list o acheivements

Last week I finished a new novel, which I reckon is cause for celebration. 86,000 words in total for the first draft, hopefully equating to about 80,000 for the second (once I've cut most of the crap out).

By my calculations, this would be my fifteenth completed novel (disregarding the ones that have been abandoned, lost, buried or disowned)... although I could be miscounting somewhere. This I think is my full list:

1. Obsession No. 1 (about 2002, approx 90,000 words) - a thriller, for some reason. God knows why I keep trying to write thrillers. It's not my preferred genre either for reading or writing. I think a grand total of two people have ever read this, or are ever likely to read it.
2. Coma White (about 2004, approx 120,000 words) - another thriller. Also the longest thing I've written, since I hadn't learned to edit back then. And yeah, the title's from the Marilyn Manson song, which I would apologise for, except I still maintain Mechanical Animals was a perfectly fine album.
3. Animal Bones (about 2005, approx 75,000 words) - homage (i.e. blatant stealing) to Laurell K Hamilton, involving a private detective who works for supernatural clients.
4. Terror Island (2006, published 2007, approx 110,000 words) - wow, was this really the first time I put zombies in a story?
5. Blood Red Sea (2007, approx 80,000 words) - vampire pirates, in a young-adult stylee. The title "Vampirates" was already taken, annoyingly.
6. NighmareLand (2008, approx 80,000 words) - post-apocalyptic zombies. If I had to pick my favourite thing I'd written, this would probably be it.
7. Screenstalker (2008, approx 50,000 words) - my first Nano-novel, about a monster-hunter who lives in the TV and fights movie monsters. And zombies.
8. Home Ground (2009, to be published SOON, dammit, approx 90,000 words) - WWII zombies at an Internment Camp on the Isle of Man.
9. Moths (2009, published 2010, approx 60,000 words) - giant killer moths.
10. Afterglow (2009, approx 60,000 words) - giant killer glow-worms.
11. Lost Souls Maximus (2009, approx 50,000 words) - murder and campanology, my second Nano-novel.
12. Time Alone (2010, approx 95,000 words) - time travel... I'm in two minds whether to include this as completed or not. A first draft was definitely finished, but it's so full of plot-holes and difficulties, I doubt the damn thing can ever be rewritten. :(
13. Blood of the Ancestors (2010, approx 85,000 words) - swords 'n sorcery, without the sorcery and with added zombies. Consensus places this as the best thing I've written so far, which is nice.
14. Return to Terror Island (2011, approx 85,000 words) - my third Nano-novel. You'll notice it went slightly over-budget on the word count. And it wasn't finished until recently. Also I've not told anyone I've written this sequel. I'm looking forward to the reactions. :)
15. The Ravens (2011, approx 80,000 words) - and this is the newly-completed one, written for my lovely husband, with post-apoc zombies and a bike gang. Editing starts next week.

There was also a children's book I wrote in high school, but I'm disregarding that, and also four or five movie scripts. And some short stories. Plus all the stubs of unfinished novels, of which there are several.

I think I'm happy with the list so far. :)

Editing of Nos. 14 and 15 will probably take up the next few weeks, then it's on to world building for Nanowrimo. Huzzah.

who cares what it's about, as long as the kids go?

This week, i decided it would be fun to make some chapbooks of short stories that haven't found a home anywhere else. Package them up with some nice artwork... it sounded like a good plan, but there was a fatal flaw that i hadn't spotted. What i ended up with initially was a pile of my rejects; stories that have been turned down several times by various places, and which most likely don't represent my shiniest work. So i've spent the last two weeks finishing off a bunch of stories-stubs (most of them little more than scribbled ideas and wine stains) and trying to bash them into something readable. And now i'm knackered.

on the plus side, the artwork looks good. Ah, the joys of living with an easily-bribable artist. I'll post some as soon as i get my scanner working again.

shiny artwork

Tch, i posted this on facespace then forgot to add it here as well. Oh blogging, why are you so difficult?

Anyway, this is the beautiful shiny artwork for my upcoming book, "Home Ground", due to be released in the next month or so (fingers crossed, as always). The artwork is by the wonderful and talented Juan Moore, and i don't think i could be happier with the way it's turned out.

here are some things you probably didn't about Juan:

1. His name is pronounced the Manx way: Joo-ann. Which is a shame because it totally ruins all the "Juan Moore time" jokes we could be making.
2. He's officially designated as a National Treasure, as he's currently running an exhibition in the Manx Museum here in Douglas.
3. We very nearly share a birthday - he is one day younger than me. So as well as being a talented bastard, he's also a young whippersnapper. Dammit.

Also, if you ever do happen to meet him, ask to see the photograph he carries in his wallet. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

progress of the slow kind

sent out the back-cover blurb for "Home Ground" to Mr Publisher yesterday - it took ages to do, because i hate writing blurbs. It's probably my least favourite part of the writing process. I'd rather write ten thousand new words than a hundred for a blurb. It also doesn't help that i'm rubbish at it.

Blurgh. Oh well, it's done now.

that space-cadet glow

Y'all may have gathered that i'm not the most tech-savvy person in the world, which is why it's taken me this long to figure out how to create an author page on Facespace:

Rakie Keig - now likeable on Facebook

So if you're "logged on" to the local "interweb", please "like" me. If you do, i promise to stop using bunny ears to highlight my technological failings. Also, facebook sends me lovely emails telling me "so-and-so likes you", which makes me feel about ten years old again.

Script Frenzy 2011

Script Frenzy is upon us once again, and this year i've decided... not to participate.

this is due to a whole wodge of stuff, mainly me being too busy, with too many unfinished projects on my hands, not enough confidence in my ability to write a decent screenplay, and only half an idea about what i'd write about anyway.

So instead of 100 pages of rubbish screenplay, I've decided to devote April to reading books.

I used to read loads. In fact, i suppose i still read quite a bit, but when i've got other stuff going on in my life, reading seems to be the thing that gets pushed out. Which is not only a shame, but probably quite bad for me - no wonder my head's so stuffy and congested when i've not put anything new into it for so long.

So last week i went through my hefty to-read pile, reaquainted myself with all the forgotten gems i'd bought and then ignored, and now i plan to go thorugh as many of them as possible in April. I'm aiming for 15 by May 1st, which feels like a nice, attainable total.

And the best thing? I feel better already. Reading is one of my top five things in the world ever, and i feel really dumb for neglecting it so often.

Wendy Tells It Like It Is

a quick plug for the frog who tells it like it is:

Wendy the Wide-Mouthed Frog

failing at this posting thing...

again i made a resolution to post more often. Again i fail.

on the plus side, i'm watching The Usual Suspects in belated tribute to the wonderful Pete Postlewaite. Is there anything better than this movie? Okay, maybe there is, but for me this is the movie that defined my teenage years. When Chris McQuarrie won the screenwriting oscar, i woke up everyone in the house with my happy dance. When i had a massive row in the cinema with my then-boyfriend, just as the credits were starting, i let him win because i so did not want to walk out of the movie in a huff. Just listening to the score brings a nostalgic tear to the eye.

also, i've just realised the credits at the start read "Bryan Singer's film", rather than "a film by...". Like he KNEW this was THE film of his career (not to belittle his career before or since, natch). I heart you, movie.

scream for me, cosa rica

watching Iron Maiden: Flight 666 and am about THIS far -

(holds thumb and forefinger a judicial half-inch apart)

- from jacking everything in and going off to form a rock band.

...Despite the fact that i don't have a musical bone in my body, have been thrown out of bars for my karaoke attempts, am 31 (positively ancient in musical terms), and the closest i've ever gotten to a rock n roll lifestyle is being booted off the tour bus for The Vandals by their terrifying yet petite manager.

Maybe i just wanna hang out on Ed Force One. Goddammit.

there's a mattress in the hallway

not a quote, there just happens to be a mattress in the hallway right now. It was delivered this afternoon, i haven't cleared space for it yet, and i keep forgetting it's there, so it gives me a cheerful surprise every time i go into the hall and walk into it.

anyway, mattresses aside, we seem to have survived another year. I've cheerfully failed at least one of my resolutions, which was to blog on here more often. But i did manage to get married, and i had a book published, and i've gotten a fair number of words written. About 274,000 words in total for the year (I kept a spreadsheet).

in a vague sort of breakdown, of interest to no one but me:

About 60k on my one finished project of the year, Blood of the Ancestors.
About 70k on my NaNoWriMo novel, which STILL ISN'T FINISHED and is beginning to annoy me now.
30k on an unfinished project, The Silver to the City. Once i finally figure out how to make it good, this will be my magnificant sci-fi octopus.
13k on Search and Destroy, most of which was written in 2009 and which, again, came to a staggering halt when i realised it sucks in current form. I think this will be the next thing i work on.
10k on the start of a lone-zombie story called (imaginatively) Loner. It might've been good if it wasn't so boring. Also unfinished. There's maybe a trend developing here.
About 7k on random world building, my first real attempt at world building. I liked it. I shall do more of it from now on.
15k on my stupid sucky ScriptFrenzy script, which sucked and was stupid. I maybe need to revisit it at some point.
About 25k on short stories... maybe four completed stories and one or two broken ones.
Aaaaannnd 20k or so on critting other people's stories (yes, i'm counting that in my word count, nyah).

that doesn't come close to adding up, but trust me, once you factor in a bunch of notes and aborted stories and the like, it does apparently add up to 274,000. Which (according to my quaculations), is something like 750 words a day. Ha! That totally cheered me up. I thought i'd been well lazy this year, but 750 words a day is more or less what i'd been aiming for. Plus i think i edited at least three or four of my novel-length stories to something approaching final polish.

didn't read nearly enough books, didn't reply to enough emails, hardly watched any films, but i did make my word count. And i drank a lot of wine in doing so. At the end of the day, could we want anything more?