Category: VAMPIRES

11 May Updates – Preview of Lotus

Sneak Preview
This week’s is a unique (to date) look at a book I have been working on on and off for two years. It has no title as yet, but for the purpose of this I will call it Escher’s Staircase. It’s not easily categorized, so I think I will just give you the excerpt and let it speak for itself.

Escher’s Staircase (Later published as Lotus)
Copyright © 2012 by Lazlo Ferran
All Rights Reserved.

“I’m not fucking going down that! You gotta be crazy!”
I pulled away from the open hatch. “Don’t anybody think about pushing me either! Six hundred and eighty bloody feet! That’s … that’s like as high as a bloody sky-scraper!”
“Well, if you don’t do it, you will never get beyond Cadet Helmsman. Up to you matey!”quipped Shorty, lifting the glass bottle’s open neck to his scowling lips. Everything about Shorty was a tattoo – gaudy, colourful and in bad taste. Continue reading “11 May Updates – Preview of Lotus” →

Many thoughts and projects

I have completed the penultimate edit of Iron II. It was a bit of an epic. I was determined to get it down from 104,000 words to less than 100,000. Every time I cut out chunks it still seemed the same length. I don’t know how that was possible. I cut out a whole chapter and it was still 104,000 words long. Admittedly I had to add some stuff back in to make the story flow and keep the continuity. The last 10 words took 2 hours, but it is now 99,998 words long. Hope to publish in about a month.

I have also rewritten the ending of Ordo Lupus II, and I think it’s much better. It also resulted in a story 30,000 words shorter. At 80,000 words, it could be my shortest yet. It wasn’t really the length that bothered me, but that the original climax followed by a second climax didn’t seem to work: the momentum was lost somewhere. Now, I think it works really well. Hope to publish this one later this year.

I have finally started on Iron III which will revolve totally around Jake Nanden again and have many more battles. I see Iron II now as the eye of the storm in the flow of the trilogy.

I am already making tentative steps towards writing a very serious novel which I hope will break a few boundaries. It will certainly be ‘adults only’.

I also am developing an outline for a story set in WWII and basically revolving around aircraft. In Ordo Lupus there was a raid on Holland in WWII, and I really enjoyed writing it. I had good feedback from readers who like that sort of thing, but other readers found it boring. So it would nice to try a book for those that might enjoy it. Of course there is a risk I am trying too many genres and I might lose credibility.

Iron II: Unknown Place, Unknown Universe

I am hoping to publish Iron II: Unknown Place, Unknown Universe in March/April after an extensive rewrite. I have taken out a Chapter’s equivalent in the middle of the book, added something new to the final battle (which will tie in with Book III) and generally tidied up the dialogue, adding idioms for the three youngsters to make their individual speech-patterns more distinct. It’s the first time I have written a story with three lead characters and it’s quite a challenge making speech clear without writing ‘he said’ and ‘she said’ all over the place.

I am also thinking about the plot for Iron III – which I think will take place predominantly in space, and several other stories which I have in mind.
My review in the Science Fiction and Fantasy South Africa group didn’t materialise (yet?) but I am hoping one will appear For Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate soon on Big Al’s Blog.
Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate Paperback is now out as a Second Edition with the same cover as the e-book.