator of my story about the lead character. They don't get on. It certainly did nothing to advance the plot. But then again, that was kind of the point.  Anyway, more writing will be done in a few minutes. Just wanted to blog a little first. NaNoWriMo is a distant dream now. I have 10K to go and three days to do it. Not impossible but not the easiest of tasks. I'm not giving up on yet though. Some more writing news is two more emails received from agencies. Both of them concerned my YA Fantasy novel the Patternmaker's Daughter and both were rejections. One of them was a bog standard form letter reply that said nothing except NO in any way that mattered. The other was a personal email and included some pleasant ...

Okay I should have posted these in the previous blog but here they are Gig poster for tomorrow night I just noticed it's in Matlock Bath - apologies for saying it was Nottingham in the earlier blog entry And here's a quick pic of the instrument she will be playing - a vintage baritone we bought last week  

Had time tonight to write just one section of the book but as 873 words it wasn't an ultrashort one. It included dynamite enemas too so kind of fun. I'm resigned to the fact I am either going to have to go all out to get to 50K for NaNoWriMo given there are four more days or I'm not going to make it. I'm on 38,778 words for the month so far. Now I have written over 7K in a day before now but that wasn't for a book where I am having to invent a new euphemism every other paragraph and creatively swear in between. It takes some thinking about and that takes time. We shall see though. My wife is playing a gig in Nottingham (apologies - I meant Matlock Bath) tomorrow night so I will be writing my little socks off (ok, they're not small - I take a UK size 16.5 shoe - US 18 but you get the idea). If I do a decent blast Saturday and Sunday too I might get close. Here's hoping. Either way I'm hoping to finish up draft one of this story in the first week o...

After four consecutive days with at least one rejection for one of my novels or another today, after deleting all the spam and twitter notifications, I had no rejections whatsoever. It felt actually uplifting to not seeing another dead end spring up in front of me. Not that I am going to let anything as silly as a rejection stop me writing. I am determined to continue to improve until I am holding a book in my hands that I wrote (and doing it without paying for the printing to happen). One thing I forgot to mention in my blog entry yesterday. There was a band I really liked back in the 1980s when I was a wee nipper (okay maybe older teenager). That band was called the Faith Brothers. Right - time for an aside. Anyone who knows me, knows that I love music. They should also know my taste in music is a little eclectic. I love prog rock, prog metal, heavy metal and thrash metal but don't see why that should stop me liking folk music, jazz, punk, new wave, reggae etc. N...

I like Germany and the Germans. This might seem like an odd way of starting a blog on writing but trust me there is a reason. And the reason is the blog entry title. You see one thing I really like about the German language is there is a sense of you get things straight. And today is one of the days that best exemplifies this. You see the German word for Wednesday is Mittwoch - over Midweek. Perfect. Anyway - to writing. Well for the second day in a row I downloaded my emails to find two rejections; one for my political sf novel Against the Fall of Empire and one for the YA Fantasy the Patternmaker's Daughter. I guess in some ways the second of them doesn't count as the reason given is she has stopped taking on new clients. Not so much a rejection as a non-response. Still means I am no steps closer to getting a novel published but it feels less of a defeat. I'm not going to let them stop me though. I am going to continue writing until I get some success. So onto toni...

Two more sections have been added to the novel as well as a slight rewrite of the one before it. I'd doubled up on a joke from earlier in the novel (which was gently pointed out by my wife who reads this stuff through at the end of each writing session). So I went back, modified the section so it didn't clashed and then got on with it. Here's the summary of activity Day's increase - 1,321 words #NaNoWriMo - 37,278 (2,772 behind schedule) 74.56% of target Novel 64,715 words I don't think I am going to make the 50K for the month. Not without an explosion of typing in the next six days. I need to average 2,120 words a day which, although possible, is unlikely. Still I will have made some good progress on the story which is the main purpose and if I finish it in early December where's the harm? I might keep this daily log thing going though. I'm curious how the speed of writing will vary between types of fiction. I'm feeling it's a lot harder w...

I'm starting tonight with a short-ish blog entry. It's kind of thing to get the mind starting to focus on sentences again after a day of creating software code. Hopefully it will spur the creative side of me into action. Two more responses from agencies/publishers today and neither contained good news I'm afraid. One agency declined my YA fantasy novel - four week turn around is pretty good. They said some positive things such as " We enjoyed your writing " but ended by saying they don't think they would be the right agency to take it forward. Okay it might be a stock email thing but at least it was friendly. The second was for the horror novel Mr Stinky and came from publisher Dead Star Publishing. Now this takes the record for the fastest ever turnaround on a submission. I only sent it in on Sunday and by Tuesday it's been considered and replied to. Fairly impressive. So I have done the only thing that is possible in a situation like this - I sent...

I don't have much time tonight so I will have to be brief. First off I received an email from Permuted Press this evening. I'd submitted my horror novel Mr. Stinky to them back in September. Well, unfortunately it was another rejection; friendly email though. So I did the only thing you can do in a situation like that. I sent in another submission for it - this time to Solstice Publishing. Fingers crossed. Onto writing. Time was short tonight so I have only had chance to write one quick scene on the bawdy scifi novel No Man's Land. Only 552 words but it means I did write something. Will have more time tomorrow and Wednesday evenings. Anyway - told you it would be a quick post. Have to go - it is a school night after all. Back to work tomorrow.

I was reading an article online about some TV shows this guy thought had been cancelled too soon and it got me thinking. He'd made the obvious choices for his list; Firefly at the top of the list, original series Star Trek, Angel and Dollhouse. I did kind of think he had a Whedon centric view of the world. And being fair I can agree with him on Firefly and Dollhouse. I enjoyed both immensely. Okay, I'll be honest. I agreed on all of his picks. It's just I have a few of my own from years gone by that I thought were ended far before they'd achieved their potential. The first of them is Max Headroom. now for those of you who remember the Max Headroom show as a computerised video jockey spinning tunes in the late 80s that's not the show I mean. There was also a US made scifi show set in the near future (from the 80s POV) when everything was about a ratings war and TVs couldn't be turned off. It was all a bit Philip K Dick conspiracy, big corporations controllin...

Today was hard going writing wise. I am going to be glad when this novel is done I think. The next one can't be any harder. Well here's the progress report. Day - 2,792 words #NaNoWriMo  - 35,405 (70.8% of total) Novel 62,842 I've caught the numbers up a bit today. I'm now only 1,262 words off schedule. I'm hoping I'll get that caught up. If I do this NaNoWriMo thing next year I'm going to pick an easier novel. Continuously having to invent new euphemisms is real brain ache work. I'm going to go catch up on another TV show to celebrate and get my head ready to return to work tomorrow. Monday morning's haunt us all. I didn't get a chance to add to the three submissions reported earlier. Maybe tomorrow night I might send another one or two off into the aether.

Writing today hasn't gone all that smoothly. This novel is nowhere near as easy to write as the YA Fantasy was. That virtually flowed from brain to keyboard. The last day of writing it over 7,000 words found their way onto the page. Today I have struggled with the tone and voice of this bawdy scifi and haven't reached 1,600 words yet. It's getting really tricky to keep coming up with suitably twisted euphemisms and metaphors. Why did I pick this kind of voice for the narrator? Still I am determined - I will finish it. And hopefully I will make the 50K for November at the same time. I took a break from it this afternoon. Some of what occupied my time was writing related. I found three open markets for horror fiction and sent in submissions for Mr. Stinky. First I've done for that book in a while. Away from writing I watched the latest episode of Supergirl with my wife. We're still undecided about this show. Do we keep watching it? Not sure. The one thing in it...

Well, the first thing I woke up to today was a rejection for my weird novella from small press Publisher Shock Totem. Not the nicest of ways to start a Sunday but I'm not going to let it stop me writing or submitting elsewhere. Will spend some time later looking at small presses. We had our family gathering TV/Film night last night so I'm going to bombard you with a few thoughts. First off was last week's episode of Doctor Who, Sleep No More. Well first of all let me use the word WOW. Wow as in I don't think I've ever seen a premise for a Doctor Who story that was anything approaching that bad. I'm sorry for all involved but that was the first time ever I have switched off an episode of Doctor Who before the end titles rolled. This week's episode, Face the Raven, I thought was excellent. It felt a little Neil Gaiman like with the hidden street in the heart of London - reminded me of Neverwhere, which although flawed had a wonderful premise. And Jenna Co...

A large part of today was taken up with a drive into Nottingham to a music store called Windblowers so my wife could buy another saxophone, a baritone this time. She has a gig playing it this coming Friday so it was pretty important she had one. It was a successful trip. To be honest it almost always is when going to Windblowers. It's a great store and I can't recommend it enough and I'm not the musician in the family. All I know is it makes my wife happy and that is good as far as I am concerned. So it did mean I didn't get to start writing all that early for a Saturday and didn't have as much time as normal. It was worth it though. So when I did get to the writing I managed three more scenes in the bawdy scifi novel No Man's Land comprising 1,684 words. It's taken the novel in the right direction and I have left it knowing exactly where I am going to pick things up in the morning so (hopefully) no fears of another block. My NaNoWriMo effort is a lit...

Well, I am pretty much done for the evening. Certainly writing wise there's no more in me. Not to say I am going to just laze my way from here until I collapse in my pit. I will probably go to find some more places to submit any of my books. Tonight's writing has seen three scenes of the book written; the final two of chapter 14 and the first of chapter 15. It's taken the book up to 58,366. Below is a quick chart of how it's going Day total - 2,108 NaNoWriMo total - 30,929 Novel total - 58,366 Think I am now back on track with it after my mini-block a few days back. I think the problem was I wrote out to the end of what I had planned and stopped at the point I needed to figure out. I know it's not following the writing advice of always stop when you know what you're going to write next and I paid the price for it. It took four days to figure out the next scene. I guess it's part of the gig when you're a partial planner / partial seat of pants ty...

It's the end of another week and the start of another weekend and my wife is out playing another gig somewhere in Nottinghamshire. So I am home alone with nothing getting in the way of some writing. And for once it seems to mean I am actually writing. It's only 7:45 in the evening and I have one scene down (666 words added and no, I wasn't deliberately aiming for it - that's a complete fluke) and the start of another in the bag. Good going; so why am I blogging already you might ask. Well it's a good question. You see I am mulling over the next few lines of the book and so thought I'd spend the time tapping a few words into this blog. The book is now a little over 57,000 words (57,103 to be exact) and going along at a reasonable enough pace. Still not sure it's going to make my initial target of 80K-85K words but I guess it will find its own length. Maybe I can put some of the initial ideas I had when sketching out the plot that didn't quite make it...

After a brief lull in the writing progress (a three day drought) I have been abusing the individual keys on my keyboard once again in the name of trying to write a novel. It feels good to be back in the saddle. So how did I do tonight? Well, I have added a not too shabby 1,888 words the to bawdy scifi-noir comedy that is No Man's Land. Chapter 14 is well and truly underway and will hopefully be finished tomorrow. I have plenty of time as my wife is playing a gig tomorrow night so I will be home alone. My NaNoWriMo count is a little behind schedule. I'm on 28,821 for the month so far. To be on target I should have got to 31,667 by this point so I am not too far off. A little frustrating as a week ago I was considerably ahead of the curve. Still, that's what a short drought will do to you. Other than the current WIP I have some other writing news and it's not the best. I had the first rejection for the YA Fantasy the Patternmaker's Daughter after a staggering f...

Well it's passed the halfway point of the month and of NaNoWriMo and I have to report I've stalled on the book big time. I thought I had a next move for the plot sorted, and I may still have but I've just felt so washed out these past two days I've not written more than a hundred words of it. I have got some more submissions out there into the big wide world so you never know. Five more submissions of the YA fantasy novel the Patternmaker's Daughter. I have so enjoyed re-reading this novel and re-visiting the world of Elspeth Comstock that I really want to write more of it. I have the plots down on paper in my notebooks, for either two or three more books depending on how I break them. Fingers crossed one of the agencies like the sound of them and help me get them published. I may have stalled on the book but I have not been staying away from the writingverse. I've been scribbling down more ideas for other novels in various notebooks. I have a new setting I...

 A couple of days ago I stalled rather horrendously on No Man's Land - my bawdy science fiction detective story. You see, I had about 80% of the novel down in my head and scribbled into my notebooks when I set out writing three weeks ago (yes scary that - three weeks). In those three weeks I have taken the novel from not actually existing to 54,319 words. Or as the more observant amongst you have noticed I have achieved the 50K target in three weeks. The only problem is that the first week and a day of those three weeks were still in October. Those eight days saw a mad frenzy of writing which resulted in 27,437 words before the official period had started. 80% is more than I normally have when I start writing. If I have the characters down and the rough plot (start, couple of key points along the way, ending) then I'm happy to go for it. My brain usually fills in the blanks along the way. This time however it hasn't. I still have the ending done, it's just that I...

I realised I had forgotten to include something in my blog entry yesterday. There was one thing that slipped my mind with the shock of last night's news. It feels a little crass to mention it now only 24 hours later but this is a writing blog first and foremost and it is writing news. So here goes... I have sold another short story - the third since picking up writing again. I can't post any further detail yet (I don't know all the details myself at the moment) but once it is all confirmed I will post more. Today has seen a little writing done, although a good deal of the morning was watching the special report on the Paris attacks. I find violence incomprehensible. It just fit in my psyche. It might sound a little weird given I have written several horror stories and subjected my characters to some fairly vile experiences. In the first novel I wrote (one which will never see the light of day - not unless I give it a major overhaul anyway) I spent three chapters slow...

Just a few thoughts on writing and more. Wednesday I was out at a work function - a pub quiz which we did not win, never mind. It was great fun though. Good to see my colleagues in a relaxed atmosphere. I did manage a quick bit of writing when I got back as my wife was still out at band practice. But it was only 470 words. Not quite up to my normal level. Never mind. Thursday though made it seem unreachable heights. I had one of those days. Just didn't feel it. I did have a look at the story but just wasn't going to happen so I watched a TV show or two with my wife - her band (other band) rehearsal having been cancelled. Very pleasant evening but no writing. So tonight I was determined. Although I did decide it was best to send in a submission or two of the YA fantasy novel The Patternmaker's Daughter. No use it just sitting there. So there are seven more submissions out there in the world. Hopefully one person out there will take a liking to Elspeth. That done - h...

Tuesday evening is rapidly (and annoyingly) heading for its end. Time definitely passes too quickly. Fortunately though I have made good use of what time I did have tonight and have  been abusing this poor keyboard quite horrendously. So much so that I have added another 2,140 words to the novel, Here's the breakdown of stats Tonight 2,140 words # NaNoWriMo 21,185 Novel 48,622 What I have added tonight will mean chapter one will need to be rewritten once I start revising but that can be later. For now I just want to get to the end of it. After ten days, a third of the month or 33.3%, I am 42.3% towards my target. Just as well I'm getting ahead as I might not get any writing time in tomorrow night as it's the work pub quiz night. We will see. Now going to relax for a while before sleeping ...and then it will all start up again tomorrow

Short on time tonight so have to be much quicker than I'd like. Managed a section of the novel tonight - added another 1,155 words. But it's a bit a rejig. It came to me I'd started the novel a bit too late. I needed to put something in before chapter 1 and I already had an Introduction. So I was left with two alternatives. One: renumber all existing chapters up one and create a new chapter 1 to kick things off. Nah! Or two, as this isn't exactly supposed to be a serious book - with the invented sub genre of bawdy scifi-noir comedy how could anything about it be serious - I have started writing a chapter zero. It made sense to me at the time. So, end result, novel is now at 46,482 words. 19,045 have been written in NaNoWriMo mode and it's only the 9th. If all goes well I am on target for hitting the 50K. Good thing as I am out one night this week  at a pub quiz and attending a writer thing in Derby at the end of the month so will lose some time later. Right...

Well the two days of the weekend have passed with their usual rapidity and we all head back to work tomorrow. One of the facts of life I guess. And I'm fortunate to have a job I don't hate. I quite enjoy large parts of it and like many of my co-workers. So I'm luckier than a lot of people. But it does mean for the next five days my opportunities for writing are limited. Just as well I did okay-ish over the past couple of days. As anyone who has been reading my blog entries over the last few days will know I am doing this NaNoWriMo thing. I will have to admit though I'm not doing it quite as in the heart of things as others. I did pop along to the first meeting of the Leicester group but found that it took a large chunk of writing time up which seemed to kind of go against the idea. Hence my not going again since. I wanted to make that clear in case anyone might think I didn't enjoy the experience of it. I met a group of friendly book obsessed people - or to put...

Saturday night in my family is movie night - or occasionally Scandinavian drama night. Tonight there was only one movie that any of us wanted to watch - Mr. Holmes starring Ian KcKellen and Laura Linney. Since we'd first heard about it we had this intense desire to see it and thankfully it didn't disappoint even with all the added pressure our expectation heaped upon it. It was simply a wonderful English movie. A quick bit of info for anyone who doesn't know. It's 1947. Sherlock Holmes has grown old and is starting to suffer from dementia. He's beginning to forget things. For a man who holds his intellect and memory above all else this is a truly frightening thing. It's the one thing in life I'm more scared of than almost anything else and that one thing involves my wife, the woman who has shared my life these past 23 years. I'm not even going to type any more on that. Suffice it to say the thought of losing who I am as I get older would be terrifyi...

DON'T READ TOO FAR DOWN IF NAUGHTY WORDS OFFEND YOU! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED I was thinking about writing and what kind of a life it is. Now I accept that this will change if I ever manage to get a book published but until then it is the kind of life many would find deathly dull. You see there really is only one way to get a book written and that's to sit at a keyboard and hit the things with letters on with your fingers in the hope that they form words and the words form sentences that will actually make sense to someone reading it later. You really don't do anything more exciting than that. Now if the miracle of miracles happens and one of these days the email I get back from an agent or publisher is a yes rather than a "we'd rather boil our own heads in battery acid" then I might find out if there is excitement on the other side. But for now I just keep typing, editing, submitting, and waiting for the inevitable REJECTIONS Now please don't take th...

Two days ago I had an acceptance for a short story (mentioned earlier). Since then I have been brought back down to Earth a little; two rejections in two days. The first was for the political sf novel Against the Fall of Empire and came from an agency. The second was for the horror novel Mr. Stinky and came from a publisher. That reminded me how hard this game is. Of course I am not letting it stop me writing. I just have too many stories in my head trying to break free to risk stopping. And I do get some nice words for my writing from time to time, and not just from my test readers. A couple of agencies and publishers have been very positive about the stuff they read just saying it wasn't something they could do anything with. If only I could guess what it was they could do something with; within my scope of writing. I'm not going to try to write a romance novel or a spy story - I just don't have that kind of thought. So back to what I do write. I've been explet...

Another one of my short stories has sold to the Literary Hatchet. This is the second of mine they've bought since I started writing again. The first one was a dystopian future focusing very much on despair. This time it was a comedic horror story featuring a vampire in a bit of a pickle. The email gave me a bit of a boost when it arrived. Feels good. Now to get on with the comedy scifi novel - time to invent some new expletives.

First day back at work after a week off is always a jolt to the system. Still at least I don't hate my job. Anyway it is late and I have another day in the office tomorrow so I have to be brief. I kept up my momentum on the NaNoWriMo - 50K in November effort this evening. Another 1,294 words written bringing the total to 5.367 in two days. My wife is out tomorrow night so I can see a few more being added. I may have mentioned one potential issue with the 50K target. I am not totally sure whether to add the second plot that would mean this could get to 50K more on this one project. But I do have three other potentials to move onto should I reach the end before completing my task  - a YA scifi on a ruined Earth - sounds a little too of the now so I might pass  - another weird novella in which to torment Ben Williamson  - an adult fantasy set in Venice in the 15th Century One of them should do the trick Anyway - it's a school night so I got to go sleep....

Well it's November so that means NaNoWriMo is underway. I had a morning away from the keyboard but once midday struck I was pretty good all afternoon. End result was an opening day count of 4,073 words. Can't complain at that. The novel (possible novella - still not sure about including the B plot) is now up to 31,510 words. I do need to get some more submissions out there in the next few days but I will see if I can maintain some kind of impetus every day and get at least some writing time in. Let's see how quick I can finish this sucker. Away from the keyboard we have finally started to watch Extant - and yes I know it's a year old already. Well first episode wasn't too shabby - certainly good enough to get me watching more. Although with five or six shows having restarted and Grimm joining them this week it's got competition for my limited time - especially as my week off work is over and I have to go back into the office tomorrow. Now I quite like my ...