Category: ATLANTIS

Two Short Stories – Work in Progress

I am up to chapter 3 now doing basic corrections of Iron/Too Bright the Sun. It’s going well and frankly, haven’t found too much in the basic plot or narrative sweep to change – at least in a big way. I can think of a few things that might add depth, and one or two details that will be useful if there is a sequel, which I am developing ideas for.

Somebody has told me that Henry’s Car is very funny, which I am really pleased about. I really tried to go for belly laughs and it seems I may have achieved this, at least in a few places.

Lacunashka (lacuna: an empty space or something missing, -ashka: Russian diminutive for male names) is much deeper. Very dark – in fact the darkest thing I have ever written. The same person who liked Henry’s Car said he was so depressed by Lacunashka that he was going to watch Schindler’s list to cheer him up. Ha! Ha!

Oh yes and from somebody else’s suggestion I removed the frame from the front cover (only on the Kindle version) of Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate just to see if that helps it to sell. I must admit, after all the problems I had getting the frame on there, it does look quite good without it. I also dropped the price to $2.98 for a while just too see how it fares.

Thats all for now.

Another New Short Story Finished

I have just completed another short story: Henry’s Car, which is now available in a collection of four short stories on Amazon along with the free first chapter of Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate.

I have one short story to complete: Lacunashka, before I get back to editing Iron/Too Bright the Sun.

I Think I Have Got Myself Stuck

Oh dear. I have got myself into a bit of a tight spot with the plot. My heroes are stuck at the final battle scene, and have discovered a plant that can be grown to make the matrix for storing huge amounts of charge for lasers. I know sum1, Rebekah who is nanotech expert, and she tells me that nanotech takes huge energy cos the nanobots are grown in vacuums. So I thought cool – that means growing plants could be cheaper and faster. Problem is that on Io (moon of Jupiter) there is a thin atmosphere anyway and plants need Oxygen and light and water, so actually my plot falls apart. I need some kind of reason for the plants. It’s not really crucial to the plot in a logical sense but it just feels right.

I am stalled on this right now: because it is the final scene, I can’t really continue until I have fixed this.

If anybody comes up with a reason, let me know. Solutions on a postcard please.

I am Getting Some Useful input

Well, I have done another rewrite of the first chapter of Ordo Lupus – even though it is already available.
Basically one of the last crits I received on critters.org (they come in for about a week after you submit) was by somebody who I feel is a very experienced writer. Rather like what they are advising me to do more of with my writing, they actually showed me what do do with parts of my text, rather than just tell me.

The problem was with thoughts or more specificaly POV thoughts (another acronym I learned – Point of View). In many places, because my book is in first-person he expresses thoughts which are left unsaid. Until now I didn’t know what the convention for this was, so I just put them in single parentheses, thus ‘thought’. Continue reading “I am Getting Some Useful input” →

Update on Things I’m Working on

Not sure what I am going to write but a friend mailed me today asking how things are going and it occured to me I haven’t posted for a while.

Ok – Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate
It’s being professionally previewed: ie a company reads it and assesses the cover, narrative cohesion, story, pricing, characterisation etc against its market. It’s relatively cheap at about 60 dollars and I think it is better value for market than these so-called ‘promotional’ packages where they just give you a banner on some obscure site and then add you to a db which is used by US book sellers to locate books. I mean why would they even find my book, let alone actually decide to stock it without reading a decent review?

Continue reading “Update on Things I’m Working on” →

The Take Home Message

I haven’t posted for a while because I have just been so busy. My day job is taking up more and more of my time and energy – out of office hours too.

Well Ordo Lupus is now published at (defunct Lulu link removed) and any reviews comments would be gratefully received.

I had this idea for promoting it: to hire a wolf and put a sandwich board on it with a poster of my book and walk it around the bookshop districts of London ie Charing Cross Road and the Embankment. I have actually made enquiries of a theatrical animal handling company but I cannot see it happening. It has to be illegal cos even with a young tame wolf which is muzzled, it’s got to be capable of some damage with its claws if it gets riled. Continue reading “The Take Home Message” →

Finding Titles for your Books

I have changed my mind on the title of the novel which is now almost ready for publication. I finally settled on:

Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate.

I really like this title – not too much like a Harry Potter title but still has that ring to it. I like the rhythm of it actually. Also like the fact that I managed to get two descriptive words – gate and temple in there. The temple bit will be fairly obvious to most readers but the gate bit is only alluded to in the text.

The manuscript is now uploaded to lulu.com.

I have started work on building the cover for the book. I am having some problems getting permission for some of the images. One of the owners of an image seems to be uncontactable.

As far as the new sci-fi story is going, I have been making good progress and the plot is developing. What is surprising though is that an element of plot has crept in which I never planned and I have no idea where it will go. Where do these things come from?

The Humour in My Writing 2

Humour in Writing
Update to my post of 3 April (Humour in Writing 1): I found that very few people understood my joke and it’s true I find visual stuff much funnier than wordplay which seems to be what most people find funny. One person laughed her head off at my joke though so I console myself with this. It seems that it is risky putting jokes in a story and I may avoid it but at the moment I still want to try it because it develops a subplot of the story. I have been thinking though, and I realise now why stand-up comedians do that little bit just before a joke – to build up tension and set the scene. So what the guy on the box is going to do is say this:

“Funny things – aliens. I have heard they’re violent most of the time but when drunk are really a laugh and love dancing. Opposite to humans really. Continue reading “The Humour in My Writing 2” →

Reaching Your Target Audience

Well, I have decided to call the book ‘Ordo Lupus and The Winged Serpent’. It’s not a name I thought up (thanks – you know who you are and there will definitely be acknowledgement), but it’s better than the titles I thought up and others like it.

Target Audience
I initially aimed this book at Baby Boomers – well actually I basically aimed it at fantasy/suspense thrillers and then pleased myself, but it has ended up more pure fantasy than I intended. I don’t really mind that. It’s often been said that there is an element of sci-fi in all my stories and I suppose fantasy is pretty close to that, so maybe I am homing in on what I really like writing (and perhaps I am getting better at it). I now just need to actually make contact with my audience! I had a lot of friends into this kind of writing many years ago at college, but I seem to have lost contact with them. I do not have a single close friend who is into the genre now, so I am contacting interest groups on lulu.com (where my work is published). I will see if they are interested in reviewing my work, and I will review some of theirs in return. Continue reading “Reaching Your Target Audience” →

The Humour in my Writing 1

OK. I have arrived at a point in my new sci-fi story when I need to write some genuine comedy – a joke actually. I often mix humour into stories but I have never tried proper comedy before or a joke. So I am going to try it out here and see what people think. The humour (that might, I hope, make the joke funny) has this context in the story. At this time (whenever it is) aliens are known to exist but nobody has seen one yet. There is a stand up comedian who is busking on a street corner and the main character sees him and hears the joke and laughs. Later on he sees the same guy on a talent show on the equivalent of tv and perhaps later again, each time developing his jokes further.

When he is seen on the street corner he is dressed in suit, standing on a soap box (futuristic equivalent) and wearing a satirical rubber mask in the likeness of the presedent of US and Canada. He is interspersing his jokes with humorous comments about passers-by. Here is the joke: Continue reading “The Humour in my Writing 1” →