Ray Daley's Blog, page 35

Losing the love…

Since the death of my Mum, I’ve had to come to terms with not just her loss. But the loss of my desire to write as well.

I knew with her being unwell, I wasn’t going to be able to write anywhere near as much as my output last year. Once she passed, my writing just nosedived into oblivion.

It appears that despite not finishing much, I HAVE been writing.

Lots of outlines, frameworks, partial stories.

I just went through what I’ve been calling “a small pile of ideas” for the last few months. Turns out it was a whole lot more than that. It wasn’t small, for starters.

I didn’t count what was in it. I didn’t dare.

At a rough guess I’d say there were at least 30 pieces in there. And that was without counting the things I saw folded inside a Notepad as well.

So maybe I didn’t lose the love, not entirely. Maybe I shunted my focus into a different direction.

There’s a lot there that can easily be finished. A lot that can easily expanded into actual stories too.

There’s a lot.

So I have been writing. Just not the way I was used to.

It’s going to take a long time to find the path back to a proper writing routine. I don’t know how long that path is.

My general feeling is no one human being will ever live long enough to finish all the things I’ve got started there. I’ll just have to try chipping my way through.

The Grasses of Remembrance, a flash fiction story

11/8/12

The Grasses of Remembrance

Their planet was green, grass stretched in every direction as far as the eye could see.

“Do you like our memorial?”

I looked up to see an old man standing a few feet away, I smiled at him. “Excuse me?”

“Our memorial, do you like it?” he asked me.

I’m not sure I understand. “A memorial to what? Where?” I ask him.

“A memorial to all who have fallen in battle. It’s all around you. Every blade of grass represents one soul lost in combat.”

“Yes, its beautiful. We have something similar on my own planet, it’s called Earth. Only ours is made of sea water. One drop for every lost soul.”

THE END

Remember the fallen and all veterans today.

Silly Michael Bolton…

You know that thing?

You know, the one where Michael Bolton asks you all those questions then just doesn’t bother listening to any of your answers?

Apparently it’s called a “song“. And he’s not really talking to you.

He’s talking to everyone. Only he’s not really talking to anyone at all.

He’s doing something called “singing“.

He doesn’t care how you can’t be lovers if you can’t be friends.

Heck, he doesn’t even WANT to be your friend. Or your lover.

Apparently he just wants to pay him money for this “song.”

How odd is that? How odd is Michael Bolton?

And he doesn’t even have that big hair any more!

Update on story submissions

Just got word back that “Smells Like Morphic Resonance” has been received, the sub it’s in for has now closed. So it should be going to a slush pile shortly.

Good to know someone will be reading it soon.

Links for this months free ebook release!

This months freebie is NOW live! Available at the links below.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/589756 or

http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/36237/the-most-famous-face-you-ve-never-heard-of

A quirky (and VERY short) alternate history piece about Bettie Page. If you like it, tweet me @RayDaleyWriter

I’ve been scribbling

Happy November from the UK!

We had some trick or treaters last night. Fortunately my brother had the foresight to buy some goodies while he was out and about during the day.

All in all we had 13. The last two came at 9pm, but they were with 2 adults. They got everything that was left.

During the course of the night an idea had been turning over in my head. I finally decided to write it down when I was so tired, I’d already turned the computer off.

So onto paper it went. Just over 300 words after the minor revisions I did during type-up. It’s perfect for somewhere like 365 Tomorrows (and I haven’t sent them anything in quite a while too), possibly Daily Science Fiction.

I finished something else I wrote a couple of days ago, it still needs work. A couple of characters need names, that’ll improve it a little.

This months free ebook will be put out later today too. It’s an alternate history story I wrote as an extra as part of the Year Of Living Bradbury.

You have a lovely day.

Another one out to subs!

Just sent off “Smells Like Morphic Resonance” (which I only really wrote a day ago!) out to submission. Fingers crossed they like it.

One new story, just banged out

Wow. I just actually wrote something.

An entire story, start to finish.

I’d been mulling the idea over for a couple of days and decided to start getting it down in the 10 mins before Doctor Who started.

Once it finished, I came straight to the computer, typed up the paragraph or so I’d written down and just knocked out the rest without even trying.

I can say this, having written it.

It’s REALLY difficult to convey werewolves without actually mentioning them.

Also, I blame Terry Pratchett for the title.

I’m fairly sure Angua once mentioned morphic resonance.

Well I’m pleased. Almost 1800 words with little to no effort in one sitting.

Excellent News!

I didn’t get the chance to announce this when it happened, mostly because of computer issues but I’ve finally made my very first commercial sale!

The extremely nice Douglas Lain has accepted my story “Seeing Double” for his forthcoming war anthology entitled Deserts Of Fire.

No word on when it’ll be released but I’ll update you when I know more.

I can direct you to a couple of my latest appearances. My story “The Waiting Room” is now appearing in the anthology “Steps In Time” from Crimson Cloak. You can buy that on Smashwords (as well as other places!) with all money going to Alzheimers UK. I was okay with not getting paid writing for something that supported Terry Pratchett’s charity.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/550333

I also had a story published in Ealaín 11, themed “What If”. That’s called “Wipeout”, it’s an alternate WW2 story I wrote to make people think. It’s available to buy here :- http://www.magzter.com/ZA/MPA-Publishing/Ealain/Art/

It’s not exactly expensive, considering how many stories and poems are inside too.

Guess Who’s Back?

Back again? Ray is back! Tell a friend!

Apparently all it took was for me to update Firefox to a newer version and it stopped bitching about trying to log me in.

I apologise for my extended absence. My old PC went bang (terminally) and it meant I’ve been using an even older Windows XP PC since then (April!).

Now I’m finally back I’ll be updating you on my writing on a regular basis.

We now return to your normal programming!