Ray Daley's Blog, page 73
August 4, 2013
“Daddy I’ve fallen for a monster”, a flash fiction story by Raymond Daley.
The foolish child is in love with another human.
I have tried to explain their violent narrow-minded ways to her.
They hate us. They hunt us.
They kill us.
The child is only 1000 years old, how can she possibly understand having lived such a short & sheltered existance.
They will find out, they will find us.
They will come with torches burning, pitchforks raised.
No questions will be asked. I must kill another stupid human.
Again.
August 1, 2013
New free release!
A new month means a new free ebook!
Can Alan Rickman resist the Undertakers? Read & find out!
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/342975
http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/31835/allan-rickman-will-not-die
July 29, 2013
Keeping my promise from yesterday
Come In Number 13, Your Time Is Up!
This will appear on their front page www.linguisticerosion.com on the 20th of next month. If that’s JUST TOO LONG to wait then you can read my other works they already printed at this link
July 28, 2013
Writing update
Just finished one of my many “partials”, I’d almost completed it but left it just incomplete. Lucky for me I also left notes on exactly how I intended to finish it so I used them.
It’s been submitted to the flash market, It was too long for 365 Tomorrows (which is a shame because I think it was the kind of thing they would have loved but I would have struggled to cut over 300 words from it) so I sent it somewhere else where it was just inside their limit for flash fiction.
More news about that when I hear it.
The new release for next month is ready with cover. I hope people like it, it’s weird and quirky – just like me.
July 26, 2013
What is Science Fiction? (from reddit)
Science Fiction = Anything “real” science can’t make happen at the exact time of writing.
NB:- Please be aware that when writing science fiction, actual science is progressing at an incredible rate. What started out as science fiction may well end up be just plain old actual science by the time you finish it.
The moral here? WRITE FASTER.
I have ACTUALLY had this happen to me.
Started on an idea, ran out of steam mid-way & stopped.
By the time I came back to it, it was actually possible and no longer fiction.
——————————————————
Everything from here onwards is new. The above story was called “The EPUB on my Kindle”. It was never finished. I still have it, what was written of it before I ran out of ideas. I started it when I’d had my Kindle for about 2 or 3 months, when I went back to it about 9 months later I realised I had nothing more so I Googled to see if the idea was even remotely possible. Bad mistake!
Never Google your ideas. Why? You’ll discover your “new” idea has either been done before (upsetting) or it’s actually possible.
Someone had rooted their Kindle and was running some software that allowed them to read unconverted EPUB files on it.
My science fiction idea was now science fact.
July 18, 2013
Hiding In Plain Sight (contains swearing!)
Recently it was revealed that J. K. Rowling had written yet another book of yet another different style under a different name.
That’s not a bad thing and here’s why.
Sometimes as a writer, you want people to buy your work based on the fact that it looks and sounds good. And not on the name of the writer on the front cover. Sure, J. K. Rowling is a name that’s going to make people go into a book shop, pick up a copy and pay for it without even reading the blurb.
This happens to people like Stephen King and Terry Pratchett (incidently to the point where his agent just appears to be whoring as many books as humanly possible out of the poor bastard before he can no longer write any more because of the dastardly shitbag that is Alzheimers. By the by Terry, if you are releasing this many books because YOU yourself want to then please say so because I’m calling your agent all kinds of swear words, some I’ve even invented especially for him.), fans go in and just buy the book because they see the authors name on it.
I used to be such a fan. To quote “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” – NO MORE!
The way I write means my name is the only name that will EVER (and I fucking mean it!) go on the cover of my books.
I wrote them. Me. Yours truly. Ray Daley. (Only my mum is allowed to call me Raymond!)
Not a ghost writer. Not a computer program featuring highly complex humour & saracasm algorithms. But me.
I am a 1 person operation. I write them. I proof them (often not fully, I’m only human). I make the covers. I release them on Smashwords & Feedbooks (and infrequently on Amazon when I think they are good enough for you to pay actual real money for). I write the blurbs. I promote them (on Facebook, Twitter, Google +).
And I read the reviews. When and if I get any. I do get some, to those people who take the time out of their busy lives to write anything (even if it’s something like “This sucked, I hate you, die now!”) then I thank you. ANY feedback is welcome.
When you buy or download one of my free books you can do so knowing I wrote it.
Because my name is on the cover. The ideas inside came from my brain via my fingers and I typed them.
I edited and changed some of them. (I’m not a massive fan of rewrites, generally what you read is what I came up with.)
So enjoy my work. Because it’s all mine.
July 17, 2013
Writing again!
After a day of beta-reading and then a day failing to read HG Wells (I blame his stupidly long paragraphs that are really hard to stay with.) The Island Of Dr Moreau I finally got my teeth into some Fritz Leiber. It was quite enjoyable, very much in the vein of “A Boy & His Dog” and it actually gave me such a strong idea I had to put my Kindle down to write it before I forgot it.
I’m not super happy with the ending but it should be easy enough to fix what I’ve already written. I did finish it but it needs polishing.
Happy to at least have created something, anyway.
It’s still far too hot here in England so stay cool and hydrated folks.
July 11, 2013
Productivity is ……….
telling two people you are halfway through a book (which I was) that you expect will take at least 3 days to finish before you can start beta-reading their books.
And then not only finishing that book (The Man In The High Castle by Phillip K. Dick which was terrible and had an awful ending) but also then reading both of their books (that’s over 80k words), proofing them and returning comments.
And still having time to watch a classic first season B&W Twilight Zone episode.
(Which was “To Serve Mankind”, very enjoyable)
July 9, 2013
Readmill ahoy!
I’ve discovered a new way people are accessing my work, something called Readmill.
This seems to be an Ipad app/web site that connects to Feedbooks, Google has been logging the reads and it’s nice to see people are appreciating my work in a new way on a new platform.
I counted 12 different titles and I hope the people who read them enjoyed them all.
Remember that if you enjoy one of my books then feel free to tweet me @RayDaleyWriter I’ll be more than happy to hear from you
I wrote something!
After watching an episode of The Twilight Zone early this morning (The Obsolete Man starring Burgess Meredith) I handwrote a short that was inspired by something his character said during the episode. It was finished in one go and I just typed it up.
Had some issues with either libreoffice or Windows 7 where it wouldn’t let me spellcheck a document I’d created off the desktop (very weird) but I found a way around it and now have a finished & fully spellchecked story. There are some fine details that I still might add later but it’s pretty much complete all bar a bit of final polish.
I’m pretty happy to have written and finished something, hopefully more will come in the next few days.
It’s still hot here but I don’t mind too much today. I got something finished.
