Saturday so far
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 slowly skinning the lead character alive. But that was just a story and not something I would consider in real life. And I will add that the people who did the skinning did meet a well deserved nasty end.
So watching the reports was horrifically surreal. I just don't know how I can express how I feel at the acts. I can't imagine how the friends and families of the victims feel or how they might go about rebuilding their lives.
By the way don't think that I only care about my fellow Europeans. Every death of a human being, be it in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas or Australasia from any cause except old age is despicable. And I do think that the western media gives too much emphasis when its "one of us" affected. You know an earthquake in Europe in which 100 people die often gets more airtime than one in Asia in which 1000 people die.
I was horrified to think I am one of the same species as those pulling the triggers and deliberately killing people because they happen to be in a bar or attending a rock concert.
We have a lot to commend us as a rave, us humans. We have created so much greatness; art , literature, science. We have conquered every corner of the Earth, overcome all obstacles. Twelve of us have stood on the Moon's surface (conspiracy theorists - get over it) and we've sent probes out to all the planets and dwarf Pluto.
But despite all this I find the callous disregard we too often show for our fellow men and women does raise the question - do we deserve to survive as a species? We need to get over our troubled adolescence as a species and learn what matters; and what matters is every single life.
Anyway, rant over. Sorry about that. My fingers kind of got away from me. Onto other matters and yes, I know they are going to sound a little anticlimactic after that but hey...
Have taken another step towards sorting out the remains of my old scifi/superheroes collectables business. For those who don't know I used to trade in comics and memorabilia and 20th Century bizarrely art glass and pottery especially West German Pottery / Fat Lava (check out a friend's site on this stuff http://www.potsandpots.com/shop/) and Scandinavian Glass (go google Alsterfors for an example).
I sold the going concern part of the business about eighteen months back but not all of the stock. A good portion of it has been sitting in my library taking up space since. Well today I took a step back towards sense when I sold eight boxes of comics to another dealer. Only nine more left. And before anyone thinks I'm mad for mentioning this online in such a public way I set up a limited company for my trading and this sale is being declared through the company's accounts, just as any moneys I earn from my writing are.
That done, back home and on with some writing. Well because of the TV watching and business dealing I have not had as much time as I had initially expected to write. But I have at least done some writing today. After the head block I've had through the second half of the week it's good to be back typing with some kind of reasonable speed.
So not up to my normal speed but I've added 2,160 to the novel today. My NaNoWriMo count is up to 24,605. Given that this is just four hundred words short of halfway to target and there's still one more day to go before halfway in time I still have a decent chance. Will need to get some good writing days in this coming week to get ahead again. I don't want to leave it all on the last week.
Right - it's late and if I'm going to add some more words to the novel tonight I'd better get on with it.
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 slowly skinning the lead character alive. But that was just a story and not something I would consider in real life. And I will add that the people who did the skinning did meet a well deserved nasty end.
So watching the reports was horrifically surreal. I just don't know how I can express how I feel at the acts. I can't imagine how the friends and families of the victims feel or how they might go about rebuilding their lives.
By the way don't think that I only care about my fellow Europeans. Every death of a human being, be it in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas or Australasia from any cause except old age is despicable. And I do think that the western media gives too much emphasis when its "one of us" affected. You know an earthquake in Europe in which 100 people die often gets more airtime than one in Asia in which 1000 people die.
I was horrified to think I am one of the same species as those pulling the triggers and deliberately killing people because they happen to be in a bar or attending a rock concert.
We have a lot to commend us as a rave, us humans. We have created so much greatness; art , literature, science. We have conquered every corner of the Earth, overcome all obstacles. Twelve of us have stood on the Moon's surface (conspiracy theorists - get over it) and we've sent probes out to all the planets and dwarf Pluto.
But despite all this I find the callous disregard we too often show for our fellow men and women does raise the question - do we deserve to survive as a species? We need to get over our troubled adolescence as a species and learn what matters; and what matters is every single life.
Anyway, rant over. Sorry about that. My fingers kind of got away from me. Onto other matters and yes, I know they are going to sound a little anticlimactic after that but hey...
Have taken another step towards sorting out the remains of my old scifi/superheroes collectables business. For those who don't know I used to trade in comics and memorabilia and 20th Century bizarrely art glass and pottery especially West German Pottery / Fat Lava (check out a friend's site on this stuff http://www.potsandpots.com/shop/) and Scandinavian Glass (go google Alsterfors for an example).
I sold the going concern part of the business about eighteen months back but not all of the stock. A good portion of it has been sitting in my library taking up space since. Well today I took a step back towards sense when I sold eight boxes of comics to another dealer. Only nine more left. And before anyone thinks I'm mad for mentioning this online in such a public way I set up a limited company for my trading and this sale is being declared through the company's accounts, just as any moneys I earn from my writing are.
That done, back home and on with some writing. Well because of the TV watching and business dealing I have not had as much time as I had initially expected to write. But I have at least done some writing today. After the head block I've had through the second half of the week it's good to be back typing with some kind of reasonable speed.
So not up to my normal speed but I've added 2,160 to the novel today. My NaNoWriMo count is up to 24,605. Given that this is just four hundred words short of halfway to target and there's still one more day to go before halfway in time I still have a decent chance. Will need to get some good writing days in this coming week to get ahead again. I don't want to leave it all on the last week.
Right - it's late and if I'm going to add some more words to the novel tonight I'd better get on with it.
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