Nick Bryan's Blog, page 11
October 23, 2014
Hobson & Choi #95: "Pulling The Strings"
If this is the first you're hearing of the upcoming end of the H&C serial then, um, sorry to bring a belated downer upon you. The news emerged in this big Hobson & Choi update post last week.
Don't worry, the books will continue
Speaking of which, I've now finished reading all but the bonus story of the second book out-loud in a final pass, so that's going well. If you'd like even more relevant reading material from me, here a blog piece I posted yesterday about the practice of reading my writing to myself.
And with that, I am gone. Have a good Thursday!
October 22, 2014
Pros And Cons Of Reading Your Writing Out Loud (or Why I Was Talking To Myself, Honest)
From eleven o'clock yesterday morning until seven in the evening, I sat at my desk alone, reading out the first sixty percent of my current nearly-finished work in progress. (The second book of the Hobson & Choi series, since you asked.)
For a couple of years now, the read-out-loud has been the final step of any work before I show it to other people. I vocalise the entire text to an empty house. If you don't do this, I'm not going to tell you it's essential (because different strokes for different folks and I would never tell you how to stroke yourself), but if you've never even tried it, here's how it works for me.
Read more »October 19, 2014
Doctor Who review on Dork Adore!
For those who miss the days when I reviewed loads of TV, enjoy. Dork Adore needed a hand, I had the time, so why not? Obviously had to resist dumping all my opinions about the entire eighth series into that one review. Think I mostly managed it.
October 17, 2014
Hobson & Choi - Updates & End-dates
Hobson & Choi, my ongoing webseries about two mismatched detectives and their weird adventures in a horribly corrupt modern London, has experienced a strong few months. We've done well on Jukepop Serials, the first collected book edition has come out and also put in a strong showing. So since we had a big positive announcement today, it seemed a good time to do a general H&C post, talk about stuff, make some declarations.
Hopefully it's all ultimately going to be good news. But be warned: your emotions may vary. Let's start with the really obvious flag-waving upbeat section.
Read more »October 16, 2014
Hobson & Choi #94: "Enforced"
Well, you'll have to read H&C #95 for that. However, there will be some out-of-story H&C news in the near future, regarding both the webserial and the books. Hopefully some time in the next few days, schedule depending and so on.
But for now, I am editing hard on the second H&C book and considering whether to do NaNoWriMo. There may be some kind of "To NaNo Or Not To NaNo?" blog, although I am painfully aware that is a post I must have written before, possibly more than once. We'll see.
October 9, 2014
Hobson & Choi #93: "Yellow Tent"
Time for a close-up chat with the baddies in "Yellow Tent". More like this to come, too...
The end of the story arc is nigh, and it's time for some final accounting. Big showdown with elderly woman time. Who will emerge okay? Is the answer "no-one"? Find out now!
And meanwhile, I'm deep into edits for the book edition of the second story arc, which is 100% my excuse for perhaps being slightly quieter than usual on Twitter. Think they're going okay, though, which is nice.
If you want to buy the first book, of course, you can totally do that. Many links up on the official Hobson & Choi homepage thing. It'll provide you with something to read while I edit. May try and do a blog post next week too.
October 3, 2014
Draft Four The Win? - The Novel Continues
I've just finished draft four of the fantasy novel I've been writing for around 18 months. This is obviously an achievement - not a top-rated one worthy of a party, but a clear rung up the ladder.
So what does finishing a fourth draft actually mean? How many more am I planning? Do I even know?
Well.
Read more »October 2, 2014
Hobson & Choi #92: "Cutting Edge"
So that's exciting. Less exciting, I admit, is this blog as I really haven't had time to do anything. On the plus side, I'm considering doing the one-video-blog-a-day Vlogtober challenge, so if I do that, I'll have some free content to embed here.
Yes, I'm already a day behind, but I can catch up with that.
More relevantly to the H&C saga - thanks so much to everyone who voted for us on Jukepop last month! We won the monthly chart, and we may have also won the biannual prize. We wait.
And as well as possible daily vlogs, I also gotta edit H&C Book 2 soon. Life probably not getting less busy.
September 18, 2014
Hobson & Choi #90: "Machete"
Yeah, that's definitely happening. Although not quite as soon as you might think, because we're dropping back to one update a week as of now. Nothing drastically wrong, we've just burnt through the huge backlog I built up and I don't want to have to panic-write the end of the storyline. That'd be sad.
So there we go. I gotta work on the novel, but if anyone has any questions for this podcast Q&A I'm still planning on doing, feel free to comment below or stick them in my Ask box on Tumblr. Yes, you can ask anonymously for now. I'll turn it off if I feel it isn't being used responsibly.
September 15, 2014
Hobson & Choi #89: "Simon Says"
This takes us up to almost ninety episodes, which is loads. Gosh. There might be another, somewhat predictable, announcement about the future on Thursday, by the way. The future of the webserial, not Book Two.
Far more relevant for now, though: ask me questions about stuff! I am bringing the H&C Podcast back, for one episode only, and I thought I'd attempt an internet Q&A as part of that. However, this idea only works if I get some Qs to A, so fire away. You can ask in the comments below, tweet me at @NickMB or - if you really want question-specific software - you can use my Ask page on Tumblr.
For now, I have left anonymous Tumblr questioning turned on. This can and will be reversed at any time if people start being arseholes. Short of flat-out arseholing, though, I will take on any questions from all-comers. Writing/self-publishing/H&C queries may get priority, but nothing will be ignored. This is my vow.
So, there we go. Fire away with your interrogation.
