Busy, busy, busy

I apologise now for the scatterbrained post this week.

The title says it all really.

Still no sign of work, but in the mean time, I decided to start work on a novella. Which I finished last night, following five whole days of solidly working on it.

I'm not normally that productive, tending to get out about 2,000 words a day, but I was in the grip of a writing fever. The proverbial 'zone'. So I wrote like Ty the Tazmanian devil on speed, putting out an average of around 4,000 words per day. For a couple, it was more like 6,000.

But it's finished. Or at least, the first draft is. I'll give it a couple of weeks before I go back to it, so I'll be back to Serial Psyence. I didn't want to stop working on the book, but this story really got its claws into me, and wouldn't let go.

When I've finished editing, and it's ready to be published, I plan to do so through Amazon's KDP Select scheme, which will allow me to set the book's price to zero for select periods. As this is the first in a series of novellas about the characters featured in the first volume, I felt it would make a good taster for the rest.

For me, it's a way to test the water with a universe I first envisioned almost eight years ago during my second year at university. It was inspired by a lecture in my Theory in Archaeology module, on Evolution and Creationism, which gave me a 'what if' scenario. What if, somewhere in the distant future, we'd lost our homeworld, and came to the belief that we evolved on a world close to the core of the galaxy. A belief which became central to the primary religion, and anyone who dared postulate another origin was branded a heretic. Not too dissimilar to certain times in our past, of course. And so was born the short story, Distant Origin.

I've not worked on anything in that universe for quite a while. I've not felt ready to, if I'm honest. So writing this novella and the subsequent series is a way for me to explore it in preparation for a book in a few years time.

So what is this novella about, you ask?

It's called The Runaway.

On the distant world of New Erised, Tovar Vash In'dur Sing Neiral is hired to escort two people, a man and a woman, to the lunar spaceport. It seems a simple enough assignment, except his clients are wanted people, and one is more than they appear to be...

Finish the book already

Well, passed 115,000 words today. I think there's about 30,000 words left of the main story, then I have the flashbacks to write.

Things are coming together quite nicely now. The plot is moving, and certain characters are coming to realisations. Terrible have and will happen.

It's a shame I need to work, otherwise I could have the book finished by October. Hey, any publishers out there in the market for a sci-fi thriller? Here's the tagline:

How do you catch a murderer who can kill you with a thought?

I've been thinking a bit about Liberator's Ruin recently. There haven't been much in the way of sales for a while (a sure sign the book is out of the public eye), and as I'm self-published, I do my own marketing. Admittedly, I've not been doing much. In fact, I've been doing bugger all. I should put together a campaign, except that cost money. However, I did come with something. With the help of Heather's actor-in-training brother, I may be putting together an audiobook version of Liberator's Ruin. Any interested in listening to that?


Saw the Dark Knight Rises last week. As we're living on a much lower income (ie virtually nothing), we've curtailed expenses. So we went on a Wednesday (thank fuck for Orange Wednesday), and didn't buy snacks. The film was excellent, a thoroughly enjoyable combination of two plots: Knightfall and No Man's Land. It won't take much guessing to work out who certain actors are really playing, but the movie was a great ending to the trilogy.

Also been watching the Olympics. The opening ceremony was far more excellent than I'd expected. I'd heard talk of it being based on the English countryside, which made me think, 'how shit is that?' But then as the ceremony went on, it changed and grew, turning into the Industrial Revolution, with workers forging the five Olympic rings. To me that was absolutely amazing.

And we've won a few golds! About time too. So go men's rowing team.

Lastly, I heard Mitt Romney is doing himself no favours as he 'does' Europe. For once I actually have respect for David Cameron for his sharp comment back. Don't worry Dave, I'm sure you'll do something to lose my respect once again. But it was nice while it lasted, eh?