Chris James's Blog, page 15

In case you can’t wait…

…until the Kindle version of  The Repulse Chronicles, Book Two: Invasion is published on Amazon on 16 March, the paperback is now available in all of its 384-page silky, sensual glory on my printer’s website, just click here.  It’s a bit pricier than the e-version, but that’s because Lulu canes me on the printing costs.  And because it’s POD (print on demand), it does take Lulu a few days to fulfil and ship each order… And then there are the shipping costs, which ain’t cheap… Ah, what the heck, maybe hang on for the e-version on Saturday week

Spotting smart-arsery in your writing

[image error]First things first: if you have already pre-ordered Invasion, sincerest thanks.  Everything is on schedule for the Kindle version to go live in just under three weeks on 16 March.  Last Friday, Amazon did its thing and spammed informed its customers that I have another novel on the way.  Behind the scenes, the text continues to benefit from the external help every book can’t do without if it is going to hold its own once it gets kicked out of the nest.

Editing is an extremely testing part of the writing process.  One of the key rules to keep in mind is that you—the author—need to be as invisible as possible.  You are the storyteller, not the protagonist.  The reader should be immersed in the characters and what is happening to them, from page to page.  Any smart-arsery from you, in the form of purple prose or flashy vocabulary where you just show off all the big words you know, will pull the reader away from the story, and that is exactly the last thing you want to happen.

Now, when you write the first draft, you must just write it, however you like, because you need to get the story out of your head and onto the page.  Smart-arsery is allowed—even necessary—because you want to tell the story as entertainingly and effectively as possible, so when writing the first draft, creativity takes first place.

But a first draft should never be published.

When editing, you must identify and remove your initial smart-arsery, making sure you take the furthest possible backseat behind the plot and characters, and let the reader roll along with the story.  However, sometimes the decision as to what constitutes agreeable word-smithery and what is merely unacceptable smart-arsery is not so easy to make.  Here is an example from Invasion.  We are aboard the USS George Washington, which is out in the Atlantic bringing vital supplies to Europe.  Several hundred enemy ACAs (Autonomous Combat Aircraft) are closing rapidly in to attack.  The ship seems to be doomed.  Everyone aboard knows what happened a few weeks earlier, when the enemy wiped out US and Royal Navy formations with ease.  We are reading the scene from the point of view of Powell, a member of the command crew:

Powell felt the tension on the ship build.  All of them knew what had happened in the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Gulf, but the crew also knew of the hard-won developments NATO had made since then.  Powell felt certain each man and woman on the George Washington asked him or herself if these developments would make any difference, some difference, or all the difference.

So, the three uses of difference at the end of the passage: a neat three-time alliterative repetition that the character thinks, or unacceptable smart-arsery by the author?  Is it better to end the sentence after any difference so the reader moves along as the enemy ACAs attack the ship and the tension goes up a few more notches, or is there some value in the semantic contrasts between any, some and all the?

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I think it was Wilde who said he spent an entire morning deciding to remove a comma, and then in the afternoon put it back in again.  Good for him.  Most of us wordsmiths do not, sadly, enjoy the temporal freedom to indulge our vanities to quite that degree.  The passage above will be published as you read it now, because it looks okay to me, and, sometimes, that will have to do.  After all, if you don’t believe in yourself at least to some degree, you can’t expect your readers too, can you?

To end, here’s an unknown and underrated track to which I listened more than a few times while writing The Repulse Chronicles, Book Two: Invasion.  It’s a nice foot-tapper and it’s great for writing action scenes to.  You might like it:

Remember, people, each novel starts with the first page!

[image error]A colleague at work recently asked me: “What’s it like to write a novel?”  In response, I expected myself to come up with some pithy, erudite yet seemingly off-the-cuff witticism.  Instead, several seconds passed with my mouth opening and closing in silence like a goldfish that knows food is about to plop into the water.  “Well,” I began with an author’s naturally superior command of English vocabulary, “It’s like, er…  Erm…  Well…  You know, it’s, erm, like, er…”

The whole cycle of novel writing for me—planning, execution, editing, publishing—repeats every 12 to 24 months, so it never really ends.  The elation of finishing a novel does not last long; neither does the anticipation of starting the next one, and neither does the thrill of my readers reading my work.  All of these feelings are of course very nice indeed, but they have a limited duration.  Like a drug, I need to push on, create something, and get to the next hit, the next rush, the next high.  Locked into this cycle of addiction, it is therefore quite difficult for me to remember a time when I didn’t write, or, more accurately, to remember what it felt like not to be a writer.

Here are a couple of screenshots to show you what I’m driving at.  At the end of 2018, I finished writing The Repulse Chronicles, Book Two: Invasion, a novel I began less than a year ago.  While that goes through the multiple stages of editing and proofreading before publication on 16 March, I am now planning The Repulse Chronicles, Book Three: The Battle for Europe.  The first image shows the current word-count for Invasion; below that is the same image for The Battle for Europe.

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Eleven months ago, the lower image was the same for Invasion.  And, in less than a year, The Battle for Europe should have a similar word-count as in the first image above.  Getting from the beginning word-count to the final-bar-the-editing word-count is what the job is all about.  It’s what matters.  It’s what it is to write a novel.

It is extremely difficult to say what it is like to write a novel.  After writing seven of them, all I know is that it starts at the first page.  It goes on through many stages, perhaps taking several months or even years, with drafts extending to multiple versions.  These stages can and often do involve feelings of despair, confusion, frustration, desire, revelation, and elation.  But, like climbing a mountain, it is most important to keep putting one foot in front of the other, taking it one step at a time, and not to be put off or downcast by the ‘false summits’ many mountains appear to have when you look up at them as you climb from below.  So, writing a novel is like climbing a mountain.  Possibly.

On a simpler level, perhaps it’s easier to imagine you’re Dory from Finding Nemo and instead of swimming, keep mumbling to yourself: “Just keep writing, just keep writing, writing, writing…”  Hey, it works for me

An Important Public Service Announcement Regarding Tea

[image error]As is generally well known, an Englishman abroad who does not have access to a decent cup of tea can often cut a sad and forlorn figure.  Well, this Englishman can, at any rate.  It is one thing to build a house and raise a family and hold down a full-time job, but to do so without a decent cup of tea to hand would be unthinkable.  Regular readers will know of my deep addiction to affection for Marks & Spencer’s Extra Strong Tea Bags, which have become far harder to come by since M&S pulled out of Poland in 2017.  Help was at hand, however, when I was introduced to Yorkshire Tea, a worthy match for M&S.  But to secure supplies at a reasonable price presented a new challenge.

Serendipity and good contacts recently led me to a new source.  Tucked away among the rows of small pawilons close to the entrance of the smaller block of Hala Mirowska on John Paul II street is a specialist tea shop.  If you look on the counter in the photo below, there is a box of 240 Yorkshire Tea Bags that the Polish gentleman let me have for just PLN 29 (GBP 5.87, EUR 6.76).  The picture image is not so good, but it is possible to see more boxes of Yorkshire Tea and even a box of PG Tips.

In these days of confusion, upheaval and chaos, it’s important to know where in Warsaw, Poland, one can get a decent cup of tea, so below the photo is a map to guide you to this specialist tea shop.  As my American friends are fond of saying: you’re welcome.

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The Repulse Chronicles, Book Two: Invasion

…is on its way.  Today, Amazon has published the Kindle product pages where Invasion can be pre-ordered at the special introductory price or $2.99 or local equivalent.  As with all of my other books, Invasion is enrolled in KDP Select so Amazon Prime members can ‘borrow’ it for free.

This second instalment covers the corresponding chapter in Repulse, Europe at War 2062-2064, carrying on the action from 19 February to 2 June 2062.  All of the characters who featured in The Repulse Chronicles, Book One: Onslaught return in this book, along with several new characters, nearly all of whom happen to find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.

You can pre-order Invasion by clicking on the country links below.  The book will be published on 16 March 2019.

UK     US     Canada     Australia

Germany     France     Spain      Italy     The Netherlands

Japan     Brazil     Mexico     India

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Sending #Gratitude to Random Strangers

[image error]It is quite unlikely any of them will ever see this post, but I must publicly thank the random strangers who helped me this afternoon.  I had gone for a quick, brisk walk to get some oxygen into my blood during a brief lull at work.  I slipped on some black ice and would have done a perfect reverse cartwheel if only the back of my head hadn’t hit the ground on the way over.

Somewhat embarrassingly, when I came round I couldn’t feel a thing from my neck down, and thus could not move, let alone actually get off my big, fat arse and stand up.  At that point, a young girl in glasses, probably a student, phoned for an ambulance; a middle-aged lady began asking me questions to keep me talking; and a grandmother with a careworn face volubly blamed the city council for not putting sand on the pavements.  Meanwhile, a couple of nearby stallholders with faces of granite gained from years of outdoor work carefully slid strips of cardboard under my arms and legs to keep some of the freezing ice and snow underneath me at bay.

[image error]After about 15 minutes, the ambulance arrived.  Feeling had returned to my limbs, aided no doubt by the freezing wet cloth my jeans had become.  Annoyingly, the main sensation was that of an outrageous number of red-hot pins stabbing my shoulders and arms.  Three young medics got their exercise quota for the day when they managed to lift me onto the stretcher (no, really, well done lads!), and then they took me to the nearest hospital.  The Polish national health service comes in for a lot stick here, but my experiences have nearly always been positive, and today was no exception.  Several doctors, nurses and other staff all did their thing, and after a few scans and a thorough examination, I was thankfully sent home with enough painkillers to subdue a gaggle of foaming-at-the-mouth Brexshitters, a snazzy neck-brace to wear for a week, and strict instructions to rest.

To each of you kind, considerate people who helped me today: thank you, not only for your assistance, but also for restoring my faith in human nature.

Happy New Year! (And a bit more about the next book)

A very Happy New Year to you.  And, as the old joke goes, may your troubles last as long as your New Year’s resolutions.  You will no doubt be delighted/indifferent/horrified* (delete as applicable) to hear that in 2019 I plan to publish my new novel: The Repulse Chronicles, Book Two: Invasion.  After an atrociously busy 2018 for me, the book is finally complete and will shortly begin the structural editing, pacing editing, line editing, and multiple proofreading phases.  These things cannot be rushed, so check back here regularly (or, better still, follow this blog) to find out how the whole process is coming along, and to know when Invasion becomes available for pre-order at a ridiculously low price, which is something I like to do for my favourite people, which are you, my readers (who did you think I meant?)

Merry Christmas! (And a bit about the next book)

[image error]The observant among you will note that this is the first post since my annual All Saints’ Day pictures on 1 November.  There is a reason for this.  I have been writing.  I know I said that The Repulse Chronicles, Book Two: Invasion would be published this year, but I’m afraid that won’t happen because 2018 has been quite hectic.  The good news is that today I’m within an ace of finishing the first draft of Invasion, so with a little luck it might be in publishable shape in less than three months (there is a long, long way to go from first draft to final product).  Hopefully, completing the first draft will allow me to be a little less tardy with this blog, and in any case I will keep detailing the finishing process here.

In the meantime, I would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I hope you and the people you care about are healthy, safe and secure.  I will leave you with a few pictures from our Polish Wigilia this evening.  We were fortunate enough to be able to exchange presents.  My eldest daughter gave me a painted piece of wood as a gift, decorated with Tempora mutantur et nos mutamurin in illis, which means “Times change, and we change with them.” This phrase seems to sum up 2018 quite perfectly.  I’m so lucky to have kids so much smarter than I was at that age

1 November in Poland

This is one of the things they do very, very well in Poland: remembering the dead every 1 November.  It is moving, calming, reassuring, and extremely beautiful.

All images taken this evening at the Zerznia cemetery in Wawer, Warsaw.

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Yet Further Evidence of Autumn

There are some days when, as an enthusiastic amateur photographer, you can’t ask for better conditions, when certain scenes just beg to be captured.  The “Golden Autumn” is a well enough known phenomenon in Poland, but like many weather-related events, it is never guaranteed.  This year, however, we’ve enjoyed long, hot sunny days which have slowed autumn’s progress.  In most years, by now the trees would be bare through a combination of the first winter frosts followed by leaf-stripping rain or snow.  So far this autumn, it’s been more like summer.  And with a sky of deep, Mediterranean blue as a background, it really is simply a case of taking Crazy the dog for a walk, and pointing and clicking with my camera.

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