Have just finished the first draft of a new novella entitled Love and Lycanthropy. It's my attempt to make a mark on the so-called 'paranormal romance' genre by excluding the sparkly vampires, whinging heroines, and the moody 'third-wheel' guy. Also conspicuously absent: the bullshit theme of 'chastity'. I'm fondly thinking of this as Twilight, the way I would have written it.
As always the story takes place on the planet Terra, not Earth. There are a few new elements added to the world this time around, especially ones that appear in The Werechicken. I'm pretty happy about that because I feel like what I'm writing isn't a load of individual pieces of work, but a single body of work, in many parts. Each story compliments the others and helps to build a more rich fantasy world, where while one set of characters are doing one thing, there is a completely different set of characters, in a completely different part of the world, having their own adventure. Sometimes they will cross paths, others will never know of each others' existences.
I didn't set out to write a novella with L&L. I set out to write another 8-10k piece like The Head Vampire. However, the story, and the characters, just ran away with me. I like it when they do that. They say that 'writers block' is when your imaginary friends won't talk to you anymore. I'm glad to see that my imaginary friends are chatty little buggers.
So what's next? Well right now I'm going to go watch an episode or two of Arrested Development, then head to bed. Tomorrow I shall do a complete redraft of L & L. Once that's good to go I have another new story to write about a soldier who is commanding a fleet of ships to track down some slavers. This will take place mostly at sea, but will also see some action take place on the Eastern Continent, and will also involve the mysterious 'floating country'. Ooooh! I can see you're just dying to read it! Since that's the case: I shall go without rest until it's done! (Not literally of course).
Goodnight.
S.J.
Monday, 9 January 2012
Monday, 12 December 2011
First Short Story Published!
Well there it is: my first published piece of work is there to be bought by anyone who wants it!
Go on, you know you want to: it costs less than the price of a cup of coffee, and will give you more enjoyment than a cup of coffee, guaranteed! (legal: not a guarantee)
Tonight I started work on another piece of work, called Love and Lycanthrope, which I've been thinking about for a while now. It's that age old tale: boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, girl falls for boy, boy finds out girl is a werewolf, boy thinks they can make it work, werewolf bites boy, boy not so sure anymore... Ah, the classic plotlines are the best.
Anyway, here's a link to The Head Vampire: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Head-Vampire-ebook/dp/B006KER1MK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1323733901&sr=8-4
That's an ugly-ass link, but oh well, gets the job done...
I'm also on Twitter: @Evil_Steve
That's my personal Twitter, so will be full of bullshit mostly, but if you need to get me: I'm there.
S.J.
Go on, you know you want to: it costs less than the price of a cup of coffee, and will give you more enjoyment than a cup of coffee, guaranteed! (legal: not a guarantee)
Tonight I started work on another piece of work, called Love and Lycanthrope, which I've been thinking about for a while now. It's that age old tale: boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, girl falls for boy, boy finds out girl is a werewolf, boy thinks they can make it work, werewolf bites boy, boy not so sure anymore... Ah, the classic plotlines are the best.
Anyway, here's a link to The Head Vampire: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Head-Vampire-ebook/dp/B006KER1MK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1323733901&sr=8-4
That's an ugly-ass link, but oh well, gets the job done...
I'm also on Twitter: @Evil_Steve
That's my personal Twitter, so will be full of bullshit mostly, but if you need to get me: I'm there.
S.J.
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
First Post/ Hi
OK, so I thought that since I'm going to be publishing some stuff soon, people might want a place where they can come to find out more about me, see what I'm doing, and see what I look like, without going to all the trouble of sitting in the trees across from my house (which you're all totally free to do by the way).
So I've finished my first novel, The Werechicken, and I've sent it off to an agent to see if they want to take me on as a new client. Haven't heard back from them. I have a list of other agents/ publishers that I will send it to if it doesn't get accepted by this first one. It's only a short list, and I wouldn't be too gutted about not getting any positive responses, because I'm quite keen to try self-publishing through Amazon.com.
That moves us nicely into what else I'm up to: I'm writing a series of short stories, based in the same universe as The Werechicken, but which expand on the universe a bit. The most complete one (which I'm supposed to be working on right now, instead of creating a blog) is called The Head Vampire (working title). I've finished the first draft, and it's about 8,400 words long. I'm planning to have that one up on the Amazon e-bookshop by the weekend - I still have to come up with a cover though. So quite excited about that.
As for this blog: I intend to use it as a space for talking about my books/short stories, and also filling in some gaps that might cause a little confusion until The Werechicken is released. I write a lot about the world that the characters find themselves in, but don't mention too much in the short stories. The reason for this is that I can do a bit of info-dumping in a 105,000 word novel, that I might not be able to get away with in a <10,000 word short story.
So that's the grand plan all. If you're reading this, there's a good chance that you're my mother/girlfriend/sister/Jonny/Graham, but if you're not: feel free to say hello, and I'll say it back, and it will be just like we're real-life friends :-)
So I've finished my first novel, The Werechicken, and I've sent it off to an agent to see if they want to take me on as a new client. Haven't heard back from them. I have a list of other agents/ publishers that I will send it to if it doesn't get accepted by this first one. It's only a short list, and I wouldn't be too gutted about not getting any positive responses, because I'm quite keen to try self-publishing through Amazon.com.
That moves us nicely into what else I'm up to: I'm writing a series of short stories, based in the same universe as The Werechicken, but which expand on the universe a bit. The most complete one (which I'm supposed to be working on right now, instead of creating a blog) is called The Head Vampire (working title). I've finished the first draft, and it's about 8,400 words long. I'm planning to have that one up on the Amazon e-bookshop by the weekend - I still have to come up with a cover though. So quite excited about that.
As for this blog: I intend to use it as a space for talking about my books/short stories, and also filling in some gaps that might cause a little confusion until The Werechicken is released. I write a lot about the world that the characters find themselves in, but don't mention too much in the short stories. The reason for this is that I can do a bit of info-dumping in a 105,000 word novel, that I might not be able to get away with in a <10,000 word short story.
So that's the grand plan all. If you're reading this, there's a good chance that you're my mother/girlfriend/sister/Jonny/Graham, but if you're not: feel free to say hello, and I'll say it back, and it will be just like we're real-life friends :-)
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