The time of publishing approaches...

The time of publication is fast approaching.  After months on months of drafting, rewrites and proofing the final product is pretty much ready.

Haldred Chronicles: Kalla will be released on schedule on the 31^st August 2013.

As a final precaution I am having the “final” draft looked over by a fresh proof reader, as well as two other people who hadn’t read the first book; just to check coherency and if the book sits well as a stand alone story.  I have written it with the idea that you don’t need to have read the first book, but if you have you’ll get that little bit extra out of it.  I hope, depending on what comments come back to me, that I have succeeded.

A launch party is also confirmed, but it has become a more low-key affair than originally intended.  It’s a social meet up for a load of friends and a few guests to come and enjoy some banter, an interview with myself and a reading of part of the book.  It will be good fun but won’t be over the top.

The next update to this blog will be literally the ‘it’s out!’ post with a link to purchase the book.

After book 2, what are my plans?

Well, I hope to continue work on the short story compendium “Tales of Larrick City.”  This, once complete, will be a freely downloadable book of short stories, as well as a glossary for the Haldred Chronicles universe.  Release date is still to be confirmed; I need to finish it first!  I hope people will enjoy as it fills out the story and background of the world.  That and it’s a good excuse to keep writing before starting work on book 3.

Speaking of book 3, the plan is to start it off in November 2013.  I will write it as part of the November writing completion run as the National Novel Writing Month at www.nanowrimo.org.  Hopefully I will finish a complete first draft by the end of that month. 

So that’s the plans anyways.  Next blog update will be the release of the book.  I hope you all enjoy!

Take care.

Launch date is closing in!

Just a quick update to indicate that I’m still here!

The draft is sitting with a select few proofreaders for review and comment, as well as checking over the all important grammar and spelling.  Everything is on schedule.

Added to this, I have been making preparations for a possible launch party on the 31st August 2013.  All being well this launch party will take place on the evening of the 31st with some food and drink, an interview with me as well as a raffle and the reading of an extract from the new book.  It should be a fun night once all is organised.

In preparing for this night, I have placed an order for some business cards with some rather nice custom graphics, as provided by Mat my illustrator.  They look the business and I hope to get them sometime this week.

I also put in an order for a couple of small posters to the ‘Zip Posters’ web company.  They too should be with me this week.

So its all go and I’m thoroughly looking forward to finally releasing the new book for you all.  Till launch day!

31st August; the countdown begins!

As I said in my last blog post, I have designated the 31^st August 2013 as my launch day.  Now it’s a race to finish up everything and get it all prepared before then!

I have been busy working my way through a print out of the novel, making corrections, adding detail and basically tidying everything up.  It’s a very good experience, particularly the elimination of repeating words.  Proof readers of my previous novel will remember the original drafts that were packed full of constant uses of the word ‘quiet’ instead of ‘quite’, as well as the evitable overuse of the word ‘said’.  Fortunate then that the original novel was proofed so well, good job everyone!

Another idea has also come to mind.  Several people have suggested the idea of a launch day and I must say, I’m very interested in having one.  The basic idea is to hold a launch event at a functional room somewhere, probably in my hometown Newtownards, on the evening of the 31^st August.  I will of course post up more details nearer the time.  I definite think it would be a fun thing to try, even just the once.

So it’s at last all coming together.  The book is almost done and if I organize it right, there will be an official launch event for it too! 

I shall keep everyone informed on the blog and my Facebook page.  Stay tuned!

FINISHED!

I think the title gives it away.  Yes, at long last, I have finished book number 2.  58’000 words.  Not too shabby, not too shabby at all.

Now, when I say finished I mean I have completed the story in a coherent form.  It’s not finished as in ready to publish.  I still need to go through the whole book with a fine tooth comb and confirm that all the grammar and spelling is right, that all plot holes have been filled in, that characters act the way they should act etc.

There is still work to be done, but this is a definite milestone. 

I’m afraid I have no short story for this very brief blog update, it was just to confirm I’ve not just been sitting doing nothing.  I have been writing, and writing a lot!

Soon…soon…

A very busy month

It has been quite some time since last I updated the blog, but then, it has been a very busy month (the title kind of gives that away).

I have been doing nothing but writing and proof reading over the last while, re-reading chapters, tidying up the writing and basically working things through with novel number two.  I’ve had no time to really do anything else due to working on the novel and real life; so no further progress on publishing or on other stories.

The good news is progress has been made and the novel is really taking shape.  The first half of the book is basically done and I think properly carries forward the characters, both old and new.  However, it’s the second half of the book that is proving a little difficult.

I have been coming up with very good scenes, but a lot of them just don’t fit with the story so I’ve had to cut them out and save them for future books.  Several perfectly good chats between characters have had to go purely because they just didn’t suit the situation or didn’t advance the plot.  It was a shame and it’s slowed things down but maybe, just maybe, they will get worked into future stories.  We’ll see.

I am keeping at it.  I’ve had a lot of encouragement from friends and family and everyone is very keen to see the next book.  I don’t want to disappoint them!  I am making progress on the last six chapters and plot elements are falling into place, just slower than I intended.  One big piece of work that was holding things up was the identification of the final bad guy.  Fortunately, that has now been sorted.  I’m most pleased with the result and I hope people will be suitably impressed once they…well, I don’t want to spoil the plot now do I?

That’s progress for now.  Meanwhile, hope you all like the little short story I’ve done below.  This is another old one.  Nothing big, just a simple dual between medieval warriors.  Enjoy!

* * * * *

The North Mans Blood

The fool’s body offered no resistance to Vadra’s blade.  It cut cleanly, slicing the soft skinned southerners head clean from his shoulders.  Vadra had thought the mans neck too long anyway; it was fitting that this weaklings end would come because of it.  Too long; like a chickens.

Yes, that was fitting too; slicing the head off a chicken.  Not that the man, in life at least, had been want for courage.  Oh he’d had courage indeed to face a veteran Warchief such as Vadra in single combat.  But he had fought like a chicken; prodding and pecking worthlessly with his thin sword blade, expecting Vadra to fight the same way.  Vadra had let the man try and land a clean blow to draw blood but the heavy northern armour he was clad in was proof against the southerner’s blows.  Then, when the southerner had at last changed tactics and gone for a stronger blow, Vadra had contemptuously swept the mans’ sword aside, sending it to the muddy ground.  Vadra’s backswing with his long sword had been the beheading blow.  The southerner hadn’t even had time to scream.  Or beg for that matter.  Vadra, in his vast experience, had seen many a southerner beg before the end.  It was very annoying.

“He was a good man north lord.  He was a friend.”

Vadra turned at the sound of the voice.  Around him single combats where taking place up and down the muddy battlefield.  North men fighting in a mass melee with southern warriors, the bright colours of the southern lands in stark contrast to the dark grey’s and blacks of the northern host.

The voice had come from another Southerner.  This one was different.

Unlike the headless corpse now lying at Vadra’s feet, a short, thin thing that hardly deserved the name ‘warrior’, this man was bigger.  Broad shouldered, clad in chain mail with only a small sash tied at his belt to mark him as a southern mercenary.  He had a thick shaggy beard, much like the one Vadra sported, black and braided.  He held a long sword, again like Vadra’s, at the ready.

Yes, maybe this Southerner was a proper warrior.  Indeed he had the look of a north man about him.  Prehapes he was of northern blood?

“I will have to kill you now north lord.”

Vadra smirked at the threat.

“You will try.” Vadra replied in his best broken Southern dialect, his skill at languages not as great as his skill with his sword.

He took a ready stance.  The Southerner nodded, slipping into a low guard.  Already, Vadra was impressed.  The Southerner indeed seemed to know what he was doing; it would be interesting to see how long that lasted.

Vadra attacked, blade sweeping high then down at an angle.  The attack usually caught off guard inexperienced foes with its speed and controlled power.  The Southerner countered well, batting the blade away and thrusting.  The long swords met in a clash of steel on steel, slipping past each other in a shower of sparks.

Yes, this one was a good warrior.

Vadra did not let up, striking again.  Again, the Southerner blocked then counter attacked with skill.  Blade met blade in ear splitting clangs of steel on steel, each warrior striking again and again to weaken the other.

Vadra did not let up.  He never did.  His strength, his years of experience, his skill with the blade; all these combined, would see him victorious.  Of this he was sure.  No southerner, no matter how skilled, would ever best him.

He blocked one of the Southerners blows.  He let go of his sword with one hand, and brought a mailed fist up, slamming it into the Southerners stomach.  The man staggered back, winded.  Vadra allowed himself a smile.

A soft skinned underbelly then.  How disappointing.

The man had his sword out in a wandering gesture but with a thunderous blow Vadra knocked the sword from the mans hands.

Time to die.

He swung his sword up, ready to...

The man leap forward and to Vadra's astonishment, grabbed the Long Swords elaborate pommel, denying the killing blow for but an instant.

Fool, he could not delay the envit...

Vadra gasped, a sharp searing pain in his neck.  He gurgled as blood bubbled up from the gaping wound now in his throat.  The Southerners face was inches from his own, a cold hard anger behind the mans eyes.

“I told you I'd kill you.” said the Southerner, as the life of Warchief Vadra ebbed away, the dagger in his throat putting pay to his murderous ways.

* * * * *

Onward, to glory!

Taking full advantage of being back to 100% I have made a lot of progress on the novel this last week.  I have chapters 1 to 6 pretty much done, with 40’000 words now written.  Chapters 7 to 12 have a lot of major scenes already completed, I just need to fill things out and that’s it.  I hope to have the whole novel completed on schedule at the end of May, in which case I shall at last be sending off to various proof readers!

That’s the plan anyway.

Meanwhile, I’ve been doing other writing projects as well just to keep me occupied.  I had 3 little ideas during the week which I have taken note of and hope to be developing further once I sit down properly and figure them out.  2 novel ideas and a short story.  Right now, the short story is more likely to get developed given time available.  Novel ideas are nice but time is very restricted!

I also did a little fiction for the Paradiso infinity campaign which has got back on track at our local gaming centre, which I present to you all below.

So only a small blog update but hope you guys enjoy the little story below and progress has definitely been good!

* * * * *

“Sergev!  You look like hell!”

Dimitri Trencov walked from behind the folding table and embraced his old comrade in a bear hug.  Sergev Vortravic hugged his old fighting companion back, glad to see a familiar face.

The two Ariadna veterans were in Dimitri’s work tent, an old and battered affair that had seen its fare share of war, off-planet and on.  The Veteran Kazak had earned the nickname of ‘old bear’ referring to his huge stature and veteran status amongst the line Kazak’s.  In comparison to Sergev’s shorter but no less muscular form, he was indeed a bear; a bear meeting a wolf.

For Sergev was a Stavka operative, nick named ‘wolfcub’ for his youthful appearance yet ruthless efficiency.  The wolf, the hunter, let lose on the planet Paradiso.

“Dimitri” he said as they broke off.  “It has been too long Old Bear.”

“Ha!  Old Bear is right, and getting older!”

Dimitri was in his fifties now, a true veteran, with a well groomed greying moustache and bright blue eyes.  He indicated a folding chair and crossed the tent space to a metal cabinet.

“How long’s it been?” Dimitri asked as he opened the cabinet and retrieved the expected clear bottle of quality Kazak vodka and 2 small shoot glasses.  Sergev took the offered seat.

“3 years” replied Sergev.  “3 long years with too much time behind a desk.”

“That’s what you get for joining Stavko!  I warned you!”

“That you did.  What was it you said? ‘Too much paperwork and not enough action?’”

“Certainly sounds like me!” replied the Old Bear boisterously as he set the two glasses on the folding table and poured the two of them drinks.

“To fallen comrades and dead foes!” intoned Dimitri, raising his glass.  Sergev copied the gesture.

“May the fallen be remembered and our enemies stay dead!” replied Sergev in the time honoured manner.

They both downed their glasses

Sergev did his best not to cough but Dimitri smirked regardless.

“They must be serving you the watered down stuff da?”

“Very funny you old ruffian.”

Dimitri refilled the glasses regardless, his grin widening.

“Well I take it your not just here to talk just of old times?”

Sergev nodded, taking the now refilled glass as his expression turned serious.  “Regrettably yes my old friend.  I’ve a prisoner with me, an engineer from the Haqqislam.  He has information and we need that information fast.”

“So you come to the Old Bear because you know the Old Bear can get that information fast.”

“Exactly.”

Dimitri nodded “What do you need to know?”

“Specifically, coordinates of an alien artefact and what, if any, research they have conducted on it.”

“You think this engineer will know?”

“We hope so.”

They downed glasses again.  Sergev had to wipe a few tears from his eyes.

“It’s good stuff.  Brewed it myself!” declared Dimitri in triumph.

“That explains a lot.”

The Old Bear laughed, having downed his own glass to little effect.  He refilled both drinks again.

“I take it when you say Alien you mean the Combined army?”

Sergev shook his head.  “Not this time Old Bear.  This…this is something new.”

The Old Bear frowned.  “Now you have me intrigued old friend.”

Sergev, having recomposed himself, raised his glass.  “That was my intent.”

He downed the powerful tasting concoction, again doing his best not to cough as the liquid burned its way down his throat.  He was aware that his vision was blurred slightly but felt sure he could survive at least a few more glasses.  It was a tradition of the Old Bears; the drinking of a lot of vodka during briefing’s.  He respected you more, the more you drank.

The Old Bear downed his glass likewise, before nodding sagely.

“Alright Sergev, I’ll try.”

“Please.  We are up against it.  The Pan Oceania, Nomads and the Japanese have all captured similar individuals.  Not to mention other forces we have not identified yet.  The race is on to see who will get to the device first.”

“I will do my best.  Let’s just hope this engineer you have acquired can help us.”

He had by now refilled the glasses yet again.  Sergev was thanking a variety of Gods that they hadn’t been talking too long else he strongly suspected he would be on the floor in only a few more servings; the old man was right, he’d not kept the practice up during his time with Stavko, a failing he was now paying for.

“I will do as you ask.” The Old Bear raised his glass.  Sergev, recognising the gesture, did likewise.  The glasses touched and both men drank deeply.

“Ypa”

“Thank you.”

Business concluded, Sergev got carefully to his feat, head swimming.

“Gods Dimitri, what was in that?”

“What else but damn good Vodka!”

“Next time.” Sergev suppressed a cough.  “I’m bringing my own bottle.”

The Old Bears laughter followed him as he made his way out of the tent on unsteady legs.  He reserved to himself to find a cot to collapse in, at least for a while.

Busy, busy, busy

Ah to be free of illness again.  At last, I seem to be back to normal.  No more cough, no more allergic reaction to penicillin.  For those following my twitter account (@jgwritesnovels) I had an allergic reaction to said medicine on Friday; woke up with red marks all over my body, looking very much like I had chicken poxes.  It scared the hell out of me as you might imagine.

Fortunately, the doctor assured me that it was just an allergic reaction and I suffered no other ill effects.  A note has been put on my medical file and the marks have now faded thankfully.

Taking advantage of my back-to-normal status, I’ve been busy.

First up, on Monday past I attended a crime writer’s seminar hosted by the fantastic No Alibi’s bookstore, held in Belfast Museum.  Attending were 3 crime writers.  From Sweden, Jan Arnald (pen name Arne Dahl).  From Finland Antti Tuomainen and from Northern Ireland Stuart Neville.  Each of them read extracts from their latest books and also chatted about work, as well as answering a few questions from the audience (and it was a big audience!).  I was very well impressed and will admit to being a little star struck when I approached Jan to get my newly purchased copy of ‘the blinded man’ autographed (a police procedural set in Sweden.  Am reading it now, very, very good!).  Sadly I’d only money for one of the books so couldn’t get Stuart Neville’s excellent Rat Lines (about Nazis harboured in the irish state after World War 2) or Antti’s ‘The Healer’ (set in a near-future dystopian world).  But I shall prehapes purchase both in the future.  The extracts were very good so think I will definitely give them both a go.

Enthused, I have been working hard on book 2 all week and have written a lot.  Word count is up to 36’000 now and continuing to grow.  In particular, a lot of Act 1 and Act 2 A (to use recently learned screen writing lingo) is done.  I now need to finish things off with a good Act 2 B and Act 3 (climax!).

I have also had a lot of little ideas for short stories and subsequent books in the series.  I won’t say too much, but survice to say that right now I have at least 10 direct sequel ideas (many of which already have scenes and characters mapped out and one is pretty much a whole book ready to go, just not yet!), 3 spin off ideas (same universe as the current novel but different characters and situations, maybe even different writing styles too) and 9 other novel ideas (again ranging from one sentence possibilities to a lot of scenes, characters and dialogue already written).  So I definitely have variety to keep me interested in writing.

I also completed the most recent short story challenge between myself, K and Matt.  That of a poetry challenge, the subject being ‘cats’.  Now, when I say completed I mean that I’ve done the challenge; doesn’t mean I did it well.  The poem isn’t my best work, indeed I think it’s too short and the ending sucks.  However, in my defense, it’s the first time I’ve written poetry since primary school (we didn’t do any in high school as far as I can remember).  I definitely think I can do better and fully intend too.  In the future when I’m feeling braver I will show you all the cat poem.  You will laugh at least.

For now, instead, I present to you another one of my old short story challenges.  This one was ‘smuggler on a train’ and is quite short.  I hope you like anyways.  Till the next blog update everyone.

Thanks

* * * * *

One last job

One last job; after this, no more.  No more smuggling, no more running the gauntlet.  He was too well known to the cops and too well known to bloody border patrol with their bloody sniffer dogs; bane of his existence.  This was the last job.

He sat in the train cabin, pretending to read a newspaper.

The other passengers didn't seem to notice him.  There was a young trendy looking girl in the corner busy on her Iphone.  An older man sat beside him, reading the Daily Mail, whilst directly across sat a prim and proper business woman idly reading a book.  No one was paying any attention to anyone else.

“This train is bound for Southport,” intoned the automatic announcement system.  “the next stop is Branston.”

Good, one more stop after that and he was home free.  Then the briefcase full of counterfeit notes sitting between his legs would be dropped off with the courier and hay presto, he was off to a condo in the Mediterranean!

The train came to a halt at Branston station.  Several burly looking men in suits got on board at the nearby train entrance.  They immediately looked toward him and his blood ran cold.

“Mr Anderson.”

The voice came from the trendy looking girl in the corner, her authoritative tone at odds with her appearance.  She wasn't playing with her Iphone anymore.  She was looking right at him too.

“I'm Constable Mckee.” she said, the barest hint of a smile playing across her face.  “I'm afraid you’re under arrest.”