Steven J. Pemberton's Blog, page 2
November 29, 2024
November's Writing Progress
I wrote about 6,000 words of The Last Dragonrider this month, so it now stands at about 118,000 words. I think it's obvious by now that I'm not going to achieve the goal I set in January of having it finished by the end of the year. Mostly, I'll blame the fact that I've been very busy at work with a lot of stuff dictated by company policy that I don't think benefits our customers.
I had a short article published by Readers' Magnet, about The Accidental Dragonrider. You can read it here.
I joined Bluesky, where all the cool kids seem to be these days. I'm sjpemb.bsky.social. I'm not doing much there at the moment - I just wanted to be sure of getting my preferred username.
There's a new video on my YouTube channel, of me performing The Last Story at Urban Arts in St Annes. It's noteworthy because I was able to do it from memory, which let me engage with the audience a bit more than I usually do. See if you can spot the mistake that I almost managed to cover up!
I had a short article published by Readers' Magnet, about The Accidental Dragonrider. You can read it here.
I joined Bluesky, where all the cool kids seem to be these days. I'm sjpemb.bsky.social. I'm not doing much there at the moment - I just wanted to be sure of getting my preferred username.
There's a new video on my YouTube channel, of me performing The Last Story at Urban Arts in St Annes. It's noteworthy because I was able to do it from memory, which let me engage with the audience a bit more than I usually do. See if you can spot the mistake that I almost managed to cover up!
October 30, 2024
October's Writing Progress
A day early, just because.
I wrote another 3,000 words of The Last Dragonrider, which now stands at 112,000 words - not as many as I would've liked, but I rewrote a couple of scenes to fit with changes earlier in the story.
I finished the short story about time travel and bungee cords, which ended up at just over 2,000 words. I did something I hardly ever do nowadays, which was change my mind - twice - about which character's point of view it should be from. That meant throwing away the first 3,000 words of it, so "from a certain point of view" I've written 8,000 words this month, not 5,000.
I wrote another 3,000 words of The Last Dragonrider, which now stands at 112,000 words - not as many as I would've liked, but I rewrote a couple of scenes to fit with changes earlier in the story.
I finished the short story about time travel and bungee cords, which ended up at just over 2,000 words. I did something I hardly ever do nowadays, which was change my mind - twice - about which character's point of view it should be from. That meant throwing away the first 3,000 words of it, so "from a certain point of view" I've written 8,000 words this month, not 5,000.
September 30, 2024
September's Writing Progress
I wrote another 6,000 words of The Last Dragonrider, so it's now 109,000 words.
The open mic night in St Annes that we go to on Tuesdays has a theme for the first meeting of the month. The theme for tomorrow night is "ghosts." Seeing as I don't have anything that I could convincingly call a ghost story, I wrote a little one, just over 500 words.
The writers' group in St Annes (at the same venue as the open mic night) has started again after its summer break. The exercises that we do at the meetings yielded several writing prompts, two of which I think I could turn into stories. I started one of them over the weekend, featuring bungee cords and a time-travelling historian. I've got about 500 words of it so far.
The open mic night in St Annes that we go to on Tuesdays has a theme for the first meeting of the month. The theme for tomorrow night is "ghosts." Seeing as I don't have anything that I could convincingly call a ghost story, I wrote a little one, just over 500 words.
The writers' group in St Annes (at the same venue as the open mic night) has started again after its summer break. The exercises that we do at the meetings yielded several writing prompts, two of which I think I could turn into stories. I started one of them over the weekend, featuring bungee cords and a time-travelling historian. I've got about 500 words of it so far.
August 31, 2024
August's Writing Progress
I wrote another 3,000 words of The Last Dragonrider, which now stands at 103,000 words.
I wrote a new short story of about 2,700 words, in response to a prompt from the St Annes group. That has the working title of "Home Alone in Space," which will obviously have to change before it's published. (Many sci-fi movies are pitched as "Some movie you've already seen, but in space," for the benefit of unimaginative studio executives. The first Alien movie, for instance, was pitched as "Jaws in space.")
We went to Ireland for a reunion of some of Breda's cousins, which was my first time flying in about six years. I don't think any of it will end up in a story, though maybe there's a tale to tell about how Breda managed to convince the DJ to let me perform The Lion and Albert in the karaoke session...
I wrote a new short story of about 2,700 words, in response to a prompt from the St Annes group. That has the working title of "Home Alone in Space," which will obviously have to change before it's published. (Many sci-fi movies are pitched as "Some movie you've already seen, but in space," for the benefit of unimaginative studio executives. The first Alien movie, for instance, was pitched as "Jaws in space.")
We went to Ireland for a reunion of some of Breda's cousins, which was my first time flying in about six years. I don't think any of it will end up in a story, though maybe there's a tale to tell about how Breda managed to convince the DJ to let me perform The Lion and Albert in the karaoke session...
July 31, 2024
July's Writing Progress
The Last Dragonrider is finally above 100,000 words. That's only 1,500 words past where it was last month, mainly because I've rewritten a lot of existing scenes to fit my new outline. I started tracking the number of comments in the manuscript (notes to myself that tell me to change something or double-check something). At the start of July, I had 409, and I now have 265, so that's good.
At the start of the month, we took a holiday to Borehamwood, where we used to live. It rained a lot, and both of us were ill, but we managed to meet up with some friends, and I visited a couple of museums that I hadn't seen before (the Florence Nightingale museum and the de Havilland museum).
My next public event is now only a week away. I'll be reading from my books and talking about my creative process. It'll be at Urban Arts in St Annes, Lancashire, on Wednesday 7th August from 6pm to 9pm. Admission is free, but donations to help with the venue's running costs are welcome.
At the start of the month, we took a holiday to Borehamwood, where we used to live. It rained a lot, and both of us were ill, but we managed to meet up with some friends, and I visited a couple of museums that I hadn't seen before (the Florence Nightingale museum and the de Havilland museum).
My next public event is now only a week away. I'll be reading from my books and talking about my creative process. It'll be at Urban Arts in St Annes, Lancashire, on Wednesday 7th August from 6pm to 9pm. Admission is free, but donations to help with the venue's running costs are welcome.
June 30, 2024
June's Writing Progress
The Last Dragonrider is still going slowly, but I've figured out a complete outline, and I've written about 2,500 words of what was missing. The book now stands at 98,500 words.
I've been getting ready for my next public event, where I'll be reading from my books and talking about my creative process. It'll be at Urban Arts in St Annes, Lancashire, on Wednesday 7th August from 6pm to 9pm. Admission is free, but donations to help with the venue's running costs are welcome.
I'm taking part in the Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale, which runs for the whole of July. This time, all my books there are free. It's only at Smashwords, not any other retailer. Go to https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi... and fill the gaps in your library.
I've been getting ready for my next public event, where I'll be reading from my books and talking about my creative process. It'll be at Urban Arts in St Annes, Lancashire, on Wednesday 7th August from 6pm to 9pm. Admission is free, but donations to help with the venue's running costs are welcome.
I'm taking part in the Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale, which runs for the whole of July. This time, all my books there are free. It's only at Smashwords, not any other retailer. Go to https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi... and fill the gaps in your library.
May 31, 2024
May's Writing Progress
I more or less closed the big gap in The Last Dragonrider, where I skipped ahead in the timeline. Then I identified most of the things I need to fix in editing in the second half of the book. Now I have to figure out the ending and write it. All that means I wrote "only" about 2,000 words of it this month, so the total is now 96,000 words.
I did manage to write a couple of short stories while trying to solve all the problems I've made for myself with this novel. One is an amusing (I hope) interpretation of the legend of St George and the dragon. (St George is the patron saint of England, even though he never set foot in the country, and we commemorate him on 23rd April. Purely by coincidence, I'm sure, that's also Shakespeare's birthday.) The other is a sci-fi-ish tale, very loosely inspired by the day job, which features a rubber chicken. That has the working title of The Gallus Protocol. (Look it up...)
I did manage to write a couple of short stories while trying to solve all the problems I've made for myself with this novel. One is an amusing (I hope) interpretation of the legend of St George and the dragon. (St George is the patron saint of England, even though he never set foot in the country, and we commemorate him on 23rd April. Purely by coincidence, I'm sure, that's also Shakespeare's birthday.) The other is a sci-fi-ish tale, very loosely inspired by the day job, which features a rubber chicken. That has the working title of The Gallus Protocol. (Look it up...)
April 30, 2024
April's Writing Progress
Progress on The Last Dragonrider has been a little faster again this month. I wrote 11,000 words, so the first draft now stands at 94,000 words. I'm almost at the point where I decided to skip ahead because I didn't know what needed to happen in the gap. I did this with the last Dragonrider book too...
March 31, 2024
March's writing progress
Progress on The Last Dragonrider has been faster this month. I wrote 9,500 words, so the total now stands at 83,000 words.
I wrote a little sci-fi story with the working title of Corkscrew, which might go into my next collection, when I eventually have enough stories and words to justify releasing it. So far, counting this new story, it has "only" four stories and 8,000 words. Racing the Storm and Other Stories is about 46,000 words, so there's a way to go on this one.
I wrote a little sci-fi story with the working title of Corkscrew, which might go into my next collection, when I eventually have enough stories and words to justify releasing it. So far, counting this new story, it has "only" four stories and 8,000 words. Racing the Storm and Other Stories is about 46,000 words, so there's a way to go on this one.
February 29, 2024
February's Writing Progress
I wrote about 5,000 words of The Last Dragonrider this month, but the total is only about 1,500 higher than it was last month. I'd been cheating, by counting some scenes that I'd already planned to delete in the the edit. I decided to take the hit for those scenes now, so my total now stands at 73,500 words.
I also wrote a little story from a prompt at Blackpool Writers' Circle. This year is the 130th anniversary of Blackpool Tower, so the prompt was to write something about its opening in 1894. I wandered away from that, as I often do, and, well, ended up sending Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson to investigate a bizarre accident in its basement.
I also wrote a little story from a prompt at Blackpool Writers' Circle. This year is the 130th anniversary of Blackpool Tower, so the prompt was to write something about its opening in 1894. I wandered away from that, as I often do, and, well, ended up sending Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson to investigate a bizarre accident in its basement.
