Another 3,000 Words

Whew! What a spurt. I managed to bash out three thousand words tonight in an hour and a half on Part III of The Devil's Number and man does it feel good! I'm rapidly approaching the climax of the story - it's going to rock.

I never thought I'd write this much - I've surprised myself. 18,400 words! Anyway I've had enough for tonight but I'm right on track to completing the first draft by Christmas. I reckon two more sessions should do it. I'm looking forward to writing a few short pieces over the break to give myself time away from the novella so I can come back to it and mangle it up and re-write and re-work the parts I'm not happy with. Then I'll realise what real work is. Bring it on!

The Jaunt - Orphaned

My sci-fi story, The Jaunt will not be published as planned. It was to be released in an anthology called Timeflash next year but the project isn't going ahead.

Although this is quite sad, it is good experience for me because I know that it probably won't be the last time this happens. I think it's one of those things we, as writers can't control and we simply have to move on. So without further ado, I will be sending The Jaunt out again as soon as possible. Life goes on and I'm not going to cry over spilt milk.

Last night I was looking through all my files on the computer and I found I actually had a total of thirty short stories in my document files. I nearly fell off the chair because I didn't realise I had so many. Of course, some of them are earlier pieces that most likely won't see the light of day - who knows? It made me think, why can't I aim to complete seventy more next year and bring the total up to one hundred. A big ask, I know but quite a few of those would be micro stories that are less time-consuming.

What I'm reading: Clive Cussler's Treasure of Kahn

The Final Stretch....

Whew! The first draft of Part II of The Devil's Number is complete. No long to go now - only about 9,000 words to be written. As much as I'd like to, I can't say what's going to happen. It wouldn't be fair to you because my original idea could change dramatically with the second draft - so I'll keep tight lipped for the time being.

Even though the relief will be sweet once I've finished the first draft, I know that the real work will begin when I go back to it after letting the novella sit for a month. I know for a fact that it is far from satisfactory at the moment. Sure, there are passages of writing I'm okay with, but most of the story is going to be re-written and re-worked extensively. This is a fact of life as a writer and I'm really looking forward to getting out my red pen. Some of my short stories have gone through many re-writes and drafts. The novella will be no exception - it'll be treated with a very critical eye (it's just the way I work.) I want it to stand out so it has a chance of being published next year. I feel fortunate that I can distance myself emotionally from my work so I can edit it properly with no regrets, no sorrow, no remorse - because when it is finished and when I'm happy - I know it'll have the best chance of finding a home.

Changing the subject, last night I took my beautiful pregnant wife to see the new Bond film, Casino Royale and I have to say I was impressed. My wife really enjoyed it too so that's a pretty big thing. Daniel Craig portrays the character of Bond perfectly. The movie has certainly breathed new life into the franchise and let's be honest - it needed it. And, we finally find out what makes Bond tick and why his personality is so cold in all the films. Highly reccomended.

My Latest Purchase

Aside from my writing, one of my passions is reading. Occasionally, I like to read some stuff other than horror. So imagine my delight when I recently picked up a copy of Clive Cussler's latest adventure novel, Treasure of Kahn. I became aware of its upcoming release back in February this year and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.

Clive Cussler is one of my favourite authors of all time. Whenever a new book of his comes out I buy it without reading the blurb on the inside flap. I don't need to (I always buy his books in hardback) because I know Clive will always deliver a compelling story. It takes a pretty special author to instill that trust in me. Aside from Clive Cussler there is one more author that I trust that much - the late and great Richard Laymon.

I can remember when I was fifteen. My reading appetite was insatiable. Looking for something to sink my teeth into, I raided my Dad's collection of books and came across one of Clive's earlier books, Cyclops. Since then, he had hooked me and I've been reading him ever since. When I grab a new book, it's like visiting old friends - the characters, the adventure, the intrigue and interesting historical references.

This latest adventure is about 500 pages long and it'll only take me four days to rip through - can't wait.

Oh, by the way, I just got back from seeing The Descent. Fucking awesome!

Back to the Grindstone

After almost a fortnight of no writing whatsoever, I'm glad to say that I'm back into it. The Devil's Number is on the move again - thank God. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but my workplace merged with a larger company six weeks ago. As time has gone on, the place has become busier, the tasks more demanding, the workload more horrendous. Don't get me wrong - I love my job but lately I've been so mentally exhausted that when I got home each night the last thing I wanted to do was write.

I know this is a poor excuse and that I should have forced myself to sit at the keyboard - but it felt like my brain power had completely fizzled out.

But now, after a little r and r over the weekend I sat down this afternoon and pummeled out another thousand words of the first draft of my novella, taking the word count up to 15,456. Not bad for a hack who only wrote up to 4,000 words in the past. I'm nearing the end of Part2 and it feels really good to be motoring along again.

Tomorrow night I'm off to see The Descent. I haven't sat down and watched a decent horror movie in quite some time so I'm looking forward to it - it'll be great way to unwind. I watched the trailer the other day and it does look quite good. I'll let you know what I think...

A Little Progress...

Well, I've hit the halfway mark with The Devil's Number so I think I'll finish the first draft ahead of schedule. It's surprising really that I haven't hit a real snag yet with the story, wondering where to go next with the plot line. What's different about this project is I know exactly how it's going to end. That's something I've never been able to do before and it allows me to stay focused and trigger key events that lead to that climax I have in my sights.

I have to admit I'm amazed that I've physically written 12,500 words. I didn't think it was possible. Although I can see that some of the exess wordage and repetition will have to go in subsequent drafts and I can already tell that once I reach 25,000 words, the easy part will be over. The hard part will be the extensive editing and re-writes. But once the first draft is complete, I plan on putting the manuscript away for no less than a month. Then I'll come back to it with a fresh eye and get out my trusty red pen.

Mmm...what's going to happen to Peter Vaughan next?

What I'm reading: Stephen King's The Cell

Competition Results

Recently, I submitted two of my pieces into competitions. 13L was entered in The Southern Cross Literary Competition, ran by Ballarat Writers and A Visit from Santa was entered in the CAE Cut Short Flash Fiction Competition. It was a double blow to my ego when I found out the results, let me tell you. I had worked my arse of for months perfecting these stories. It pissed me off to not even get a mention.

However, upon further reflection, and when I got over it (which didn't take long) I came to the conclusion that I should be more careful of where I enter my stories. I am a genre writer and I always will be. After reading the judges' reports, I knew that the winners had written 'literary' pieces, not speculative fiction. It was a lack of judgement on my part and I should have known that speculative pieces simply don't fit into literary competitions. Literature is a whole different world - no offense to the gifted literature writers out there. So, I've vented, it's off my chest and now I can move on.

On a brighter note, work on The Devil's Number is moving along at a cracking pace. It now sits at 9,200 words - that's 36.8% of my target - nearly half way. I can now tell you how the novella is going to be constructed. As I've mentioned previously, it has a prologue. It will also have three parts. Each part will be divided up into mini chapters. The reason I am constructing it this way is because I feel that it suits the type of story I'm trying to tell and it will also read very quickly. My goal is to create a page-turner and I think this format will definitely work. The first draft of Part 1 is now complete. Now on to Part 2....

What I'm reading: Stephen King's The Cell

Onward and Upward...

Tonight I bashed out 1,100 words to achieve my self-appointed goal of writing at least a thousand words per sitting on the first draft of The Devil's Number. My first sitting earlier this week produced 700 words, just short of my target so I'll have to make up for that in subsequent writings.

Anyway, the prologue to my novella is finished and I'm ready to get stuck into the main storyline. I'm officially at 7.52% of my total word count target and I haven't looked back. I'm finding it quite easy at the moment to 'fall into the page.'

Because I'm excited about this book, other projects have temporarily taken a backseat (probably not for too long, knowing me) and by Sunday night I should be at around three thousand words...

What I'm reading: Stephen King's The Cell

It Begins - The Devil's Number

Well, it's official. Work has officially started on my latest and largest project to date - The Devil's Number. It's going to be a novella-sized work with a predicted length of around 20,000 to 30,000 words. It's a little scary since the longest piece I've ever written is 4,000 words - but I love a challenge. I'm pretty optimistic about this one because it's such a cool, original idea that's been bouncing around inside my head - it won't leave me alone, either so it has to get written.

I'm not going to say any more than that about the project because I don't want to jinx myself - call me superstitious. However, I will be updating the word count in my works in progress section, just to prove that I am working on it.

Because I've set myself a deadline for February 2007, I'll be devoting a lot of my writing time to the novella whilst finalising a couple of short pieces in between for competitions and the like. I'm going to aim pretty high and set a goal of 1,000 words per sitting, so the first draft should hopefully be ready by Christmas. I'll keep you posted. 700 words and counting....

What I'm reading: Stephen King's Cujo

New Section - Current Works In Progress

I've just posted a new section so you can actually see that I do have current projects on my plate at the moment. I will also be using this section as a focus point for my goals, constant reminders of what needs to be done. In particular, 'The Devil's Number' is a brand new project so I've put a counter on it that I can keep updating every time I increase my word count. The title and the length is all I'll divulge at this time, but as the project draws to a conclusion, I'll tell you a bit more about it. It's an awesome, original idea - I'm excited! I'm also going to be adding a caption at the end of each post to tell you all what I'm reading at the moment.

What I'm reading: Stephen King's Cujo

Praise for Mark Smith

One of my fellow writers and friend, Mark Smith has recently become the recipient of the award for Best Classic Short Story on the Demonminds website for his story, Breakdown. To obtain this award Mark's story proved to be extremely popular as thousands of votes were cast in the space of a year. He is especially humbled because Breakdown was one of his earlier works, too - well done, Mark!

Also, Mark has had the pleasure of being nominated for the prestigious 2006 Aurealis Awards. Talk about a double whammy. He's demonstrated that he has what it takes to make it in this cut throat industry and I wish him all the best with it.

A Blow for Hellnotes

As you are all no doubt aware, Hellnotes is one of the most well-respected and well-known sources for horror news on the net.

Last week I attempted to access their site as I regularly do, and found that I couldn't access it. Eventually I did and learnt that Hellnotes' server had crashed. They lost everything, all their archives.

I find it quite sad because you can imagine the amount of work that goes into a project like that. The site's facilitator mentioned that they would start again from scratch. You have to admire people like that who get knocked down and get up again - I believe this has happened to them before. So, good on them and let's hope something like that doesn't happen again.