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Update for 2018-2019
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Run out of gusto, and cultivating apathy for the moment. SWMBO has done an initial proof read of the 2nd Huntley-in-the-Bog and I've thrown together 69K words of the 3rd for her dissection. The 2nd book needs me to get on with the illustrations and cover, but life seemed to have other plans for our time.
Hi lads,Plenty of gusto over here ... but hee haw else. I'm a LITTLE bit further forward from the summer with Evhen & Uurth, in that I've changed a good bit of the intro and developing plot around.
I got a bit too hung up on that damned POV thing, and decided just to write. But at 80 pages in, and with so many changes from the first attempt, every time I had a gap between writing bursts, I had to read over what had already been written to pick up the correct version.
Finding the time to write has been hellish what with a demented cat and taking on the writing of articles for my football club match-day programme.
I also rather ambitiously decided to catalogue my music collection on DISCOGS! I've only loaded 760 items so far, and have a rather daunting few thousand still to go!
I'm hoping to get some more writing done before off on hols in January and wold love to get it touted, if good enough, or self-published by summer / autumn.
Amen.
Oh - meant to say --- my DD&RW has taken on a new bit of life. I'd just let it gather virtual dust on the Amazon shelf this year, but today had a wee look. the kindle / Amazon reports don't show any sales at this point, but it's risen from a ranking of @ 900k to 71k in the last couple of days. Kerchiiing! Wonder what i can spend my likely £3.40 royalties on?
Ooooh, well the news from me is that Sharpe Books have taken over my Roundhead series and are publishing book 3 in the new year - end of January I think. I''m now onto book 4 and sort of working on a Thomas Becket thing for 2020. Hopefully royalties will improve...
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I know what you mean about life and its plans. Me too. But it sounds like you are forging ahead at least. Let us know if you want any more pairs of eyes to cast a glance over anything.
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I saw you were doing a reading of Damp Dogs... at a library or school or something. Very impressive touting. I'm glad it's on the way up. I hope you find time to make progress with E&U - don't leave us hanging.
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I saw that on Facebook. Excellent news. Your publisher seems very fast-acting; I'm still awaiting the 'spring 2019' publication date for Shelf Life. Very well done, though. I'll look forward to it.
Just one question: what are these 'royalties' things you mentioned? I'm presuming you were making a joke about kings and history, but I didn't quite get it.
My resolution this year will be to scale the narrative arc. I have the necessary crampons, pullies, harnesses, clothing and a shovel. Wish me luck, S
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Good fortune, Mr C. We'll be thinking of you here at base camp.
"Answers, please, with gusto and optimistic outlook." Expedition Journal
Raymond St. Elmo, Captain
Day 340.
Sleds raced through a wintry wonderland, while team sang carols. Optimistic that team shall reach the Pole of Literary Success before Christmas!
Day 351:
I remain optimistic that the blizzard shall soon diminish; in the meantime team snuggles in fine shelter. Soon, soon, the smell of dogs and fellow explorers will become acceptable.
Day 355:
Remaining optimistic that the sled dogs will provide nourishment as blizzard slowly, slowly ebbs. How important it is to keep a stiff upper lip! Difficult not to, when one's beard is frozen. Ha. Ha.
Day 360:
Gregson drew short-straw. Am optimistic that sufficient seasoning will diminish the nightmares that 'James Stew' gave remaining expedition members. Looking forward to Rob cutlets; with gusto . Ha. Ha.
Day 365:
How quiet, how roomy, how fragrant of Christmas feasting has become the emergency shelter. I sit alone singing 'Good King Wenceslas'; and yet I feel as though all the team were with me, within me. An optimistic attitude is an explorer's best friend. That, and an extra-long straw.
Raymond wrote: ""Answers, please, with gusto and optimistic outlook." Expedition Journal
Raymond St. Elmo, Captain
Day 340.
Sleds raced through a wintry wonderland, while team sang carols. Optimistic that team ..."
Hi Ray, Hi All
“I am just going outside and may be some time” is the quote, isn’t it? I just stepped back in to find an entertaining wee story. Now I’ll probably be thinking of you when I sit down to Christmas dinner.
What am I up to?
Not a lot to report. Partly just all that pesky real life stuff getting in the way again. I seem to have hit a wall and come to a halt (a bit like the US government). Mostly though I’m surrounded by a rising pile of false starts, trying to find something that captures my imagination. Doodles I’ve taken to calling them. If I keep throwing them against the wall I expect sooner or later something will stick.
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I was looking forward to spending at least part of Christmas being drunk. Instead, it appears I'm being eaten.
Hi Ray!
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Not a lot to report. Partly just all that pesky real life stuff getting in the way again. I seem to have hit a wall and come to a halt "
Amen to that. I'm in the same place exactly. I'm sitting here with lots of ideas, very few of which (I suspect) are any good. Here's to something sticking...
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Things are looking good on the writing front though. I'm 50,000 words into my first proper novel. My first two were technically novellas. So this will be my first real book.
I'm wondering what I'm going to do with it though. My first two books were comedies and I intend to write more comedies in the future, but this thing I'm writing now, well, it's a horror.
So what does that mean? Am I still welcome here at CLOG? Will anyone here be interested in reading it when the time comes? I don't have a group of horror writing friends I can turn to. I only have you guys.
What have I done?
You have to have at least one comic scene to break the tension briefly to then heighten it later in the horror genre. The gatekeepers in Macbeth for eg, I'm sure taht would count ;) I've just bought a new guitar (rickenbacker clone from germany) and I've been investigating effects pedals and guitar interfaces instead of doing any work over the holidays. Of course I could just buy a new amp but that would open a whole new can of worms.
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Na this is mahogany hollow body and maple neck, and it has mini humbuckers rather than the rick toaster pups. I've played a real rick 325 (90s reissue) and the feel and sound is way better - this is 5/6 scale neck rather than the 3/4 short scale on the rick as well. It's the difference between a 3 grand guitar and a 200 quid one. Althhough the quality on the HB is better than my old Gibson slimline worth considerably more back in the day - although that maybe says more about Gibson than HB. This is what I ordered https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYp9j...Basically it's been 20 years since I had an electric in the house, although I have miced up the semi now and again but its not the same. If you're on the lookout for something, this looks lush, if I hadn't wanted a rick all my life I would have got this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCzG9...
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And Jemahl wrote: "it has mini humbuckers rather than the rick toaster pups" ... and some nonsense about housing mice in a semi.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: the world is going mad. You've both clearly got far too many guitars and this has to stop. And I think you're making a lot of those words up.
So no more talk of Rickenbackers and Strats, travelling banjos and toasting pups. It's gratuitous and the RSPCA shall hear of it. Enough.
Jemahl; I understand you've got a new publisher on board. Well done, but now stop distracting Chapman Junior and go and sit at the back of the class.
Andy, I have to say, I worry about you. Horror? Please tell me there are no vampires or werewolves involved. If you're going to go all Twilighty and commercial on us - well, it just doesn't bear thinking about. Say it isn't true.
In answer to your question, yes, I suppose - reluctantly - I'd be happy to read it as a work in progress, but on the following provisos:
No strangely alluring vampires.
No other sort of vampires.
No chosen ones.
No arcane relics with the power to release an ancient evil.
A maximum of one zombie, and then only seen at a considerable distance.
No remote log cabins, unless presented ironically.
At least one fart gag.
No vampires. (It's just copying.)
And it had better be funny.
Andrew wrote: "...What have I done?"You have gotten out of bed at the darkest hour of the writers night. Leaving behind the Bunny Slippers of Comedy. You have stumbled into the wing of the house long closed by wise caretakers, pushed past the crime scene tape, the notes saying 'kids stay out'!.
Your bare, humorless feet leave prints in the dust and moonlight, as you climb the back stairs, to the attic door. There you entered the lair of all the soul's fears, the shadow and dust of primal shudder. You will see an old rocking chair, moving gently back, forth back. From a trunk will come a strange scrabbling.
Also there will be 50 other writers sitting on various rubbish arguing whether 'eviscerate' is the same as 'gut', and trying out how to express a SCREAM without using tacky exclamation marks.
It's dang hard.
Raymond - remarkable, that must be based on a true event
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No other sort of vampires.
No chosen ones.
No arcane relics with the power to release an ancient evil.
A maximum of one zombie, and then only seen at a considerable distance.
No remote log cabins, unless presented ironically.
At least one fart gag.
No vampires. (It's just copying.)"
You'll be glad to hear it does not feature any of those things.
The hole thing is mostly set in daytime during the summer (in the South of England) and has a scene where a boy is attacked by Mario (of Nintendo fame). Goosebumps for grownups. Sort of.
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You have gotten out of bed at the darkest hour of the writers night. Leaving behind the Bunny Slippers of Comedy. You have stumbled into the wing of the house ..."
I can't leave the comedy world completely. The bunny slippers are too comfortable. I didn't intend to write a horror. And it's not some dark spooky thing, I'm having fun and I think it comes through. There is some serious violence in it though.
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Thank you. I am reassured. I look forward to reading your first draft whenever you want me to take a look.
Hi all, I generally just trawl writing sites late at night now when I’ve had far too much rose and remember the days I used to write things. Now I like to keep my feelings inside and use them to yell at football players who aren’t very good and don’t have much capacity to get better.
My short Danny Diaz should be out for free soon, with a new short called the House of Clocks.
Happy New Year to you all! You guys are awesome.
Ps: I’ve had rose.
PPS: pass and move!
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I generally just trawl writing sites late at night now when I’ve had far too much rose and remember the days I used to write things..."
Happy New Year to you too, Andy.
Let me know when House of Clocks comes out. I know nothing about it, but it sounds like it should be a film with Anthony Hopkins in it. Have you thought about approaching him?
And please don't quit the writing. There's too many of us going dormant on the creative front. What of Titan? What of Karma? Don't leave us hanging...
My question is: what is everyone up to? What are we working on? When can we expect new works bearing the stamp of the clog?
Does no one have a work in progress that demands some careful and well-meant attention? We mustn't let our critical faculties wither for lack of use.
Answers, please, with gusto and optimistic outlook.