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| Thursday, January 11th, 2007 | | 1:02 pm |
http://www.afterburnsf.com/index.phpfirst story of the year is out. Community service, a ghost story. Also been accepted to have two mroe stories out, but not until september, and am still waiting on forgotten worlds to print ume's lamenet. I hope they do, that's my cursed story, so I'm really wanting that to come out just so the curse can be broken! nearly finished my faerie story, not got a good title for it though. Got to edit the three ravens and work on daydreams as well. At least i have written something new, as last year i think i only managed to write a couple of crappy stories that i didn't want to submit anywhere at all. Going to try and plan out my sex slave story (not errotica. just about a faerie sex slave and how she escapes) But we will see. | | Saturday, December 2nd, 2006 | | 12:41 am |
Well i just finished book 3! Was 115k words, ended a bit cheesily, but it's done. Needs editing, but im going to have a break and work on three stories i have to sort out. It feels weird to have finished it, anticlimatic, but it's a relief as it's been a massive pain to write because it's so inbetweeny! it sets up lots of things that never go anywhere as well, which worries me. hmm. | | Friday, September 22nd, 2006 | | 12:06 pm |
| | Thursday, September 7th, 2006 | | 7:08 pm |
My trip away really helped. I have ideas for book 4 now, and I know how book 3 will end. Only problem is getting there! I fear it will seem too rushed if i can't shove in something else to spread it out a bit, but the end is in sight, which is a big relief, as this has been a nightmare to write! Trying to plan out my bookmarks for advertising. Getting peeved with certain members of certain communities who says things like, your title of the book is generic. *rolls eyes* All fantasy titles are generic and overdone! as long as the book is good, who cares! I hate it when i'm made to feel as though i MUST offer something original all the time to the writing world, even down to the title. my book is fairly unique, it is NOT like last herald mage, it is NOT cliche or generic and i am SO TIRED of people saying it is because they're grabbing at one small detail from something i've said and coming to a whole conclusion on the back of it! without reading the book, you can't possibly decide what it is about, or what it is like, so i wish they'd stop rant over :) | | Thursday, August 17th, 2006 | | 12:09 pm |
Well i have finally sold a story, Ume's Lamnet, that i have had lying around for two years. It's gotten through five slush piles only to be rejected at the end, and now it's finally been accepted, and to a good magazine (forgotten worlds) that pays penny a word. Won't make me rich, but after two years im just happy to see it go! First acceptance of the year as well. Been a slow one. | | Wednesday, July 19th, 2006 | | 4:54 pm |
So
Well, this year has been pretty awful. I've not sold anything, although i have signed the contract for the novel, not had any ideas for any short stories, and was stuck on book 3 for a very long time. I have now sorted out a part of book 3 that was causing me shit. Instead of dale and tev being taken prisoner together, i will have the whole damn gang captured, which will then be a contrast to book 4, and make that more of a shock to his system, i think. This way i can also torture poor dale a bit, as he's just got himself a lover, and they have to be seperated! oh the horror! But i think this will work better. As for short stories, well i have one magazine interested in rules of war, as a reprint, but they want a little work done. Fair enough. Some of what they dislike, that i don't have many conjections, actually freaked me out. because it's true! for some reason i seem to write really formally, and that's just WRONG, esp in modern stories, which rules of war isn't, but still, would not, should not, do not all the time is insane. So i have gone through my old short stories, those doing the rounds and those not, and tightened all that up a little. The Changeling needs a bit more work in other areas, it feels very wooden all the way, and Rules of War needs that extra request done too it, so that's my project for tonight. Just will print them out and go through them in bed, i think. Until then i will try and get on with book 3. Skimming through it to see what i had been going on about, before writing the new stuff. It needs a fair bit of work, but it's only rough so that's ok :) | | Wednesday, May 24th, 2006 | | 7:48 pm |
Silverlake emailed me. They've recieved the contract and will be sending back my copy of it! seems rather complicated. they email it to me, i sign and print and post it back, then they post it back with their signature on! wouldn't it have made more sense to sign it, scan it in, then i sign it and post it back? Oh well! Struggling to stay motivated with book 2. the editing has reached that complex part of the whole plot device/lots of arguments/pointless crap going on and its hard to make it interesting for me to edit. i HATE editing complex plot device conversations! i always spend half the time wondering if it makes sense and if it's what i want it to say, and so on. that's why im going to start harrassing people to read it for me. check it does make sense. boko 2 has far more complicated plotness than book 1. | | Tuesday, May 16th, 2006 | | 10:20 pm |
Contract came. For anyone interested i put it behind the cut :) they want two copies and i need to now take down my rough novel, or make sure that it has a link to the website ( Read more... ) | | Thursday, May 11th, 2006 | | 11:27 am |
Book 2
Well, i have decided that book 2 needs work. It's fine as a novel, i actually like it a lot, but it is woefully TOO long! 23k too long. was 28. So here we are. A little charty to record my word removal progress It's a big job. I have never been that good at word removal. i was proud i dropped my dissertation down from 17k to 15! 5k too long! Not much i can do tho. I HAVE to get it shorter if i want to stand a chance of it being published. | | Saturday, April 29th, 2006 | | 5:04 pm |
Nearly there!
Well I decided to redo Book 3 only to discover it wasn't as bad as i thought it was. It needed some changes, and i am still not happy with everything after Dale is taken prisoner, but we will try and rewrite that. We have the end of book 4 planned, and some of the main ideas for it, so the whole series is getting somewhere, albeit slowly. Mostly i need to work on promotion i think. Find ways to build up my name before the book comes out. I have no idea how to do that! Two story rejections as well. Always a pain, but they're sent off elsewhere. Everyone goes through this, even George R R martin did, im sure. But its no real comfort! Anyway, i am pleased with book 4s plan. More hardship for dale, more ways to torture him, but it definetly sets up the sequel series, which is good :) Brings in some conflict, which is also good. | | Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006 | | 1:30 pm |
Nearly there!
Well i have, as far as i can make out, two chapters to go until the end. We have an attack (about time there was some action!) leaving, another attack, death. OVER! which is all rather alarming because what do i do afterwards? i have no idea what book 4 is about. I can start work on squel or prequel, prequel is fairly planned, but not that interesting, sequel, more interesting, loosely planned. it's hard to write this part of book 3, its all about the dude that makes up the prequel so i am trying to not give too much away about what happens there. Which is also why i may leave it until the end, when i've done the sequel. Am not sure there are any extracts in book 3 that i can use for the website. WHich is a pain, i like to give a few tasters, but it's difficult. Most things give away other things and i don't want that. The attack may work, but i have to write it first and see how it comes out. Oh well. ALmost at the end now :) That's something. Current Mood:  accomplished | | Wednesday, March 1st, 2006 | | 1:30 pm |
Continuing
I have no idea why this account is ALWAYS backdated! it keeps thinking it is 2005. Anyway, book 3 is coming along, mostly as i rewrote a few problem areas with it. I do worry that there is FAR too much sex going on right now, but i am not sure how to get around that. Oh well! Have entered the last third of the book. Have 30,000 words to go, before it reaches the upper limit, not sure i can do it in that, but still have editing to do, but they are at the final stage where they need to be. A few testings, some books to read, then they leave, attack, someone dies, the end :) nice to be nearing the end, especially as this book has been pretty hard to write Not sure what will happen about book 4 tho. Not even got a plan for that! Current Mood: accomplished | | Saturday, February 18th, 2006 | | 9:32 pm |
Continuing
> 1. How do you feel about me having one chapter on > my website, and a few other places, to act as a This is fine. I would just request that it be only one chapter and not a substantial part of the novel. > 2. How will royalties be paid? is it a check or > paypal? Your choice. I default to check, but if you have a Paypal account, I can do that, too. > 3. Do i get any free copies of the book? Yes, three. > 4. Do i get a discount on ordering further copies > of the book, for resale? For example, i may want to Yes, 40% off. I am also talking with Ingram about signing up with their UK partner, so you probably won't need to mess with Amazon.UK yourself. > 5. What about sequels? Do i need to submit them > during a reading period, or does it just depend on During a reading period. I don't base anything off of sales, only on how good the book itself is. I am a bit more forgiving on sequels to existing titles, but there is no guaranteed acceptance for anyone. > 6. i have a few images that friends have drawn for > me, a map, and a heraldic image i thought might be Sure, I'd be happy to use them as long as they're decent. We can discuss that closer to publication. > 7. Any idea when i will receive the contract? Hopefully by the end of the month. February has been awful for me. Can't wait until spring. So yeah. excited! mostly by the idea that my novel will be on amazon.co.uk and that i get three copies and a contract soon! not so happy about having to submit book 2, inc ase they reject it! but anyway, three copies! :) | | Tuesday, February 7th, 2006 | | 1:39 pm |
It's getting to me!
Book 3 is getting to me again. I have a girl reading over my plans, and like she said, nothing happens to make you want to read the next book. And nothing does. The end of 3 is too similiar to 2, with a death. The tower, its not enough to be interesting. Candale doesn't learn or do anything enough to be interesting, to forward the plot towards any sort of conclusion. I can try and make more of the tower by adding a dream or something to book 2, that's no problem. And was toying with the idea of the whole, mage burning, but i don't like that either. If i reveal the truth about of the Order I leave nothing surprising for the last book! I dunno. I am feeling as though something is missing. Something needs to be and i hav eno idea what. It feels so insubstantial, a bunch of stuff that happens. I am tempted to add Candale dreaming about the tower earlier, in book 2. To try and make it seem as though this is something more, and set it up as a red herring. He thinks its something, turns out to be something else, AND it doesn't stop him draming about it either! but i dunno. I still feel like something is just off with it all. It's very frustrating because my brain won't thik of anything else! But i am DEFINETLY going to loose the mage burning thing. From book 2 at least. I am not feeling happy with it. Mostly because i cannot see any way for the situation to go other than a rescue on the boy, and i don't want that. I don't think i do, at least. | | Wednesday, January 25th, 2006 | | 8:47 pm |
Continuing
Novel writing is going slowly. Can't see how to end this chapter, which is stupid, but the next one is fairly important, which i think is half the problem for me. That and I am still disillionsed with the whole thing! But i can have dale point out the flaws, the way i have in the past. is that it, he will say. I thought it would be more than that! :) Have asked clare to do me some scenery pictures, that will be nice. Some white oaks and stone circles to dress up the website and for cafe press when i sort that out. Got another, Ume's Lamnet is through slush pile, but not accepted yet email. Four times that happened to the same poor story! i hope they take it this time. And have to work on Midnight Market, takes too long to start, apparently. That will give me something to do over the next few days instead of wondering how to end this chapter! That and housework. The house is rather messy right now! Current Mood:  bouncy | | Sunday, January 15th, 2006 | | 6:24 pm |
Continuing
So I made an icon of my hero, Candale, because i was bored. Anyhoo, I have decided to make it so that he dreams about the tower, before going there, to try and give it some sort of connection and make it less like a tacked on idea, which it isn't. Not happy that it has to be a dream, though, but he is aprophet, his world is dreams, so it isn't really the same cliche as when a usual hero has dreams. Not to mention the fact that this dream isn't really about stuff happening, just about some other part of him, of his opposite, that he will become closer to. Or something. In truth, i have no idea! i am just desperate to try and do something with parts of this novel that i am not happy with. | | Friday, January 13th, 2006 | | 1:30 pm |
Continuing
Well writing is finally coming along! Am at the Seer's Tower with my characters now. Dale has just learnt the truth about himself, he goes off in a daze, bla bla, goes to see the Seer, has a row with the demon, the next thing we know dum dum dum he finally gets some action! Well done Dale! Been two and a half books and 25 years, but FINALLY you meet someone you can be with. And he was right under the silly boy's nose the whole time. I am so proud of my hero! :) And me. For writing this much! Jesus. Though it needs much editing! I am probably half way through book three now. after they leave the tower, they get taken prisoner (nice twist, usually its the woman who gets captured, not in my world!) Some stuff happens, then the end i guess! Then i can sit back and work out if i am happy with the overall plot! Because i cannot do it when my mind only has this one plot in it. When its written is the only time i will be able to rethink it. Current Mood: accomplished | | Thursday, January 12th, 2006 | | 1:30 pm |
New Story Published
So, after killing myself at the gym I come home to do my usual, has my story come out yet, if so why haven't you told me, check of the three websites where my strories are due to be printed. And I find, one has! Big yay! http://www.nanobison.com/ The Changeling. Ok so it isn't the story i am most excited about, that would be Medyna's Choice with Neopsis, the first story of mine in a PROPER print magazine that paid cents per word (Canadian cents, but still cents per word!) and it is also the prologue, of sorts, to my novel due out in December. But this is still a publication. And it has my bio too :) http://www.nanobison.com/links_nanoauthors.htmNo image because i do not have a decent pic. I always find it odd looking at smiling pictures of strangers. It's sort of sad, in a way, makes me feel melancholy, all these happy real people out there, with lives and problems and things, and there they are, staring at me from the web. Its just odd. Not sure that makes any sense, but it makes me feel odd nonetheless. | | Friday, January 6th, 2006 | | 7:59 pm |
Continuing
So I freaked myself out earlier with the realization that i am not the feminist i thought i was as i have dreaded sterotypes in my novel. We have, Trellany, the fiery haired, lascivious fighter, who wears tight clothes. Mayrila, the cold and intellegent woman who has magic and dislikes kids (think ice queen) Alyara, the dainty princess who doesn't do much btu get married and have kids. BUT, and this is what i hope saves me from true sterotype hell, Trellany, she isn't young, she's in her thirties (not that that is old, but most vixen warrior women are younger) she is stronger than the hero (usually the warrior woman isn't) and she gets scars (again, that doesn't often happen) Mayrila, well, no saving grace there, but she was written to die, so i can't help that. Alyara, she does beat up the hero, her brother, a few times when he's being a brat :) The way good siblings do, and she does like to train with a sword when she was younger, and has sex outside marriage (before her older brother does) so she is an odd mix. Likes her clothes, likes to look nice, but also likes to hit people and use a sword. But saying all that, i have male stereotypes too. Mostly in the form of Teveriel, i guess, the rogyish, foppish bard. And Candale, for being a reluctant hero, is fairly stereotypical, only he is an anti-hero really, looses his throne and is a virgin for a long time and is then gay, so he doesn't get the girl, the girl in fact shacks up with someone else and then dies. (there was a girl for a bit) At the moment i am still struggling with book 3! They haven't reached the tower yet, though dale has had a vision. I am hoping that i can get there by the end of the weekend, because that is when the good stuff starts to happen. I have written a few things i do not like, or am not sure of, but rather loose it in the edit, than worry about it right now. I often change my mind on things, loose things, add things, decide bad shit is actually ok shit, in the edit far more than i do in the write up. The original write tends to be more skeletal these days, (unless i am in a good writing mood) with all the barest bits of stuff happening. that's why i can't believe nyki and p-man keep giving me 4s on fantasy writers! some of the new chapters are so bad at the moment they deserve 0s! (ok that's an exaggeration) anyway, that's it at the moment. Hopefully reach the tower soon. and even more hopefully, my three stories should be out soon! Been waiting on one of those for 19 months! Current Mood:  bored | | Wednesday, December 28th, 2005 | | 1:30 pm |
Updates to the website.
We now have some decent maps for my Ellenessia's Curse Series! Clare drew them for me and I split them into two, a close up of Carnia and a general world view of all six kingdoms and their capitals (except Herandor which appears to be missing one!) http://www.franjacobs.com/world.shtmlBeen working on book 3. Its a bit of a struggle trying to get the necessary parts in of Candale in the court of the Idryan king. There are things he needs to learn, which are important later on, but it is hard to introduce them. No idea why I am finding this such a struggle. Perhaps it is because I have things I actually have to write about. I can no longer just write and see where it takes me, there is a point to everything now. Purpose takes the fun out of it all! :) Current Mood: blah |
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