Pete Aldin's Blog, page 7

All the New Year’s Resolutions I’ve Broken Already

On December 30th, I sat down and wrote all my resolutions for 2020. I was inspired, optimistic, energised. It’s now January 19th. Let’s see how I’m doin’…

Resolution: don’t buy any more books until you’ve finished ten you already own. I finished three books before I caved and bought another on January 16th. EXCUSE: c’mon, books!

Resolution: only read one Kindle and one paper book at a time (because I have this terrible habit of having 12 or more books on the go at once and then not finishing...

The Thing I Like Most About MR ROBOT

Over this (Aussie) summer, I had time on my hands. Looking for a TV show to binge, I remembered the hype about Mr Robot and gave it a look. And, yep, I am instantly hooked.

There are things I don’t like about the show (I still don’t get Tyrell’s character and his place in the plot). But there’s so much to love. The performances of actors like Malek,
Chaikin, Villar, Reuben, and Slater (so good to see him in a decent role) are at the top of the list. But there’s also this little subroutine...

The Upside of Sick Days

Ten days of flu which aggregated the ol’ asthma.

Followed by having wisdom teeth extracted.

Sound like two weeks of fun to you? You betcha bottom buck it was: because I actually got time to rest and read and watch Netflix/Stan…

So. Some brief reflections on that which I watched and which I read:

The Umbrella Academy (Netflix). Absolutely stellar. Loved the casting, the characters, the plotting, the execution. Highlight: the actor playing Number Five did an amazing job portraying a 58 year old...

“from the far caverns of dead sins came monsters…”

 

In case you have not heard …

IT’S ALIVE!

The long-awaited sequel to Doomsday’s Child is here in the new novel, Came Monsters.

Three years after the events of book one, the deaders are rotting away, the bikers are gone and life for the fledgling community of Settlers Downs is hard but it is peaceful. Until disease strikes and strikes hard, forcing Elliot into a dangerous cross-country trip that will draw the attentions of a new and powerful enemy—and bring him face-to-biting-face with some v...

…in which Pete joins the annual Months of Madness campaign

 

JR Jackson’s 2nd Annual Months of Madness is now upon us. And this year, the first Doomsday’s Child novel joins the campaign.

Starting October 1 and running for 99 days, all ebooks within Mr Jackson’s Up From The Depths series will be $.99. As will Doomsday’s Child 1. That’s right; all ebooks within the series will be $.99 for 99 Days!

If you’re new to either series, now’s your chance to get on board.

But wait. There’s more. Another author joining the Months of Madness is Emil Skalonja.

Yo...

CHARACTER AND THE MODERN MAGUS

Today’s post comes from good friend and awesome writer, Jason Franks. Jason describes the genesis of a key character in his latest novel (a dark fantasy tale that I highly recommend).

Take it away, Jason…

***

My novel Faerie Apocalypse is about a series of mortals who travel to the faerie realms, each on their own distinctive quest. It was a tough book to write. I developed a new, more writerly style for the project, and I found that I had to treat the protagonists differently to the way tha...

Don’t Talk Yourself into ‘Writer’s Block’

 

Here’s what I think of writer’s block:

I don’t.

I don’t think of writer’s block. I don’t think about it. I don’t expect it. I don’t believe in it. I don’t get stuck in it. Ever.

Let me be clear. The state of staring at a page and having nothing to write there isn’t foreign to me. The experience of not knowing how the hell to solve this plot problem or how to answer this story question or what word to choose here — all familiar. 

But I don’t acknowledge that experience as a “block”. It’s jus...

Why I’ve Written Open-ended Endings

Mild Spoilers ahead...

So some people hate it when a book ends without a complete resolution. Not me. While I often like books that tie up everything with a neat bow, just as often I find myself liking the exact opposite.

My first two novels finish with the main character about to do something new, but don’t let the reader see him doing it. And there were reasons I did this that honestly had nothing to do with setting up for a sequel. In fact, when I finished and published both, I had zero intention of writing sequels for them; I wanted to move on to other ideas and projects.

It’s all about main story. If the main story has been “concluded”, then the novel is over. In both cases for me, the ending was a sign that the protagonists Jake and Elliot had moved significantly from their starting points to a different way of approaching life. In Jake’s case, he had been hiding from and suppressing The Animal; at the end, he has found the strength and confidence and determination to confront it directly. In Elliot’s case, he was a committed loner who wanted absolutely nothing to do with people and wanted to seek safety in solitude in the wilds; at the end he has completed a mission helping someone become safe and sees that there is another opportunity to do the same, even if it risks his own life.

WE DONT NEED TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

It’s the same at the end of Stephen King’s Cell and Trent Jamieson’s The Business Of Death: the reader can imagine what comes next, but the character’s journey has ended. The movie Three Billboards also: both characters have grown a hell of a lot and there is a kind of resolution for them ... just not of the main mystery.

But life is often like that. Life rarely ties everything up neatly. Often other opportunities come for us from the very challenges we’ve finished battling.

I’m interested in your thoughts. What open endings to books and films have pleased you and which have irritated you? Do you think open endings and cliffhangers have a legitimate place in literature?

Shannon Lawrence: Four Ways Horror Can Be Beneficial

Blue Sludge Blues & Other Abominations
by Shannon Lawrence Release Date: March 15, 2018 Horror short story collection A collection of frights, from the psychological to the monstrous. These tales are a reminder of how much we have to fear: A creature lurking in the blue, sludgy depths of a rest area toilet; a friendly neighbor with a dark secret hidden in his basement; a woman with nothing more to lose hellbent on vengeance; a hike gone terribly wrong for three friends; a man curse...

Why Did I Write a Werewolf Novel?

I have been asked this. More than once. Sometimes by people who don’t know why I “waste” time writing speculative fiction anyway. Sometimes by people who think the genre isn’t popular). Sometimes by people who are genuinely curious.

There are two answers to this question.

The first answer is: I wanted to and an idea came to me and I acted on it.

In fact, through there are of course many changes from the initial draft of Black Marks to the final production, the guts of the story remained the...