M.W. Duncan's Blog, page 3

While I was gone!

Hey all! I’ve got some time to sit down and write my latest blog! About time, I know! I had myself a little holiday down to Edinburgh to take in the Fringe. Just a couple of days, but it was awesome. I love Edinburgh. It’s such a great city. There’s something for everyone, especially when the Fringe is on. I’ve never been down for the festival but now that I have, I’ll be back next year.

So something funny happened to me while at the Fringe. Any show that I stopped to watch, I inevitably got picked to participate in. I’d been in Edinburgh for about two hours and stopped to watch an Australian woman do a street performance. Her character was that of a ditzy reality tv star. She was great, really entertaining and did some tricks with hula-hoops. When I was picked, I wanted to the ground to open up and swallow me. See following pic for me wishing to be anywhere but there!

I also stopped to watch an American magician called Seth! He was awesome, great banter, good audience participation and referred to me as “Mr Aberdeen.” I helped him with most of his tricks all of which had me left scratching my head how he did it. I got a brief chance to speak to him after the show and shake his hand. The only thing that annoyed me was some of the audience watched the whole show, enjoyed it, and then walked away. These performers don’t receive any payment other than what the crowd donates to them after the show! For each show I enjoyed, I gave the performer £5. If I was richer, I would have given more. So, if you have the chance of visiting Edinburgh during the Fringe, do it!

I was supposed to be going in to hospital for some minor surgery yesterday, but it was cancelled for an emergency case. So I’ve got a month before I have to go back. I would have rather gotten it out of the way but these things can’t be helped. I’ve decided that by the time I go back to hospital, I’ll have completed Carrion City and have sent it off to my editor! And on that note, I’m off to write some more! Until nex

Back again!

Hey all! Sorry for the lack of post last week. It was a very difficult week. My Gran passed away and I had the funeral to attend. As you can imagine, blogging was one of the last things on my mind. It was a very sad time, yet made me remember all the wonderful times I had with my Granny, of which there were many.

I’ve just about gotten back into the swing of writing again. I’m aiming to write 1000 words each night this week for Carrion City. By doing this, I think I can finish the new section within two weeks. Once that’s done, I’ll have a final tinker with the older parts then compile it all and send it off to my editor! She’ll have a mammoth task ahead of her, but I know she’ll make an awesome job of it. I’ve also decided to draw all the major characters together at one point in the story. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but I wanted to show that they were all connected, even if it wasn’t apparent at the beginning of the novel. We’ll see how this works. I’ve also got a sneaky suspicion that I’m going to have to introduce one of my characters much earlier in the novel, too. It shouldn’t be too difficult to add a couple of his sections in. I’m looking at having the novel reaching about 95,000 words by the end. A lot more than I thought it would originally be!

There’s not much else going on with me right now. Just wanted to write something down on my blog. I’m pretty excited about the release of the Alan Partridge film Alpha Papa! Hopefully I’ll get to see it at the weekend. I’ll let you all know what I think in my next blog. I’ll have more to write then, too! Until next time!

A short blog!

Hey all. Just a short blog from me this evening. I’ve been so busy with writing that I’ve had little time for much else. Alright, I did allow myself a few hours to play Medieval Total War 2 on my laptop but all work and no play . . . you know the rest!

What’s new with me? Well not much. I’m blistering through the new sections of my novel. I’m about 10,000 words in and most of these won’t need much of an edit. Only another 30,000 or so to go. I’m pretty decided that one of the characters needs to die, and I know which one I’m leaning toward. How they die, well I’m not sure yet, but it’ll be interesting. I’m averaging about 1500 words per night now, so I’m pretty happy with that. If all goes well, I’ll hopefully be ready to send the completed MS (manuscript) off to the editor in 2-3 weeks. This will bring it’s own headaches when it returns with even more editing and suggestions from her to be mulled over. Still, it’s exciting to think that before long, I’ll have a completed novel, 100,000 words long. I might have some good news regarding the novel. More on that once it’s back from the editor.

I’ve been meeting a lot more cool people on Twitter and finding more indie books to read. I’ve quite a list of books to get through but it’s always nice to know that I’ll never run out of stories to keep me entertained.

I’m now featured on Self Publisher’s Showcase, a great new website that’s designed to highlight the best in up and coming indie authors. I’m really excited about this site and want to give it as much support as I can. You can find me under the thriller section by clicking on the following link http://selfpublishersshowcase.com/m-w-duncan/

Also, please stop by and give a like to their Facebook page. You’ll discover some great new writing, of that I’m sure https://www.facebook.com/SelfPublishersShowcase

Well I’m off to create some more mayhem in the street of fictional Aberdeen. Until next time

Another Essay Down!

Hi all. So, I’m back after a couple of weeks of frantic revision and essay writing I finally have some time to myself. My Open University course is almost complete now. I’ve one final assessment to do in September and that’s it complete. It’s been a tough course, dealing with difficult themes and subjects. For those that don’t know, it’s the study of Death and Dying. Sounds a barrel of laughs, I know, but it’ll be useful as I work toward my end goal of being a counsellor.

I’m pretty impressed with my writing this last week. I’ve completed a 2,500 word introduction for my novel, introducing the characters that I’m pretty happy with. I’ll need to make some changes to the body of the novel to accommodate this but I think I can make it work. It fleshes them out a little and I also introduced a new character, Andor Toth, a Hungarian working in the UK. I’ve also got about 1,600 words done for the first new chapter. It basically carries on from where I would have ended the novel. Without giving too much away, the last 30,000 words will have a lot of action, and I’m thinking perhaps one character should die. . . or not. We’ll see what happens. I’m really excited about how the novel is turning out. I already have ideas how it should end but nothing is for sure yet. I’ve been thinking about the title, Welcome To Carrion City. While I do like it, I’ve been thinking of shortening it to just Carrion City. Any thoughts and/or preferences? Let me know.

So the other day somehow I got stuck watching an episode of Grand Designs. For those of you who don’t know, it’s where rich people build their dream house from scratch usually. Anyway, this couple build a butt-ugly white house and the presenter was in the kitchen with them, talking about all the features. It looked very clinical, almost like a morgue, or so I thought. Then they came to the kitchen sink. Now, how much would you be willing to pay for a tap? Let me tell you that these two douches paid £1000 for the kitchen tap. No, it wasn’t gold. It was a stainless steel tap. The presenter, rightfully gobsmacked at the price asked, “Do you feel that the tap is worth £1000?” And the woman answered, “Yes, I think it was worth every penny.” Okay, I might sound like a bitter tool here but how do these people justify that amount of money? Seriously, how many vaccinations in Africa could that have bought? Or supplied clean water to a community in desperate need. If ever I’m in the position where I have that much money, you can be sure that my taps will be regular run of the mill types, and plenty of money will be going to the needy! It just annoyed me so I thought I would rant about it.

I saw World War Z at the weekend finally. I have to say that I was really impressed. The action was great, the story interesting, and the kind-of solution to the virus was quite unique. It was also cool to see the scenes shot in Glasgow! I would very much recommend it, and you wouldn’t have to be a zombie fan to see it. I also do a pretty awesome impression of the zombie scientist in the isolation lab!

Well, I’m off to put the finishing touches to my new chapter, then play something on my laptop. I’m thinking of Men of War: Assault Squad. It’s pretty good, but very difficult! Until next time. Catch you all later!

Time for a rant . . . a burger rant!

Hey all. Hope everyone is having an awesome day. Time for some more ramblings from me. As usual, I’ll talk about my current writing. I’ve written 2,500 words today for my characters introduction for Carrion City. There’s some really good bit but also some areas I’ll have to improve in. I’ll catch these when I go back to edit. I’m just happy to have some words down and the enlargement for Carrion City is underway. Other than that, my writing has been pretty slow. I’ve actually taken to making a few character bios just so I remember all the important facts that I can distribute through my novel. I’m looking to make the characters more individual so this should help. I’m also thinking of putting in some dialects when it comes to speech. I’m usually not a huge fan of this in fiction as I always finds it slows down my reading a little. If I know the character is from, say, Glasgow, I know how their accent will sound, I don’t need it to be so blatant as to have it turned into speech. We’ll see, this is perhaps something I’ll drop eventually. I’m just trying new things to really make each person stand out.

I got in touch with my editor to let her know that I’ll have a new project for her and to discuss what my needs will be this time round. With Only The Dead I really just wanted to make sure the grammar was fine and there was no glaring continuity issues. This time, with Carrion City, I’m asking her to look for places where characters can be improved and made more individual etc. I’m hopefully going to be able to cut several thousand words to the story, too. I’d like to keep it below 100,000 words if I can. That sounds crazy when I think about it. I never thought I would write something that long!

I’m still intending writing more of my next two novellas but it won’t be for a couple of weeks, but I do have a clear idea how to start now! I’m pretty sure I’ll be running a free promo for Only The Dead sometime this month, just a couple of days where it’s free. Hopefully this will generate some lovely reviews!

So, I’m going to rant a little here. I went to McDonalds at the weekend, a nice wee treat, especially since they’ve brought back the Big Tasty (it’s the best burger from there). But alas, they didn’t have any! I was annoyed, but hey, a Big Mac is always good right? Wrong. I mean it tasted nice, but I think they’ve somehow managed to confuse the definition of “Big.” The burger was small and disappointing! Rant over. Next time, I’ll just have a piece of fruit.

Well I’m off to write the final character introduction and then have something to eat. Hope you all have a great week. Until next time!

Well. . . better late than never!

Greetings all. So my blog is a day late. I had an appointment at hospital I needed to make yesterday and when I got home I wasn’t really feeling like sitting down to write a blog. Still, better late than never! Hope you’re all doing well.

My writing has been going pretty well this last week. I’ve got almost 2000 words done for my Carrion City extension. I’m pretty happy with it. So far it’s all just introductions to the main characters but I think I’m managing to show the reader why these set of characters are involved in the story. I’m pretty excited about the whole thing. I think I do prefer writing in the third person. I feel it opens up more possibilities, to escape the confines on a single characters mind. I always seem to struggle to know when to limit an outside narrator in third person. For example, how much of the authors’ voice is acceptable in third person. Do readers prefer hearing it mostly from the characters perceptions? I guess it’ll be trial and error. When I’m reading, I don’t mind the authors’ voice intruding on the story. There’s some things that need to be told that a character in the story just wouldn’t be able to deliver. Maybe I’m worrying about nothing. What’s everyone’s thoughts on this?

I’ve been thinking of making Only The Dead:An African War free for a couple of days on Amazon. Hopefully this will encourage people to download and review it. Doing this would mean that I need to plan ahead with some promotion on the impending price drop. I just don’t know if I have the time for that right now. It’s something I’ll think about over the next week or so. If I do decide to do this, I’ll be spamming everyone with promotion tweets etc. Sorry in advance should I do this

Well that’s it from me this week. It’s just a short blog, I’ve got a million things to do today and very little motivation to get them done. Hope you all have a great week. Until next time!

All Ahead Full!

Hey all! Time for another blog. Hope you all had a great weekend. I know I did. I think I’ll start chatting about my writing, as I usually do. So my writing objective has changed yet again. I can’t go into the reason for this right now, but eventually I will. I’ve decided to readdress my novel Welcome To Carrion City. There are some changes I intend to make to it, and add about 30,000 words to the end. It’s quite a change to the structure of the book but I think it’ll make it stronger. Also, it’ll take the word count up to about 100,000 words. That’s quite a heavy volume of words. I’ll have to be quite ruthless with cutting sections of the story which may not be needed. So for the next two weeks I intend to write the ending section. The two weeks after that, I’ll go back and edit all the changes I want to make. This means I’ll likely have to send it to my editor. This is a great thing as she’s thorough and very professional. If any of my writer friends are looking for an editor they can trust then let me know and I’ll send her details along. I’ll still be writing Only The Dead 2, just not at the same pace as I had intended. I’ll be treating it as my secondary project for the next month or so. I’m still hopeful to get a good few chapters written for it while Carrion City (CC) goes through it’s change.

So this weekend I went to the theatre. I’d forgotten just how much I enjoy going there. I love the cinema. I really do. But there’s something just so special about seeing a story being told live in front of you. I saw the production of The Woman In Black. I’d seen it ten years ago with my good friend Jane (@jkapple). For those of you not familiar with the story, it’s essentially a ghost story with gothic undertones. The cast comprises only three people and it is very well done. If you get the chance to see this production, I would recommend it. The book is also great. I did my English dissertation on it back in school. The film, I also enjoyed. However they added components that were purely to make the story more compatible with the big screen.

I discovered another new band the other day. Insomnium. I’ve been listening to Across The Dark album by them for the last few days. It’s just really catchy and atmospheric.

So I’m off to do some writing now. Better switch back to third person writing! Until next time!

Yo Ho Ho!

Hey all. Another week, another blog. Hope you all had an awesome weekend. So what’s been happening in my world? Well, I’ve not become a pirate as the title and picture may suggest. Actually I discovered that someone has taken the time to make an illegal copy of Only The Dead: An African War available on a torrent site. When I discovered this I couldn’t help but laugh. Perhaps I should have been annoyed, but I wasn’t. I think I viewed it as something that was going to happen regardless. I just didn’t think it would be my first book that got pirated. If I were in a band, it would have been songs. It’s something most writers will have to deal with and at the end of the day, there’s little that you can do about it. To me, it just reinforced the fact that I’m actually taking my first steps in becoming a writer. When I told a few people about it they were all shocked and reacted angrily. But as I said to them, it was going to happen one day, why not now where it can give me some confidence that my work is worth making an illegal download of!

Writing wise, well it hasn’t been all that successful in the last week. In fact, I deleted most of OTD2 and decided to start again. Because the second novella isn’t so action focused I felt like I was boring the reader, so I’ve decided to mix up the events a little, and hopefully it’ll read a little better. I’m more confident in how it’ll be now rather than how it was. I’ve also been thinking about my novel Welcome To Carrion City. I’m thinking of adding a little something to the start of it. A few extra sections just to introduce the peripheral characters to the reader. It was pointed out to me that this was lacking and now I look back at it, I agree. I’ve a few ideas about how to do this for most of the characters so I’ll get writing that at some point. I’m thinking 2-4000 word should just about cover it. Of course, this means I’ll have to skim through my novel just to make sure it’s all accurate. I must have read it a hundred times already! Still, excited to be going back to it and making it better.

I’m really excited to go and see Man of Steel. I’m hoping to make it to the cinema soon. I’ve still not seen the new Star Trek film or Iron Man 3. There’s always something that seems to crop up and prevent me from going. The other night I happened to see that Snatch was on. I love that film so much. It must be in my top ten favourite films.

Boris The Blade is my favourite character. He makes me laugh every time he’s on screen. If you’ve not seen it you should go and check it out now!

Well I’m off to go and practice my theory test. I’m hoping to take my driving test soon. I know I should have passed it by now but health issues always seemed to interfere. I was just unlucky I guess. But this time I’m determined to pass and quickly. I’m sick of waiting on buses! Until next time.

Hail To The King, Baby!

Hey all. Time for another blog. So what’s been happening with me? Well Only The Dead: An African War reached the top spot in Indie Author Land’s weekly top ten. I’m so happy about this. I never expected my book to create such interest. It’s both flattering and encouraging that I’m up there at no.1 http://www.indieauthorland.com/archives/3811 And if anyone is wondering the Hail To The King, Baby title came from the film Army of Darkness. If you’ve not seen it, and enjoy comedy horror you should check it out. It’s a film that I’ve seen countless times and always enjoy. There’s so many great moments. Go watch it and thank me later!

I’ve decided to cut my Friday blog to only an occasional occurrence. My life is just not that interesting that it requires a blog entry twice a week Really though, I feel like the time could be better spent writing. I’ll still do it, just not as often. I don’t want to start just writing nonsense which nobody will want to read.

My writing of late has become pretty slow. I’ve knocked out about 1000 words in the last week. It’s a piss-poor performance. I’m probably just in a lull right now. I’m sure I’ll pick up once I get some inspiration. Does anyone else find that when writing, you know where you want to take the story and characters, just not how to start getting there? That’s how I’m feeling right about now. I always struggle with myself to leave out details that the reader probably doesn’t need to know, but I always seem inclined to include. Does it matter what the Taxi driver looked like, or is it enough to simply show that the character took the taxi from A to B. Especially if the driver won’t be in it again? It’s a fine balance and one I don’t always get right. Thankfully I’ve a few writer friends who help point out what’s needed and not. I’m always learning when it comes to writing. I don’t think I’ll ever stop learning something new.

I’m planning of having a mini-clear out and putting some things on eBay. Clothes that don’t fit mostly and a few other things. I forgot how annoying it is preparing to sell on eBay. It’s such a chore making sure you have all the right boxes for sending and writing out accurate descriptions. Or maybe I’m just lazy when it comes to this. Thankfully I’ve never had any issues with actually selling so it should be all fine and good.

In a slightly humours turn on events I was actually asked to sign a copy of my paperback. I must admit, I felt a little silly doing this but it was nice to be asked. I really need to work on my hand writing. Because most of my writing is typed I’m so out of practice writing with a pen that it looks like a child wrote it.

So I thought I’d leave you all with the song I’ve been listening to the most this week. It’s by Porcupine Tree. I know I’ve talked about them before, but they really are an awesome band. It’s the song Drawing The Line from The Incident album. It’s a great song with amazing lyrics, if you ask me. Until next time. Take it easy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kAJlmzsJDk

Camphor crossed with lace, it is the witching hour

Cinematic but crude

Teasing all my feelings out, you move away

It seems so natural to you

Still siren, climbing up the victory tower

Like there’s something left to prove

I trap the beads of sweat that run between my eyes

And free the fever to move

I’m drawing the line, I’m drawing the line

I’m drawing the line, I draw the line

And I have my pride

I’m taking control, I’m taking control

I’m taking control, I’m taking control

And I save my soul

I’m shutting you out, I’m shutting you out

I’m shutting you out, I’m shutting you out

And I have no doubt

Dreamt the sound of scissors, cutting stitches out

Then discarding the used

Recording all my problems onto memory cards

Your compassion unmoved

Onto others what they always do to you

The most twisted of your rules

Distil malaise and photograph the hole it leaves

Running out a copy for you

I’m drawing the line, I’m drawing the line

I’m drawing the line, I draw the line

And I have my pride

I’m taking control, I’m taking control

I’m taking control, I’m taking control

And I save my soul

I’m shutting you out, I’m shutting you out

I’m shutting you out, I’m shutting you out

And I have no doubt

Some rambling thoughts

Hey all. Another Tuesday and blog from me. I have to admit I was a little unsure of what to write about this week so I’m just going to ramble a little. Forgive me if this post seems more disjointed than usual.

I’ll start with some good news. Only The Dead: An African War received another 5 star review on Amazon.co.uk. I was really happy with this. The feedback I am getting is really encouraging. Five star reviews were more than I could hope for, but I’m really thankful for them. I’m just thankful that people are reading my book at all. Here’s the link for the review http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R1CC8UZWONJST7/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1484093712&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=266239&store=books

So how’s my writing coming along right now? Pretty good. I set myself little targets each day I sit down to write and usually manage to hit them. I’m still waiting for the days where I sit and knock out 7,000 words. I’ve had them before, I just wish they were more frequent. I’ve discovered that if I take Honey and Alice (my two pups) out for a walk then sit down and write when I get back I am a lot more creative than normal. I don’t know if it’s something to do with the fresh air or if I just become more relaxed walking them in the countryside. Either way, walking them is now part of my writing ritual.

I’m being interview by a fellow writer for her blog. It’s quite exciting. I’ve filled done the interview, I just need to find the best section of OTD: An African War to use as a extract for the interview. A section of the story that will showcase my writing, but without ruining any of the plot. I’m thinking of using the first time Kyle ventures into the mansion and meets Tiger King. This won’t make any sense to people who haven’t read the novella so really you should go buy the book just so you understand I’ll let you all know when the interview is live with links etc.

I know I keep going on about Indie Author Land but I’m immensely proud that my book is still featured in the top ten. It was still at number 2 for the fourth week in a row. Thanks to everyone who has read the interview. If you missed it, you can find it here http://www.indieauthorland.com/archives/3250

I’d like to finish this blog with what I’ve been listening to/watching recently. I discovered a new band the other week. I say discovered, but I knew the name just somehow had never heard the music. Omnium Gatherum are a Finnish band. I know most of you will be put off by the vocal style but I really like them. I’ve download two of their albums Beyond and New World Shadows. Here’s a link to my favourite song by them http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsjHvaU5Aik

For my last birthday I received The World At War Ultimate Restored Edition. It’s an 11 disc set which chronicles WW2 and is narrated by Laurence Olivier. It’s the most comprehensive history I’ve seen and with archive footage and interviews from key players of the time it makes for a compelling viewing. It doesn’t shy away for the horrors of war and thankfully, is conducted from a neutral point of view. So no, America didn’t come in and win the war single handed Just a little fun with my American pals I’d really recommend it. A great collection if you’re interested in history like I am. Well, that’s about it from me. I never got to the cinema at the weekend. Had a BBQ instead. Hope you’re all having a great day. Until next time