Adrian Faulkner's Blog, page 139

A Find In The Tomb Of Old Drafts

I’m doing the happy Snoopy dance at Faulkner Towers this morning as digging through some old files I’ve found the one piece of text I cut from the novel that pained me the most. And I’m planning to put it online as a special “bonus feature” for readers of The Four Realms.

As you are probably aware, The Four Realms took thirteen years to write and went through numerous revisions. There was a time when Cassidy was called (the rather unoriginal) Angel, there were times when D’Toeni didn’t exist....

Games & Depression

I think I originally posted about this video a month or so ago on Twitter. All too often we hear about the negative impact of videogames, of how they are responsible for society’s ills, so coming across this mini-documentary on how videogames have helped people with depression is actually surprisingly heartwarming. Probably just about the best video Gamespot have ever done, in my honest opinion, and well worth a watch even if you’re not into videogames yourself.

Thinking About The Career Plan

Over the last couple of days I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about career. There’s a saying in publishing that it’s one thing to be published, another to stay published. A year ago I was worried about ever getting published. Now, with the book out and deep into writing book two, I’m starting to look ahead and formulate a long term plan for my writing and where I want to be.

At lot of this was sparked when I was saddened to find out that an author who has been incredibly helpful in my career...

Writing Violence

One of the nice things about being a writer is that I sometimes get to be a bit of a bastard. In every day life I’d like to think I’m fairly nice and kind, but when it comes to writing, I pretty much torture my characters, and in some cases actually do so. Because they are fictional there’s no real come back. Thank God, because if they were real, then after the stuff I do to them in Book 2…

My novels are filled with violence, so do I ever worry about it? A lot, actually. I do not personally ho...

(Not So) Lazy Sunday

Last weekend was my one week in three when I wasn’t on out of hours support with the day job, so you’d think it would mean for a lazy Sunday. Maybe it was being woken by my housemates at 5:30am (I love them but, by God, I don’t think they’d know what quiet is if it crept up to them and whispered its name in their ear) but I had a busy Sunday. I used the day as part of a weekend to get myself organised and on top of my To-Do list.

In trying to build my walking back up, I put in my best single w...

Recovering My Mojo

I made a realisation this week. I’m currently getting one good new novel idea a week at the moment. These are a little more than just seeds of ideas, but fully fledged with plots and characters and worldbuilding. I found myself thinking that if I could write a novel a week, then I’d be sorted. However, on a more serious note it got me thinking about my productivity, or rather… my current lack of it.

Years ago I volunteered for charity organisation and helped build up a very strong recruitment...

Barnibus – Ninja Dwarf (MMO Edition)

Not all my characters lend themselves to MMO characters. Just trying to think of the character classes that suit them is enough to make my head explode. But sometimes it’s a lot clearer than it is for others, and you think to yourself… I really ought to go and make that character now!

So there is a wonderful story (which I am embellishing here) about Jim Butcher, author of The Dresden Files. He once played City of Heroes with a character called Harry Dresden (or variant thereof). One day he g...

Readers’ Mailbag #1

So over the last couple of months I’ve had questions from readers regarding the Four Realms and writing in general. I responded to them at the time but thought they were good enough to deserve a wider audience. With their permission I am allowed to share their questions and my answer with you. If it’s popular and readers continue to send in questions, I may do this as a semi-regular thing. I have enough for a couple of blog posts but beyond that is down to you!

So without further delay, let’s...

Reigniting The Fire

I think anyone would forgive me for being pre-occupied with my health these past few months. A lot has gone on, and continues to go on, and just trying to stay on top of it all can feel like a full time job (as he stops and suddenly remember a medication he hasn’t taken this morning).

It would be no lie to say that at times it’s felt all a little too much, that I’ve felt swamped and overwhelmed by everything that has gone on, and a little disappointed in how slow the progress is (even though I...

A Knight Out

I am sure there are some high security inmates who have a better social life than myself right now, but I suspect that might be true of many writers.

So I was glad when I heard a good friend of 20+ years was in this part of the country on work and I, for once, wasn’t on out-of-hours call with the day job.

So I navigated the menu as if it was a game of Russian Roulette (thanks stupid medication), I told him about a few new secret writing projects, he told me about his family, we discussed consol...