Andrew Barrett's Blog, page 10

Updated Dead Trilogy

Of course, everything is perfect in the world of Roger Conniston. And now that I'm moving on to pastures new, I can forget all about him; I can safely turn the page in my Life Book, and continue onwards knowing that Rog is holding up well in the past and my job now is firmly fixed on the future.

But wait. I have a new review on Amazon; this one is for No More Tears. And it's a good review, four stars. But it mentions typos. My jaw hit the desk. I dislike typos. Me and typos are not good friends.

The Third Rule - an update

Where was I? Ah yes, The Third Rule was due out of the blocks in September. And then it was due out sometime this month, October. However, with all plans there comes a corresponding amount of chance; and it seems chance has taken a hold of things concerning The Third Rule's imminent release, and squashed them. Flat.

Several things have happened: my computer went utterly wonky and has thrown the schedule into disarray. And we've also hit a few other technical difficulties, so the release has been put back to November – but I have a contingency plan: keeping my fingers crossed!

Charlotte and the Troll

I am a very proud member of the Goodreads UK Amazon Kindle Forum. And they have recently put together a superb collection of forty-three short stories and poems written by thirty-one forum members, entitled A Splendid Salmagundi.

A definition of salmagundi: Salmagundi is used figuratively in modern English to mean a mixture or assortment of things.

Scrivener

The Third Rule is now at an end.

It has gone away to be fettled prior to release and that's more or less the end of my creative involvement with it. There was a tear shed, I can tell you.

But we move onwards and upwards – or sometimes just a little sideways. And the new venture? The new venture is called Scrivener.

Another instalment in the saga that is The Third Rule

I knew it was going to be a long book, somewhere in the region of 250-270k words. The average length of a novel is around 90-100k. Just before I completed it, I decided, that I would issue it as three separate books, Part One, Part Two, and Part Three. But wait; it may have been three books but it wouldn't have been a trilogy in the truest sense of the word. The end of Part One would come as a shock to the reader since it had no closure, no resolution. It merely stopped at the end of a chapter, waiting for the reader to buy the second part and continue the story.

The Third Rule

Well it's taken me 9 years and 4 months end to end, to finish The Third Rule. That's not because I'm lazy and it's not because I've been in prison either. I broke off writing it to concentrate on other writing for six of those years.

And now, apart from minor titivating, it is finished. Without doubt, this is the most complex tale I've written so far. Stealing Elgar and No More Tears were mighty creatures to tame with lots of storylines and subplots, a myriad of characters all seemingly heading in different directions, but The Third Rule takes it to a new level.

You know how some things make you smile...

You know how some things make you smile, and how some other things make you smile and give you a little tingle too? (think harder then)

Well, I had a tingly smile or two this week when I read a 5-star review of A Long Time Dead and then I had another such moment when I got a 5-star review for Stealing Elgar.

Everyone Should Have an Ali

I have just completed a tremendously long edit on some work I thought I had finished a long time ago. I was so utterly wrong.

But exceptionally fortunate too. You see, the guy who made and maintains my website (Lexidays), introduced me to his wife. Her name is Alison, and she is an avid reader, and she’s extremely clever; makes me look like a six-year-old – which, when you consider I’m only five, is perhaps a compliment.

We writers are a peculiar type; in that we expect people to buy and read our work, and jolly well enjoy it! We have slaved over each word, each paragraph and each chapter until, a year or so later, we have created something wonderful. Or not, as the case may be. However, we have put into some kind of order one-hundred-thousand words, and we’ve weaved plots and sub-plots, and nuances of character behaviour and development until this collection of words is a living, breathing story that will take our readers away from the ironing, or the grocery store, away from the commute, and into an unreal world where things happen that will make them laugh or cry or wonder, or gasp. Or groan.

Aren’t we clever.

Well, you might be! But my Ali has found out the truth of it all.

How very peculiar

After a sabbatical from novel-writing (I’ve been playing with scripts for the last few years), I have worked on The Third Rule for the last three months solidly, to the exclusion of everything else except food and sleep – and only if absolutely necessary (and have thought about it every day since I shelved it six years ago); that’s every evening after work, all day whenever I’m lucky enough to have a day off – usually up to sixteen hours a day – and any other time I can squeeze an hour or so in. And I’ve been thinking about plot and character all the times in between; while driving, in the shower, pre-slumber, post-slumber.

I think it was Stephen King who said

I think it was Stephen King who said, we rush everything we do just so we can move onto the next thing. Or something like that.

Anyway, after a total of nine years, I finally finished the first draft of The Third Rule. Granted, six of those years were spent writing scripts. But The Third Rule was one of those things that I simply had to finish, one of those itches that refused to go away even after I applied copious amounts of E45 in the form of writing scripts. I couldn’t forget about it.