Well where have you been?

“Well, where have you been?”

Yes, well.  It’s been a busy few months!

Apologises to my regular readers for the lack of full scale updates, though I have attempted to keep my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn up to date.

Work has been very busy within recent weeks and even now it’s still pretty tough though I’ve adapted to the higher workload.  Wedding prep is going better and I’ve taken the very sensible action of not selling my house until after the honeymoon. This has taken a great deal of stress off both our shoulders!

Meanwhile, in between all this, I have still been writing you’ll be glad to hear.

The good news is Tales of Larrick City has been gone well, with the latest draft submitted to my first round of proof readers (my family).  Unfortunately, it’s not been well received.

Looking at it now I can see why. They said it was too dry and detailed, and having looked through it again myself, I agree.  It’s prehapes ahead of its time.  As a companion book once more of the Haldred Chronicles series is out it would be perfect, but right now, with only two books written so far, it’s just not what’s needed. That and I’ve realized that the name is a little misleading; ‘Tales of Larrick City’ would suggest that the book is mostly short stories set in Larrick City.  Not the series of in-fiction articles that I wrote.  There’s only one of which is an actual story.

So, new plans.  The fiction articles and glossary of terms already written will be stored away for another time.  Likewise, I will write a series of proper short stories and name them ‘Tales of Larrick City’ so that I still get to use Mat’s excellent cover art sometime in the future.  Most pressingly, I will finish work on the true 3^rd book in the Haldred Chronicles series.

The book will be called ‘Haldred Chronicles: Shade’ and I’m already at 30,000 words.  So you could say I’m glad that even whilst writing Tales of Larrick City I was still adding to Shade.

It’s likely the book will still not be done until the summer or even beyond.  But I’ll give it a go!

Meanwhile, I have updated my social networking presence.

You can now find me on Tumblr!  Look for this blog at jgcully.tumblr.com.  Basically the exact same post except on Tumblr…yeah.

Likewise, I’ve also created a pinterest account.  Find me at www.pinterest.com/jgcully.  I’ve already taken the liberty of uploading a few choice images.  Enjoy!

So plenty still going on.  To everyone who has continued to encourage me in my writing, once again, thank you so much.  Until next time everyone J.

Second post of 2014!

Second blog post of 2014!  Long overdue I know but life is busy.

Wedding preparations are proceeding a-pace and it’s been going very well.  We are on schedule!  Despite the busy times, I have still been writing and progress has been good.

Mat, my fantastic cover artist, has come up with a beautiful cityscape picture for the front cover of ‘Tales of Larrick City’.  Not only this, but he has also updated the front covers of Kalla and Alyssa as well!  The modifications are minor, but you all should notice a little extra unifying factor that has been added to the titles.  Check the links below to see the changes.

Amazon link Alyssa

Amazon link Kalla

As for ‘Tales of Larrick City’ itself, of the 7 stories I’ve written in the book, only 1 now remains to finish completely before the whole book is passed to the proof readers.  That and the ‘little extra something’ at the end of the book is almost done as well.  Fortunately it will be easy for you all to find out what that is as the book will be FREE!  As long as Amazon cooperate, which hopefully they will.

As well as book progress, I’ve been getting more involved in the LinkedIn writing community and have been active in several of the groups.  If you’re on LinkedIn yourself, my address is below.

uk.linkedin.com/in/jgcully/

As well as this, my Facebook page has seen a whole lot of extra attention since I started doing more with the LinkedIn groups.  Find it here if you’ve not already visited.

https://www.facebook.com/HaldredChronicles

There is of course my twitter account as well which has grown nicely in recent months.

https://twitter.com/jgwritesnovels

I also recently registered on Goodreads.com.  Find my author page below :)

https://www.goodreads.com/jgcully

So lots going on and lots to look forward too.  Whilst my blog posts won’t be as regular in the future (I’ll try to update at least once a month) I do hope that the next time I am posting I will have completed ‘Tales of Larrick City’ and it will be with my proof readers for checking.

Thanks all, until next time!

Hello 2014!

First blog post of 2014!  Lots to report.

First, and most importantly, I’m getting married.  I proposed to my girlfriend at the start of January, and she said yes.  So my fiancée and I are very, very happy and celebrated by staying over at the fantastic Slieve Donard hotel that night.  A good start to 2014 I think you’ll all agree.

Even with the immense excitement of this new life event, I have still been writing.  ‘Tales of Larrick City’ I hope to have ready for proof reading by the middle of February at the latest, and out by the end of March.  This short story compendium will be free to download when it comes out and I hope to use the stories in it to further expand on the world of Haldred Chronicles.  I hope you will all enjoy once it’s released.

It’s turned into a good excuse for me to explore a number of different writing styles and expand on little plot hints here and there found in the first 2 books.  That, and it will also include a glossary of terms used in Haldred Chronicles; useful in particular for those un-used to some of the Northern Irish style humour and phases.  Well it is my home country, the mannerisms were bound to slip in!

I’ve also been making progress on the 3^rd official Haldred Chronicles novel.  I’ve written almost 30,000 words and I’m really happy with the way things are panning out.  The style will be closer to ‘Kalla’ than ‘Alyssa’ and will further expand on the relationships between the various characters, as well as keeping up with everyone’s favourite characters.

On top of that, I still have a lot of ideas for future novels.  14 if I’m being precise (the number varies from day to day).  I definitely want to keep Haldred Chronicles going and if things pan out properly, you’ll get not 1 but 2 books out in 2014!  Just don’t expect the official 3^rd book until maybe the summer.  Meantime, you should all have Tales of Larrick City to keep you interested!

So lots to look forward to and I’ll keep you all informed.  Have a great 2014 everyone.

Other peoples blogs!

A quick little blog post to get another aspect to this blog going.  That of blogging about other peoples blog’s!

I’ll try and do this every so often, just to high-light some posts I think are interesting or useful (or both!)

First up, this post about using LinkedIn.  I have to admit, I’ve not yet followed the advise on this one but it definitely has some very good tips.  Hope it proves useful for my fellow authors in particular.

http://m.entrepreneur.com/article/226895

Books and such provides this handy little guide, which was particularly useful when I was first starting out my Nanowrimo experiences but still rings true now.  It’s all about first drafts and not to worry about them!

http://www.booksandsuch.biz/blog/writing-a-first-draft/

Finally, something a little different for both mystery authors and those just interested in running a mystery themed RPG.  This gem was passed to me by my fellow Nanowrimo writing buddy Daireen and is an excellent article on the fine particulars of writing mystery fiction.

http://rpgathenaeum.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/write-a-gripping-mystery-adventure-in-four-steps/

Hope everyone enjoys.  Meantime, I have been writing away on both Tales of Larrick City and Book 4.  Tales of Larrick City has hit 10,000 words and Book 4 is coming together nicely with a lot of little modifications.  I’ll be taking a rest over Christmas, obviously, but will be back at things come 2014.

Just in case I don’t get posting up before then, I wish you all a very happy Christmas and a happy new year.

Till next time.

My Nanowrimo experience

Hello everyone.  Yes, I know it’s been a while.  But I have lots to tell I’m glad to report.

As I reported in my last blog post way back at the end of October, my plan was to take part in the National Novel writing month run by www.nanowrimo.org.  An event known on Facebook and Twitter as #nanowrimo.  I am glad to report that I took part in the event throughout November, though I did not complete it as intended.  The plan was to write 50,000 words but I only managed 26,000.

Still, the entire experience was one I would definitely recommend to any budding writer or current writer looking to boost there creativity.  The event forces you to concentrate on writing, even writing for the sake of writing.  Quantity is better than quality, the idea being that you complete a 1^st draft then spend the next while perfecting what you manage to write in the tight time scale.

26,000 words was not what was required to ‘win’, but it certainly gave me a lot to think about and has set a solid foundation for Haldred Chronicles book 4.  The main characters, major plot points and scenes have all been formed in one way or another.  What is needed now is some time to properly connect them all together and fill in the details, particularly regards the descriptions.

A lot of the writing was often just dialogue between characters, to be filled in at a later date.  But that’s part of the fun!  Letting you set things up so that later you can go back and fill out the details; updating descriptions and making the scenes truly breath.

I had a lot of positive experiences during November as the challenge went ahead.  For example, I noticed certain activates I’d been doing in my life influenced my writing.  Obviously every writer will take some kind of small influence from there own life in writing, but during Nanowrimo this seemed to be heightened due to the challenge to put words on the page.  One example was my experience with the boxed set of all the seasons of the TV comedy series Frazier in my DVD collection that played in the background whenever I was writing.  I have found that some of the humour in book four has been influenced by the Frazier style of comedy; that unique sort of dry sarcastic wit.  Indeed, one of the characters I can say with confidence is definitely my own take on Frazier Crane, though given the setting he is sufficiently different not to just be a direct copy.

It was a fantastic experience as well due to the community involvement.  The multiple forums on the nanowrimo website were highly active during November and before, offering help and tips as well as places to brag / encourage.  The topic posts were a treasure trove of helpful material from ‘how do you escape a burning building’ to ‘dress sense of the 17^th century’.  Anything and everything could be covered and when you asked a question, however obscure, someone somewhere on the boards would be able to answer it for you, often very quickly.  For those interested, the forums are still up and the community still very active.  Go take a look!

The experience was further enhanced by the writing buddies system.

Before the event began, I was able to connect with a number of like minded individuals in order to encourage each other, share work and comment.  This provided a more personal connection for developing the story and putting words on the page.  Constantly these writing buddies encouraged me to ‘keep writing!’.  They were part of the reason I got as far as I did.

I must send a particular big congrats to my writing buddies BriegeH, Daireen, Eimi111, Erin Funk, GabzWritez and ValkyrieMist who did successfully complete the challenge.  Good job all of you!  I assure you, I am immensely jealous J.

I may not have completed the Nanowrimo challenge, but I have certainly benefited from the event and now, the future is clear for books 3 and 4 to grow.  The plan will be to return to book 3 in about a months time and finish it.  Before that, I will continue for another month on book 4 and fill in a few more of the scenes.  I want to leave book 4 in at least draft 2 form. 

Book 3, ‘Tales of Larrick City’ will then be finished and I will look to release it in the first quarter of 2014. 

Once again, my thanks to all my writing buddies on Nanowrimo and everyone who encouraged me in completing the challenge.  Thank you so much!  Good luck with your own endeavours.

Till next time.

A post before the battle...

Well, November is almost here and with it, the November writing competition at www.nanowrimo.org.  Preparations are being made.

First, sadly, I’ll have to suspend this Blog to give me time to write.  I’ll need to write around 1,500 words a day if I am to get anywhere near my goal of finishing a novel by the end of the month, so unfortunately I will probably only post about once in the next month; just to let people know I am still writing and how far I’ve got.  This will probably be in the middle of the month.

Secondly, I will of course suspend work on Tales of Larrick City.  I hope in the next few days to get it up to 10,000 words at least (at 7,600 now) and leave it in good form but we’ll see what time I get.  The plan is still to be in December with the 1^st Draft’s of 2 books; it would be fantastic if I manage to do that.  I like a challenge!

Finally, I just want to wish all the very best to everyone doing Nanowrimo this year.  Friends, family and fellow writers, good luck to you all and successful writing!

Until the next Blog post, all the best.

Other people's blog's...again!

As I’ve been working away on Tales of Larrick City (now up to 7500 words) I’ve again been taking a look at a lot of Blog’s out there.  Here are 4 posts in particular that I found very interesting.

First up, a post up by Toddi Gutner on the Entrepreneur site.  This post is all about your LinkedIn profile and gave me a lot to think about regards my own presence on the network.  It has a lot of hints and tips about improving how you as individual can present yourself on the network, although it is primarily aimed at company profiles.

http://m.entrepreneur.com/article/226895

Second, another ‘how to’ post, on, well, how to Blog!  It lays out in concise and practical terms just how to Blog properly and I’m already reading through it and thinking ‘yeah, I missed that step’.  Very useful for putting you on the straight and narrow and making yours updates not only more relevant to what you do, but also more interesting in general.  I hope to implement the suggestions in future posts.

http://m.blogher.com/how-set-blog

Next, a more writing centred post by Diane Mae Robinson on the Imogen Knight Blog. It’s about how to write a good children’s story.  Although only aspects of the post were relevant to what I’m doing (my stories are primarily directed toward teenager / adult level) it’s very well laid out and provides excellent advise.  Well worth the read for any writer of fiction.

http://imogenknightreikicircle.co.uk/plotting-for-children-plotting-plot-childrens-books/

Finally, if you’ve had enough of ‘advise’ post’s, here’s a fantastically funny post by the legendary Conan O’Brien, who has recently become an influencer on LinkedIn.  Yes, I’m scared too!

https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131020183000-288872202-hello-linkedin?_mSplash=1

My writing space

A slightly late blog this time (I normally try to post on Mondays and Fridays) so apologies.

At the weekend I did something that I don’t get to do often; type up my novel seated at my ‘writing space’; my specific little area that I’ve cleared for writing.  It was…liberating.

Normally, I just write where-ever I have somewhere I can put the laptop down or make a note on, but I have also set aside a place in my house specifically for writing.  I’ve set up my perch in the spare bedroom, opposite the window on a nice big table, with plenty of room for the laptop and notes.  I managed to bring my word count up to 5,000 for Tales of Larrick City as well as making a few more notes on the future.

To describe it further, I’ll go through what I see when I sit down.  On my left is the Google Chrome book laptop that I use to check out forums / blogs etc.  Beside it are some of my reference book’s (Forensics’ for dummies for example, very good book) and my note books too.  In the corner are more note books and previous book drafts for easy access.

Directly in front of me at the end of the table is a pile of RPG source books and rulebooks from various gaming systems.  Good for inspiration and visual reference.

Moving on to my right hand side I find my main laptop: a small Dell Latitude D430.  This is where I actually do my writing, hammering away on the keyboard which is nice and clickly (I don’t like the new silent keyboards, no response!).

Everything at the table is nice and spaced out, with stationary in the drawers out of the way and space to place a cup of tea or coffee without it being in danger of spilling over a keyboard.

This blog isn’t so much an instruction on how to create your own writing space, it’s just a comment on how I’ve organized mine.  If you’re a writer, how do you organize your writing area?  Do you even have a writing area or just write where-ever there is room?

Meanwhile, like I said, I’ve made good progress on Tales of Larrick City as we are up to 5,000 words and climbing.  November is getting closer which is prompting more work in that regard as I want to have a solid, 1^st Draft for Tales of Larrick City before I hammer into Nanowrimo and start on the 4^th book properly.  It will be an intense November; the writing space will be a critical battleground!

Till next time.

Good days and bad

Don’t be worried by the title, JG’s not having a bad day.  I am just reflecting on the tendency with writing to have your good days and bad.

A good day is when you get a lot of writing done, obviously.  My Sunday yesterday was such a day, were I was able to sit down and make a lot of good progress on not only ‘Tales of Larrick City’ but also on a number of other little projects; that’s a good writing day.

A bad writing day is just a day were either you’ve set time aside for writing and get nothing done, or a day where you just don’t have the time to get anything done in the first place!  How does one overcome such obstacles?

For me, half the battle is fought and won when you have set some time aside.  It doesn’t necessarily need to be a strict routine thing (e.g. 1 hour every day).  Just means that if you’re planning your week you make sure that you’ve set some time aside to write.  Secondly, to defeat the problem of having nothing to write during those times, taking quick notes is a must.

Inspiration, after all, can come at any time but you might not be in a position to elaborate on something you thought off at the time.  So, instead, quickly jot it down or make a note on a phone.  Then, when it comes to your ‘writing’ time, you can bring out the note / phone and properly write up the idea, which might possibly cascade into further ideas.

Now as I said in my previous blog, I don’t think I’ve been in the game long enough to be dispensing advice, so veterans may consider this just ‘what I do’ as apposed to definitive directions on how to write up your story.  Just a little thought J.

Meanwhile, as I said, I made very good progress on Tales of Larrick City and have now got a lot of the ground work done.  However, the middle of the mouth is coming soon so I really need to kick it up a gear if I am to finish the 1^st draft by the end of the month and be ready for Nanowrimo.  Hopefully over this week I will grab some ‘writing time’ as intended and get more done.  I also now have 6 reviews on Amazon.co.uk for Kalla which is fantastic.  My thanks again to everyone who has been reviewing my book, it really helps!

Till next time all.

Other peoples blog's

I am glad to report, I have been working away on Tales of Larrick City this week as planned.  In the process, I’ve also been reading a lot of other peoples blog’s.  This is both an educational experience but also very interesting to see the different styles, different advise and just the different things people post about.

Take this update for example from one of my favourite authors, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, talking about the writing of his latest novel.  The post is entitled “Lets talk about Abaddon”.  For Warhammer 40K players you’ll know what he’s talking about.

http://aarondembskibowden.wordpress.com/

The post is humourous, as well as being very insightful into the world he is writing on and the amount of research he’s been doing.  And like I said, it’s just damn funny.  It’s the kind of blog I wish I could write.  Interesting, informative and funny.

Then there’s this blog from Randy Ross

http://www.theloneliestplanet.com/2013/10/18-months-of-social-media-one-writers.html?m=1

This one is more of an insight into the writers experiences with social media.  Which, sadly, seem to have been not the very best particularly regards Facebook and Twitter.  Read carefully and you see plenty of hints and tips on how to maximize their effect, as well as pitfalls to avoid; a very informative blog post.

Finally, from Bob Mayer.

http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/2013/09/29/the-authors-marathon-10-things-to-remember

This post is all about writing marathons and I thought quite useful due to my intention to run with Nanowrimo in November.  Again, its an advise blog with plenty of very good information.

These blogs and more have greatly encouraged me in my writing and I hope they do the same for you.  I still consider myself a complete novice in the world of the writer so I don’t feel I’m in a position to write ‘advise’ blogs just yet.  But I think I can still make my posts interesting to the reader and I hope this one has been interesting for you, if only just to direct you to other peoples sites.

It will be a learning experience as I continue to experiment with my online presence.  In particular this week I have seen a massive increase in my activates on Goodreads.com.  Come visit me if you are on the site yourself J

www.goodreads.com/jgcully

Till next time everyone, have a good weekend.

Inspirations

This weekend past I was in Scotland, visiting friends and family with Debs. It was a fantastic trip, a proper catchup and an opportunity to visit some beautiful and interesting place's. Place's such as the Macintosh museum in Glasgow (Macintosh was a noted and highly regarded designer from the very early 20th century), and a little walk round the park there, as well as a trip to Edinburgh. 

Perfect places for inspiration to strike. Which it did! I now have two more book ideas from this little trip alone. One was inspired by the Macintosh museum, particularly because Macintoshs designs were so modern for the 1900's. It got me thinking about how a Macintosh-like individual would be treated in the world of Haldred Chronicles. 

The second idea, was from a chat with a good friend we visited about his latest design projects and his...'Mad scientist ' aspirations shall we say. 

For those of the writing type, I ask you. Where does your inspiration and ideas come from? Is it from a place or person you visit? A sudden random thought triggered by anything from a song you hear or just a text message? Just curious :-).

News wise, I'm making good progress with Tales of Larrick City and enjoying the writing immensely. I have also been making preparations for the November writing challenge, as i've now signed up with Nanowrimo officially. Also seen a big increase in likes on Facebook again; once more a big thank you to my fellow authors for the interest and support.

And finally, I now have 5 reviews of Haldred Chronicles: Kalla on Amazon which is just fantastic! Thanks so much to everyone who has been reviewing and passing on encouragement. You guys and gals are great, keep them coming.

Till next time.

PS: this blog update was created solely on my Z10 blackberry. So yes, I have confirmed I can email-blog now as well! ‎

Book covers

On Wednesday of this week I met up with my fantastic cover artist Mat and we talked book covers.  Specifically, ideas for the book covers of ‘Tales of Larrick City’ (my next book that I’m currently drafting) and my as-yet-unnamed 4^th book. 

It got me thinking; what makes a good book cover?

The ‘Lost Fleet’ series by Jack Campbell uses a lot of very impressive covers, most involving space craft of one type or another which immediately draw the eye.  George RR Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novels more recent covers go for simpler but no less intriguing covers with medieval designs.

For my own books, Mat proposed the idea of having the main characters on the front cover so that the readers have a visual reference.  In the case of Haldred Chronicles: Alyssa, you have Alyssa (the main character) on the front cover with Malak    For Haldred Chronicles: Kalla, Victoria Haldred herself and Kalla appear on the front cover. 

Main characters on the cover’s of novels is nothing new; J K Rowling’s series Harry Potter traditionally had Harry himself on the front cover in some scene from the book itself. 

My question is, what works for you?  What kind of book cover designs do you like?  Those that depict scenes from the book or characters there-in?  Or just more simple designs with prehapes book specific symbols or locations?  What, for you, makes a good book cover?  Please comment and share.

Meanwhile, progress has been good with me and book 3.  ‘Tales of Larrick City’ sits at 3500 words so far and is steadily growing.  Likewise, having signed up with Goodreads, LinkedIn etc I am starting to become better integrated with the writing community on the internet and have seen an extensive increase in likes on my Facebook page!  Big thanks to all my fellow writers who have welcomed me into the fold.

Till next time everyone