10th of August 2011
I decided it was time to start again.
After completing the first draft of the manuscript I sent it off for some professional advice and the feedback I received (while completely valid) meant that I had some serious rework to do.
So rather than be daunted by the prospect of giving up the words I had invested so much time on I decided that the best way to fix things would be to start again. And I can tell you it was the best decision I made.
As I gained knowledge and spoke to more and more people about what is involved in delivering a quality manuscript I saw this as the opportunity to avoid the mistakes I made initially - no sysnopsis, no clear understanding of PoV, show don't tell, info dumps, etc. So this time around I feel like the entire story is coming together much better and much easier than it did before.
The most surprising thing I found though was that I do not have the feeling that I am covering the same ground. This may seem strange given the fact that I am rewriting the same story with the same characters and the same events but in truth I feel like it is all happening for the first time.
So I have now finished the newest incarnation of the opening chapter and I have put it up on this site. So if you want to read Chapter 1 just click the link.
As always I would love to hear from you. If you have any comments or suggestions please use the contact form and let me know what you think.
3rd of August 2011
I got my first review and I am pretty proud of how it has gone. Take a look at what was said at The Geisha House.
Also my submission of the August Writing Challenge on Fantasy Faction is up and if you can please vote for my July submission that would be awesome.
If however you want to see the PDF you can do that by clicking on the link below
31st of July 2011
My first short story set in the world of The Assassins is now available on Kindle and I am quite excited. Click on the image below to take you to the Amazon site.
Also, what do you think of the cover? Love it or hate it or love the book or hate the book please use the contact form I would really like to hear from you.
29th of July 2011
The Del Mord city map has also now been done and it looks awesome. I am sure you will agree that the artist Robert Altbauer did an excellent job. You can see more of his work at either his DeviantArt Gallery or his own Fantasy Map site.
Take a look at his wonderful map here:
Just click on the image for a bigger version. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please use the contact form I would love to hear from you.
19th of July 2011
The world map is done and it looks fantastic if you want my opinion. The artist Kevin Smith did a fantastic job. Take a look and I am sure you will agree.
Just click on the image for a bigger version. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please use the contact form I would love to hear from you.
15th of July 2011
The maps are progressing nicely. Kevin Smith is working on the continent map and if you are interested you can follow the progress on the Cartographer's Guild forum. But you will need to sign up to see the pictures. I have included the overview picture here just click the map image below to see a larger version.
At the same time the Del Mord city detail map is being done also by Robert Altbauer. You can see examples of some of his work on his fantasy map site
I am sure you will agree that both these maps are starting to look really really good and I couldn't be happier. After all... What is a fantasy world without a map? Well now I don't need to find out.
12th of July 2011
The elevator pitch, the blurb, the mission statement, the query statement. In the past couple of weeks I have learned a great deal about the process of getting published and also about just how difficult it is and I suddenly realised that I am lacking one of the most important items that any hopeful writer needs to even dream about being considered for rejection.
So today I have finally crafted what I think might work as an elevator pitch... or alternatively the 75 words that can make my dream come true or crush my spirit entirely (for a time anyway). I share it with you now in the hope that you can bask in the perfection or find humour in its feebleness, or perhaps somewhere in between. In any case I would really love to hear from you about what might be good, bad or meh about it so that I can learn and grow - which is what any worthwhile pursuit should enable.
In a world where a person’s future can be fixed by a fatespinner’s words or freed by the edge of a blade; an ancient empire plans to recover a past glory that will bring the world to war. The small nation of Rathmore is thrust into a conflict where victory will be paid for in blood and a secret brotherhood of assassins will find that it’s not always the client who pays that price.
There it is, I hope it's something that if nothing else is a good start. If you have any comments or suggestions please use the contact form I would love to hear from you.
9th of July 2011
Started to look at the world map today. I realised that I had been writing about a world I really only had a vague notion of regarding the geography and the way different nationalities were placed relative to each other so I thought I'd actually take some time to do some real thinking about that and also to get myself a totally cool map.
My map making skills are not particularly good so I am going engaing an expert from the Cartographer's Guild, an online community of people who are interested in totally cool maps. I would recommend anyone who needs to get a map drawn to contact the people there, they really know what thay are on about.
But I really did need a way to document what was in my head so that when the time comes to hand the task over to the guild I can at least show them what I am thinking and roughly how the world hangs together so I drew this:
Click on it to see the bigger version.
So from these humble beginnings the first of my maps will evolve. When it gets close to being done I'll update this page. Right now it looks pretty tragic but it's a start.
6th of July 2011
It was a big day today.
Today I finished my edit of "Forged In Blood" and am now once more free to work on "The Grandfather's Blades" which was why I started this site in the first place. I think that I needed to get my head out of the other story for a while but I wanted to stay in the same world so I have created these projects to allow me to keep moving without ruining the start I have made.
So in keeping with the theme of procrastination I decided to clean my office so that I could actually work in there rather than the kitchen table where I have been set up so far. My desk now looks great, completely free of clutter and the floor of the room has been similarly de-junked. Then I took a look to my left and saw this:
Now I am feeling the need to tidy this up as well. I know it's not that messy per se since the books are pretty much in the shelves but they are two rows deep and some the series aren't together and there are some laying on their sides. Most importantly though there are some which have no business sharing shelf space with others.
I then thought I might try my hand at submitting something to the July Writing Challenge in the Writers Corner of the Fantasy Faction site so I quickly hammered out a 1600(ish) word bit of prose with the theme of Freedom. You can read the post in the forums but I have included a PDF version of the story here as well.
If you have any comments or questions please feel free to use the contact form I would love to hear from you.
2nd of July 2011
I had big plans for today, I had expected to devote the entire day to finishing the edits for the short story I started last week. Unfortunately fate conspired to make that impossible as I wrestled with a computer virus for the entire morning and a good portion of the afternoon.
Fortunately the virus was more annoying than destructive and after a bit of judicious cleaning I was able to get rid of it (I believe) and my computer is now working again though I have lost all of my desktop icons.
So with my head well and truly knocked out of the editing frame of mind I decided to have a bit of a stab at a cover image for the story. Here is what I came up with.
Hopefully tomorrow will be a more editing friendly day but for now I am pretty happy with how the cover looks. What do people think? I would love to hear your feedback or suggestions just hit me up on the contact form.
26th of June 2011
I spent this weekend working on a short story that I intended to serve as the introduction to a couple of characters that will find themselves in the book and then publish that story online tonight. Unfortunately the story took a left turn somewhere and suddenly it has ballooned out to almost 13,000 words and there's still more to come.
It is good though because I was struggling with finding inspiration and this particular exercise has rekindled the flame and got those creative juices flowing. So right now I don't have anything to share regarding that story line save to say that it's getting there and when its done I hope it will be something worthwhile.
I still have a way to go with the site and with the back story because I really do wish to create that rich immersive experience that I really enjoy when I read a good story. There's nothing like reading a book that seems like its a part of something bigger and I firmly believe that its worth building that history in from the begining than to try and jam it in later.
24th of June 2011
Now that the sample chapter is up I thought it might be interesting to show the evolution of the story. The assassins has been online since April 1996 and the original version of the that chapter was a thing to behold.
I may be doing myself a disservice in publishing this but creative growth should be visible rather than locked away so here it is in all it's glory (or lack thereof). Just click here to experience the assassins of 1996. I should warn you that there is a bit of profanity in the text so I apologise if I offend anyone.
23rd of June 2011
I uploaded the sample chapter today... if you are interested in reading it you can get there off the home page or just click here. It's funny how text reads differently on paper than it does on screen.
I put up the words and then almost as soon as I started reading through it I found a number of things that I had to change immediately.
20th of June 2011
The new website is now online.
It was a hard decision to take down the old site, remove the old content and then completely redesign the layout. I was inspired by the Metro Design style used in Windows Phone 7 and also in the upcoming Windows 8 operating system and I know that most fantasy themed sites are more graphics heavy I felt that the simplistic design of the tiles and icons helped promote the content rather than the chrome.
Now I need to deliver of that content so that it is worthy of being promoted... :-) Oh well I guess time will tell.
