David L. Dawson's Blog, page 5

The Dystopian Times

I've got a new short story up for free at Smashwords. It's a prequel to The Fall and it's about Skye finding an old printing press and deciding to make her own newspaper. Her first victim...erm, interviewee, is Ben.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

Random stuff

Well...I'm trying to wean the kittens off their mother's milk. Only one of them took up the offer of some lovely cat food. The others just walked in it. Still cute though.

I bought my mother an Android tablet for her birthday and now she's addicted to Angry Birds. Only now the battery is playing up and she's acting like a crack addict whose fix is locked up in a cupboard somewhere.

I need to find the time to go and see The Avengers at the cinema. Anything by Joss Whedon is bound to be good. Hey, even Dollhouse had its moments.

I've just written a very dark chapter of The Sky Is Falling. I'm not entirely sure now what's acceptable and what isn't in a young adult book. I'll just have to wait and see. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

Free...forever!!!!

I just put one of my short stories, Hansel and Gretel 2 - The Reckoning, on Smashwords for free...forever! It's not a very long story so I didn't want to charge a rip-off amount for it.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

Smashwords

I'm now officially on Smashwords! Yippee! Well, I'm celebrating anyway. Maybe with some cheesecake. Probably put some whipped cream on top of it. The Fall still isn't properly formatted according to them to be put on premium status, so I'm working on it. Fingers crossed I can keep away from the cheesecake long enough to do something.

Revised edition

I've just uploaded a revised edition of The Fall on Amazon. If you've already read it or bought it don't worry. The only difference is I've added a contents page, given the chapters names and tweaked a bit of the grammar. I think its a useful exercise to read your own book again every once and a while. You pick up on things you might miss during the first million revisions ( and as a reviewer pointed out I have rubbish grammar, which is hopefully sorted now).
The rambunctious kittens are now playing in a baby cot. They really, really want out but I'm determined not to listen to their heartbreaking cries of freedom...Well, maybe I could pick one of them up, just to make sure it's okay...

Interview with a survivor

After finishing part one of The SKy Is Falling yesterday I decided to give it a rest for a couple of days. Except I cannot not write. If I watch TV or play on my 3DS (I high recommend Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure) I always end up wishing I was writing something instead. So I started writing an interview with the main character from my book. That way my mind keeps active and I write something connected with my project.
It's called "Interview with a Survivor" and is sort of a short story but in the form of a newspaper interview. It's set before the events of The Fall and is about Skye interviewing Ben before he goes out on his rites of passage to become a man. SKye has stumbled across an old printing press and has decided it would be a wonderful idea to make a newspaper of her own and Ben is to become her first interviewee. I sort of like their world before everything becomes serious and tragic. It has an innocence to it. Anyway, when it's finished I'm gonna put it up on Goodreads so you can read it.

Everything is rosy

The kittens and mother have all been checked out by the vet and they're all perfectly fine; apart from the fleas that is. The fleas were soon gotten rid of, though, nasty little things. Out of the litter (is that the right term?) we have four girls and one boy. Surprisingly the biggest, loudest kitten is a girl. They're all attempting to walk now too, and it's so funny to watch. The only problem we have now is trying to find a way to keep them under control. I know I have my niece's old baby cot/prison thingy in the attic somewhere. All I have to do is venture up into the cobwebs and ancient family albums and skeletons to find it.

Odd series title

My brother was looking at my book yesterday and he made an interesting observation; the title of my trilogy should be "God Slayers" and not "Gods Slayers" I've thought about it and I think he's right. What does anyone else think?

Bring it on

Thank you to everyone who gave me words of support. It may seem a bit silly to get depressed over a bad review but I'm sure any author can see they feel like jacking it all in when someone says their work is rubbish for the first time. I've decided that I will take every review, good or bad, and learn from it. Nobody will make me consider giving up writing, something I love, ever again.

On the verge of giving up

I just read yet another lovely review of my work on Amazon. The Fall is, according to the review, boring and badly written tripe. That's two bad reviews in one day and it's really starting to get to me now. I admit my work isn't the best in the world but I never thought it was boring. Right now my confidence is shot to hell and I'm staring at the manuscript for The Fall and my work on its sequel and I'm wondering what I did wrong and if I just shouldn't give up this whole writing lark and become a monk or something.