Well, there you are then. A whole month. A whole month with nary a post.

Bugger.

What has kept me offline? Two things, mostly.

95% of the time has been with the Secret Project. It is live now, and in an unusual move – I’m not going to mention it openly just yet, as I want to get through two or three more hurdles before I can talk more openly. (I’m a big fan of the soft launch. Nothing explodes, but everything bubbles).

And the remaining 5%?

Mass Effect 3.

Played it. Finished it. Loved it. After I was done, I stayed up for several hours, unable to sleep. I spent my time thinking about the choices I had made, the friends I had made (and lost), and appreciating the work as a whole. It took several days for me to come to terms with the ending – and I think that’s the point. There is no happy ending in a game where all life is about to be wiped out by forces that cannot be stopped. What we got was the best resolution (albeit at times a little chunkily executed. I think trimming it down from explanation-city to finale-freeway was the best choice – but it left us with an out of context closing cinematic that raised questions about your crew. This is possibly very very important, but to discuss that further opens up incredible spoiler territory that I’d rather not deal with), given the fact that death was everywhere.

So. Yes. Played it. Loved it. Will be playing it again very shortly.

Now, back to the Secret Project…

A very thought-provoking article by Anthony Horowitz from the Guardian.

“And if I may say so, it may be that traditional publishers have less to fear from the digital revolution than they think. Perhaps they should embrace it. I’d love, for example, to write a murder mystery where you could actually tap on a bit of dialogue you mistrusted and discover that the character was telling a lie. Where the reader actually had to become a detective and where the last chapter, the reveal, had to be earned. Or how about a book with different points of view, where you could choose which of the characters became the narrator? I believe someone is experimenting with added music and sound effects as part of the book. For me, the digital revolution offers fantastic opportunities – if you grab hold of them.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/feb/27/anthony-horowitz-do-we-still-need-publishers

Yup, that’s my hand, and I’m playing it. It has not been a good writing week. Am going to try a “don’t break the chain” approach (where you mark each day you write, and the goal is for you to not leave gaps – so a visual cue as it were). Fingers crossed.

“Oh hai back. What are you up to? Oh, you’ve decided to show me a trick?”

NWasasfasgh.

About five days ago I found out that my lower back had rather pronounced hate for the rest of me. Friday morning, twenty minutes before I needed to head on out to a meeting in the city I went to sit down at my office desk to do a couple of quick emails.. As I started to sit, there was a slow-moving eruption, a redness of explosive oh fuckery across my lower back. I never managed to sit down, and tried to stand up again, which was just as painful. I managed to hobble like a deformed MJ zombie back to bed where I stayed in the scrunched up shape for about an hour until the pain receded enough for me to cancel my day and make a swift doctors appointment.

Diagnosis: my back went owie.

Thankfully nothing long-term was discovered – it looks to be some sort of muscular dislocation – but I was told that it would take 2-10 days of recovery. I spent the first four days all but unconscious or only able to read (I’ve read about 1,000 pages these last few days), and yesterday and today I’ve spent trying to move around and do some catching up. Unfortunately, this isn’t without consequence.

That reminds me. *takes pills*

Writing has been non-existent during this time, which is a crying shame. On the other hand, my secret project has been barreling along, thanks to a few things I sent out before I fell ill. Hopefully I’ll be able to make an announcement in the next 4-5 weeks.

And with that, I’m off to try to get a few more things done before the back tells me to stop, and I end up recuperating in bed for the rest of the day.

I’ve been fiddling with the look and feel of the site – and I’ve buggered it up and no mistake. I suspect a strong cup of coffee and a few well placed tweaks will get things back on track though. Until then – ugly as sin.

I have a bit of a big old project on the go that I’m really excited about. I don’t want to say anything public until I’ve crossed a few more checkpoints, but I’m quietly excited at how things are looking. Will post more when I can.

It has been an interesting few days. On the writing front a complete failure. Day job stuff came up – and when I placated that side of my life and was able to move forwards, I instead found myself shutting down and recharging. It was much needed, but highly unproductive.

Today is booked up fully in meetings for side-projects, so nothing will get written. The weekend is similarly booked up – but I’m hopeful I can get at least a few thousand words out tomorrow morning.

Enjoying a warm fire.

When historians come to write about the digital transformation currently engulfing the book-publishing world, they will almost certainly refer to Amanda Hocking, writer of paranormal fiction who in the past 18 months has emerged from obscurity to bestselling status entirely under her own self-published steam. What the historians may omit to mention is the crucial role played in her rise by those furry wide-mouthed friends, the Muppets.

Read more…   (written by Ed Pilkington)

I’ve recently picked up a crime fiction novel that I’m now reading on my kindle. It is from a first-time writer, and I was eagerly looking forward to reading it and praising it to all and sundry.

Unfortunately it sucks.

The core of the book is sound – at least as far as I can see – but it is clear that while it has (one hopes) gone through some author-led revisions and tunings, it is still a first draft – perhaps even a pre-first draft. The language is repetitive, the scenes are framed badly, the language is stilted, and there are questions to be raised regarding character motivation and how that relates to not only the situations in the novel, but also the ability for the characters to emotionally express themselves.

As a result of this above melange, I’m not going to mention the name of the book or the author on this blog – but I will say that while I find the book to be subpar it is a strong reminder of the following:

• Even if you self-publish, an editor is critical
• A first draft is never the finished work (unless you are a robot from the future, in which case “welcome!”); you should always write, re-write and write some more. A first draft is the expulsion of the words from your mind. You are as likely to write a new draft from scratch as you are to rework the draft in front of you.
• You need both an alpha and a beta reader group – alpha to help highlight the faux pas (this work is at alpha reader stage in my opinion), and beta a few more revisions down the line – to help gauge whether the content/internal promises in your novel are being met.

As per my firing up my personal blog: I’m writing a novel, and I’m writing some non-fiction works. I’m not only a big fan of writing, but a big fan of supporting those who write. I will shout to the heavens those new authors that I come across whose work I love. I will even review books that I didn’t enjoy, but I will do so in a measured and just manner. I cannot however review this current work. It would be like kicking a puppy with live kittens strapped to my feet.

I will however purchase his next work (should there be one), because I’m like that. After that, I’ll have no problems reviewing one way or the other.

For those of you who have found these pages, welcome! Just so you know, I’m in the process of building the site up – so expect several things to move around, be added and then immediately removed. I’ll probably spend a few hours on such nonse this weekend – so expect things to break before your eyes.