Steven J. Pemberton's Blog, page 13
September 24, 2017
Cover reveal - The Reluctant Dragonrider
The book that I've been referring to as "the sequel to
The Accidental Dragonrider
" for the last couple of years finally has a title - The Reluctant Dragonrider. It also has a cover - see below.
August 30, 2017
August's Writing Progress
As mentioned in my previous post, the audiobook of
Death & Magic
is finally on sale.
The sequel to The Accidental Dragonrider inches closer to completion. Beta readers are standing by. I snipped 4000 words out of it, half a sentence at a time, then went and wrote another 9000 to fill in a gap where I had a note to the effect that "something dangerous and exciting needs to happen on this journey".
I've done most of the work for the cover. This one was relatively easy, as for a long time I'd had a clear idea of what I wanted it to look like. I still wasted far more time than I should've fiddling with lighting effects that took hours to render but made no visible difference to the picture...
The sequel to The Accidental Dragonrider inches closer to completion. Beta readers are standing by. I snipped 4000 words out of it, half a sentence at a time, then went and wrote another 9000 to fill in a gap where I had a note to the effect that "something dangerous and exciting needs to happen on this journey".
I've done most of the work for the cover. This one was relatively easy, as for a long time I'd had a clear idea of what I wanted it to look like. I still wasted far more time than I should've fiddling with lighting effects that took hours to render but made no visible difference to the picture...
August 8, 2017
The Death & Magic audiobook is on sale!
The audiobook of
Death & Magic
is now on sale! You can find it at the following retailers:
Audible US
Audible UK
Amazon US
Amazon UK
iTunes
Audible US
Audible UK
Amazon US
Amazon UK
iTunes
July 31, 2017
July's Writing Progress
At last I've finished the audiobook of Death & Magic! I uploaded it to ACX yesterday. Assuming they approve it, it should be on sale in a week or two. It came in at 10 hours and 57 minutes, which was about half an hour less than I'd been estimating. I guess I read a bit faster than I thought. The whole process took a lot longer than I expected, but I've learned a few more things not to do, so perhaps the next one will be quicker (or at least easier).
I've been plodding on with the Dragonrider sequel, and am now near the point where I can contemplate asking my usual beta readers to clear a space in their calendars. Then it'll be time to start catching up with Raltarn and Tomaz in the sequel to The Mirrors of Elangir.
I've been plodding on with the Dragonrider sequel, and am now near the point where I can contemplate asking my usual beta readers to clear a space in their calendars. Then it'll be time to start catching up with Raltarn and Tomaz in the sequel to The Mirrors of Elangir.
June 30, 2017
June's Writing Progress
I've nearly finished editing the audiobook of
Death & Magic
- another chapter and a half to go. Then I'll have to listen to the whole thing to make sure there are no mistakes (like missing or repeated sentences) and clean it up to remove any background noise.
I'm plodding on with editing the sequel to The Accidental Dragonrider. It now stands at 104,000 words, with 55 comments still to implement or ignore.
No update on the children's story that I mentioned last month. It's with beta readers, but I haven't chased them for comments, as I've been concentrating on the projects that are closer to being done.
The writers' group took part in the town parade (on one of the hottest days of the year) and the summer fête at Stanmore Orthopaedic Hospital, raising money for the hospital charity. Yours truly got interviewed by the hospital radio station, which went quite well until the DJ decided to fire up the PA system with the theme from Thunderbirds to announce the start of the sponsored walk. Ah well...
I'm plodding on with editing the sequel to The Accidental Dragonrider. It now stands at 104,000 words, with 55 comments still to implement or ignore.
No update on the children's story that I mentioned last month. It's with beta readers, but I haven't chased them for comments, as I've been concentrating on the projects that are closer to being done.
The writers' group took part in the town parade (on one of the hottest days of the year) and the summer fête at Stanmore Orthopaedic Hospital, raising money for the hospital charity. Yours truly got interviewed by the hospital radio station, which went quite well until the DJ decided to fire up the PA system with the theme from Thunderbirds to announce the start of the sponsored walk. Ah well...
May 31, 2017
May's Writing Progress
I'm still editing the audiobook of Death & Magic. I finished chapter 35 yesterday, which means I'm now three-quarters of the way through.
I'm also still editing the Dragonrider sequel. I have 87 comments from my critique group, and have filled in some more gaps and plot holes. It now stands at about 102,000 words.
The writers' group did another book signing, in our local branch of Tesco. We donated £1 from every book sold to the supermarket's charities-of-the-year, Diabetes UK and the British Heart Foundation.
I'm also still editing the Dragonrider sequel. I have 87 comments from my critique group, and have filled in some more gaps and plot holes. It now stands at about 102,000 words.
The writers' group did another book signing, in our local branch of Tesco. We donated £1 from every book sold to the supermarket's charities-of-the-year, Diabetes UK and the British Heart Foundation.
May 14, 2017
A few more days in Cork and Waterford
As I mentioned in my previous entry, Breda and I went to Ireland recently for a family wedding. Afterwards we stayed in Cork City for about a week, then spent a few days visiting her sisters.
In Cork, we stayed at the Ashley Hotel. This is a bit (OK, very) old-fashioned, but the food was excellent, and the staff went out of their way to make us feel welcome.
We used the sightseeing tour bus, which stopped near the hotel. At €15 for adults, it's a bit pricey if you just want to go round once, but you can hop on and off whenever you like, and the ticket is valid for two days. The pre-recorded commentary is clear and informative, though sometimes hard to hear on the open part of the upper deck.
The first place we visited off the tour bus was Cork City Gaol. This gives a good insight into the harsh conditions inflicted on 19th-century prisoners. In some ways they were an improvement on what came before, where a long list of offences were punishable by death or transportation to Australia. Life for the wardens wasn't much better than for the prisoners, though at least they had fireplaces in their rooms. A few years after the gaol closed, it reopened as a radio station, and the upper floor has a little exhibition about the history of this.
Next we visited the Butter Museum. (Yes, really. Only in Ireland, eh?) This starts with a somewhat dated video about how Irish dairy produce became a worldwide brand. The best bit of this is a clip from an advert that claimed Irish cheese is matured to the sound of harps. (And of course when the cheese is ready, they use the harps to cut the cheese into slices.) The rest of the ground floor is about traditional methods of butter making (very labour-intensive, as most things were before mechanisation). The building used to be a butter market in the days before refrigeration, and the upper floor is given to the history of this.
Near the Butter Museum are the Shandon Bells and Tower. These are part of a church. You can go up the tower and have a go at ringing the bells yourself. There's a book of tunes next to the ropes, and when we were eating our lunch in the churchyard, we heard a surprisingly good rendition of La Marseillaise. After ringing the bells, you can carry on up the tower to see views of the city. The staircases get narrower and steeper as you go on, and there's an awkward part near the top where you have to twist around and bend down to get to the next set of steps. I can see that bit finding its way into a future story...
Just off the tour bus route and not mentioned on the commentary is the Old Cork Waterworks. This is partly a museum about the history of the city's water supply and partly an educational centre that teaches STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) to groups of schoolchildren. I was the only visitor there, which was a bit disconcerting given my usual experiences with museums. On the bright side, I had a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation with the guide.
Venturing further afield, we took a trip to Spike Island. This sits in the middle of what's officially Cork Harbour, though it's a long way downstream from the city proper, and the nearest settlement on the mainland is Cobh ("Cove"), from where you take a boat to reach the island. It's claimed there was a monastery here in the sixth century, though no archaeological trace of it has been found. From the eighteenth century, a fort defended the harbour. Unlike many other forts and castles I've visited, it's almost intact, as nobody ever attacked it. At various times, the fort was used as a prison, and apparently one of Breda's grandfathers was held there during the War of Independence. From the tops of the walls, you can see panoramic views of the harbour, which (at least on a sunny day like we had) are quite picturesque.
I'll finish with a couple of restaurant recommendations. I don't usually do these, as the sorts of places I normally eat are doing fine without any help from me. But I was impressed with Son of a Bun on McCurtin Street and 14A on French Church Street (just off Patrick Street), both in Cork. Son of a Bun, as you can probably guess, does burgers, and very good ones too. I had the black pudding burger (well, we were in Ireland...) 14A has a great early bird menu that offers three courses for €20. I had a generous portion of chicken wings, a melt-in-the-mouth piece of salmon and a delicious slice of apple pie. (I would've gone for my usual chocolate cake, but was feeling a bit full after the first two courses.)
And now, back to editing...
In Cork, we stayed at the Ashley Hotel. This is a bit (OK, very) old-fashioned, but the food was excellent, and the staff went out of their way to make us feel welcome.
We used the sightseeing tour bus, which stopped near the hotel. At €15 for adults, it's a bit pricey if you just want to go round once, but you can hop on and off whenever you like, and the ticket is valid for two days. The pre-recorded commentary is clear and informative, though sometimes hard to hear on the open part of the upper deck.
The first place we visited off the tour bus was Cork City Gaol. This gives a good insight into the harsh conditions inflicted on 19th-century prisoners. In some ways they were an improvement on what came before, where a long list of offences were punishable by death or transportation to Australia. Life for the wardens wasn't much better than for the prisoners, though at least they had fireplaces in their rooms. A few years after the gaol closed, it reopened as a radio station, and the upper floor has a little exhibition about the history of this.
Next we visited the Butter Museum. (Yes, really. Only in Ireland, eh?) This starts with a somewhat dated video about how Irish dairy produce became a worldwide brand. The best bit of this is a clip from an advert that claimed Irish cheese is matured to the sound of harps. (And of course when the cheese is ready, they use the harps to cut the cheese into slices.) The rest of the ground floor is about traditional methods of butter making (very labour-intensive, as most things were before mechanisation). The building used to be a butter market in the days before refrigeration, and the upper floor is given to the history of this.
Near the Butter Museum are the Shandon Bells and Tower. These are part of a church. You can go up the tower and have a go at ringing the bells yourself. There's a book of tunes next to the ropes, and when we were eating our lunch in the churchyard, we heard a surprisingly good rendition of La Marseillaise. After ringing the bells, you can carry on up the tower to see views of the city. The staircases get narrower and steeper as you go on, and there's an awkward part near the top where you have to twist around and bend down to get to the next set of steps. I can see that bit finding its way into a future story...
Just off the tour bus route and not mentioned on the commentary is the Old Cork Waterworks. This is partly a museum about the history of the city's water supply and partly an educational centre that teaches STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) to groups of schoolchildren. I was the only visitor there, which was a bit disconcerting given my usual experiences with museums. On the bright side, I had a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation with the guide.
Venturing further afield, we took a trip to Spike Island. This sits in the middle of what's officially Cork Harbour, though it's a long way downstream from the city proper, and the nearest settlement on the mainland is Cobh ("Cove"), from where you take a boat to reach the island. It's claimed there was a monastery here in the sixth century, though no archaeological trace of it has been found. From the eighteenth century, a fort defended the harbour. Unlike many other forts and castles I've visited, it's almost intact, as nobody ever attacked it. At various times, the fort was used as a prison, and apparently one of Breda's grandfathers was held there during the War of Independence. From the tops of the walls, you can see panoramic views of the harbour, which (at least on a sunny day like we had) are quite picturesque.
I'll finish with a couple of restaurant recommendations. I don't usually do these, as the sorts of places I normally eat are doing fine without any help from me. But I was impressed with Son of a Bun on McCurtin Street and 14A on French Church Street (just off Patrick Street), both in Cork. Son of a Bun, as you can probably guess, does burgers, and very good ones too. I had the black pudding burger (well, we were in Ireland...) 14A has a great early bird menu that offers three courses for €20. I had a generous portion of chicken wings, a melt-in-the-mouth piece of salmon and a delicious slice of apple pie. (I would've gone for my usual chocolate cake, but was feeling a bit full after the first two courses.)
And now, back to editing...
May 5, 2017
April's writing progress
This update is a bit later than planned too - we're in Ireland for a family wedding and a bit of a holiday, and Internet access is more patchy than I'd like.
I cut another 6,000 words from the Dragonrider sequel, and added a few along the way, so it now stands at 101,000 words. I still have 193 comments from my critique group and my earlier editing passes to address. I think I have a few gaps to fill in, where I skipped over too much time, and probably need to consider cutting some scenes that don't move the story forward enough.
Progress continues on the editing of the audiobook of Death & Magic. I'm partway through chapter 31, or about two-thirds of the way along.
Now seems as good a time as any to announce the other side project that I teased you about at the end of last year... I've written a children's story, which I hope to release some time in the next few months. Depending on what the beta readers say, it could take longer, as I've never written one before - they could advise me to rip it up and start again - or just rip it up... It currently has the very boring working title of Simon and Zac. My best guess for its final title is the slightly less boring Simon and the Birthday Wish. I'm in two minds as to what to do about illustrations. I'm tempted to do them myself, as I can draw tolerably well, but I'm badly out of practice, and I'm not sure my style is entirely suitable for a children's book. We'll see, anyway...
I cut another 6,000 words from the Dragonrider sequel, and added a few along the way, so it now stands at 101,000 words. I still have 193 comments from my critique group and my earlier editing passes to address. I think I have a few gaps to fill in, where I skipped over too much time, and probably need to consider cutting some scenes that don't move the story forward enough.
Progress continues on the editing of the audiobook of Death & Magic. I'm partway through chapter 31, or about two-thirds of the way along.
Now seems as good a time as any to announce the other side project that I teased you about at the end of last year... I've written a children's story, which I hope to release some time in the next few months. Depending on what the beta readers say, it could take longer, as I've never written one before - they could advise me to rip it up and start again - or just rip it up... It currently has the very boring working title of Simon and Zac. My best guess for its final title is the slightly less boring Simon and the Birthday Wish. I'm in two minds as to what to do about illustrations. I'm tempted to do them myself, as I can draw tolerably well, but I'm badly out of practice, and I'm not sure my style is entirely suitable for a children's book. We'll see, anyway...
April 2, 2017
March's Writing Progress
A little later than planned, here's what I did in March 2017...
I continued editing the audiobook of Death & Magic. I'm up to chapter 27, which is a little over halfway through.
I started editing the sequel to The Accidental Dragonrider. I've cut about 10,000 words from the first draft, so it now stands at about 106,000. I don't have any particular goal for how many words I want the finished book to be, but I expect a few more of them will come out. (Mind you, I've said that before, and the book ended up getting longer.) I also track editing progress in terms of the number of outstanding comments from myself and my critique group. A comment could be anything from "think of a better simile here" to "fix this massive plot hole", but it averages out. I had 483 comments at the end of the first draft. That went up to 537 after I re-read it to remind myself of what I wrote. I now have 253, which I think is pretty good going.
The writers' group did a few more events, where I sold a few more books and put my name in front of some more people.
I continued editing the audiobook of Death & Magic. I'm up to chapter 27, which is a little over halfway through.
I started editing the sequel to The Accidental Dragonrider. I've cut about 10,000 words from the first draft, so it now stands at about 106,000. I don't have any particular goal for how many words I want the finished book to be, but I expect a few more of them will come out. (Mind you, I've said that before, and the book ended up getting longer.) I also track editing progress in terms of the number of outstanding comments from myself and my critique group. A comment could be anything from "think of a better simile here" to "fix this massive plot hole", but it averages out. I had 483 comments at the end of the first draft. That went up to 537 after I re-read it to remind myself of what I wrote. I now have 253, which I think is pretty good going.
The writers' group did a few more events, where I sold a few more books and put my name in front of some more people.
March 22, 2017
Robots at the Science Museum
On Monday, we went to see
Robots
at the Science Museum. This is billed as "the 500-year quest to make machines human". It seems odd, then, that the exhibition starts with clocks and a mechanical swan, but then I remembered that "human" is an adjective as well as a noun. That is, it's not just about making machines that look and behave like humans, like C-3PO and R Daneel Olivaw, but about making machines that can do things that previously, only a human could do.
Most of the machines in the early part of the exhibition are, strictly speaking, automata rather than robots. The distinction is that an automaton always follows a predetermined sequence of instructions, without having any ability to behave differently based on what's happening around it. Such things can still be useful, of course - a clock is an automaton, for example.
The middle of the exhibition is mainly about robots in film. I'm not sure this is wise, as movie robots are generally nothing like the real thing - often being far more advanced in some respects and far more primitive in others. I'm reminded of Forbidden Planet, where the crew of the starship from Earth are amazed that Robby can navigate the ship on his own, but nobody thinks it remarkable that he can walk on two legs over rough terrain and understand arbitrary English sentences. We've had spaceships that can fly themselves for half a century, but walking and listening are still works in progress.
We then come to a section about robots that were built for research. It says a lot about how complex humans are that every one of these focused on a specific area of activity. So there are heads to study vision and social interaction, pairs of legs to study walking, and arms and hands to study grasp and touch. (The makers of one arm were proud that their creation could pick up a pint glass full of beer without spilling any of it. Whether they then built a head that could drink the beer isn't recorded.)
Finally there are some real robots - real in the sense of being built to serve some practical purpose. The star of the show here is undoubtedly Pepper, described as the first robot that can perceive and understand human emotions. You're encouraged to interact with it - you can shake its hand, pat its head and let it tell you a story. For a robot that's big on emotion, though, its face is oddly unexpressive. Its mouth and eyes can't move, though it can change the colour of the latter. I wonder if the programmers thought to allow for the fact that colours have different meanings in different cultures...
It might have been nice to have some thoughts or opinions on what it means for humanity as robots become more capable and more widespread, but there's only so much space available. For what it's worth, I don't believe robots will kill us all (not deliberately, anyway). They might take most of our jobs, but that doesn't mean 90% of us have to starve. They could render our lives meaningless (this was one endgame that Asimov explored in his later novels), but they'd need to be a lot more sophisticated than they are now. I don't fear robots as such; I fear robots under the control of humans who don't have the best interests of other humans at heart.
Robots runs until 3rd September 2017, and tickets are £15 for adults (including an optional donation to the museum). Allow an hour to an hour and a half to go round.
Most of the machines in the early part of the exhibition are, strictly speaking, automata rather than robots. The distinction is that an automaton always follows a predetermined sequence of instructions, without having any ability to behave differently based on what's happening around it. Such things can still be useful, of course - a clock is an automaton, for example.
The middle of the exhibition is mainly about robots in film. I'm not sure this is wise, as movie robots are generally nothing like the real thing - often being far more advanced in some respects and far more primitive in others. I'm reminded of Forbidden Planet, where the crew of the starship from Earth are amazed that Robby can navigate the ship on his own, but nobody thinks it remarkable that he can walk on two legs over rough terrain and understand arbitrary English sentences. We've had spaceships that can fly themselves for half a century, but walking and listening are still works in progress.
We then come to a section about robots that were built for research. It says a lot about how complex humans are that every one of these focused on a specific area of activity. So there are heads to study vision and social interaction, pairs of legs to study walking, and arms and hands to study grasp and touch. (The makers of one arm were proud that their creation could pick up a pint glass full of beer without spilling any of it. Whether they then built a head that could drink the beer isn't recorded.)
Finally there are some real robots - real in the sense of being built to serve some practical purpose. The star of the show here is undoubtedly Pepper, described as the first robot that can perceive and understand human emotions. You're encouraged to interact with it - you can shake its hand, pat its head and let it tell you a story. For a robot that's big on emotion, though, its face is oddly unexpressive. Its mouth and eyes can't move, though it can change the colour of the latter. I wonder if the programmers thought to allow for the fact that colours have different meanings in different cultures...
It might have been nice to have some thoughts or opinions on what it means for humanity as robots become more capable and more widespread, but there's only so much space available. For what it's worth, I don't believe robots will kill us all (not deliberately, anyway). They might take most of our jobs, but that doesn't mean 90% of us have to starve. They could render our lives meaningless (this was one endgame that Asimov explored in his later novels), but they'd need to be a lot more sophisticated than they are now. I don't fear robots as such; I fear robots under the control of humans who don't have the best interests of other humans at heart.
Robots runs until 3rd September 2017, and tickets are £15 for adults (including an optional donation to the museum). Allow an hour to an hour and a half to go round.
