“I’m hoping that June will be the month for another story and picking back up on the 200 words a day ethos of earlier in the year.”
Oof. Hope and Action are, indeed, very different things. I did start off the month with an attempt to write a second story for the writing group anthology, but it only got 600 words in before I decided I didn’t like the idea. And before I could think of a new one, I started re-reading one of my novels (Dark Lord Davi in Red Dwarf) that’s in the editing queue. The good news is I came out of the week with an edited first chapter. The bad news is no new story this month.
Week 2
Week 2 was a busy one as I attended both the Penguin WriteNow seminar and the Strange Up North author event – a new event hosted, this year, at Waterstones in Leeds. I got to meet and chat with some traditionally published authors and meet other people who love SFF, which meant it was a great time! Even if I did forget to take any photos of the event for the blog. See only photo below:
Week 3
Week 3
Week 3 was another relatively quiet one. I managed to edit through another chapter on Dark Lord Davi in Red Dwarf and another few hundred words on the first draft of a different project. It was also my Dad’s 65th birthday this week, so we went to meet up with my parents for a bit to catch up and celebrate. It was great fun, but meant not much writing got done that weekend XD.
Week 4
Week 4 started with illness – I don’t know what I caught when meeting up with the ‘rents, but it did me over good and proper and I wasn’t feeling well for a lot of the week. Tie that in with a patented G. J. Dunn Ultimate Frisbee tournament (in which the protagonist, predictably, injures himself) and the week mostly was split between feeling sorry for myself/tidying up in the anticipation of visitors. I did have a great time though and didn’t even realise I was properly injured until into July, as it took a little while for all the various aches and pains to abate, revealing only those that were actually injuries.
It occurs to me now that what might be cool is a little table of writing progress to actually update on each month, so maybe I’ll go away and do that. But then again, the dog did just show up looking cute, so I might fuss her instead.
What even happened this month? May has been the quickest month of the year by far for me. Unfortunately, not a lot has happened on the writing front. I spent the first week getting in a few submissions to magazines that opened to them in May – editing and tweaking the work, but have not heard anything back at the time of writing.
Week 2
Week 2 began the May monthly trend of not getting any writing done whatsoever. I have a tendency where, when the day job ratchets up, the night job ratchets down (is that a term?) and I just find myself having no energy. I did make one exception to this, when I entered my novel, Going Fourth, into the lottery for Mark Lawrence’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off. Unfortunately, mine was one of the (roughly) 50% of novels that didn’t make it in, but I’d still advise everyone to check it out and make sure they catch some great self-published novels here (link). I ended the week at a wedding where, unsurprisingly, no writing was completed. It’s a rare thing when my family all get together, considering how spread out we are across the isles, so I didn’t want to miss out. I think, as the below picture shows, I made the right call:
Week 3
Week 3 started on the day after the wedding, which was up in Scotland. We got to see the Kelpies in Falkirk before heading back down, then I was immediately back into the daily grind. Again, not much on the writing front this week, aside from that in this week Going Fourth broke even, meaning I now have to fulfil a promise to share the concept art for the cover. I’m just giving people enough time to brace themselves, but for those that are ready, please see below.
Week 4
In the last week of May, I’ve started to try and pick things back up again. I may have mentioned a small project that my writing group is working on – I’ve been putting together some feedback provided on a short story for the project and have begun the editing process on that one, plus I’m trying to catch up on some critiquing of other writers work to help them along. I’m hoping that June will be the month for another story and picking back up on the 200 words a day ethos of earlier in the year. But hope and action are two very different things. Let’s see what the future holds.
And now, as promised, and as a testament to the skill of cover artists the world around, please find the Going Fourth Concept Art:
Oh, dear, where did that month go? For those of you keeping up, April was the release month for my debut novel, Going Fourth, which is still available for purchase here. For those that have already bought it, please remember to leave a rating and review both on Amazon and Goodreads, as this will help more people hear about the book. But on to other news!
Week 1
Week 1 of April was none other than release week for Going Fourth, which went by in a flash of checking the KDP to see if any more sales came in. And, if you can believe it, it was also the week where I confirmed two more short story sales.
The first, “Good Morning, Can i Interest You in a Hoardshare?” is more comedic fantasy and will be appearing later in the year in The Dragon’s Hoard 3 Anthology, by Wolfsinger Publications. The second, “Mirror Cast”, is a much more serious story that will be appearing in the British Science Fiction Association publication Fission Issue #4. More news on those when I have it
Week 2
Week 2 for me was a busy week at work, coupled with packing for our holiday to Vietnam/Singapore (just one more thing to look forward to in April). Not much really happening outside of that, other than doing some editing on a piece called “A Hero’s Work”, which I’m hoping will appear in another anthology out later in the year, but again, more info on that if and when it becomes available.
Week 3
Week 3 is the week we set off to Vietnam on a ten day group tour with some incredible people (who I have left out of this update, as I’m not sure if they’d want to be in it – if anyone from the tour is reading you all rock! Thanks for making our trip unforgettable).
We started out in Saigon, before quickly moving up the coast to Hoi An, where we were fortunate enough to find Book Street.
And some incredible weather
Before moving through Hué , where we went on a cycle tour around the forbidden city and the tomb of Tu Duc, then headed further north to Hanoi. From Hanoi, we spent a night in a homestay in possibly one of the most beautiful places I’ve been (see below for beauty):
And then went back through Hanoi to Ha Long Bay, where we got a totally different kind of beautiful:
Before heading to Singapore into Week 4
Week 4
We flew back via Singapore and managed to cram in a few short days to explore the city, from our giant hotel:
To the giant Marina Bay Sands:
And the Singapore Supertrees:
I even managed to sneak in a date with a panda before heading back home:
At which point the end of the month devolved into getting back into the swing of things (see: jetlag) and straight back into a busy week of work.
The hope for May is to pick back up the N.I.P, and keep garnering feedback on a couple of other projects. There’s also a short story or two to write for a different project, so you can know that progress is being made, albeit a little slower than I’d like.
So, we’re already into March and all the madness that brings. For me, the madness started with a stag do (managed to squeeze a parkrun in there), and the last proof-read of Going Fourth. This took up most of my writing time, up until I started editing the issues I found in the last proof which were, thankfully, less than I’d anticipated, though still more than should be in there after Draft whatever-draft-I’m-up-to now.
Week 2
Week 2 of March for me was editing, editing, editing and getting the novel up on to sales portals, which involved a lot of additional formatting work as the format that I had formatted wasn’t the format I thought I’d formatted and I didn’t really realise this until I had to format the format to the correct format on the formatting tool provided. That makes sense, right?
I also spent the week performing a cover reveal countdown of Going Fourth, which you’ll be able to find somewhere on the website and, by now, you’ll be able to find on Amazon. Maybe I’ll post a link.
Either way, by the end of this week, I came away with a revealed cover for the novel and a product that I can sell online. I’d call that a win.
Week 3
What did I even do this week? My writer’s group have been discussing launching an anthology, so with the short-term launch of the book being sorted, I put some focus into generating ideas good enough to get into the anthology. I managed 1000 words by the end of the week, then at the weekend brought the Kenergy to my wife’s first ever half marathon!
I would like to say the t-shirts weren’t my idea, but that isn’t entirely true…
Week 4
Week 4 a.k.a. the week before the book launch. Insert the dog meme.
The week started off on a really good note, with some great news that I’ve been asked not to share yet (sign up to the mailing list (that I have still yet to work out how to run properly) to find out more). Some more writing of the anthology story, and thinking about how best to promote the book release.
If I’m honest, I probably could be more pro-active here. I’m hoping you (Yes you!) might be able to help me out. I wrote a little piece about the three key things you can do to help me – see earlier posts. And if you could do any/all of those, it’d help massively (I think – never done this before). Other than that, it’s been a case of posting it out wherever I can and begging people to share the news.
Hi everyone! As I’m sure you know by now, Going Fourth is available for purchase in kindle and paperback formats tomorrow!
If you’re wondering what you’re in store for, read on for an excerpt:
G. J. Dunn
Once upon a time in a Kingdom far, far… Wait. That’s not right. You can’t be upon time. Time is continuous. It’s not an ocean ridden on by some kind of metaphysical surfer. I was going to say “far, far away” too. That doesn’t give you much context, does it? A metre is far, far away if you happen to be an ant. Let me start again.
***
Once at a given point in the continuous stream that is time, three hundred miles, give or take, from where the final scene of this story will take place, there lived a man. That man’s name, quite unfortunately considering this is a fairy tale, was Brian.
As we join him, sitting under the shade of his favourite Jirat tree, you’ll take note that Brian is not heroic in any previously known sense of the word. His ears are too large, his muscles too small, and the less said about his receding hairline, the better. Brian’s biggest problem, however, is worse than all these things put together. After all, muscles can grow, ears can be surgically altered, and they’ve even invented this hair-follicle replacement procedure that can replace each individual hair on your head. Incredible stuff, really. But I’m getting sidetracked. Brian’s biggest problem isn’t so easily fixed as these. You see, Brian’s biggest problem—
“Hello?”
…
Brian’s biggest problem—
“Is someone there?” asked Brian, searching the clearing for signs of life.
Wait, can you hear me?
Brian hesitated. The knot of fear–a constant presence in the base of his stomach–tightened. “Yes?”
That’s not right. You shouldn’t be able to hear me.
“Oh,” Brian said, snapping his gaze back to the ground. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to.” Brian hesitated again, scratching the back of his head. “Is that my problem, then?”
What?
“My problem? That you were talking about? Is it that I can hear you?”
No, Brian. Your problem is that you’re cowardly.
“That’s it?”
What do you mean ‘that’s it’?
Brian scratched his head. “It’s just… I thought hearing voices was quite a big problem.”
Yes… Well… Maybe. But hearing voices is just a problem, isn’t it? Being cowardly is a character flaw. Much more problematic.
“Why’s that?”
Because a problem can be solved. A character flaw stays with you forever.
Brian thought about that for a second. It was true he’d never been a fan of fighting. The idea of violence made his insides curl in on themselves. The fear of pain, of embarrassment, was a constant companion, mashed with fear into that ever-present knot. “Oh,” he said.
Look, this isn’t exactly how this was supposed to go.
“It’s not?”
No.
“Right. Sorry. It’s just I’ve never heard voices before. It’s all a bit new.”
…
“Am I going mad?” Brian asked. That was the last thing he needed. He was already an outcast and hearing voices would only push the boat of popularity further from the shore.
Depends on your definition.
“Right,” Brian said. “That’s not very helpful, is it?”
It wasn’t meant to be.
“Oh.”
Brian glanced around the clearing as he waited for a response.
“So, you’re not one of those helpful voices then?” he asked when none came.
What do you mean ‘one of those helpful voices’? What helpful voices have you ever heard of?
“Well, you know, one of those voices that helps me find treasure or love or… something.”
… No.
“Oh,” Brain replied. He grabbed a stick from underneath the tree and used it to prod at the ground. “So, are you one of those voices that’s going to tell me to kill my friends, then?”
It’s a possibility if you keep blathering on.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Look, can you just go back to work or something? I need to think.
“The voice in my head needs think?”
Yes. Can you just… you know… pretend I’m not here or something?
Brian sighed. It was going to be hard to pretend the voice wasn’t there when he could hear every descriptive word echo through his skull. There was no way he’d be able to explain this to his co-workers. He’d have to hide it. Make sure they didn’t find out.
Brian sighed again, pushed himself up, and headed off back towards the village. The heat of the day hit as soon as he stepped out from under the Jirat and onto the sunlit path. A humid press had been growing for days and showed no sign of breaking soon. Brian had found it brilliant at first. He spent most lunches in Efteling Park watching the wildlife, delighting in the different colours of the flowers. With the sun shining, everything was on show for longer. Now, after four days, the heat was too much. Before he’d gone ten paces, he felt the sweat beading on his brow, his shirt sticking to his skin.
He reached the wrought-iron gate at the edge of the park and heaved it open, stepping on to the road back into Lefton, carrying on past the dreary, crumbling buildings that were almost falling apart, despite being newer than those further in. It hadn’t always been this way. Lefton had changed in the last ten years. When Brian had grown up, it had been small. Everyone had known everyone. Then the Fairy Godfather had arrived from the city and built a mansion on the hill, overlooking the huge wish factory he’d built in the valley. It was that factory that dominated the Lefton skyline these days–big, square and grey. Devoid of any character whatsoever.
The Fairy Godfather had built the surrounding houses in the same way: quick, cheap, and uniform. He needed staff for his factory and they needed somewhere to live, so the Fairy Godfather provided. Brian shook his head. He couldn’t stand the sight of those houses.
He turned off down an alley–a shortcut that connected that new part of the village to the old. The colour changed as he walked, the grey brick of the new houses being replaced by the red-yellow mix he remembered. The same alleys he’d used all his life. Years ago, it had been to avoid the bullies when he travelled from his house to Kongola’s. There had always been someone that had wanted to pick on him. Some of them still did. It hadn’t helped that Brian was such a coward, of course.
“Hey!” Brian exclaimed, drawing the attention of a rather rotund man standing in an alcove to the side.
“What?” Brian asked, whirling around to try and find them.
“Are you okay there, Brian?” the man asked, stepping forward.
For a moment, Brian’s heart stopped beating.
Oh, for Sod’s sake, you really live your life like this?
As he stepped into the light, Brian realised the man was, in fact, Kongola, his best friend.
“Brian?” Kongola asked again.
“I…” Brian hesitated. He couldn’t let Kongola know about the voice, could he? It was too insane. “I’m fine.”
Kongola looked him up and down skeptically. “Well, if you say so.” Kongola gave another moment for Brian to respond, but Brian didn’t take him up on it, so he continued. “Are you heading back?”
Brian nodded. “Yeah, sure.”
Kongola nodded, and they continued in silence, joining up with the main street. It was a wide, open street with space enough for eight men to walk side by side. The factory lay at one end; the road stretching through the entire village. There’d been a play park there before the Fairy Godfather had demolished it to build his factory. Brian remembered going there with his Mother and Kongola.
Their co-workers filled the street, which made sense–there weren’t many other employers in Lefton and the Factory’s lunch hour was ending. Brian navigated his way through the throng in his usual manner, hiding behind Kongola, and in a few minutes, Kongola led them through the door into the staff entrance.
The staff entrance of the Fairy Godfather’s Wish Factory was as much like the outside as it was possible to be. As all the wishes arrived by magic, they didn’t need to impress any of the clientele. At least that’s what management said. The stone walls were bare aside from one small notice board, crammed into the corner next to the security desk. In the other corner, a potted plant was doing its best impression of the ageing security guard’s drooping nose.
“Hullo, Eskasa,” Kongola drawled, giving a small wave to the man behind the security desk.
Eskasa lifted a hand and tilted a stylish hat that had the word ‘Security’ emblazoned in big letters, just in case viewers weren’t tipped off by the uniform. Brian had once wondered why the Fairy Godfather would entrust the security of his entire wish factory to an octogenarian. That was until Kongola gave him a prompt reminder that anyone who crossed the Fairy Godfather soon found a wish with their name on it, whether there was security or not. Eskasa had made sense after that.
“Afternoon, Mr. Kongola,” Eskasa said, turning to Brian. “Brian.”
Why don’t I get a Mister? thought Brian.
You know why, Brian.
“Heading through?” Eskasa asked, prodding a thumb towards the security gate.
“No rest for the wicked,” Kongola replied. “Or me,” he added with a wink.
Eskasa chuckled, and Brian felt a pang of jealousy. Kongola had always had an effortless charm. By comparison, Brian’s charm was climbing a mountain with one leg, carrying a particularly annoying child with a penchant for fish-hooking noses.
“Hey!” Brian exclaimed, idiotically forgetting, once again, that no one else could hear the voice.
“Say again?” Eskasa asked, rubbing a finger in his ear.
Kongola gave Brian a look, grabbed him by the shoulder, and led him through the security gate.
“It’s nothing, Eskasa,” he said in that same calming tone. “Brian’s just a little on edge.”
“Ah, erhm, yes,” he said. Eventually.
Eskasa shook his head.
“Of course he is,” Brian heard him mutter as they headed through into the corridor leading to the shop floor.
Go back and let him have it, Brian!
“I, uh,” Brian stammered.
Kongola turned back to him. “Just forget it, Brian. We’ve got work to do.”
Brian nodded, avoiding eye contact. Maybe he should tell Kongola that it was the voice causing problems, not Eskasa. He was used to the old security guard’s mutterings. But this voice… If anyone could understand, it would be Kongola.
Or maybe you could do something a bit more interesting instead?
No. He should ignore the voice. His mother always said that if he responded, it gave the bully what they wanted. And that’s what this voice was. A bully.
I think I’m just telling you a few home truths, to be honest. You should listen. You might learn something.
Brian ignored the voice extra hard as they entered the shop floor. It was here that the Fairy Godfather answered wishes through the twin powers of magic and employing several hundred people. He used the wishes to earn favours from the wish-makers. And the favours made him money. Brian had once considered trying the same thing, but then he wasn’t magic, so he doubted it would work.
The shop floor was gigantic, taking up half the factory. As always, the size struck Brian–made to seem all the bigger by the high ceiling constructed entirely of glass. It was great if it was sunny, but dreary when it rained. Much like the outside, Brian supposed.
Wow, even your thoughts are boring.
This was where the Wish Sorters worked–the people who sorted the wishes from their arrival, by the sackload, and sent them to the relevant department to be dealt with. For example, if a wish came in from a child, it would go to Family Planning. Family Planning would reply to the child’s parents and ask if they wanted their child’s wish granted. If that answer was yes, the Fairy Godfather would ask for a favour in return and… well… it was best to say no.
Brian and Kongola walked down the first of several rows of benches. Wish Sorters sat one per bench, a huge chute on their left continually dropping fresh wishes into in-buckets (they had a habit of falling out of in-trays). Several green pneumatic tubes hung above their heads, there for them to sort wishes into, each labelled with the name of a department. The tubes at each station shot up into a sprawling mass of green someone had nicknamed the Tangle, where tubes twisted around each other again and again before flitting off to one of the four walls, where the department sorted the wish further, by size and importance. Brian had applied for jobs in a few of those departments through the years, but he’d never heard back.
As they moved through the factory, Kongola shared easy back and forth with some of the other Sorters. Each person greeted Kongola by name before glancing to where Brian stood–hiding in Kongola’s shadow and giving a begrudging nod or a tight smile. Brian had spent a long time, to no avail, trying to work out how Kongola was so likeable.
Have you tried using words, Brian? A lot of people like them.
They reached their seats, on the end of the furthest bench, and Brian sat himself on the very last seat, Kongola taking the seat next to him. They’d been swapped after Brian had tried to point out that Isha, the woman on the other side, was doing her job wrong. She kept sending wishes for children, instead of wishes from children, to Family Planning. In Brian’s opinion, it wouldn’t have happened if the departments weren’t so ominously named, but as soon as he’d mentioned children she’d complained to Human Resources about the ‘strange balding man’ and that had been that. He’d given up trying to talk to Isha after that. She and Kongola seemed to get along, though.
Brian set about his work, pulling wishes from the in-bucket, giving them a read and deciding which tube he should use to send them into The Tangle.
This is your job?
Brian ignored the voice, focusing instead on Harisa’s wish of becoming irresistible to women. If he was Isha, he’d send it to Family Planning. But Brian liked to think he was, at least, good at his job. Irresistible to women was Magical Influence. Unsurprisingly, one of the bigger departments. He rolled the paper into a cylinder, reached forward, and pushed it into the tube.
Phwoosh.
Brian loved that sound.
You just sit and do this for what? Eight hours a day?
The next wish was from Seqira, who wished that the girl Essa in his village would notice him. That was a simple one. He popped it in for Emotional Interference.
Phwoosh.
Haven’t you ever tried mixing them up? Just for fun?
“No,” Brian mumbled, glancing at Kongola, who was busy talking to Isha.
So, you just sit and read wishes all day?
“Yes.” This voice was getting more and more irritating.
“Did you say something, Brian?” Kongola asked at his side.
“I’m fine,” Brian replied.
Isn’t there any way you can make this more fun? Add more drama?
Brian held his tongue and grabbed another wish. He read down the page. Then he read down the page again.
Well, that doesn’t make sense, does it?
“How would you know?” Brian hissed under his breath.
I can see everything you can see, Brian.
“How’s that possible?” Brian asked.
Not telling.
Brian seethed. This damn voice was going to give him an ulcer.
“Are you alright there, Brian?” Kongola asked, moving over.
Brian had to think on his feet. Not literally, because he was sitting down, but he had to think very quickly while sitting down.
“It’s this wish,” he said, handing the sheet to Kongola. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Why would he know better than you, Brian? I thought you were good at your job?
“Ah,” said Kongola after a few seconds.
“What?” Brian asked. Had he done something wrong?
“This part here,” Kongola showed the sheet to Brian and pointed at one sentence.
“I wish him all the best?”
“That’s this week’s code-wish,” Kongola told him.
What’s a code-wish? Is it more exciting? It sounds more exciting!
“Shut up,” Brian snapped.
Kongola brow furrowed. “It’s true, Brian. Check your decoder.”
“Sorry,” Brian said hurriedly. “I believe you. I’ve just never got a code-wish before.”
“First time for everything,” Kongola said, smiling and pushing the wish into Brian’s quivering hand.
“Ha,” Brian said.
What are you going to do, Brian? I think you should steal it.
“What?” Brian said out loud before he could help himself.
Kongola glanced over and frowned, but said nothing.
It would be dramatic, wouldn’t it? And your life could use some drama. I’ve been here less than an hour and I’m already bored senseless.
Brian ignored the voice, glancing at the tube furthest to the right. The one labelled Fairy Godfather. All code-wishes went straight to him.
Oh! That’s some intrigue right there! What does he do with them?
“I don’t know,” Brian replied.
Don’t you want to find out?
Brian shivered at the thought. “No.”
Why not? It could be an adventure.
“I don’t want an adventure.”
Who doesn’t want an adventure?
“Someone who likes their life?”
Your life with one friend and a dead-end job where all you do is push wishes into tubes?
“Shut up,” Brian said, hand wavering half way toward the Fairy Godfather tube.
Didn’t you ever dream of something more?
“Shut up,” Brian said again, reaching his hand further towards the tube.
You’re living your life granting other people’s wishes, Brian. Don’t you have any wishes of your own?
“I said shut up!” Brian shouted, slamming the note into the Fairy Godfather tube.
Phwoosh.
The sound seemed louder than usual.
Brian turned around.
Well, that went well.
The entire factory was looking. Had he shouted that loudly? Why were they all staring like he was crazy? Probably the shouting. Definitely the shouting.
“Brian?” Kongola asked. “Are you okay?”
Storm out. Tell them you’re off on an adventure.
“I’m… not feeling so well,” Brian offered.
Lame.
Kongola looked him up and down. “Maybe you should go home and rest. I’ll see you tonight?”
Tonight. Of course. Water and wine.
“Tonight,” Brian agreed.
He turned and walked at a moderate speed away from his station, feeling eyes on the back of his skull. The moderate speed sped up. The sped up speed ran.
And that’s your lot. Unless, of course, you buy your very own copy! See above for a purchase link.
It’s now only one week until the launch of Going Fourth. I’m sure you’ve all got the date marked and circled in the calendar, so I don’t need to tell you that, it’s more for my own peace of mind. To celebrate the milestone, I thought I’d write something for anyone that’s wanting to help to give some advice on the best things you can do! So, please read on for the 3 key ways to help:
Spread the word
One of the things that generates the most buzz of books is word of mouth. Just by telling someone you know someone who’s releasing a book, and telling them the title, you’re helping to drive more engagement with the book which will hopefully generate more readers who, again hopefully, will enjoy the book. Sharing far and wide is encouraged and appreciated. Remembering it’s a comedic fantasy is even better. Remembering the title is world class.
Buy the book
If you can afford to and have the interest, grab yourself a copy, the closer to the release date the better. I wrote the story to be enjoyed (admittedly, the first person I thought about enjoying it was me), so have a read and see if you like it. If you do, rest assured there’s more coming. There will be a kindle and a paperback version and, if I understand the amazon algorithms, the more sales are generated around launch, the more it will increase the visibility of the book, meaning a positive feedback loop.
Leave a Review
This is a big one. Once you’ve read the book, remember to leave a review, an honest one.
More reviews drive more engagement drive more people to pick the book up.
In my opinion, those are the three big ones. If you can do any of those, please do, as it would massively help and be really appreciated.
Of course, there’s no need you need to stop at that.
Alternative ideas include writing to your local MP and asking them to mandate a change in law to enforce people to buy the book. You could also buy dozens of copies, get on a bus, and throw them out the window at unsuspecting strangers while yelling “ you have to read this book”. You could even buy several hundred copies, place them in a crate and bury it under ground. Write a map to the location and give it to a passing pirate.
When Brian starts hearing an incredibly mean voice in his head, his attempts to get rid of it set him on an adventure through a fairy tale world he won’t soon forget.
As it turns out, his voice is something called a Narra Torr, a bodyless storyteller from another world, and Brian is his Protagonist. Luckily for Brian, the Protagonist wants rid of him too. Journeying alongside the Cockney, a magical being who does not grant wishes, and a Princess that just wants to live her own life, Brian sets off on a journey to fix the Fourth Wall – the Wall that separates Brian’s world from that of the Narra Torr’s.
What adventures will they have? What disasters and triumphs will they find? Will Brian succeed in his goal of fixing the Fourth Wall? I’m not going to tell you. That would ruin the book.
Keep an eye out. Next week (hopefully) I’ll be talking about the ways you can help an author (read: me) sell their book!
Well, February got off to a great start when my laptop (which contains the most recent versions of the NIP & soon-to-be-published Going Fourth) decided to stop charging. To make matters worse, I wasn’t informed before the battery died mid-sentence. On top of trying to sort that, the oven also stopped working and in the furor, I missed my first day of the 200 word a day challenge. I made up the word-count the day after, and have decided to award myself a streak freeze, but I’ll know. I’ll always know. The day job has also picked up slightly which, while interesting, usually leads to a bit more fatigue at the end of the day and less mental capacity for writing. On the bright side, the broken laptop did force me to start writing something entirely new from scratch, which is totally unlike what I normally write, so there’s some growth in there.
Week 2
As we moved into week 2, the new NIP reaches around 4000 words, with a bit of a bonus on some days as it’s something I’ve had in the back of my mind to write for some time. We also move into a week containing both valentine’s day and, the far superior Shrove Tuesday (pancake day, here in the UK), which meant the focus was drawn to seeing who could make the best pancake. At the weekend, I was embroiled in a rare-these-days Ultimate Frisbee tournament with some friends, which was great fun, but did, obviously, have an impact on the writing front. As a saving grace, it produced this photo, which I think we can all agree makes the entire debacle worthwhile.
Week 3
Or, The Return of the Laptop. After sending my laptop away, it arrived back to me in the 3rd week of February, allowing me to get back on with proofing & formatting on Going Fourth, as well as getting the edits back from my cover artist. I have to say, the cover art is way beyond anything I expected, so keep an eye out for the upcoming cover reveal in the near future – it’s not one you’ll want to miss. Nothing much else happened this week – I had a good amount of gaming to catch up on and, towards the end of the week, I was struck down with a cold which absolutely killed my productivity and resulted in my second 0 word day of the year. It was always more of a guideline really anyway, wasn’t it?
Week 4
Week 4 brought the final delivery after edits of the cover art and, I’ve got to emphasise this.
It.
Is.
Fire.
In more ways than one. After battling hard against the cold, I was also able to move again this week (something that was kind of prevented after the Ultimate Frisbee tournament – those things really take it out of you, for those that don’t know – so I started running again. There’s a half marathon in the schedule for March Week 4 and I’m behind on the training. As we move into March Week 1, I’ll be recovering from a Stag Do and (hopefully) getting Going Fourth ready for Advance Reader Copies. The formatting is all but done now, and the cover art is there, so we have a product that is all but ready for launch.
It’s been a while since my last update, which does make sense considering I never wrote one. Unfortunately (and fortunately, if you happen to be me) holidays to Greece
and New York
got in the way through the back half of the year and prevented me from providing many (any) updates. Though this does bring me on to what I’m going to be focusing on for 2024 – consistency. My writing over the previous year really came in dollops – 20000 words one month, then 3 months of struggle, then rinse and repeat.
To solve that I’ve set myself a target of writing every day, which most writers will be familiar with as the number one piece of advice new writers are given. I’ve always thought this advice was not particularly good or considerate. Life has a habit of cancelling plans, so to deliberately plan to do something every day seems like tempting fate for something to come along and get in the way. But then, when I’ve pictured writing every day, I’ve always pictured it as “write A LOT every day”, which (stunning realisation coming up) – it isn’t. So every day in 2024, you will be able to find me writing a minimum of 200 words, or at least not writing them and grumbling about losing my writing streak.
You can also expect an update from me on writing progress once a month, even if it’s to tell you I’ve written nothing. Hopefully it won’t be though.
For this month, I can let you know that work is still happening to get Going Fourth, the Novel in Progress, ready for publication. I’ve performed a last style edit before it goes for formatting and also been in touch with a cover artists to create art. Then it’ll be a case of assigning an ISBN number and getting it up on to platform ahead of release date, which should be in the (relatively) near future. Keep your eyes peeled.
On top of that, I’ve spent some time over the last few months getting to work on the first draft of a BRAND NEW story, which is now up to ~25k words, or roughly a third of the way through. More details on that should follow if everything goes well and keeps on track through the rest of the year.
It’s here that I’d say see you next month but that didn’t really work out too well last time now, did it?
So July got off to a fantastic start as someone on my morning commute decided that red lights just weren’t their thing.
Fortunately, I escaped with only whiplash but it did impact writing early in the month as I sat in a pain-pill induced stupor. I was able to spend an early part of the month looking into the process of self-publishing and identifying potential editors, cover designers and formatters to turn the manuscript into a novel. Progress
Week 2
I managed to get started on a final edit/proofread of the novel before taking some time away from writing to check out the Great Yorkshire Show – for anyone that’s not aware, that’s a show celebrating farming, with sheepdog demos and farm animal judging as well as SO MANY tractors. We followed that up by attempting the National Three Peaks challenge – a challenge where you try and summit the three biggest peaks in the UK (Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in England and Snowdon in Wales) within 24 hours.
As a team of 6, we spent Thursday travelling up to Ben Nevis. We passed Loch Lomand (and stopped off to take some pictures)
Before moving on to Glencoe, where some of the James Bond film Skyfall was filmed (and stopped off to take some pictures)
Finally arriving under the shadow of Ben Nevis at 11:30pm
After some tough climbing, we summited Ben
at around 09:30am, quickly getting back to ground level at about 12:45 to leave for Scafell Pike (a 5 and a half hour drive) at 13:00. Unfortunately, lightning forecasts and heavy clouds, put a stop to our efforts around 800m from the peak of Scafell, and prevented us from even seeing Snowdon, as we received news they weren’t allowing anyone to even climb. But if anyone is interested in seeing what the top of Scafell looks like during heavy cloud cover as darkness descends, please observe exhibit A:
Week 3
In the immortal words of the lyrical mastermind, Rhianna: work, work, work, work, work, work. Week 3 was a very busy week at work for me, which usually means no writing as I get home at the end of the day wanting to do anything but stare at words. Due to some important projects in the job that pays the bills, I spent some time working every day during week 3. I did get a chance on Sunday, though, to go through my pre-edit of the Novel In Progress (NIP), which I made some good progress on. The next stage will be a re-read to get a better sense of how its paced (I can never get a handle on it during the editing process, because the focus is on the detail).
Week 4
In the final week of July, I was able to finish the pre-edit of the NIP, which was great news until I found out that my editing software had also removed all of the formatting (such as bold and italics), which are crucial to this novel. That meant the rest of week 4 was spent going BACK through the book to replace the formatting after the edit. Now I’ll look into getting it into the correct format for kindle and doing an actual read on it, all while trying to pretend I’m reading it for the first time. Hopefully this will catch anything I’ve missed and allow me to make any last-minute content edits (i.e. do I want to be a bit more descriptive here). That read should take me into the first week of August, but we’ll see what life throws at me in the meantime.
