12th February 2012

I've had a rule ever since I finished working at HSBC and that was that every day while I was at home, I would write at least 1,000 words on each of the three projects I'm working on. It's actually paid off quite nicely!

THE RED ROAD is now at 40,000 words, following the vomit / brain-dump draft. I can now start on outlining and then construct the actual first draft from it. That will probably double the word count to 80,000 or so. After that, it's editing and redrafting and that, but I should maybe have it done by the end of the year. Maybe. I have to get a new job first, so it's possible it will shift to next year, instead.

Likewise, THE NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE is standing at 39,000 words. There is still quite a lot left to write on this book, and I've left a lot of gaping holes in scenes that I've not been able to complete. I hope to get this to 60,000 words before outlining properly and starting on the first draft. As it's a fantasy, I will need to get the book to 120,000 words or so. And even that, I'm told, is sort of short. I'm not going to write a book as long as TBFTSS 3 again, though. 165,000 words. I must be mad.

I ordered a print out of the second draft of TBFTSS 3 last week, so I'll have that to get stuck into when I get back. I'm feeling a lot more confident about finishing it this year, so a December 2012 publication date is very likely.

My Australia trip is all ready! Getting nervous now, as you might expect. I've not been on a flight as long as this - I will be travelling for 30 hours until I reach Darwin, but I get a 6 hour stop over in Melbourne. I'll just have to be careful not to fall asleep in the airport lounge..! I'll be looking forward to the sun and the warmth, though - we've had freezing whether here, snow and everything!

Okay, it wasn't that much - you couldn't really sledge in it (although some people tried). Still, I'm looking forward to some blazing sun (please be hot in Australia..!) As I look at the temperatures, I can see that it's 33C in Darwin, 31C in Alice Springs, 23C in Melbourne, and 25C in Sydney. That's a whole lot better than the 1C I'm looking at over here!

There won't be a Sunday Blogging next week, or for the next four, as I obviously won't be here. I'm going off grid and am quite looking forward to it.

Till next time (um... mid-to-late March)

5th February 2012

I almost feel like writing "see last week" on this post. Hmmm, sort of.

I've more or less finished the 2nd draft of TBFTSS 3 and have sent off for a print copy, so that I can plunge straight back into it when I get back. This is now going to be all about reading the book and making sure I mostly like it. It will then be about editing the bits I don't like and trying to bring the word count down. I'll have to seriously resist the urge to add bits, as at 166,000 words, it's very, very long!

As for my other writing projects, I'm close to approaching the limit on what I can do with THE RED ROAD. The book is only supposed to be about 80,000 words when everything is all said and done, so if I can get my "vomit draft" (as it's called) to about 40,000 words, I'll be happy.

My other novel, THE NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE, is going quite smoothly and I still have mountains of stuff to add to it. This one's vomit will need to get to 60,000 words before I can commence writing the first draft. I hope to have learned a lot about the world and the characters by that point, making it flow a lot easier.

How long before any of these see the light of day, I don't know. I'm off to Australia in just over a week and won't be back for a month. I won't be doing any writing while I'm out there (a good thing, to be honest), and when I get back I'll have to look for a new job. Right now, I'm managing just over 1,000 words on each book every day, as well as doing the drafts and edits for TBFTSS 3. Once I get a new job, I imagine that I'll only have time for one or two of these novels. And that means that TBFTSS 3 will get top priority, as it's the most anticipated. I'll probably work on THE READ ROAD after that's done, and finally NSD.

Phew.

It's the SFX Weekender this weekend, but sadly I'm missing it. It's up in Wales this year, but as I'm heading off to Oz I can't really afford to go. I'll look to head to SFX #4, should it happen, next year.

Eastercon will be my next con, I think. I might also head to Fantasycon in September, to try and get two cons done in one year.

Till next time.

29th January 2012

The second edition of HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS has been on sale on Amazon for £0.99 / $0.99 since December 2011, and will return to full price on Wednesday 1st February! If you want a copy before then, you had better act fast.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Honour-Knights-Second-Battle-System/dp/B005IDGQZ2/

http://www.amazon.com/Honour-Knights-Second-Battle-System/dp/B005IDGQZ2/

(Full price means $2.99 and £1.99)

This week has been largely the same as the last - I have been getting up, writing, shopping, writing, sleeping, eating, etc.

I commenced work on the last 10% of the second draft of TBFTSS 3 this week, looking for parts in the manuscript where the creative process has escaped me and I had decided to simply mark it as a TODO and moved on. I've slowly been filling these out each day, as well as rewriting scenes that have demanded it. I plan to order in a print copy before I go away, so that I can jump straight back into it once I return from my little Australia trip. The book has now grown to close to 163,000 words. I hope it will not grow too much further, as I have to commence the third draft soon. Editing will commence after that, and then I can proofread and finally submit to an editor. December 2012 publication..? Hmmm, perhaps.

I've started reading TWELVE by Jasper Kent, a vampire novel set in 1812. I'm not overly keen on vampire books, as I feel the whole vampire thing has long outstayed its welcome. Please come back in another 10 years. However, I picked this novel up because I'm intrigued by the historical setting, as well as that Jasper intends to portray these as true vampires, and not the sparkly sort that go around kissing high school girls.

I'm also working on two other books right now, as anyone who follows my Twitter might have noticed.

The first is a fantasy book that concerns an adventurer-turned-messenger, who is seeking a way to rid himself of a curse. Right now, I'm in the "vomit writing" phase of the story: literally just writing down ideas I have and making up scenes as I see fit. I generally have no idea of what is going to happen, and just free write 1,000 words or so a day. Right now, the main character, Duncan Nylus, is on a boat heading south. He's met a boy who works on the ship, going by the name of Raff, who is something of a cheeky chappy. I've decided that he's going to be speaking in a cockney accent when I come to write the first draft. Right now, the book is untitled, but I'm leaning towards calling it THE NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE.

The second book is a thriller set at a boys' boarding school in the 90s (specifically, 1992). This one is moving along a lot faster than the other, mainly because I have experience of boarding school life and researching the era is simple. Poll Tax, John Major, Wayne's World, Basic Instinct, Gameboys, Game Gears. No internet or mobile phones, though. Car phones was where it was at. Terms such as dweeb, NOT!, gating and rustication also feature. This book is going to be called THE RED ROAD.

I leave for Australia two weeks tomorrow, and am a little stuck for what I really need to take with me. I've got my plane tickets, the tour tickets, the visa (UK passport holders need a visa to enter Australia)... and I just need money, and to pack clothes. I'm sure I'll think of something uber important before then.

I've been taking part (only a little) in a debate over at the SFF Chronicles writers' forum, about the amount of money people make with traditional publishing vs self publishing. Now, I don't really want to get too mixed up in that debate, because it could generate a great deal of fighting and make people fall out.

However, one thing I would say is that I don't think its wrong for writers to hedge their bets and do both: chase commercial contracts, but also dabble in self publishing. THE NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE, the fantasy book described above, is one that I will pitch to publishers and agents, once its ready. It's part of a series of three planned books, and I feel it will be more appropriate for the commercial market than the self published market. The RED ROAD, however, is a book that I will be self publishing. I don't believe any publisher will think it right for their lists. Also, I would rather sell it at a £1.99 / $2.99 price point.

Till next time.

22nd January 2012

I completed booking up my trip to Australia this week: tour, flight, hotels, everything. I also remembered to apply for the ETA Visa thingy, to let me in! I'll have to check that I have everything else done before I fly out on 13th February!

I finished Resistance 3 last Sunday night. Verdict? This is quite possibly my candidate for Most Disappointing Game of 2012. Yes, already. What was my beef with the game? As already stated in last week's post, I was pretty annoyed that Nathan Hale was removed from the game at the end of R2. There was no reason for this, as far as I'm concerned. The story after that shifted over to another character, who I didn't care very much for. I also felt the story was ultimately nonsense, with nothing resolved by the very end. Ideally, the main Resistance trilogy should have started in England, shifted to America, and then finally to Russia, where the Chimera first appeared.

Oh well.

I'm now playing Saints Row, The Third. If you've never played these games, they're basically Grand Theft Auto, except a lot more fun. Think of the silliness that went on in the GTA 3 series and you get the idea. GTA4 tried to be too realistic and take itself too seriously, and I ultimately lost interest in the series.

I'm now about 90% done on the second draft of BFTSS3. There are scenes and sequences that need to be rewritten, which make up the remaining 10%, that I'm hoping to get done before I head away for a month. I took a break from it this weekend, to do other things, but will get back into it on Monday. The timing will be good, as I will get to distance myself from it for a good 4 or 5 weeks, and can then return to it with fresh eyes.

I finished reading Robert V S Redick's THE RIVER OF SHADOWS yesterday, too. I've very much enjoyed reading the story, and will be very interested to see how the entire thing ends. Robert's prose is astounding - he paints his scenes exceptionally well and really makes the reader feel as though they have been transported to another world. I've heard from a little bird that he will be at Eastercon 2012, so I will be looking forward to seeing him again and getting my copy of ROS signed (I first met Robert in 2010, along with Stephen Deas, author of THE ADAMANTINE PLACE).

Next up on my to-be-read pile is TWELVE by Jasper Kent, as well as THE ELECTRIC CHURCH by Jeff Somers. I expect I'll get both of those finished by the time I get back from Australia. After that, I'll be making a start on my first Angry Robot book - KELL'S LEGEND, by Andy Remic.

Till next time...

15th January 2012

I've had quite a productive week with writing, this week.

As I'm not working, and am currently a free agent, I decided to this time put my freedom to good use and have embarked on a number of different projects: as well as writing the second draft of TBFTSS Book 3, I have also commenced work on a fantasy book about a messenger attempting to rid himself of a curse, and a thriller set at a boys' boarding school, in the 90s. I say thriller, it's more like a load of anecdotes and weird boarding school culture, with a bit of murder thrown in for good measure.

I have no idea what will happen with these books, whether they will be published or not, but I'm enjoying writing them none the less. Both involve a great deal of free writing (the fantasy book a whole lot more than the other), so it's interesting to see where the stories want to go. I have ideas for points I need to hit in each though, and have a good idea of where and how they must end.

My Australia trip planning is all over the shop right now: I had a choice between two different tours, both of which have their pros and cons. The first is a tour from Darwin to Sydney, that friends in Australia have cautioned me could result in a lot of dusty plains and not much else. The second is a tour along the east coast, starting at Cairns and ending in Sydney. This sounds fine, although I'm warned the east coast is largely frequented by 18-30s type holidays and I might not get the chance to soak up a lot of culture (beer being more likely).

Some have suggested that I fly into Cairns and then do the trip myself, but I've always been extremely bad at organising myself and would probably get no further than the end of the street in which the hotel was situated. I'm also not fond of travelling around new places on my own. I'm sure I'll come up with something.

Still playing Resistance 3. It's an enjoyable game, but not a great one. It feels like a paint-by-numbers shooter, that hasn't a thing on the first game; the atmosphere is missing and it doesn't feel like something that happened in World War 1, or the 1940s. The changes in the lore, as well as the removal of Hale as the protagonist, are also somewhat grating. I expect I will finish it sometime early next week, and will then form a more objective opinion of the whole package. One thing I will say is that I probably won't be playing any more FPSs from here on out. It's a tired genre, that needs to go away for a long, long time. Which is why I'm glad to see that a new X-COM game is in the works, one that is basically an HD makeover of the original 90s hit.

I saw that THE THIRD SIDE has been doing some good work on the UK Amazon Kindle chart, spending a few days as #1 space opera. Sales in January have been up considerably, compared to the rest of the year. I'm guessing this is because people are spending money they got at Christmas, and are also looking for books to read on their Kindles.

I hope you enjoy the book, all those who have bought it.

Till next time.

8th January 2012

Happy New Year to you all, and welcome to my first Sunday Blogging of 2012!

I've been up to a few things this week. Those who read this blog regularly (or just occasionally tune into the waffle I spout on Twitter), will know that I finished working at HSBC just before Christmas. I'm now planning a couple of holidays, but am spending the time in between staying at home and attempting to write.

Right now, I write from 9 till 12, and then from 1:30 till 3. It's actually quite exhausting working such a schedule, but I'm not regretting having left the bank at all. I will, of course, have to look for a new job soon, but I don't plan on doing so until about March.

I also went to Forbidden Planet on Thursday, to attend Adam Christopher's signing of his début novel, EMPIRE STATE. Adam gave a reading, answered a number of questions on the World Builder project (an initiative by Angry Robot, that allows interested parties to create new stories set in the EMPIRE STATE world), and signed a good deal of books. The turnout was great, and after everything was wrapped up we headed off to the pub for a good catch up.

Game-wise, I've started playing Resistance 3, probably the last entry in the series. While I'm enjoying it, I've found it a little odd how Insomniac appeared to have contradicted their original plot, changing what was mostly established in the first game as a Russian super soldier virus gone wrong, to an alien invasion. Certain things in the game seem to have been lost or now brushed aside, such as that the Chimera favoured the cold to survive and were highly susceptible to fire, and that they had built the ice towers themselves, in order to create these environments. Now, it seems like the Chimera once lived on Earth and had hidden the towers deep within the planet.

Hmmmmmmmm.

Next week will involve much of the same: writing and redrafting and editing. I'm about 75% of the way through the second draft of BATTLE FOR THE SOLAR SYSTEM, Book 3. I have about 6 chapters left to redraft, and then a few scenes and put in and rewrite, and then I can give the book its first proper read through and see how it all hangs together. I'm hoping to have that all done within the next month or so.

Till next time...

18th December 2011

I finished Dark Souls last weekend, and though the ending was rather rushed, I consider the game to be one of my favourite of all time. I remember playing it one day for four hours (2.5 hours at one point, and then another 1.5 hours later). I've not done that for quite some time, but the experience was just so compelling that I couldn't stop. It really did have that "just a few more minutes, just a few more souls to gain a level" kind of draw.

Something very sweet happened to me this week. Every day I walk to work, around the same time. There's therefore quite a high chance that, after doing so for six months, you're going to start to recognise other people doing the same. One such person was a petite young lady, who would walk in the opposite direction to where I was going. We started to notice one another, smiling at one another on one occasion. I wouldn't see her every day, however. On Thursday, I was going about my afternoon constitutional (which is basically a term I use for, getting out of the bloody office and getting some fresh air!), when I saw that Gaucho had set up a tasting stand (steak and red wine!). I helped myself to a bite and a little bit of wine, and as I was enjoying it, turned to look at one of the staff...

"And now you know where I work!" beamed the young lady, standing next me and rocking an LBD.

At first, I wasn't sure who it was, or even if they had they right person. Being a twin, people often confuse me for my brother. I thought that this was one of those occasions. She then clarified that she was in fact the mysterious smiley girl who I walk past every day. We had a good laugh about that and chatted for a while longer. After talking each others ears off for a good ten minutes or so, I had to move on as my lunch break was almost over. I asked her out on a date before departing, but she sadly informed me she was seeing someone. Shame. How romantic would that've been?

Anyway... I'll stop boring you with descriptions of how I pick up women and bore you with something else... ;)

As far as the writing is concerned, I'm still chugging along with the second draft of BFTSS 3. I'm making tweaks and updates as I go along, but have yet to integrate a lot of the notes that I have prepared. I've also got to rewrite an entire chapter, as well as a few other bits and pieces.

This could all well mean that the book will take longer to show up, but hopefully it'll still make it for early 2013. This could've perhaps been avoided if I'd decided to shorten the novels - to about 80 - 90,000 words each - and then brought them out sooner. This would've meant that BFTSS would be a six book series, rather than a trilogy. However, since I am adamant that it should be a trilogy - and remain such - I've got a lot to work into the 3rd book. I am a strong believer in making a story stick to its original plan as much as possible, lest you wander off into that padding territory where you read an entire novel and wonder what the point of it was.

I was pleased to see that both HOTK:SE and THE THIRD SIDE are now available on Kobo books:

http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=Stephen+Sweeney&t=none&f=author&p=1&s=averagerating&g=both

With Kobo now selling their own ebook reader, this means that those who prefer Kobo's store can get the books more easily.

Also, I've dropped the price of HOTK:SE to $0.99 on Amazon, from now until the end of January. That'll be a nice Christmas present for those who get Kindles on Christmas day and want to check out the rewrite of the first book.

I'm considering buying an ebook reader myself (probably a Kindle), but at the same time I'm not sure. I like having a bookshelf and a Kindle would mean that I wouldn't be able to decorate it with the books that I own. Having said that, I tend to buy albums and then just chuck them into a room somewhere. There again, I currently rent, so it's not like I have anywhere to put them, anyway..!

That's it for this year. Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, as does New Years Day, so there will be no Sunday Blogging until  8th January.

Merry Christmas, all, and a Happy New Year!

Till next time...