Edmund Lester

Well, fresh from my near miss with NaNoWriMo I have got straight back to it writing wise although most of tonight was taking up on submissions. I sent four out The Patternmaker's Daughter - 2 The Intersection - 1 Against the Fall of Empire -1 They took rather a time to get sorted but it could be worth it. So when I started writing I was already running short on time and managed only one scene today - 608 words bring the total up to 75,772. NaNoWriMo taught me a few things. One of which is more of a reinforcement that a new lesson but it'll do. I like lists. I like a certain order. So I have decided I am going to keep a log of daily writing in terms of word count and books/stories being written. How sad is that? Never mind, it will keep me happy. So I have a new spreadsheet and the first day's entry is logged. Anyway for anyone who is interested - here's my chart for November (warning - it will be very dull reading) Date Daily Word Count T...

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...