After some six hours at the type face, at 7.34pm tonight I finally got to type the words 'The End'.

The first draft is 36 chapters long and has more holes in it than a Swiss cheese, but that's what re-writes are for. So, tomorrow morning it's back to page one again.

I'm experiencing a weird feeling of anti-climax: I got the 'Yay! I've finished!' moment followed immediately by a huge, 'Doh! No I haven't!'

Still the mountain is scaled. So when tomorrow I start my second ascent, I can at least follow my own well-beaten path.

Just for fun, a blast from the past by Harry Enfield (Yes, I know I should be working.)

 

 

 

7000 words or so after the last blog entry and I'm still not done with the first draft. I sat on the couch all day today and just wrote until my fingers throbbed, my brain melted and my shoulders felt like I'd been battered with a baseball bat. I can't do any more today. I leave the action in its final throes; the s*** is hitting the fan like it's being pumped from a battery of incontinent cows. But I can't go on. As I say, my brain has melted. But tomorrow I'll don my fireman's raincoat and dive back betwixt the cows and the fan and finish the b*******!

Today I stayed in, writing from about 10 am to 6 pm with a break for lunch and to go to the shop to buy tea bags. At one point a man came from the landlady to put in a piece of skirting board. I offered him one of my new tea bags (and the rest of the cup of tea package, of course) but he declined. I went back to work; hammering out another 3.5k words and bringing myself two more chapters closer to the end of the first draft.

With a bit of luck - and providing the supply of tea bags holds out - I should finish the first draft tomorrow.

Hello Listeners / Readers

Forgive my long silence but I've been on vacation in Spain writing Novel 2. We often go to Spain, for reasons that will become apparent when Novel 2 begins later this year (hopefully).
This time I took my laptop and started writing as soon as we arrived. The sunshine and change of environment is like stroking the muse with a cattle prod. And then, just to take things to a whole new level of stimulation, we went to Marbella for a few days to a lovely apartment that overlooks the beach... which was nice.

My wife spent most of her days relaxing around the poolside. I spent most of mine slaving over a hot laptop. The above picture was taken after an all-day session that resulted in 4 and a half thousand words. Novel 2 is now almost finished in its first draft. I've taken another week off work to sit in our chilly apartment in Dublin (the heating isn't working) and hopefully push it all the way to the end. And then I can go back to the beginning and start the re-writes, of which I know there'll be many... and then some.

I also hope to resume blogging my progress here at MBP.com, so stay tuned to get the news that thrils the cheese right out of the wrapper... sort of.

 

Last week I tried writing in the afternoons. I got a lot of work done on a short story but nothing done on the novel. So last night, somewhat reluctantly, I set my alarm for 5am. Then, like a bumble bee or the early bird that seeks the worm, I got up this morning to work on the novel. And what do you know? I've done well over a thousand words and the wheels in my head are back in motion . Now I have to shower, have breakfast and go to work. I can't say I like getting up at 5am, but it seems that for some reason, nothing else works. Maybe my muse is active in the early hours and sleeps in the afternoons and evenings. I have an early muse, it feeds my dreams when I sleep, and if I wake early enough it feeds my novel too. Makes a certain sense, doesn't it?

I am currently doing the re-write and touch-up on a new story for the Hall of Mirrors. I know, the novel takes priority, but all eggs and no ham makes Jack... er... too eggy? Too farty? A chap needs variety in his diet is what I'm saying.  I just felt the need to do something else for a bit and to keep the Hall of Mirrors feed crackling with fresh blood (pun intended). So keep an eye on your iTunes inbox for HoM: there should be something in it quite soon. Or alternatively, just keep an eye on the front page here - or even subscribe to the site's RSS (click on that little orange square right at the bottom of the page on the left), that way the news will come to you without you having to come here.

Other news: the novel continues to move forward (though with a break to write the HoM short story). I'm still not at the end of part two yet. I had to go back and do some scene insertions into the earlier part of the book. This is why I could never write-podcast-write: too often in the late stages of a story I realise things needed to have been included earlier. For example, guy reaches into his desk drawer, takes out his gun and shoots his love rival. You could just say he does this (in chapter 6), but it has much more credibility if you see him put the gun in the drawer back in chapter 2. So what I've been doing is putting the guns into the desk drawers before I move into the final part of the book.

And finally, The Parsec Awards. Strangely, despite your nominations (and my own) for Hall of Mirrors in the short story category, none of the stories were nominated in that category, so not being nominated, they didn't win. The podcast itself did get nominated in the Best Anthology category... and lost. Cest la vie. Fortunately I don't do this for awards, or money... in fact I'm a little confused as to why I do do it. Oh yes, I do it or you, Listener, and the indescribable pleasure of being in your earbuds. So hopefully with Hall of Mirrors episode 18, I'll once again set your earwax a-trembling with something nice and horrible... And no, it's not 'The Gassing Room', nor is it 'Wet Velvet', that remains in the Secret Room. I haven't the nerve to release it into the main feed yet, it's too horrible...ish ;-)

Dang it,

I can't see the image in the post below using Firefox 3 for Mac. I can see it using Safari, but not Firefox. Any of you techheads have any idea why?

Emerian Rich, author / podcaster of the vampire podnovel, 'Night's Knights' has a new podcast called 'Horror Addicts'. If you enjoy horror stories, movies, etc. then you'll love Horror Addicts. in Horror Addicts 2, in addition to discussing the Dario Argento movie, 'Suspiria', you'll be able to listen to me reading Miss Braddon's 'The Cold Embrace'. OK, I know you Sometimers have heard it before, but you can't get too much of a good thing can you? Or can you? Don Simpson had too much of a good thing - although I wasn't one of the good things he was having too much of. Maybe if he'd been listening to Horror Addicts instead of having too much of the other good things he was having too much of, he'd be here today. But then again... oh for heaven's sake, enough of this babbling, just listen to Horror Addicts. It's scary, man.

Nothing to get too excited about, just a news bulletin, a song, a classic creepy story and of course, a glimpse into my fridge. It's just my way of saying, "Hello, I'm not dead." I hope you like it.

Click on play to listen

Player s8

Music in this podcast:

Lene Lovich
"Lucky Number" (mp3)
from "Lucky Number (The Best Of)"
(Oval Music)

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More On This Album

Jeff Rosiana:' Spooky Piano'

Promos and Plugs:

CrimeWAV.com

Seth Harwood's 'Young Junius'