Roderick T. Macdonald's Blog, page 10

Sifting dust for diamonds on the Long Road.

Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Good news bad news this week. The good news is that despite a barrel-load of distractions hitting me, I managed to review sixty pages of copy-edited text this week, well over a fifth of the entire manuscript. The bad news is that is not proofing is it? I …

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Story Fragment #7: Snow

Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! It is story time once again. BUT, before I get to that I want to let those of you waiting with bated breath for a book update: the book is complete. Proofing is go. We are into the next, one step closer to final, phase. This week I’m …

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The Writing Life: Promises kept, with a tiny caveat

Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! It is very cold here, and I write to delay going out into brittle, shard-like sunlight to shovel my drive. Being stabbed in my wincing eye by too-bright light is infinitely preferable to having to shovel in a storm, however, a brutal necessity I have only had to …

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The Writing Life: Endings and Adjustments

Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! I have rewritten one of the penultimate scenes in the book. I know where it starts, and how it ends and re-enters the previous narrative. It serves a lot of good purposes, and includes a great deal I had not fitted in before in my mad rush to …

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The turn of the year. Objectives and Awareness.

Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! We have entered 2024. My books are on sale until the fourth day of this year, just a quick reminder! What are my objectives for this year? My objectives are tempered by my awareness of the ephemeralness of all things, most especially myself. So I have things that …

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Just received an Amazon gift card? Buy my books! (And other writers’ – but buy mine first! 0.99 from December 28th-January 4th!)

Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Pushy headline, eh? Well, I meant it! If you have random gift cards/cash all of a sudden, (for mysterious unknown but possibly calendar related reasons), then splurge a little and help a writer out! If you or someone you know likes dark, grown-up fantasy for adults, then indulge, …

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The Writing Life: Rushing to the next roadblock

Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! And here we all are, rushing toward a day that passes all too quickly, months of anticipation dissipating in a confetti of bright shards, leaving us bloated and queasy. I love Christmas, by the way, though it was an eternal disappointment to the child I was, never receiving …

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Percentages return with find and replace minus one as their companion

Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! What a pithy title, no? No. But it is a useful reduction of my recent activity, aside from decorating trees. I am now 64.7% of the way through the text of this ‘final’ editing pass. 67.8% by a different criterion. No graphic representation, as is my wont. I …

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The Writing Life: Talking yourself into progress

Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Last week’s motivational chat to myself that I shared with you, worked. This blog, unknown to multitudes, ignored by many, read by the glorious few, serves a hugely worthwhile purpose in holding me to account when I have grown too lazy. Procrastination and delay can be addressed here …

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The Writing Life: Acknowledging the slowdown

Hello my friends and the occasional relative! Today is a mea culpa kind of day. I’ve done some more tinkering, but have not significantly advanced in my last pass over the new novel. I’m stuck at the reworking of a conversation: I thought I had a correct angle for the insertion of needed extras, but …

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