Tag: Vampire

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” →

Fighting a Dip in sales – 6 April Updates

Here is this week’s sneak preview – a short story provionally entitled Vampire: Beneficence, to be published as the first story in the new Short Stories Volume III along with The Jesus Monster. The punctuation may seem a little strange without the paragraphs before this excerpt but it is correct.

Vampire: Beneficence

On a warm evening at the end of the 2010 summer, I was stalking the Vicar of St James Church in Clerkenwell. I am what is commonly called a vampire, d’you see …?
“Let me get one thing straight, though. We have been around forever. Homo Sapiens wouldn’t be Home Sapiens without us. We are the more evolved manifestation of the species. I know all this because I was once a writer, and have spent many lifetimes researching the subject. I have even visited the far-past … but that is another story … Continue reading “Fighting a Dip in sales – 6 April Updates” →

Self-imposed deadline approaches

I am hoping to publish Ordo Lupus II: The Devil’s Own Dice in August. The cover design is under way and the result will be much simpler and cleaner than the last one. I have completed the final edit and I am pretty pleased with it. I did a double take when I realised its only got seven chapters! The book is the shortest I have written for a long time – perhaps ever, but it’s all there. I think it works. On a different note, I have joined a forum for the Stirling Aircraft Society. I will give then a slight boost by posting a link below. The other reason is to remind me where it is! For some reason, (dunno if its anything to do with the new sharing function whereby when you are logged in you get links relevant to your previous, and your mates, searches) some days there is a bunch of links there to it when I type ‘Short Stirling Recovery’ and then the next day there is none! I can search for hours and not find it. Very frustrating. I must be better organised. Also, where on earth is this trend leading. Will I end up being broke when I am retired but owning a rusty bit of Short Stirling fuselage? Stirling Aircraft Society.

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.

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.

These are my Latest Updates

I haven’t had much time to post recently. Yesterday most people I sent freebies of Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate received them in the post (I sent out 10 copies) including my parents. Most seem to like the look of it. Still not sure about the cover. There is some dissension so I may try changing it slightly on the kindle version to see if it has any effect.

In the mean time work continues on Iron/Too Bright the Sun. I am thinking now that it does lend itself to being a trilogy and perhaps that’s why I cannot decide on the title. Perhaps the series should be called the Iron Trilogy and the first book would be Too Bright the Sun. In any case I am getting ideas for the second volume. I need to spend some time working through them in my mind to see if they are viable.

I do really want to understand why Inchoate sells so well. I think it is a combination of the choppy, fast paced dialogue and narrative combined with the viewpoint of a delinquent adolescent, and perhaps the theme of sci-fi, religion and time travel.

New Short Story opener

For those who haven’t noticed the twitter entry, Ordo Lupus has been accepted for publication by Createspace.

How is this for a short story opener. Is it worth pursuing?

“God’s body man, giveth me the 4th gear! Now!”
“Fucking press the damned clutch you madman!” I shouted back over the reverberating din of the V8 Chevy block, attempting some humility and knowing ‘damned’ was the only swear-word King Henry VIII would actually acknowledge.
The large pallid face broke into a toothy grin. “Raymond. You are an impertinent – what is the modern phrase – jackass, but I like you!” His big foot, somewhat incongruously contained in a size 14 Nike trainer, pressed clumsily down on the accelerator and I slammed the gearstick into 4th. A moment later the King, hunched over the royal Sparco steering wheel, turned the car to the left, and as, dirt spurting from the drifting rear wheels, we emerged from the turn, I realised we were actually going to finish in third place. Not yet a win, but for a man new, not only to the sport, but to the century, it was not a bad effort. Henry roared his approval as we crossed the line.

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?” →

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” →