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Tim Arnot - Flick Carter #1: FREED!
I've never read Dickens either. Or most of the Classical canon, & what I have I was made to read at school. That's why I''m all about the contemporary & future in literature. Good luck with the writing projects.
Tim! Weyhey author thread!Really looking forward to read your story!
Fantastic, Tim. I'm looking forward to it too.Off to have a look at the blog now!
An interesting side note about character development (well I think it's interesting ;). When I was planning the novel, I wrote some fairly detailed outlines, synopses, character sheets etc. All fine and dandy, but after I was about 5000 words in, I decided I needed a new secondary character - a younger sister. Adding that character changed a group dynamic, which in turn required me to add another character: Jessica. I blogged about it at the time here: http://timarnot.blogspot.co.uk/2012/0...My initial character description was "Jessica Rabbit meets Judge Dredd", and she's kind of a Black Hat with a large dose of femme fatale. At the time, she only had one scene in the novel. In my character sheet in Scrivener, I used this picture as being close enough to what I had in mind. http://www.imdb.com/media/rm419021849...
Then there was a discussion in Andy B's thread about shoe sizes for horses, and whether you could effectively "fingerprint" a horse. That got me thinking about what CSI would be like in my particular universe (where we have such things as horse-drawn Jags, stone knives and 200 year old machine pistols), and led me to create a character called Socko (as in SOCO - Scenes of Crime Officer). Socko was a kid that was bright, in a society where bright has no value, and so he gets drafted into the Watch, where we find basically the dregs of society that nobody else would give a job to (at the bottom of society, if you don't join the Watch, you get caught by the Watch...) I put Socko with Jess, and that directly led to my short story The First Day, which is in A Splendid Salmagundi
Now, subsequent to that, I've amalgamated Jess with another character from the novel, which means she gets more scenes, and I've also figured a way to bring Socko in too :) Plus I've got more plans for down the road, maybe a spinoff... (not bad going for someone that started out as a throwaway character for a single scene!)
Oh, and I came across this on imgur: http://imgur.com/gallery/fDpdo Now I'm not suggesting that it *should* be the new Kingsman uniform, but it certainly found its way into my Scrivener character profile!!!
I confess that I've never really been into post-apocalyptic stuff... But you know, this really has all the hallmarks of things that get me hooked.I love the situation these characters are in, and I think the world as a whole (horse-drawn Jags) just conjures a feeling of 'warped' so strongly that I can't wait to read about it.
Your Imagination Engine must have been running on 4-star for quite some time, Tim.
And as for the new uniform. All I'll say is they're very comfortable ;)
Now if all policewomen looked like that....
I tried to look at the picture and it crashed my browser!
... we'd be going out of our way to get nicked! :D
I look just like her!Don't I GL?
I think we need photographic proof of that...
Patti (Migrating Coconut) wrote: "I look just like her!Don't I GL?"
I didn't see enough of the picture. Will try again when I get home.
Congratulations on your author's page Tim.
Oh my yes, that is a good picture of you Patti!!
I know!Right down to the hair colour, eh?
How do those breeks stay up? If that is what you usually wear Patti, I'm assuming you know...I enjoyed your story in Salmagundi Tim!
Well that's odd...I just noticed my author pic was flipped, like I was looking in a mirror! Perhaps that's an effect of using the webcam on my Macbook - I hadn't noticed before. Too used to seeing myself in the mirror I suppose. Wonder why it did that? Oh well, fixed now.
Hey Tim. On hols;only got wifi on my kindle but I had to drop in and say how much I loved your story. Dying to read the book.
Thanks Ignite. I'm still on target for first draft at the end of this month. Then NaNoWriMo in November ("Starstruck" is the title of what I'm writing for that), and December I'll come back and start editing. I'll probably put out a call for a couple of alpha readers once I've got a second draft, to see that it all hangs together and make sense before starting to polish...
Just finished your short story in Salmagundi and enjoyed it. So I'll be looking out for your book when it's published!
:0)
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Tickets for the STC's world premier production of Sir Terry Pratchett's Dodger go on sale today."Dodger is a tosher - a sewer scavenger living in the squalor of Dickensian London. Everyone who is nobody knows Dodger. Anyone who is anybody doesn't. But when he rescues a young girl from a beating, suddenly everybody wants to know him. And Dodger's tale of skulduggery, dark plans and even darker deeds begins..."
The play is being staged at the Unicorn Theatre, Abingdon (about 10 miles South of Oxford), from 22 - 26 January 2013 (matinée Sat), and features me in the role as Henry Mayhew. If that doesn't tempt you, I don't know what will... ;) Based on previous productions, tickets will sell quickly.
Tickets and more info: http://www.studiotheatreclub.com/Curr...
Well, I have to say, with the announcement of the iPad Mini ( http://www.apple.com/uk/ ), I'm distinctly whelmed. Not over, not under, just whelmed. Sure it's much cheaper than the iPad 3 (sorry, 4 - they slipped in a refresh, with an A6 CPU and that horrid and I mean horrid new "lightning" connector, but otherwise pretty much the same) at £270 as opposed to £400 for the cheapest model. Sure it will sell, but I think £250 was the sweet spot, especially since you'll have to spend £25 a pop on adaptors from the horrid lightning connector to the standard 30 pin connector that *every* single peripheral uses.Fortunately, I won't need to buy one, since even with my App developer hat on, it doesn't do anything different to the existing models. It's just smaller. Oh, and it doesn't even have a retina density display. That Kindle Fire HD is starting to look much more attractive...
One thing I did like, and I think this is where my Christmas pennies is going to go, is the new iMac. 27" of sheer i7 gorgeousness is definitely on my shopping list (considering what I use now is a 13" lappy!) Roll on December :)
I'm very much wanting an iPad Mini. Talked earlier with Father and it's on our Christmas list. (I would say mine but Father wants one just as bad)
If you don't already have an iPad, a mini is probably a good choice. The 7" form factor works -- I know this from my Nexus 7, which is quite fabby -- but a lot of people were looking to it as a second machine, or as an upgrade from the 1 or 2, and from that perspective, it's a bit disappointing. It's a little bit better spec-wise than an iPad 2, but not as powerful as an iPad 3 or 4. It just seems stingy for the money, even for Apple.Just don't buy any peripherals (speaker docks etc) for it until a new generation starts to appear, or you'll be stuck in adapter hell.
Tim, could I be cheeky and please ask you to open an 'advice about tablets' thread?It's just you seem to be very knowledgeable about the various options.
Would be great to have a place where groupites could get geeky advice and opinions. :)
If you're okay with your author thread being used I'm happy to direct people here instead.
You're ever so cleva!
Patti (Migrating Coconut) wrote: "Tim, could I be cheeky and please ask you to open an 'advice about tablets' thread?It's just you seem to be very knowledgeable about the various options.
Would be great to have a place where gr..."
Opinionated, certainly. But I'm not sure it's the same thing... ;)
It is if you're right! ;)
I'm really looking forward to finding out more about Socko.
Patti (Migrating Coconut) wrote: "I'm really looking forward to finding out more about Socko."I ought to point out that Hunted is not about Socko, or even Jessica. They do appear in it, but only as minor characters. But there are plenty of other characters to like/hate... ;)
Hunted is set roughly six months after the events of The First Day (i.e. the following Spring).
I have had a number of discussions with Andy B, which has resulted in me owning a copy of 'Forensics for Dummies', so who knows where that might lead ;)
Fab premise Tim.It's top of my TBR when it comes out. I love post apocalyptic stuff.
Sooner, if you need a beta reader?
Hey, I bagsie that job. Actually, he might need 2?
Oh.Sorry Ignite. Forgot you'd already offered.
I love Tim's clean writing style.
Happily share it with you, if Tim would like two of us.
I didn't already offer - I just didn't want you getting in first! ;)
Be careful, or you'll end up in it! (I've still got some low-life-expectancy bit parts to allocate...)
Many of my bits are probably low life-expectancy now!
Well that was stupid...I went into town, to the cafe in order to do some writing away from the distractions on the Internet (alright, the forum). Got there, bought my coffee, sat Down, opened my MacBook , looked at the blurry mess, reached into my bag for my glasses... Oops. Still, at least the coffee was nice!
It hasn't stopped you before!So, given up on the writing (only 1106 words yesterday) I wandered around Waterstones - they sell kindles now - but that was pretty pointless too! I used to laugh at people holding things at arms length trying to focus. But now that's me. :( & you know, when you get it far enough away to be in focus, it's too small to read!
You don't need glasses Tim.You need longer arms.
Wait a sec, I'll just evolve...(pauses for obvious Hitchhikers quote...)
Oh, I'm a bit rusty on my hitch-hikers because I can't think of it.
Darren wrote: "Oh, I'm a bit rusty on my hitch-hikers because I can't think of it."...if they are unable to reach a coffee spoon, they are liable without a moments consideration to evolve into something with far longer arms - but which is probably quite incapable of drinking the coffee...
First of all: how can you NOT like Dickens?!?!?!?Second: Congratulations on your author thread!!!
And third: I really liked 'The First Day'! I was really left wanting to find out what happened next!
P.S I've totally stalked your goodreads author page, and your bio had me giggling!
Yeah, it's a cracking story isn't it, DeeDee. I loved it, and I wanted more.Dammit, Tim, write more!
Andrew wrote: "Yeah, it's a cracking story isn't it, DeeDee. I loved it, and I wanted more.Dammit, Tim, write more!"
How could you accuse poor Tim of fabricating his author bio!!! ;-P
D.D. wrote: "First of all: how can you NOT like Dickens?!?!?!?Second: Congratulations on your author thread!!!
And third: I really liked 'The First Day'! I was really left wanting to find out what happened n..."
50+ years of having it constantly rammed down my throat, for one thing.
So I guess next year's story will have to be "The second day" ;)
He did, I tell ya. I saw it for sale on ebay last Tuesday.
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So. Interesting and useless fact about the year I was born: It reads the same both ways up! (and no, it *isn't* 1881, so stop that!). I was brung up in Rochester, land of Dickens - there almost isn't a building in the high street that wasn't mentioned in Great Expectation or Pickwick Papers or Edwin Drood or the Uncommercial Traveller. As if being forced to read the stuff in school wasn't bad enough, we got to visit uncle Pumblechook's or Satis House etc. too. There's festivals and all sorts of nonsense goes on about it now. I was glad to get away from the place. Unfortunately, where I got away to was Portsmouth. Birthplace of... you guessed it: Dickens! Did I mention, I can't stand Dickens?
These days I live just outside Oxford, which is much nicer. Although I do miss the sea.
So, the book. Well as mentioned above, I have a short story in the group's Salmagundi. It's called The First Day, and it's an offshoot from my current WIP. It centres around Socko, a young lad who has just joined the Oxford City Watch. It's set in the far future, when cars and oil electricity and computers and all that stuff are but a dim and distant memory. Anyway, you'll have to read it to find out what happens :)
The big project is the Kingsmen Series. Set in a post-apocalyptic dystopian Britain of the 23rd century, sixteen year old Felicity (Flick) Carter gets caught up in a power struggle for the throne that could cost the lives of her friends and family as well as herself. Action, adventure, romance, and lots of danger... Think Survivors meets Robin Hood!
Oh, and both Socko and Jessica, the main characters from the short, appear in the novel too.
The thing about most apocalyptic drama, whether it's Survivors (the 70s series was much better than the remake IMHO), Jericho or whatever is that they pretty much all deal with the immediate aftermath. Well, to me that isn't particularly interesting. Big bang or plague: Everybody dies, or nearly everybody, yawn. So what I wanted to write was a situation where the disaster happened a hundred or two hundred years ago. Everyone's got over it, and society has reformed, or at least as much as it can when 99% of the people have been wiped out...
The first draft of book 1, Hunted is almost complete (should be done before the end of the month) and is due out in 2013.
You can follow my blog at http://timarnot.blogspot.co.uk and I have one of these new-fangled twitter things, that I haven't entirely figured out. @TimArnot. I've only managed one tweet so far, and haven't got any followers yet, so follow me. Go on: you could be my first! (it's not often you get to say that when you're over 50!)