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

Off we go again!

 Greetings, all!
How the very devil are you?
Time, I think, for an update.

First of all, I have completed the first draft of the sequel to Crystal Eyes (still available at all good eBook retailers)! It's now marinading nicely, resting for a little while before I return to polish it up and try to correct some of my mistakes. I like it, I think it's a good story, I hope you will agree!

Secondly, I'm in touch with an editing company who I hope will give Heroes Wanted a look over and help me make it as good as it can possibly be. It will appear this year, I am determined!

Thirdly, I'm about to move house! If I'm lucky, I'll actually have somewhere to move into - this is still slightly up in the air. I may end up sleeping on the back seat of the car. The dog can have the passenger seat.

The side effect of this is that my online presence may be diminished for at least a couple of weeks while I try and get broadband connected. It remains to be seen what the mobile signal is like. I may have been premature announcing the whole LIVE WRITING! thing if I can't get online to actually update it. Keep an eye on my Twitter feed (@BigAlien) and the LIVE WRITING! page for updates.

There may also be a slight hiatus in my Bake Off Challenge videos - a new one of which has just gone live (also embedded below) - if I can't upload. Plus, you know, the time-consuming business of moving house may also interfere a little. I'm still going to try and bake something off each episode, they just might not appear in any kind of reliable way.

That's it for now - a short update for quite a lot of stuff.

Until next time, my friends, I bid you a fond adieu!
Allen

Doing it LIVE!

Hey ho, one and all, how the devil are you?
This is the first update I've done since the end of my Kickstarter attempt (which I've decided to label a glorious failure).
First and foremost, I'm still beavering away at the sequel to Crystal Eyes. I'm in the home straight now, heading towards the final, climactic scenes and then it will be done!  Well, the first draft will be done. After that begins the rather less exciting task of rewriting all the bits that suck and trying to find all the cock ups.

I've decided to grit my teeth against the stabbing pain in my wallet and send Heroes Wanted off to an editor. Not something I'm looking forward to, quite honestly, but it needs to be done I think. By the way, if you know of a reliable, professional editor for a fantasy novel, let me know!

There also seems to be a good chance that I may be moving house soon! To where, I don't know, not decided yet. What? I've got, I dunno, 3 weeks or so. Plenty of time...

Finally, I want to announce a new thing I'm trying - LIVE WRITING! 
There are more details on the other end of that link but the basic summary would be that you can watch, and even participate with, me writing a story in real time. No plan, no plot, no chapters worked out, just free-wheelin' down the road to wherever it takes us!

That's it for now, you beautiful people, have a good day/evening/night! 

P.S. One last thing - I'm putting up more videos on my YouTube channel with the vague hope that they may prove entertaining. Currently I'm trying to do a weekly Bake Off challenge, wherein I try to recreate one of the things baked on the previous week's Great British Bake Off. All that nonsense can be found HERE!

Well now...

So then, the Heroes Wanted Kickstarter has come and it has gone, and the end result is...we're in exactly the same place we were before we started. I don't know who this "we" is that I keep referring to, there's just me here. Maybe I'm including the dog. 
I digress...
It would have been awesome if the Kickstarter had funded but, well, it is what it is, and even though it didn't succeed I was still hugely encouraged by the support I did get.
It's hard to say why the project failed - it could be I was over ambitious in my goal, or that the rewards weren't quite good enough, or just that I am still terrible at promotion, despite the best efforts of my friend, Alex (she despairs, the poor woman).
I shall think about it more.
I'm still undecided what to do with Heroes Wanted, whether to try to cut my other costs and pay for editing myself, or to maybe even try going to a traditional publisher. 
It will appear one day, sooner or later!
Anyway, I'm going to get back to writing the sequel to Crystal Eyes, and mulling over some other potentially cool ideas I've got.

Here's a vid where I waffle on a bit more. 

For your free copy of Crystal Eyes, go to https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/99280
At checkout enter the code CM23Y and you should get it for FREE!
The code is valid until the end of September