Plans within plans

It's been a busy few months as Deborah and I adapt to the new arrival in our life. Little Logan is now nearly four months old and doing very well. Our little son is growing up quickly and our current prediction is he will be a mischievous one!

Whilst looking after the wee man has been my top priority, it doesn't mean I have been idle on the writing front.

I have massively expanded my Pinterest account with writing tips and tricks. Everything from story structure to simple grammar has been posted up and I've found it very useful to have this library of knowledge at my disposal. If you're interested, find my pins here:

 https://uk.pinterest.com/jgcully/on-writing/

In turn, I've continued to develop the 4th book in my Haldred Chronicles series. 'Anna' is taking shape nicely and I'm aiming to have the first draft complete in a couple of months. As in my previous blog post, I will see how it progresses but am not going to promise anything just yet.

I've also continued to write background for Wrathborn, a wargame system, as well as keeping my Black Library short story submission up to date.

Finally, just within the last few days I received my copy of "Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2017", which I shall be reading extensively for information on publishers and agents.

Till next time!

PS: this is the first blog post I've written and published completely on my BlackBerry Passport! Next, let's see if I can write a book on it!
PPS: unfortunately in my haste to publish this blog I managed to make a number of grammar errors.  My thanks to those who picked up on them and let me know; corrections have now been made.

Happy belated New Year!

Yes it’s been a while; again!  However, we’re getting there.

Proofing by my proof readers has begun on the latest book.  The way it’s going to work is I’ll first being sending the book chapters, one by one, to one specific proof reader for spelling and grammar check.  Then, I’ll be passing those same chapters on to other proof readers to double check but also for comment on story structure, characters, dialogue etc.

It feels good to know that at last, things are really moving forward and will do so at a brisk pace.

I have chapters one to ten of Haldred Chronicles: Shade done and dusted.  Chapters eleven to fifteen still need to be completed.  For those who have read my previous two books, this will come as a shock; my previous books were only twelve chapters long.  Book three, put simply, needs more space for the story to be told.

The story is more complex, more detailed and involves more characters.  I hope, also, it will be more enjoyable for you, the reader.  It just means I’ve needed more time to get my head around the plot and the exceedingly tough and intelligence secondary Protagonist. 

As with all my books, this book will be ‘Dual Narrative’ so you’ll have not one but two points of view to follow.

Around the writing, Debs and I are doing well.  We’re now married seven months and enjoying this new routine of ours.  We’ve just had our first Christmas together as a married couple and now we’re in the process of putting our house up for sale.  We hope to move sometime in the summer.

So that’s the update!  I wish all of you a somewhat late Happy New Year, and once this book is done, expect another update.

Till next time!

I'm keeping at it

It’s been a long time since my last blog update but readers will be used to that now I think.

The good news is that, still, I have been writing and immensely enjoying.

Haldred Chronicles: Shade now stands at a healthy 45,000 words and I have set myself the goal of finishing the book by the end of December.  At least from a 1^st Draft perspective. I had hoped to finish by the end of November but looking at what else I have on, I think there just isn’t enough time.

I would love to be taking part officially in the November writing competition over at www.nanowrimo.org but I’m not writing a brand new novel, so I’m just using the event as inspiration to get my own current novel finished, as well as encouraging others. Those who follow my twitter account and Facebook page will have seen numerous references and encouragements regards Nanowrimo 2014.  To those taking part officially, good luck and enjoy!

But what are the other ‘things’ that are taking up ones time?  They are good things I can assure you.

Being married rocks, and I’m immensely enjoying.  Deborah and I have been making extensive plans for the future, including moving house next year.  She has continued to be an immense encouragement to me in my writing.  As well as this, I’ve continued to help in developing a wargames background material.

For the last 7 weeks I’ve been sending ideas to Rick over at Hairy Studios, who are in the process of developing the skirmish game ‘Wrathborn’.  Rick has given me the ideas in his head and I in turn have fleshed them out.  Races, history, important events, and even right down to the culture and economics of the system have all been developing via this collaboration.

So plenty is happening, lots to keep me occupied.  Hopefully next time I am posting an update I’ll have the 1^st draft completed but we’ll see.  I must concede that Shade is definitely the very definition of ‘that difficult 3^rd book’.  But it’s getting done!  Till next time.