http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com en-gb grimm-dragonblaster.com 2012-5-18T00:00:00Z grimm-dragonblaster.com http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#118544 85640 words written out of approx 100000. I now have all the chapter titles in place and I know what goes in each. By end of play tomorrow I hope to be up to at least 90000. That should mean I can get the first draft of the book finished by Tuesday p.m. I have been given a provisional not yet confirmed release date of January 2013 for Resolution. Four and a half years in the writing... yet I wrote the first six in less time In retrospect after this I think best my advice to a first time writer would be Dont start off with a series Once Resolution is complete I think I shall start on some standalone character books... I think Crohn or Doorkeeper will be the first. 2012-5-18 22:28:54 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#118335 Many thanks to my invaluable and everhelpful editor Melanie for giving me the inspiration to fill in the very last plot hole on Book 7 Since my Eureka moment on Saturday I have felt inspired to write each day. I wrote a whole new chapter yesterday for the first time in about three years and I think I have all I need to do to repeat the feat today. Assuming thats the case I need to retrospectively add some detail to an existing chapter and write an estimated four more. As I know pretty much what will be in those chapters I could have the whole thing wrapped up by the end of Sunday. After many frustrations false dawns and aborted deadend approaches this is quite definitely it 2012-5-15 18:22:34 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#118109 Well I was getting nowhere at all. I was writing bits and pieces hoping that the gaping plot hole in the middle of Book 7 would heal itself. I had outlined the problem to my editor Melanie and friends family and anyone else who would listen. Haven written the climax of the book I was pretty sure I could bring it about just by letting the writing flow... but I couldnt. I needed Grimm to be somewhere and everybody else to be somewhere else and every time I thought about it I couldnt find a sensible rational intentional mechanism that led to the climax. Every path I could see relied on coincidence deus ex machina dumb bad luck that is blinding good luck for the antagonist. I wanted a cunning plot by the antagonist to absolutely assure the outcome but the way Id written it precluded that. Yesterday very possibly for the nth time or maybe the n1th where n is defined as quite a big positve integer really I was emailing my sister who Im delighted to say is just starting to write her first... 2012-5-11 18:14:09 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#114934 Ive started writing again and believe I have a way forward with Book 7. 70k words in I have the climax written and theres just two little plot points to figure out then I think Ill have it. I am going to bust a gut to try to get the book finished one way or the other by the end of April. To all those who have been asking after the book thank you for your patience. To all those who have sent complimentary words thank you. After Book 7 there will be other Grimm books but standalone ones rather than series. I also want to write backstories for some of the other main characters. 2012-3-19 18:31:04 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#111654 Well its been a pretty hectic last year Im beginning to get the hang of my job after some swift and radical changes and starting to get into a routine. The last two years have been like drinking from a flatout fire hose... The early mornings are a bit of a chore as I havent yet got into the habit of early nights to make up for them. Grimm 7 is progressing slowly very slowly but it is progressing in little bits that I hope to be able to stitch together. Im happy with the ending very happy and that gives me something to aim for. Ive done about 67000 words which I believe now is some way past halfway. I am owed some holiday for my American friends thats Britese for vacation time and Im taking a week in midFebruary. I hope to be able to use this to pretty much finish the book. Thanks to everyone whos stuck with the series and I can only apologise for all these delays. Alas while Id rather be Grimming fulltime I still have to pay heed to the more mundane matters of keeping a roof o... 2012-2-2 19:56:48 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#99930 Theres a famous Chinese curse that saays May you live in interesting times. I think I understand it fully now this year has certainly been interesting. January to May walltowall work. Long hours frequent trips to Chicago and Boston presure reports meetings... hectic April Redundancies announced. Engineering and certification going to Barcelona manufacturing going 300 miles up to the north of England. Im offered a job as a Certification Engineer at Barcelona but its a step down and certainly nowhere near the wage I was on. I was last in a redundancy situation during a recession in the mideighties and all I can say is a lot has changed No more handwritten letters stacks of envelopes sore tongue from licking stamps the Web has certainly revolutionised job searching. I made a resolution to apply for at least two jobs a day and I was able to do so. Also unlike the last recession I was caught in there do seem to be jobs around now. AprilJune if Id been working hard before I was workin... 2011-8-6 08:40:41 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#83593 Well the last day of 2010 sees my books at 1 6 and 7 bestsellers at Whiskey Creek Press. Im now 11 chapters into Book 7 and looking forward to finishing in February. Thanks to all those who have bought or downloaded my books except for the pirates and I hope you all had a marvellous Christmas and wish you a happy and prosperous New Year 2010-12-31 23:31:22 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#76983 Book 1 is the 1 Whiskey Creek Press bestseller for October 2010. My books are also 2 5 6 7 and 10. Im beginning to feel guilty about this monopoly of the bestseller list 2010-10-3 22:29:53 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#74652 Questor is 1 at Whiskey Creek Press for September and A Mage in the Making is 6. Up to 5 chapters of Book 7 on fanstory.com now so perhaps 15 of the way through. 2010-9-4 10:22:31 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#74110 I have started putting Book 7 chapters on www.fanstory.com under my old handle Big Al. Im pleased to say theyre receiving good reviews. If youre interested you can see the book as it evolves there. 2010-8-30 08:13:08 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#70876 As I mentioned in an earlier post I got a lot of the way through Book 7 provisionally entitled Redemption only to toss it in the bin when I felt it wasnt going anywhere. Since then I must have typed 50000 more words only to trash them. However after countless false starts and a lot of encouragement with quite a bit of kicking from my publishers Whiskey Creek Press I sat down and started to think hard rather than typing blind. I reasoned that for a 100000word book I would need about 22 chapters of my habitual 4500word length. So I started to type out 22 chapter headings with brief synopses something Ive never done before. It was then that I realised that the new ideas Id had rejected because the beginning didnt seem to lead to anything and the imagined ending didnt seem to come from anywhere could with a little tweaking very neatly bookend the 72000 words of pointless fluff Id tossed in the proverbial bin. They gave the concepts a reason a background and a resolution in other words... 2010-7-20 18:36:33 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#69333 My first book is No. 1 at Whiskey Creek Press again... and others are at nos. 4 and 7 and 9 To those patient and kind people waiting for Book 7 apologies again. Work is a monster at the moment and has been for over a year. I would love to be able to spend all my time Grimming but I do need to finance it with a day job proverbially Id be foolish to give it up So I plug away... ...and use a lot of ellipses 2010-7-1 19:34:52 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#67568 Three years and still going strong A Mage in the Making is the 1 bestseller for Whiskey Creek Press once more and for the second time is 1 in Fantasy at Fictionwise.com. Two of the other books are in the WCP top ten and all six are in the top 20 on Fictionwise 2010-6-9 22:02:43 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#55255 A Happy and Prosperous New Year to everyone 2010-1-1 00:43:31 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#55104 I have had a few inquiries now about Book 7 working title Redemption. This time last year I thought I was comfortably on course for a November 2009 release. I had something around 85000 words 34 of the way towards a goodlength novel. However round about April two things happened I realised the story I had been writing was going around and around not getting anywhere My workload increased dramatically Initially I tried to patch up what I had of Book 7 but I soon lacked the free time to work on it. Now in late December 2009 the situation is as follows I have a new beginning for the novel which I believe sets up a pretty exciting showdown In developing the plot I am seeing how I can work into the new structure the best of the work I had already written After faffing around for ages I now have a solid first couple of chapters which form a good basis on which to build I am currently hoping for a release by the summer but will update this blog as I go along. Since I already have... 2009-12-28 17:58:03 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#55056 My pair of short stories Frozen Stiff and The Last Laugh sold under the compilation Whiskey Shots Vol. 4 will be selling for 99 cents throughout January. 2009-12-27 21:50:01 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#54153 A work of fiction may have breathtaking descriptions of great rolling vistas and a plot more cunning than Past Masters Night at the Guild of SuperSpies. The narrative may be so devoid of fluff and redundancy that it is held up by eminent professors of English as the ultimate model of crisp efficient literature. Perhaps your droll inventive downrighthilarious asides make Thurber and Wodehouse seem like Creative Writing 101 dropouts in comparison. However narrative is fine as far as it goes but it is limited pretty much to the single sense of sight. Human beings have at least five senses and emotions to boot. If your book is truly to immerse the reader they need someone to sample the worlds delights for him or her and to pass it on to them undiluted. The world you have created is likely to need inhabitants or characters to act as a readers avatars in your fictional world. Effective characters dont have to be human you did cry when Hazel died didnt you but they do need to have someth... 2009-12-8 19:03:56 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#54005 A Mage in the Making is the Whiskey Creek Press 1 Bestseller for December 2009 as it was in June 2007 July 2007 and September 2007 The Dark Priory is 4 and Dragonblaster is 5. 2009-12-1 09:36:13 http://www.grimm-dragonblaster.com/page11.htm#53138 There really is only one basic way to become a writer. There are several variations on it such as writing words on paper carving it in stone or typing it into a word processor. You could have the most incendiary idea for a novel ever to hit the crowded world of pubishing but if you dont make the often considerable effort to write it nobody will ever know about it except you. This may sound trite but it never fails to amaze me when people talk about my novel but have nothing to show for it. I know a lot of people who are convinced they have some stonking ideas that will set the literary world ablaze but havent written a word of it down. They have only the shadiest concept of even the main protagonist little idea of setting pacing conflict resolution... and theyll never have more unless they start to write. I have all the original handwritten drafts of the Grimm Dragonblaster series up to about halfway through the third book. Its awful. Its way over the top on adjectives adverbs dialog... 2009-11-22 21:11:05