James Hockley's Blog, page 5
February 16, 2017
Northern Lights
Lyra is a wild child amongst a family of scholars. She has no known parents, but when her mysterious uncle comes to the university, her mischievousness saves his life. And her eyes are opened. A deep yearning to follow her uncle and follow him north stirs, but no. She must stay where she is. That is until the fabulously cosmopolitan Mrs Coulter offers her the same opportunity. She leaves, but not before she is given a strange golden compass. But her friend has bee...
February 2, 2017
Book Review: The Wise Man’s Fear
Kvothe has survived his first terms at the University, but not without building a bit of a reputation. Is it a good reputation? Maybe not, but it is a reputation. And with reputation comes those who want to break that reputation, and Kvothe is no exception. Perhaps it’s time to take a break? His tutors agree, and he sets foot into the wide world.
And although he has lost his most tangible link to his childhood obsession, he gains in other...
The Wise Man’s Fear
Kvothe has survived his first terms at the University, but not without building a bit of a reputation. Is it a good reputation? Maybe not, but it is a reputation. And with reputation comes those who want to break that reputation, and Kvothe is no exception. Perhaps it’s time to take a break? His tutors agree, and he sets foot into the wide world. And although he has lost his most tangible link to his childhood obsession, he gains in other areas. His adventures...
January 17, 2017
The Deep POV Effect
In last month’s blog we looked back at the results of running a series [image error]of tests as specified in Marcy Kennedy’s cracking little book: “A busy writer’s guide to deep POV”. Most of the work I’ve done into deep POV has been with Mandestroy, and I thought that was pretty tight. But what did Marcy’s recommendations suggest? Well…
23% of the sentences had deep POV errors in them; and 31% of the word count was “infected”. Some sentences had three separate errors in them! And there were some pretty...January 12, 2017
The Name of the Wind
Kote is a simple innkeeper, man who hankers after the simple things. But Kvothe is a legend. And Kvothe is Kote's past. Born into a travelling family, Kvothe loses everything he knows. And he loses it to a fairy-tale. But where others would lose there mind, Kvothe finds a purpose. He finds it in vengeance. A reckless but gifted student of the University, Kvothe gains access to some of the most incredible experiences in the world. And his skills gather notorie...
Book Review: The Name of the Wind
Kote is a simple innkeeper, man who hankers after the simple things. But Kvothe is a legend. And Kvothe is Kote’s past.
Born into a travelling family, Kvothe loses everything he knows. And he loses it to a fairy-tale. But where others would lose there mind, Kvothe finds a purpose. He finds it in vengeance.
A reckless but gifted student of the University, Kvothe gains access to some of the most incredible experiences in the world. And his...
January 3, 2017
Author Newsletter: 2016 Review
It’s the end of my first year as an actual author. A time for celebration perhaps, but certainly a time for reflection. So, how is this self-publishing gig working out?
Was it everything I dreamed of? Of course not. Was it everything I expected? Err, no. Not by a long shot. Was it successful? Perhaps on a moderate level, but not really. But did I learn a shit load? Yes. So was it a success? Definitely. And did I enjoy myself? Absolutely.But let’s look at this a bit closer. What did I reall...
January 2, 2017
Beagle’s Blot 12 | Leaving Mandaria
It turns out that escaping Mallis was nowhere near as troublesome as I had feared. I needn’t have stayed so long. Then again, without my stay, my pockets would not have rattled with so much coinage, and so I’m not disappointed. It is good to feel flush.
I now have several golds in my pocket, interspersed amongst a host of silver and iron. Lots of sizes and weights, good for honest cash transactions. But I am no fool any longer. Most of my golds and all of my steels are stashed in private plac...
December 20, 2016
How Bad Can it Be?
I had a month off with respect my writing experience blogs. Then again, it was NaNoWriMo, so it was only
fair wasn’t it? Well now NaNoWriMo is over, and it’s time to dig back in.
Here I will be picking up where I left off – following and applying the principles of this little beauty of a book. And this month I start to get stuck in with a series of recommended actions and applying tests to the live version of Mandestroy. Now, I thought Mandestroy was pretty tight (see my...
December 15, 2016
Book Review: A Wizard of Earthsea
“Ged has talent, and he knows it. And he is keen to play to that talent. He gathers what tutorage he can, but soon he must follow his own ambitions. He is going to train as a wizard.
But though he has ability, he is still young. Very young. With great power comes great responsibility, and this is not something that is easily taught. And so it is that when Ged is goaded into showing off his talents, he finds himself playing with powers that he...
