The Drawing Of The Three

Good Morning Monday

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It is Monday morning, it’s the start of a new week so I’m feeling quite fired up (now I’ve woken up) I’m on target for NaNoWriMo. I got caught up after a few two thousand words days and a two thousand eight hundred and ninety nine word evening on Saturday 🙂 I’m aiming at trying to keep this two thousand word evenings going, especially this week as me and Tracie are off to stay with her sister and her partner in North Wales this weekend. I’m taking my laptop so I will be doing a bit of writing but I’m not sure how much I will be doing so if I can go into the weekend ahead then I’ll be quite happy. Even if I’m not ahead or I get behind over the course of the weekend then I’m not especially concerned because at the start of this week I was behind quite a bit but I managed to catch up over this week so there’s no reason why I can’t do it again.

I finished reading The Drawing Of The Three by Stephen King last Sunday, wow what a book! It took a lot of time to read it as I’m a slow reader but it’s worth it. The writing is exalent, the characters are really out there in some cases and the setting is really really to there. I’m hoping in further books more is revealed about what happened before the story started. There’s been a bit but a little more would be nice 🙂

I also watched Southland Tales on Saturday night, I enjoyed it a lot. It’s nice watching a smart movie but I need to watch it a couple of times as I think a lot of it went over my head.

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Tough Reads

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Have you ever read a book which was really difficult to get through but you love it all the same? I’ve got that at the moment with The Drawing Of The Three by Stephen King. The book is really fascinating, I am loving how  King has put this, and the first novel, The Gunslinger, together. As I’ve said before The Dark Tower books are the first works I have read by King and I love what he is writing but I am finding it a heavy slog working my way through them. Once I’ve finished the Dark Tower books I do want to read more of King’s work but I think I’ll go audiobook with the rest of his work in future.

Another book I’m enjoying reading but finding the act of reading tough is Beginning Operations by James White. Like Stephen King I am finding White’s writing style difficult to get through but I am finding the story really interesting.

With both of these books I can only read a few pages at a time which can be annoying as I just want to get stuck into these books and have an evening or two where I’m really getting pulled into these worlds.

 

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Toothache

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This week has been almost a total loss as I have had a severely painful dental issue come up and since Tuesday I haven’t had a decent nights sleep, or a meal come to think of it, well until tonight that is. Most of my strength has been directed towards the day job and just getting me through that. I’ve been to the dentist and the problem is being sorted out but it has been very painful few days.
Needles to say I haven’t done any work on Project Apollo since an abortive attempt on Tuesday and the same can be said of my NaNoWriMo preparations. I’ve lost track of blog reading and writing, but strangely enough I’ve read a fair bit of The Drawing Of The Three by Stephen King. I also listened to Neuromancer by William Gibson. I’m going to give it another listen though as I was listening to is as I was in pain and I couldn’t really keep track of the story.

I am a lot better today then I have been but I am still not near 100% and I am very tired. Health is something that I try not to let get in my way. Mostly I just crack on and get through if I’m not feeling well, but toothache, damn. I don’t think I’ve ever had any pain that bad in my entire life!

Once I finish work tomorrow I think I’ll be getting in bed and just resting for the weekend. I’m supposed to be going out for a friends birthday tomorrow night and off out with Tracie Sunday but I thinking just going to stay in and rest, then get firing on all cylinders next week.

An Update

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It’s been a while since I’ve shared an update like this, but I won’t bore you all by making it a long post.

Project Apollo is coming along, albeit it a little slowly. Me and Owen have left out a lot which we need to correct which is what I am primarily working on at the moment. Due to work commitments Owen is not able to spend as much time on it as he would like but we are making progress. As I’ve said before this is such a complicated universe we are treading carefully because Project Apollo is the start of a series of stories so we need to get everything just right.

I had more feedback from a Beta reader on my short stories that I’m looking to publish next year and I’m thinking over what my Beta said. One thing that people seem to say about my work is have I thought about expanding it.

The Residents is going to be getting attention later on this year and early next year. The more me and Chrystalyn talk about this the more excited I get 🙂

Reading wise I’m still working through Stephen King’s The Drawing Of The Three. I am enjoying it but I’m not the quickest reading and with King I read slowing because, well I think he puts so much into these books that I’m trying to take it all in.
I’m also listening to Neuromancer by William Gibson, which I’m not enjoying as much as I thought I would, but with this one I’m tempted to listen to it twice before forming an opinion. I’m listening to it as I’m working so I do have to stop it occasionally which doesn’t help.

And finally, NaNoWriMo. I am planing my NaNo project during my lunch breaks and I’m getting some good ideas scribbled down. I’ve actually got key plot points listed and I know how it’s going to end (this always helps) and I’ve scribbled down a lot of character notes.
If you are doing NaNo and would like to Buddy me I’m PeterJReaper over there 🙂

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In At The Deep End: Discovering Stephen King

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It had always felt like I had committed a crime when I would say to someone that I had never read a Stephen King book. I felt like I was admitting to a very dirty secret but in truth it has only been in the last year, maybe two that I have started to explore who I’m reading and Stephen King is a big one for me.

So I’ve started off with The Dark Tower series, and I feel a little like I’ve been thrown in at the deep end. Part of me thinks I should have read one of his standalone novels first but the mystery of The Dark Tower series was too strong for me to start anywhere else. As a general rule I’m not a fast reader, there are books that I devour rapidly but The Gunslinger was not one of them, and neither has the second book of the series, The Drawing Of The Three. That’s not because I’m not enjoying these books but I think it’s because I’m trying to take in the complexities of the stories. The change of pace that has taken place between the first and second books is pretty big as well.

What has fascinated me so far is the fact that King has revealed almost nothing about the world this is all taking place in or the dark tower itself. What is our protagonist, Roland, searching for? Hell he doesn’t even know!

Am I going to read further then The Dark Tower series, am I going to fall in love with Stephen King’s work? I’m not sure I’ll fall in love with his work like I have done with Scott Sigler or Dan Abnett but I want to read more. From what I know of Stephen King he does not let himself be constrained by genre or people’s expectations and that is why I want to read more of his work. He’s a fearless writer.

(I’ve also got his book On Writing as an audiobook, if you’re a writer I think this is an essential read, or listen (King narrates that himself). It’s part autobiography and part writing guide. I felt King’s struggle as he tried to survive with a young family before Carrie got sold)

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A Quick Update

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What have I been up to in the last week? Not a lot unfortunately. The words have not flown quite as well as I have been hoping for. Until I can get down to Owen to go through his notes on Project Apollo I don’t really have a lot to do on it so I thought I’d start on what would be my next novel, which in hindsight was a bad idea because I’ll be needing to get back onto Apollo before I’ve finished a first draft.
I’ve only written a few pages of this next novel, Project Sabre, so I’m going to put it to one side and work on tidying up a short story that I’ve had written for a while and I’m going to work on a new short story as well. This one I’ve got a good idea for so I’m going to make a start on that this weekend.

Reading wise I’ve made a good dent in Stephen King’s The Drawing Of The Three. This is an interesting novel and quite different from the first book in the series.
I have also started reading Dark Spaces by Dionne Lister. This is a collection of short stories which are of the darker side of humanity and its really good. I’m about halfway through and these stories are damn creepy!

TV wise I finished watching the first series of Falling Skies and Oh My God what an ending! I can’t wait till I get paid so I can get series 2 😀

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Progress Report

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Thursday night I crashed and burned (again) on Project Apollo. I’m trying to focus too much attention on this one at the moment and along with work I don’t think that my body and mind can take the load of working five and a half days a week and then writing seven days a week, so what I am going to do is have Wednesdays off of writing and literally just chill out. Maybe have a night watching DVDs or reading but most definitely avoid all writing.

I was thinking about maybe doing red pen edits on some of my short fiction that needs editing but I don’t think that will be such a good idea either. I am thinking just steering clear of anything creative on Wednesday nights. Last week when I crashed and burned it was a Wednesday so I think that’s a good night to have off.

As for how far I am with Apollo, well I only have six or seven pages to type up but I’m not blown away by the ending I have written. It’s not feeling right at the moment so I am considering a re-write of some of it. At the moment it does not feel like it has anywhere near enough depth and strength to not only the story but also the actual writing is not as good as I know I can be so I’m going to look it over on Monday night and see what is worth saving and where to go from there.

Me and Tracie are off to see Owen tonight for a few drinks so hopefully he’ll bounce some ideas off on how to improve this ending.

Reading wise I’ve only made minor progress with The Drawing Of The Three but I’m putting that down to working on Apollo and the fact its the early stages of a book. Its very rare that the first hundred or so pages of a book make me turn the pages rapidly so I’m not surprised with my lack of progress.

I’ve have got a couple of pages that I would like to add to my blog here but they will take a little time to put together but I’m not willing to sacrifice writing time at the moment to work on them. I was hoping to have them done this month but at the moment that’s on the back burner.

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Flash Post

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Here’s a just a quick little progress update. Project Apollo is moving along, albeit a little slower then I was hoping, part of this is due to non related, everyday life stuff and the other part is that I’m editing and re-writing as I’m going. Me and Tracie are off to see Owen this Saturday and although we’ll be in a pub’s beer garden we will be doing some work, mainly giving Owen a detailed progress update. I’d like to have the final chapters all typed up by Saturday but with a cinema trip tonight and down to Tracie’s tomorrow I’ll only be able to get a few words done in the next couple of nights.

Reading wise I’ve just started The Drawing Of The Three by Stephen King. Which is the second book in The Dark Tower series. I got all seven books for Christmas last year but I wanted to pace myself with them otherwise I would have only read the one series until I had finished it. I wanted to leave a little time between them also because I wanted to let each one sink in a bit as well.

That’s it for now. If you’ve ever felt the urge to write, paint, draw or anything creative then maybe today is the day to give it a go 🙂

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Get Sh*t Done Month

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August is my get sh*t done month. I’m aiming to get the 1st draft of Project Apollo done and off to Owen and I want to have a short story, that’s all but done, ready to be sent off to the sci-fi magazines.

How easy is this going to be to achieve? That depends on a couple of things. The day job is a big one. This time of year my day job (valeter at a car sales) is quite demanding on the body. This glorious summer we are having here in the U.K. is awesome but it does sap ones energy when working a physically demanding job and at the moment we are busy. Which is absolutely great but it takes more of the body’s strength. Yesterday was a prime example, although not to warm I had a lot to do so come the evening when I got home I just could not get going with the words. So I got an early night and despite a few non-work related hiccups today I’ve got home and knocked out over 1100 words tonight *does a little dance* That’s the most words I have written in one day for a long time, and it feels good 😀

I’d also like to get back into a bit of reading this month as well. The last two books I have read have been amazing (Redshirts by John Scalzi & Blood In The Past by Jordanna East) so I was more then a little anxious at the prospect of starting a new novel. So I read more of Judge Dredd Vol. 1 but now its time to dive into a novel again and I’ve chosen The Drawing Of The Three (The Dark Tower Book 2) by Stephen King.

So that’s the plan, lets see how much of it I actually get done!

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