Category Archives: Snowdon Shadows

Attempting to Blog during NaNoWriMo

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When I realised that Wednesday November 4th was IWSG day and it fell during NaNoWriMo I panicked. How was I going to fit the post in? The easiest solution seemed to be not write anything. Who would miss me for one month? I’ve already began to comment on fewer websites, to manage my time more efficiently. But then I’m following more sites than I did last year. So missing an IWSG post wouldn’t get me blackballed. Would it?

The problem was not just November 4th. I’ve also committed to writing something on here every week, Foolish or challenging? Well, during NaNoWriMo it will be a challenge.

Insecurity: how do I blog during November and do NaNoWriMo? I’m not a multi-tasker like many writers – I’m only a man.

Solution: Write all the posts before November and schedule them. Simple.

It would be… if I hadn’t wasted October – just don’t ask how, or I’ll have to say the Force was with me. Anyway, all I have to do is send in my submission for the IWSG Anthology Contest and then I can re-work my “Fates Maelstrom” character interviews as posts. Finally, rather than post on Tuesdays, I will schedule these for every Thursday.

So that’s the way I’m going to blog during NaNoWriMo. Just don’t expect my usual long-winded comments.

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The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. We post our thoughts on our own blogs. We talk about our doubts and the fears we have conquered. We discuss our struggles and triumphs. We offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling.

Please visit others in the group and connect with other writers – aim for a dozen new people each time.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter hashtag is #IWSG

And be sure to check out our Facebook group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/IWSG13/

The awesome co-hosts for the November 4 posting of the IWSG are Stephen Tremp,Karen Walker, Denise Covey, and Tyrean Martinson! 

Cunning Plan or Devious Plot?

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Time to look ahead and maybe concoct something. Now seeing that this is the UK and November 5th is creeping up on us, I was thinking something explosive and controversial. Fireworks?

Well there was a devious plot on 5 November 1605 that might have made headlines, if it was successful. But now it is remembered in a different way than intended. But what would have happened if Guido had succeeded?

On a serious note, our animals would be better off.

However my November is more likely to be more of “I have a cunning plan” – if all unfolds as intended. No I don’t mean the proposed return of ‘Blackadder’, although that could be more than cunning. What do you think??

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Individual screenshots, copyright held by the BBC

No, I mean NaNoWriMo and my chance to recreate “Fates Maelstrom” with my female Goth detective and in Snowdonia. I’ve almost finished the new character profiles and interviews, and there is a new detailed outline – a devious plot that Guido might approve of, and even a cunning plan that Baldrick couldn’t disagree with. And I have a blurb:

“Did Twyla Locke kill her wealthy English grandfather? Is the nineteen-year-old gypsy woman a schizophrenic liar that could kill again? Or is someone impersonating her, in an attempt to destroy her dreams?

Detective Constable Sparkle Anwyl believes the Romani girl is innocent, but her superior, Detective Sergeant Mal Sumnor, thinks that the forensic evidence against her is overwhelming. Why should he believe his offbeat Goth junior? She’s only needed as she understands Romani.

Then American investigative journalist, Brogan Keyes, produces photos that prove Twyla’s innocence. But why is he in the Welsh village of Craig-o-Niwl? Who is he? What is he hiding?

Sometimes the truth can lie hidden in the past, and some ghosts wield power in vulnerable minds. And some people have reasons to fear buried secrets.”

Although I am hoping that my preparations help me in November, I wonder if I can write 50,000 words in a month. Okay, I did in 2011, 2012, and 2013, but last year was a total zero. In 2014 I intended to write “Fates Maelstrom” Mark II but my total was zilch…nada. Perhaps because I hadn’t got my head around Sparkle Anwyl, or because my health intervened. Having just written 43,639 words in 100days – the 100k in 100 days Challenge – I know my limits, although that was all done ‘pantster’ style.

Or is the secret in the planning stage?

There are some good guides to that stage out there, like this one by Janice Hardy, who says for instance:

“If you like to outline, you might break down your 12,500 words into chapters to get a feel for pacing and structure. To hit your 50K-word mark, you’ll need to write 1667 words a day, so let’s say you’re aiming for a chapter a day. That would give you 30 chapters at the end of the month, a reasonable amount for your average 60-80K novel.”

So what’s my problem? Did Guido achieve anything? Would Baldrick do better?

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What lines set you alight?

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I was going to blog about ‘A world without William Shakespeare’ but the prospect was too horrendous – even if Christopher Marlowe hadn’t been killed so young.

Did that line grab you, or turn you livid with anger?

How important to you is the first line of a book? I admit there have been some great ones. My favourites, and I read these decades ago, are:

There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. — C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. – George Orwell, 1984 (1949)

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But such lists are open to debate, and trying to pick favorites can be a challenge.

Getting that opening right, finding the right words, choosing the moment to start that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer – that’s wrong, although as writers we can suffer.

At the moment, my mind is on openings, partly as I have taken on some beta reading, but also as I am struggling with my own opening line:

“Their eyes stared at Twyla without emotion and followed every move that she made up or down the stairs.”

The real question is – what makes you read on? The opening line or paragraph? The cover and blurb? Reviews?

I can remember days past when I went into a bricks & mortar bookshop and flicked through real books. Aah that smell. I started with the cover and blurb, then sampled the opening, and even flicked further on. Harder of course with e-books, but sampling is an option so I read as far as I can. To me a novel is more than a memorable first line.

Do we stop at “Who’s there?” or tarry longer with the Groundlings?

So what hooks you? What is your favourite opening? Can you envisage no Shakespeare?

Midnight Hamlet at The Globe by TheFella on Flickr

Midnight Hamlet at The Globe by TheFella on Flickr

Why the Delays? Is it the weather?

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I should put this off given the title of this post. But as the date is September 2nd and the first Wednesday of the month, it’s officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day.

August has been a month of delays, but I can’t blame snow on the tracks, or leaves. But the weather or at least the distractions of summer might have played a part.

I admit that I didn’t give my beta readers a deadline for when their comments on “Storms Compass” were needed. And I forgot that the summer is filled with distractions, from holidays, tasty BBQs, and back-to-back horse shows. So a week ago I gave my readers until September 17th, and even told those that I knew were tied up, the option of asking for longer. Now I just wait a few more weeks.

Not sure whether my brother has an excuse for moving the deadline over agreeing to help with my bridging loan to get to the USA. But that decision is being delayed as well, even though I now have the go-ahead for the next stage – the medical.

Any more delays?

Well I have to stick up my hand and admit the character profiles for “Fates Maelstrom” are delayed while I distract myself in some future world.

But isn’t that the fault of summer? Do you blame me?

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The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. We post our thoughts on our own blogs. We talk about our doubts and the fears we have conquered. We discuss our struggles and triumphs. We offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling.

Please visit others in the group and connect with other writers – aim for a dozen new people each time. 

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter hashtag is #IWSG

And be sure to check out our Facebook group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/IWSG13/

We also have a t-shirt now! You can purchase it here – http://www.neatoshop.com/product/IWSG

The awesome co-hosts for the September 2 posting of the IWSG are Julie Flanders,Murees Dupé, Dolorah at Book Lover, Christine Rains, and Heather Gardner! 

The Candle

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There was a single twinkling candle on my chocolate fudge sundae. One candle for another year older, if not a year healthier. Friday August 7th 2015 was a turning point – well it felt that way for my stomach.

It churned and squirmed along with my head as we drove through the lush green Welsh scenery, across the mountains between Harlech and Bodnant. I hadn’t felt so car sick since I was a child – not physically sick, just feeling rotten. Is this because I’m into my second childhood?

But the journey was worthwhile as the food was delicious at the Bodnant Welsh Food Centre, which is “set in the heart of the Conwy Valley and surrounded by the stunning scenery of Snowdonia”. Best part was browsing their farm shop, and being tempted to buy some tasty treats from chili chocolate to locally sourced beef sausages. What happened to the vegetarian? Disgraceful – or not?

I did get to glimpse odd bits of the scenery on the way home. I needed to, as the fictional setting for “Fates Maelstrom” is in this locality, about 10 miles south-west of Bodnant and on the edge of Snowdonia. Through the mists of car sickness, I caught sight of some crags like the one above Crag-o-Niwl, my fictional Welsh village.

There's a crag in there somewhere! Craig Bwlch y Moch poking up out of a dense forest of rampant vegetation above Tremadog. Photo: Al Leary

There’s a crag in there somewhere! Craig Bwlch y Moch poking up out of a dense forest of rampant vegetation above Tremadog. Photo: Al Leary ~ http://www.groundupclimbing.com/newsitem.asp?nsid=185

So overall it was a good birthday, despite the childhood throwback, and a day that I won’t forget.

What next then? Well other than a birthday in Idaho on August 7th 2016. That depends on the emigration process to the USA, which entails many hurdles.

That candle also threw a light on one aspect of my writing future: where this Blog goes from here.

At the moment, I manage to blog once a month, in the IWSG monthly post on the first Wednesday. However, I feel that the posts should be more regular, for instance once a week – possibly on Monday or Tuesday.

If I go to that new schedule, then I need a new theme, as my intermittent ramblings don’t come up to scratch or muster.

There are three possibilities:

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  • Inspiring writers – a weekly blog about authors that have inspired me with their writing. The post would include my favourite books by those writers. I envisage choosing a crime/mystery writer one week, such as Dick Francis or Linwood Barclay. Then a SF/Fantasy writer the next. Like Charles de Lint or Roger Zelazny. I could intersperse these posts with interviews with published writers that I am online friends with. This is the simplest option, and more akin to the A to Z Challenge, but much more laid back.
  • Boise Skyline

    Boise Skyline ~ Copyright: http://www.visitidaho.org/photos/

    Moving to the USA – a weekly blog about the process that my wife and I are going through in trying to get to Idaho, USA. It could address the hurdles as well as the breakthroughs, and the prospects that await us. This would be more of a diary with a few suggestion for others undertaking the same expedition. I’m not sure that this would work as a weekly post, but with so many hurdles it could.

  • fd6a0b9306bea4eb33c76f2f4578481b (1)Living with Multiple Sclerosis – a weekly blog that is a chance for me to explain the condition, vent about the MonSter, and perhaps help others. Much more seat-of-the-pants than the other two, and also the disability gives me good days and bad days. Of course, I can’t help mentioning the MonSter in other posts, especially the American ones. Of course, my health is a key reason behind the move.

Of course, I could intersperse these and do one per week, choosing whatever I was inspired to write. Call it Pick-n-Mix.

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So what would you like to see me Blog about? Inspiring Writers, Moving to the USA, Living with Multiple Sclerosis, or ‘Pick-n-Mix’?

Was the first novel too easy?

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As this is the first Wednesday in August, I’m talking about ‘my debut’ for this monthly Insecure Writer’s Support Group contribution.

As some of you may have noticed, my debut novel “Spiral of Hooves” is no longer available, since I parted amicably with my publishers. I have all the rights back, but I need to find another publisher. That should be easy as the novel has already been accepted by one publisher and got 5* and 4* reviews.

Life is never that easy. The first publisher that I offered “Spiral of Hooves” rejected it, but I don’t know why. Is it too long? Is it badly written? Has it passed its read-by date? Or did it appeal to the original publisher but not my next choice?

When I was preparing the document for submission, I did wonder about some scenes. Should I have cut them out, and re-edited the whole novel? That might be my next step – unless I work on the sequel next, then leave “Spiral of Hooves” as back-story.

However, I also have “Storms Compass” out with my second group of beta readers so that could be my next step. But they have had it for six weeks and only one has responded. It won’t be easy re-writing the post-apocalyptic novel with just one lot of comments.

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Of course, I have the first book in my “Snowdon Shadows” series, for which I have been wading through character sketches and interviews. Should that be next?

The option that I favour, at the moment, is to retire from writing, recognise that there are far better writers out there, and just focus on reading some great books. The pile is tumbling out of my Kindle so I need to catch up.

Just don’t mention the failing attempt to emigrate. Just don’t go there.

But tell me what you think about my options. Maybe I might even listen, for once. How do you deal with mental confusion?

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The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. We post our thoughts on our own blogs. We talk about our doubts and the fears we have conquered. We discuss our struggles and triumphs. We offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling.

Please visit others in the group and connect with other writers – aim for a dozen new people each time. 

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter hashtag is #IWSG

And be sure to check out our Facebook group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/IWSG13/

We also have a t-shirt now! You can purchase it here – http://www.neatoshop.com/product/IWSG

The awesome co-hosts for the this August 5 posting of the IWSG are Nancy Gideon, Bob R Milne, Doreen McGettigan, Chrys Fey, Bish Denham, and Pat Garcia!