Tag: editing

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.

How About Winged Serpents?

I am going to take my time to respond to Gary’s recent comment that the serpent in the Garden of Eden is depicted with wings in some cases.

Although I have never seen images like this (to my knowledge) of a serpent with wings in the Garden of Eden, it does not suprise me to see one now. We have often had little tussles Gary over the way I see themes at the core of Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate, and the way you see them. I have referred sometimes to werewolves and warg.

The reason I can do this (and still think myself sane) is because, for me the modern concept of werewolves and vampires etc, is probably a romanticised and glamorized version of what was once, by some, seen as more real than mere myth. I see the roots of these myths and legends being far more interesting, buried as they are deep within esoteric knowledge that is hidden from most of the world. That is why the wolves in my book are not just wolves but communicate on some level with people. The main character in the book is a wolf-being in a human body (ie with the Earthly clothes of a human).
Similarly the Serpent was once a human. Continue reading “How About Winged Serpents?” →

Writing Style : to be Short and Brief

Been thinking a bit about writing style – the fact that sometimes I am torn between short, really punchy writing like Warren Ellis and more discursive writing like Tolkien.

The thing is that I think very tight dialogue is great if the world is very familiar and so you don’t have to worry too much about the reader knowing his/her way round. It’s especially good too if the main character follows some kind of template – stereotype is too strong a word.
But since my writing is really mainly about people, my characters don’t comfortably fit into patterns so there really seems to be a limit to how often I can do that kind of brief writing.

Any thoughts anyone?

I find it quite nice to post brief thoughts to twitter but 140 characters is a bit short to really get anything down other than soundbites on philosophical matters.

Synopsis for Too Bright The Sun

Okay so I am playing around here. That may be the title of new book and may not. I finished the first draft anyway. It’s looking good but who am I to tell. Wait for the first reader to tell me it’s crap.

Been messing around doing the synopsise (is that the correct plural?) for my books so I can publish as E-books on createspace and kindle. I realised that the tags within createspace and kindle don’t work that great really and then I discovered that social tagging is the next big thing. In fact I have been investigating a product (or suite of products really) called OpenCalais (Link no longer available) which is for Web 3.0 stuff. Very technical really but they have this tool here:
(Link no longer available)
which allows you to paste in text and it works out the social tags for you. It’s really pretty good although its bit freaky sometimes just how good it is. For instance I put in this text:

“He has a unique gift, but his daughter has been murdered by a Winged Serpent which only he believes in. His grandfather, a writer and occultist, is not where he should be; in his grave, and time is running out for a marriage forged in the resistance struggles of the Second World War. Can he use his gift to save his marriage and survive the mysterious events which threaten to overwhelm him?”

and one of the tags it came up with was Adam and Eve. I mean where is that from? And the freaky thing is that the book really does have a bit about Adam and Eve in a pivotal scene and this underpins everything in this paragraph.

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.

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 suprizing 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?

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” →

Offering Readers Choice of Pace

In my novel Insanity, some readers have preferred certain parts and others have felt they are too long or too detailed so I am thinking of offering an ‘extended’ version of the book, like a ‘directors cut’ which will have the longer air battle and the whole chapter in Bulgaria for those who want more background. it just seems a shame to cut out all of this which some have liked. in fact some wanted more air battles.

What do you think of this idea? It might offer people the choice of what sort of pace they want.
Incidentally what do you think of the title? Do you think it should be shortened?