2015 - end of year writing stats

That's a boring heading, isn't it? Anyways, fresh from the Rakie-spreadsheet, some stats about my writing progress in 2015:

Total Word Count: 359,224
(Total for 2014: 295,670)

I'm happy with that. The main projects I worked on this year were:

Finishing The Extra (my Nano novel from November 2014 which I finally completed in March and have ignored since).
A small amount of work on YA superhero story Search & Destroy.
Rewriting and editing Fourth to the Devil (including dreaded synopsis and query letters).
Finally redrafting my YA time-travel, haunted house bonanza 2114, which was started for Nano 2013 and has now been renamed 2116 in honour of how unnecessarily long it's taken me to complete.
Notes on a supernatural crime story, White Death, that I really want to start work on.
Completed NaNoWriMo 2015 with Animal Bones, a rewrite of one of my earliest stories.
And the first draft of Floor 156, a dystopian thriller which I'm pretty sure no one will ever get to read, ever (some things are only written for our own funsies).

Oh, and the ebook of Home Ground came out. :)

One resolution for last year was to write every day, which I just about managed, although it was a close call on a few days and frequently I achieved only a few scribbled notes. Even so, I appear to have averaged approximately 980 words a day (allowing a margin for my shoddy maths), which is very respectable if true.

I also resolved that drawing counted as writing. This was to encourage me to devote more time to drawing, and I assigned an arbitrary word count to time spent (given a picture's worth a thousand words, and all that). I didn't finish anything major, aside from some wedding invites for my sister that turned out okay, but I'm happy that I spent a little more time than usual on a skill I've sadly neglected.

Soooo... projects for 2016...

First and last I need to finish the rebranded 2116. I'm at the horrible stage of editing where you read everything aloud and agonise for hours about word choice ("Do I mean bright or do I mean clear? Is spiderwebbing a real word? Is a culvert what I think it is?"). After that I need to redraft all the crap I wrote last year.

And then I have a stolen idea about dragons that I want to pursue...

In 2016 I will write. I will read. I will draw. I will blog. It's also likely I will drink too much wine and shout at cooking shows on TV. In my spare moments I might sleep. Also, Fallout 4.

Best wishes to you all for a shiny 2016. ("SHINY! That's the word I want!")

HOME GROUND available FREE on Kindle this weekend

Wow, there're a lot of capital letters in that title.

To coincide with Manx Litfest 2015, my ebook HOME GROUND will be available to download for free between Thursday 24th September and Sunday 27th September 2015 inclusive:

On Amazon.co.uk

On Amazon.com

If you like zombies, history, horror, and getting something for free, please do check it out.

my other boys

Jakob and Elliott are helping promote my shiny new ebook.

(Jakob and Elliott Taylor featured in a fairly-rubbish webcomic I used to draw. Doodling this made me realise I haven't drawn them for a shockingly long time... probably not since the real Elliott was born. I need to do more drawing.)

It's here!

Delighted to announce that HOME GROUND is now available in ebook!

On Amazon.co.uk

On Amazon.com

HOME GROUND ebook edition

Good news everybody!

My third novel, HOME GROUND, is getting an ebook release! I'll post the link as soon as I get the thumbs-up from the publishers, but for now, if you would like a sneak preview the first three chapters are available to view here.

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.

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.

hmm

don't seem to be doing so well with my NYR of keeping this blog updated. Pleh, i'm not cut out for this interweb business.

anyways. Things are slightly hectic here. I've got a new job (of a kind - it's actually an unexpected transfer to a different department, but at least the contract's for a year instead of a month), which is eating a lot of my times, but does at least let me go to court (i'm a stenographer!). Aaaand i'm about two days away from finishing a new story.

this makes me very happy. Of the four things i've written in the past year: one is a time-travel novel with so huge a central flaw i doubt anything can be salvaged from it; another is a super-hero-dectective story abandoned at 60k words after i realised a) i can't write detective fics, and b) i apparently can't write superhero fics either; the third was my nano novel; and the fourth was my attempt at script frenzy which started out well and now i can't even read through because i don't know where to start making it better. So it's kind of a relief to finish something and it not be awful.

I mean, it's not good yet. That goes without saying. Also I think everything i write is an attempt at copying a writer i love, in which case this is my David Eddings story. It's a D&D setting without the magic and with added zombies. Oh, and in the jungle. So kinda like Sapphire Rose meets The Rising meets Platoon, but minus the overbearing sense of futility and Willam Defoe.

Um, that maybe makes it sounds better than it is.

there's also some tentatively good news about one of my older stories, Home Ground, but i'm reluctant to jinx it by getting excited too soon.