What, Christmas time already?

I swear we just had one of those. Anyway, hello, brave traveller, and welcome to another brain splurge from the depths of my, for the want of a better word, mind.

NaNoWriMo has been and gone - this is basically all I think about during November and other stuff that would probably be a lot more useful gets shunted back. But it's done now, I got my 50,000 words done of a fantasy novel that could be pretty epic - there's a long way to go on it yet so you'll not be seeing it for a fair while.
Well done to everyone who took part in this year's NaNo, and congratulations to everyone who hit their target!

The continuing saga of Heroes Wanted. I got my report back from the editor I hired - overall they liked it, found it funny, but they had some good feedback for me as well. My current focus is polishing it up based on what they said to try and get it into a publishable state. If I can get it done by the end of December then I might take a punt at sending in to Angry Robot's open submissions. We shall see!

I've made a tentative start on going over my first draft of the sequel to Crystal Eyes but that's taking a back seat to Heroes Wanted (I will get that thing out if it bloody kills me - it's been at least a year of trying by now!).
In related news, I'm setting up Crystal Eyes on Amazon's CreateSpace print on demand service. It's not quite ready to go yet but I've got a proof copy - something very cool about seeing a physical manifestation of your work like that. As nice as an eBook is there's still something ephemeral about it.
So, if you've been thinking "Oh man, I'd love to read this cool sci-fi book but I don't have an eReader", well then I've got you covered. Or will have in the next few days...just in time for Christmas, in fact! It would make the perfect gift.

A thick, inanimate object...holding up a book!

WooooOOOoOOOooo

Happy Halloween!
That's right, it's the time of year when people can legitimately dress up in funky (and possibly sexy) costumes without people looking at them askance! Also a fine excuse to eat too many sweets, drink too much Halloween themed alcohol and watch ropey horror films.
I also made a Halloween Baking video for your delectation, in which I make pumpkin bread (see the bottom of this post for the video).
 

But, more important than any daft holiday, tonight is NaNoWriMo eve - tomorrow the challenge begins!
30 days. 50,000 words. An unreasonable amount of coffee...
Let's do this! 

I hope there are plenty of you joining me this year so we can encourage/mock each other - here's a link to my profile! 
I am almost totally unprepared. Again. This is becoming something of a tradition.

That's it for now. Good luck to all the other NaNoWriMoers and a happy Halloween to everyone! 

Allen. 

It's about time!

Good day, sirs and madams! 
I hope I find you well this fine day. I say that but it's actually kind of grey and damp here, but still fine in its own way.

So here's what's been going on... 

I'm more or less settled in my new place - boxes have been unpacked, there is a small mountain of cardboard in the garage, and the place is degenerating into the kind of mess that is the default "home" state of wherever I live. I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss my old place but me and the dog are coping. 

I've started on editing the first draft of the sequel to Crystal Eyes (which I still don't have a title for, by the way), Heroes Wanted is away with an actual editor (my bank account is still reeling from that) and I'm trying to do vague preparations for this year's NaNoWriMo - I hope many of you will be taking part!

Outside of writing, I'm still doing the Bake Off Challenge videos  - going to film another one of those today or tomorrow in fact!
I've got ideas for other video projects that could be really cool, or may never see the light of day if they turn out to be a bit crap/too embarrassing.

Also, as of some point tonight or tomorrow, I will finally be getting my internet turned on! HUZZAH! So I can stop relying on using my phone as a hot spot. I'm going to be able to properly get into the Live Writing! project then without fear that my connection is going to disappear.

Right, time for a coffee I think. 

See you next time, 
Allen

A quick hello

Well now, well now indeed. This has been a stressful couple of weeks!
House moving, avoid it if at all possible unless you can pay someone else to do it for you while you go on holiday.
That hellish nightmare aside, I'm talking to an editing company for Heroes Wanted so things are moving forward, albeit slowly. I'm still letting the sequel to Crystal Eyes marinate - I'll give it a while longer so I can come to it fresh. In the meantime I've had an idea for a short story or two that I'd like to put out.
I'd like to get stuck into the Live Writing story but since I'm writing it in Google Drive I really need to get a more stable net connection than my iPhone provides out here (I'm in the middle of nowhere!)
Also starting to put some thought into a story for this year's Nanowrimo - I'm thinking some epic fantasy might be just the thing this time. I hope that there are plenty of you joining me!

Outside of writing, due to the fact that I'm actually in a holiday cottage this week with no real internet, there won't be a Bake Off Challenge video. I still plan to do one for each episode so I'll just have to play catch up when I get into my new place.

This has been ludicrously hectic and I am, not to put too fine a point on it, knackered. It's tempting to just get rid of all my stuff and buy a mobile home but then I think, "would I still be able to play Guild Wars 2 and Warcraft then?". Priorities, people, I have them. Not necessarily good ones, but I do have them.

Midge sends her regards, by the way. I suspect she thinks all the moving around and stressing that humans do is silly. She is probably right.

Right, time for some minimum effort dinner - pizza and a baked spud!

Allen

On Writing and Talking

Wotcha all, it's been a while!
I kinda suck at this blog writing nonsense, I'm afraid, but I have been spurred into action by the approach of the month of November and the annual NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) event.

Once again I intend to hurl myself into literary battle with obstinate word counts and recalcitrant plots.  I'm even less well prepared than normal this year, which is to say I've done no preparation at all.  This could end badly.

Saying all that, there's a chance that the earth will have opened up and swallowed me whole before then, or at least that I will have wished this to be the case - in my position as an accomplished author (hey, stop laughing!), I will be giving a talk in Cardiff Central Library on self publishing an eBook on Saturday the 27th of October.  Should you be at all interested in seeing me make a pillock of myself then you should totall check it out (and there's always the chance that I might accidentally impart useful information, though this seems unlikely).  Should be interesting if nothing else.

Anyway, I'm still trying to finish up Heroes Wanted (last year's NaNo novel - gods above I'm slow at this) and I've made a start on a sequel to Crystal Eyes (which is still available at all good eBook retailers - hint hint).