Category: HOLY GRAIL

Ordo Lupus 2 update-Engrossed in Writing

It’s been a long time, I know, since the last update. To be honest, I have been heavily engrossed in writing the above manuscript. It’s taken up just about every minute of my spare time. It’s going to be worth it though. I think it’s much more taught than Ordo Lupus I and has a really meaty climax. It still has The Serpent in it but explores the werewolf thing a lot further. The title is a secret: it’s one of those titles that you think, ‘Hey, somebody must have used that before’, and then you realise that they haven’t. So I am not going to tell you in case somebody nicks it.

I also went to the Tower of London last weekend. If you haven’t ever been or haven’t been for a long time (like me) then I thoroughly recommend it. Of course I am fascinated by the 11th, 12th and 13th century anyway but it has a tremendous atmosphere. The White Tower is especially good – with rows of lovely Norman oak beams and huge fireplaces – all original. Big windows too for the day. It’s also surprisingly snug. I think William must have had a great time living there.

They have a few actors dotted about doing their stuff in period costume and I chatted to a lady doing her crocheting. I haven’t a clue what she was talking about! She said something about her husband having been murdered (well, this is the Tower of London!) but the more I tried to talk, the more convoluted her story became. Anyway it was a laugh and the tourists around me seemed quite intrigued.

Contrary to rumour, it’s not to difficult to get in: I went at about 2pm on a Saturday and I queued for about 10 mins for ticket. I didn’t queue at all to get into the Tower. I took hundreds of photos too.

Making Savage Cuts as an Editor

Well, I have had to savage my own book – not by reviews but by cutting. The other night I had had enough of the younger readers complaining that the first 2 chapters were a bit slow so I took an axe to it and cut from 40,000 words down to just 25,000. Gone are some of my beloved sections on Bulgaria and the second world war and the childhood and wartime romances are reduced to just one line. Now the story starts with the murder of the main protagonist’s daughter. It seems a bit weird reading it back, stripped-down as it is but I think once I get used to it, it will probably be better. It certainly has producing some interesting effects. A reverie now lasts more than one chapter – unusual, but I am sure there are precedents.

Ah well, the main problem is the people who have already bought it. I have offered to send manuscripts of the new, shorter chapters to them. I also pointed out that they have read the Extended Version of the first Edition. I am also considering doing a different cover for the Kindle version.

I Have Received useful Feedback

OK all the readers who are going to complete my draft (of the werewolf story) have completed it and I have all the feedback. It makes for very interesting reading. The curious thing – which I didn’t expect but probably should have, is that they all completely disagree.

While one person thinks that one chapter or section is boring, for another it is their favourite part. This makes it quite difficult to do any editing at all although there were some areas that all felt could be improved. A secondary problem arose from that though:

For instance one passage that several felt was really extraneous I deleted, and then did a kind of flash-back just for the vital details of that section – like a summary. But then people said it sounded like I was rushing on to the next bit. Even worse, one reader said that for the next section there then wasn’t enough background so that I even contemplated putting the original section back in. Continue reading “I Have Received useful Feedback”