Not a very productive day today. Work today was one of those days where we had a couple of hours where we were trying to get some work done and almost nothing went right. Nothing bad or disastrous but just irritating. That kind of set the tone for the rest of the day to be honest. I got home, just feeling wiped out. So I’ve not done a lot tonight. I’ve edited a couple of paragraphs and I wrote some words on Penal Earth during twenty minutes of my lunch break. 399 words in all.
Something else that did distract me this evening was that I booked up for Birmingham Horror Con on the 4th of February. So that took a little time, but I am silly excited about this now. I’ve been thinking about going for some time now, but I got the day booked off from work and I’m going. My buddy Stefan and his girlfriend, Steph, are both coming as well. Stefan came to Bristol Horror Con last year with me, and the awesome CL Raven are going to be there too and I’m really looking forward to seeing them both again.
The next four weeks are really going to drag out now.
Well, I’ve had a relatively productive week. I’ve managed to hit a thousand words a day this week, except for Thursday that is, and over the last couple of days I’ve felt like I’m getting back into the mindset I had at the start of the year. Writing is still quite difficult and isn’t feeling as natural as it has done, but the urge to write is stronger now than it has been for the last four or five months or so. I’m also feeling the creative juices beginning to flow again. While at work yesterday I was actually having ideas and having to scribble them down quickly in my notepad. That’s something that hasn’t happened like that in quite some time. I’ve had the odd idea but yesterday I was having ideas that sparked further thoughts which resulted in more notes being taken. What I think helped was that I sat in Costa for fifteen minutes before work and forced myself to work on some character details for a project I’m looking at working on next year.
Most of this week has been working on typing up my handwritten draft of The Space Watch, last night I finished that and have sent it off to Owen for his thoughts on it. I’ve stuck quite well to our outlines but I have deviated and added a POV which we hadn’t discussed but that I think adds a layer to the story and also fills in what I think would have been holes to the plot once the first draft was done. I’ve also changed the gender of an antagonist (it just kinda happened and has worked out well), and added a fair bit of minor world building details that we haven’t discussed but came out during the writing process. At the moment its at 14k words, and if I remember right we were looking at either a 30k or 50k target. I honestly can’t remember which, but I’m not sure how long it’s going to wrap up at. I’m thinking we’re about a third of the way through. My gut is saying 30k but we’ll have to wait and see how it goes as we work on it, which will probably be after NaNoWriMo.
With what I’ve gotten done of The Space Watch with Owen I’m going to focus on getting last years NaNoWriMo piece wrapped up. I’ve got a long way to go on it, but as it’s part editing and part adding a whole new character and his POV I’m hoping I can get a good pace going and be nearly done by the time NaNo starts.
Speaking of NaNo, I know what I’m doing this year. I’m going to type up a piece I wrote earlier in the year. I know that’s kind of cheating but I’d like to get it done and have a digital draft completed by the end of the year, and I think I’ll be able to get it done during NaNo. Next year I’m going to plan things out better, as I’m writing this I think I’ve just decided what to do for next years NaNo.
I can’t really remember the last time where I’ve had such a long period where writing has been as difficult as it has been this year. I think I know one of the reasons why it has been, and I’ve moved to sort that out, but I need to learn how to make sure I’m writing regardless of what’s going on around me. I know I can do it, and I’m much happier in myself when I am being productive. I just need to keep getting the work done. I’m not ignoring the buzz I got from Bristol Horror Con last weekend either. Meeting Cat and Lynx Raven for the first time after building up a great rapport with them online was a serious highlight of the year for me. But I also met some other fantastic people and just the feel of the event and the energy that was there was so infectious and has really rammed home a few things to me.
Yesterday my buddy Stefan and I drove to Bristol for Bristol Horror Con at the Future Inns in Bristol, and damn it was a lot of fun. It was quite a long drive from my home in Kent but I wanted to go because CL Raven were going to be there, and although I’ve know them for a couple of years we’ve never met. I like a little horror in my life as well, so I thought screw it! Let’s go! And I am so glad we did. Not only was it great to meet Cat and Lynx I met a bunch of other people who I found to be awesome and welcoming. The atmosphere was just so chilled out and relaxed, it was great just being there and soaking it all up.
Cat and Lynx Raven
We spent most of our time on the 6th floor of the hotel where all of the dealer tables where but went down to a Jazz Club below the bar for author readings, which Cat and Lynx were a part of. That, I found a lot of fun and very interesting. There was four people doing readings, including Cat and Lynx. The other two novelist were A K Benedict and Martyn Waites. Sitting and listening to all four reading excerpts or short stories was really thought provoking. Both in that once I actually get my butt into gear and get stories written, then I’ll be (hopefully) doing this sort of thing. But also in listening to writers whose work I hadn’t come across before. Obviously I’ve read a fair bit of Cat and Lynx’s work, but it was a lot of fun hearing it out loud, and they really aced the reading. Both A K Benedict and Martyn Waites are new to me but both rocked their readings and I’ll be checking their work out.
The Swag!
Needless to say I brought a load of books, six in all. As well as a couple of comics, a few key rings, CDs and a T-Shirt from the band Lesbian Bed Death, and a gorgeous skull paperweight. I could have brought a lot more, but managed to reign myself in.
Lesbian Bed Death was an awesome experience, I brought their first album years ago but like with all music I lost track of them and am seriously out of date. So I managed to pick up a couple of albums, including their latest and damn, it’s some good stuff!
The comics I got were Domeinion: A Threat From Within, and Dark Matter. Both are from Close2Immortality, and really caught my eye. Some very gorgeous artwork and the stories sound fantastic.
The skull paperweight I got is really cool and hopefully will be the first of a number of badass ornaments that I’ll gather over the next few years. Definitely check out the creator From The Shadows. He’s got some really sweet bits on his site.
Now, onto the books. I brought Deadly Reflections and The Malignant Dead by the aforementioned CL Raven. The Starblood Trilogy by Carmilla Voiez. A Tiding Of Magpies by Peter Sutton. Dead Cells by Adam Millard, and The Last Plague by Rich Hawkins.
Speaking to each of these fantastic authors was a lot of fun. All of them were very engaging and all of them seemed really nice and down to earth. It was very inspiring, speaking to people who are getting their words out into the world.
Everyone was so nice and welcoming. I can feel awkward at times, and not quite sure of myself, but at Bristol Horror Con, and DemonCon, I felt at ease in these groups of people. They’re there for the same reason I am, a love of horror and sci-fi and comics etc. My buddy Stefan, who is a big horror nut, loved it too. We’ve both pretty much deciding to go back again next year.
Peter Germany's World 