Re-writing the novel is a grind, I will not say otherwise. The bliss of first draft creation is replaced with going over the same creative path as before, and honestly, it is not as much fun. But then again, I am writing with much more awareness of what I am trying to achieve. I’ve re-written novels of mine before, but not with as much focus as this. I am aware of the language foibles of my male lead, I am shifting the motivations of my female lead; the Prince is more mysterious and does not waltz into the apartment to share dinner with them. It feels like a more mature novel, to me. One of my beta-readers said to me- it feels like a Nanowrimo novel. Now, to me, it is feeling more like a real novel, rather than a Nanowrimo novel. I never really knew the difference until now.

The Sci-fi novel I had assessed and deconstructed started to feel that way, but there was very little major reconstruction. I had managed to hit all the good points solidly enough on the first pass through that I was just rearranging and polishing. This, my current work, feels like I have taken a good story in a comfy tracksuit, and changed it into a good story in trousers shirt and waist coat. Top hat and goggles optional.

I am currently most of the way through chapter 4 on my re-write. Chapter 5 looms as the big challenge. It is the end of Act 1 and a lot happens. I am shifting locations, so the party is no longer at the Royal Palace it is now at my male lead’s work, which is the den of all that is evil in the world. I may have embellished that slightly. It just put a lot more pressure on the action, a lot more danger on the characters, a lot more opportunities on me as a writer to fkshtup. I should have it done by next week. That gives me a week to get a quite read through and line editing and then change it into Smashwords and up for the world to see! Now, that is going to be scary.

Another thing I have noticed this week is my itch to be writing when I am going somewhere. I had to go out a few times, and each time I did I was thinking to myself- no, I have to be writing. I am onto a good thing, I have to get my characters to this point. My whole weekend this weekend is taken from me by a basketball tournament. If I am not too tired by Sunday night I will try to get some writing done then. But I am little flustered to think- I wont be writing this weekend?

This is a good thing. To know that I am craving the need to write, for me, is a good thing. I want to feed this craving. It is a feeling I need to have for the rest of my life.

And now on to pretty things. I have employed the fantastic services of Scarlett Rugers Design for my novel covers. Now I was attracted to her thanks to her 15 covers for $15 promotion, but I have seen her work and was eager to use her anyway. She presented me with the cover :

And she has given me some online banner ads for Facebook and forums :

These have excited me and I am now under pressure to produce a novel worthy of these covers!

This little guy was given to me as a present many years ago by a dear friend. She told me that since I enjoy reading and writing fantasy, and dragons are so strongly linked to this genre, she would buy me a baby dragon to remind me that I enjoy fantasy, and to focus on this little guy when I write. And it is a baby dragon because, at the time, my writing was in its infancy. So the dragon is going to grow up to be a big, powerful creature of legend, just like my writing. I do like people’s faith in me.

So there he is, and here we are, in the Year of the Water Dragon. I very much like the synchronicity of this. I cracked my bottle of Moet on New Years Eve, declaring this to be my year of writing. I have already had a writing job this year, with the promise of more to come. I have declared this year to be when I first publish myself. Admittedly the plan has changed from a frantic February 14th release, to a staggered release, bu this is due to the feedback of some well qualified beta readers telling me- this book deserves a GOOD re-write. It is publishable, it is a good story, it just needs this and this. So I am listening to them. I want my first release to blow people’s minds!

You have read here before, and quite recently, my interpretations of my dreams and such. I am a man who enjoys symbology. Not signs and portends so much, but the language of symbols and their meaning to a person, such as dreams, such as Water Dragons and their relationship to me and me being a writer.

Water is a symbol of emotion. It is the source of all life, of sustenance, of health, embodies the unconscious. It can change state, it can move, it can flow. It can be smooth and tranquil or it can be fast flowing and turbulent. All of these things are representative of what it is like to be a writer. Everyone goes through these things, certainly, but personally, as a writer, I go through all these a lot. Producing copy for a client and handing it over, it is something I create, so I am always anxious that they will like it, and they’re not just paying me because they have to. It’s not a case of they must pay me because they hired me, but they actually do like my work, think it is awesome and feel the money they are paying me is totally worth it. And of course the same is true for my creative writing efforts. I know that when I release the novel I will be a mess hoping that people genuinely like it, and are not just saying it to make me feel better.

So, to have the Water Dragon, this emotional, mythical creature, my totem, as the year I where I take my writing career to the next level of awesome, just feels so natural and right to me. It clicks, it fits, it synchronizes. And to prove that point, last week while writing my blog update, at the very point I was describing my frustration at the people in the office not moving, and how that related to me wanting to work and to move forward and how frustrated I was at the lack of movement around me. At that very point I received a phone call and a request to do some work.

I will not go into the details of the job, but it was a pressing matter which required a very quick turn around. I received the phone call on Wednesday, I had the client interview on Thursday morning and had created and edited the document by Thursday night. Review and follow-up on Friday and paid Friday night. Crazy 2 days that. Nothing since, which I am okay with since a lot of businesses are on holidays, but it was so good to get a hit out of the blue, that I want more. I enjoyed the chance to work, so I want to work more.

The novel? The re-write is into Chapter 3. I have received feedback from some Beta Readers, later than I had asked. So, they have given advice about parts of the book I have already rewritten. And I have noticed that I am aware of things which need fixing and have rewritten them as suggested. I think I am better at picking up wasted words, silly sayings and am better able to focus on the important parts of the text. This bodes well for the future!

So, happy new year, may the power of the Water Dragon fill you with mythical energy and creativity.

* Stuck up at the top of a very tall building, watching the zombie apocalypse out the window. I keep suggesting ways to escape, bu the people here are just sitting doing nothing. Most are scared, whimpering, and I know that if they do not do anything, something, then the zombies will come up here and kill them

* Have chosen to escape, with another survivor, female. On the way down the building there is a science lab with zombies in it, and I Hear an old man speaking a girl’s name. We go in there and I see an old man, blind, calling out for a girl. The calling out is what attracted the zombies. I put my hand over the old man’s mouth, he is startled to feel me, and we kill the zombies. We find the girl cowered in a little ball, shivering and sobbing. I explain to the old man about how his calls drew the attention of the zombies, and how we would now lead them both out, but he had to be quiet.

Down in the car park we have gathered another survivor, a guy who is mute, cannot speak. As we make our way to the car zombies come running (I hate the fast zombies, totally hate them). I tell the girl to go open all the car door. I start slapping the old man on the shoulder blades, left right left right, imitating running. He nods and starts running to the car. The girl has opened all the doors and is in the back seat. The mute ‘catches’ the running blind man and throws him in the car and jumps in after. I get in the driver’s seat and the other female survivor jumps in. Just as we leave I splat a zombie with my car door and I get splattered with Zombie goo (that last part isn’t writing symbology, but I had to add it in there because… well just because.)

** So, when I woke up, I connected with the scene at the top of the building immediately. I am trying to get action, get movement, do something. But the others just have given up? Are apathetic? This is me currently. I am having feelings of frustration at not getting any work. I want to work, I want to write copy for people, but it is frustrating me that each time I make some sort of movement, or offer, none is returned. I get that now, over Christmas and New Year there isn’t much work. I understand that not everyone needs it, or can afford it, or is working right now. But it is just me. I want to work. I want to write for people and show them I can do this. An idle mind…

So, the rest of this dream? When speaking with my wife about the dream, I mentioned how in my way earlier post I deduced zombies were a writing symbol for me. She then deduced for me that here I was, rescuing someone who could not see, someone who could not speak. So, is this me removing or saving the- no one can see me, or no one is talking about me, and taking control of them? She said it far more eloquently than I did. But it was truly awesome. Here is my subconscious processing my frustrations, that I want to move, to take actin, but no one can see me, no one is talking about me. So, my next question is- how to get people talking about me, and seeing what i am capable of.

And now on to my novel. I recruited 5 Beta Readers just before Christmas. I did put the pressure on them- get some feedback to me by the first week of January. Sadly I have only heard from 2 of them. Well, I heard from one of the other Beta Readers, and she had some uber-drama in her life, s.. okay. But… again, I understand, it was over Christmas and New Year, however I did ask- can you do this? So, I am a little saddened by the lack of return. But this is excited selfish writer me. They offered, voluntarily, and life can happen. So I will work with what I got.

And what I got so far is some good feedback from a reader, and some good feedback from an editor (who is trying NOT to line edit, ah ha.) I have been made aware of how the book reads, and also how there needs to be some more defined motivations and conflicts between characters.

What this has lead to is a realisation that, due to a lack of feedback, and some awesome re-write material, I wont have the full book ready for Valentine’s Day. This disappoints me, since I DECLARED a date, and as such nailed myself a time line. But, I am compromising. I don’t want to release a book and people go- yeah nice. I want a STRONG book which people will go- woah. So. I am going to release Act 1, as a free download. If I cannot deliver on my original declaration, then I will apologise and offer a free gift. And then get the rest of the book, in whole, up at a later date. I am thinking April 1st. I like funny dates.

So, New Year means resolutions, right? Well, I personally do not make NYR’s. Back in my more emo-poetic days I would say that I didn’t want to make promises to myself that I would only break. Now it is more like, I would rather set goals for myself, achieve them or excel them, but not feel guilty about not making them.

So, my goals for the new year? Get my Steam Punk book- A Girl From Out of Town out there and published on Smashwords. I have announced the date as Valentines Day, and I do intend to stick to that date. I am waiting to hear from 5 Beta Readers who told me they could read the book and give me feedback by the end of the first week in January. I know 2 of them have read or are reading the book. The other 3, I don’t know. Waiting on them to get back to me with independent feedback bugs me a little. But I will talk on that later. No, actually I will talk on that now.

Another goal I am implementing this year is to create more action MYSELF, rather than relying on others. While I cannot do everything myself, and I do like to support and use my networks, last year there was a lot of waiting for someone else to get stuff done, often weeks later than it should have taken, before I could take a step forward. While I can understand and accept that in some cases the people were very busy, one friend in particular, it was still aggravating not being able to promote me, because I had to rely on others.

So, this year I am going to try and do a lot myself. I have DL flyers promoting me. So now I am going to go around the neighbourhood, introduce myself as a copy writer, offer them the $100 deal, and ask that they have my flyers on their counter in case someone rocks up and might need me. I am going to get the cover for my novel, in electronic colourful wonderful format and promote theout of myself. I will see what I need for a banner ad on forums. I will bribe friends with chocolate, tweet and retweet and again, offer chocolate. I will suggest more ways people can use me as a copy writer, and how it is a good idea.

I opened the bottle of Moet which my friends from my last job gave me on New Years Eve at midnight. They said to open it when I got a new job. I figure 2012 is going to be my new job. It is going to be the year that my freelance career becomes viable. That my novel is published and makes some money. That I find some good part-time or temp work to pay the bills and relieve some of that stress. I am going to work, at what I want this year.

I will keep this updated to chart the path of my writing journey. I will keep my twitter feed going and my Facebook page updated. All part of the joy of an online platform.

Also, I will try and share resources, web pages, and other things, relevant to writing, and relevant to me. In that vein, may I present- 8 Secrets Which Writers Wont Tell You.

These are truths. Absolute writing truths. Sometimes I wish I could share these with clients, but you need to put that confident face on, that you know what you are doing, and that you are happy with your work on. Even if you’re not. Even if you’re worried that they might think- this is crap, who is this guy? I could have written this, why am I paying him so much for this pile of turd? I will put the poker face on when my novel is up for sale. While friends and hopefully people I don’t know, say- awesome book! Bring on the next one! I will sit there and go- that could have been better, oh crap I left that in. Its really not my best work….

Writing is such a personal thing. It comes from within the creator, from within me. Be it the creative romps of novel-writing, or the ordered copy writing for a client, it is all something created by me, by the writer. For me, there is always that higher level for potential of failure. It’s not like a regular job of A + B = product at $X, thank you come again. So each time I produce copy for a client and hand it over, it is me, in that piece. It is a part of me that could be rejected as- this is not what we were looking for. And for me, to continually put myself under the spot light, to repeatedly put my writing core on the chopping block, is a scary scary thing. I dont think even the most experienced writer is ever fully immune to the fear. But this is another thing this year I am going to, not conquer, but to recognise and face and accept.

Every time I write, every time I give someone a piece of my work, I am afraid and scared of their reaction. But that is okay. Face my fears and do it anyway.

2012 is going to be huge, massive, and awesome. And then its going to end with a huge party.

I have yet to determine the pricing of my pending eBook, so this makes excellent reading. While I can see the sense in having a book cost only 99 cents, I know the time and effort I put into this work, and feel that low price would not to me justice, or the book justice. It would cheapen the book. It may widen my readership, but at what cost?

I will read more about this in the coming weeks the closer my launch date becomes.

So, my creative year. It began with me writing and finishing my epic sci-fi series, the final book – Crashing Wave. Without the madness of Nanowrimo, it was actually a struggle to complete this. Looking back I have come to realise that what happens in your every day life, your 9 – 5, can affect how you write creatively. I have learned that it is the first 5 minutes of writing which is the hardest to achieve. Once you break through that 5 minutes, then you have the momentum to continue. I have learned that once you hit 20 minutes you tend to lose that momentum, unless you get totally focused.

As such, it was a huge struggle for me to get the last bit of the series completed. Compared to Nanowrimo this year where I completed a 94k word novel in 30 days, it took me almost 5 months to write 15k words to complete the novel. However, I now know what drives me to write, what I need to do to make myself write, and I am quite sure that in the new year I will write more than 1 novel during the year. Especially if the popularity and sales motivate me. But more on that later.

To motivate me I had a friend create a book cover for the first novel in the series – Bow Shock. You can find the cover here – Scarlet Rugers. It is in the Book Covers section of the website. When it comes to cover art, for me, I like minimalist designs. I don’t like having characters on the cover, or would prefer not to have them. Rather than the reader imagine their own image for the characters it is telling them- this is what they look like. It ties up some of the imagination which could be better used in reading the story. You have to remember the book cover whenever those characters are in scene because the cover has told you what they look like.

When I was writing the books, on the Nanowrimo site, you were allowed to have banners in your profile advertising your books. Mine were incredibly simple, just a planet, a star field, and a line showing movement. I believe Scarlett has taken that simple idea and enhanced it in a very clean way. It was fun working with her as well, she would get excited, show me an idea and before I had said anything she would say- wait! What about this?! I like those people who are passionate about what they do.

During the middle of the year I stopped writing creatively. Work stress, life stress, and a want to concentrate on getting my copy writing business precedent. Sad, I know. I did have the seeds for a novel idea in my mind, don’t worry about that. a Magic Steampunk adventure! However I was waiting until November to write it. I know in myself that I need that surge of novelling energy to get me going.

And so, October rolled around, my month of plotting and planning. I started doing the 30 days of world building, but stopped. I already had a plot, and a direction. The exercises did help me out, I will admit. Thinking of weather as a driving force for plot was good. Trade winds would determine the best routes for sky ships to sail. And they would change with every season. The geography of the world would affect the winds as well, so I needed a map. And rather than just having mountains here and there, think about how they are made. The Himalayan mountains are created by continental plates colliding, so, when looking at my map, and mountain ranges, I imagined them to be the edges of plates, which helped sculpt the coast line etc. So these new ways of thinking about world building and how the land would interact with my plot was great. However, there were things left out, things I didn’t consider, due to not being relevant to my story.

I knew what the political situation would be- Royal Family. I have not yet decided on a religion for my world, however there re druids and people with certain elemental aspects in their system. So it may lean towards a pagan pantheon. But then, it might clash with the different schools of magic. It might clash with the idea of people from another realm. It was a very tricky decision, so in the end I chose not to have religion and spirituality that major in my story. And I don’t believe it has harmed the story at all.

So, November. Nanowrimo. Writing a novel, while also trying to be a professional copy writer. I had a GREAT day during November. I spent a day creating the first BNI newsletter AND I wrote 5000 + words of my novel. This day showed me that I can focus and be focussed. It showed that both of my writing loves can live side by side. I can write novels, and copy write, all at the same time. This bodes so incredibly well for my future.

During Nanowrimo I updated my Facebook paged daily with word counts and an exciting commentary on what my characters had been doing. This generated a LOT of response from people, a lot of excitement, and a lot of requests to read the story. So I came to a decisions. Currently I have 4 beta readers going through my work and should be giving me feedback by early January. T hen I will re-write and edit, and publish the book on Smashwords come Valentine’s Day. Once again Scarlett is creating the cover art for me, with some web icons to help with sales.

My first published novel. Wow. This is going to be exciting. I am opening myself up to people saying- wow! To people going- it’s just the same as….  Opening myself up to people to say- this is the worst thing I have ever written. Ah well -

This year has actually been a big year for me in writing. One of my biggest and scariest, to be honest, in both my creative and copy writing spheres.

Let me talk about my copy writing first.

The biggest thing to happen to me this year was the decision to become a freelance copy writer. I quit my 9-5 regularly paying job, and with the support my awesome derby wife, I embarked on the scary but personally rewarding learning curve that is freelance copywriting. I competed for and won a place in the Australian School of Copy Writing Dream Team 2011. This group has prompted me and pushed me to get me a website, new business cards, a DL flyer promoting myself and join a networking group- BNI Mitcham.

As a freelancer I have created direct email content and an accompanying competition webpage; I have created and polished up a Code of Conduct contract for the East Vic Roller Derby league; I wrote copy for a 3 fold brochure and I have now committed to writing the weekly BNI Mitcham newsletter. I have made some great connections through the networking group and there seems to be a lot of potential in the new year to grow my business. A few people would like me to create their newsletters for them, some would like my help updating and re-branding themselves through websites and emails and hard copy sales material.

What has happened to me in the months since i left my full time job is I am learning the BUSINESS of being a writer. While initially I would give discounted hourly rates because people had not seen my work and what I could do, I was first told- no, charge me your full rate, by one of my clients, and then shown that I have value. My years of experience, my education and my collected body of work, even though someone else might not have seen them, they are there and I do have that value to give as a writer. So now, even if it is a new project, I do charge what I believe i am worth. According to some, this may still not be enough, but I am happy at the moment with what I charge.

At a party over the weekend I practiced my networking skills. Spoke to a couple of people, asked what they did, listening to see how I could help them. Met an engineer who designed kid’s play grounds! How awesome a job that could be. But I also met a personal trainer from a BNI group in the neighbouring chapter. As a BNI member, you are allowed to visit other chapters, as long as they do not have your profession represented. Surprisingly, there is a reassuring lack of copy writers in BNI. We got to talking about what she could offer my group and what I could offer her group. Seems there are a few people in her group who may benefit from a copy writer. So, in the new year I will be visiting her chapter, and others, and spreading the word of ME, copy writer! It was a good little networking experience. We swapped business cards.

I also had another networking event during the week at Manningham Council. Bernadette Schwerdt was giving a talk about copy writing, what it is and how it can help people. This was a great opportunity to meet the lady who is teaching me right now, and it was great for someone with authority to stand up and say- this is copy writing. Then I was able to stand up and say- I can do that for you. I could skip past the definition and get right to the helping you part of my talk. I made a great connect with a e-marketer who admitted she hated writing copy, and was quite relieved to have met me, it seems. 2 good hits in a week.

I also re-opened my face book page. This is where I post updates for my blog, anything copy writing related and novel and creative writing related. Since social media is something I am getting into, setting up profiles, creating content and maintaining, I thought it would be a good idea to show that I have such a page myself. There are many great things to be done with social media, of which I am still learning, such as sign up splash pages, the idea of SUPER FANS, which is an actual term.

What do I want in the new year? Obviously I want my work load to increase. I have made some good starts, planted some potentially strong seeds of growth. But I would like those seeds to grow and bear fruit. I would like to earn enough per week to be comfortable. Some regular work where I have regular clients would be fantastic. Clients who come back to me because of the great work I did for them first time. New clients from outside the BNI 1st tier, referrals because of the good job I have already done. People finding my website and wanting to use my services from looking at my portfolio.

And I need to distribute my DL flyers, and get some work through those.

BIG YEAR ahead! Here’s to making it full of writing goodness!

(Part 2- Creative Writing Year in review, coming shortly…)

Just in time for Christmas, I have a new business card and a new DL flyer to advertise myself. I would have liked these earlier, but the printer became ‘busy’. All this meant was I had to remind them that, while I am a friend, I am also a customer, and not having these two items is actually restricting my potential to trade. So, I did take a bit of a stand, and it produced results!

That was educational. This year I have discovered my voice, the line in the sand where I will not cross. I have discovered that I can stand up and bump chests with those who are sort of taking advantage of me. I am a laid back kind of guy, and it seems trying to go into business for yourself, you cannot be like that. I have had people I did work for tell me- no, you will charge me at your FULL rate. VALUE yourself! You did work for free, no, I asked you to charge me, so do it. So, I have good people pushing me forwards, and I am now learning myself to push myself forwards. Its business, not pleasure.

So, yes, side tracked there. Well, no not really. Valuing myself, and taking pride in my work, standing up for myself, they are all part of the BUSINESS of writing, which I am learning, STILL. wow.

I am glad I have got my business cards now. By pure coincidence (or was it) there is a networking meeting on Tuesday morning at another BNI Chapter. The guest speaker is Bernadette Schwerdt, the lady who is mentoring me through the 12 months of Dream Team 2011. So not only will I get a chance to meet her, but once she has told people how awesome copy writing is, I can then say- hey! I’m a copy writer! Here’s my card.

My novel? I am reading through it now, just making sure the flow is there, a few obvious typoes are gone. Then I will have a few people give it a good hard read through to find some other types of errors before I edit it for a Valentines Day release. I have spoken with my graphic designer friend about the cover, and she has agreed to do a full front & back cover AND to do an electronic version of my cover, with the words RELEASED ON VALENTINES DAY so I can post it online all over the place.

This is both fun, exciting, and extremely scary.

Do I like my story? Yes. Yes I do. You might think that is a strange question since I wrote it and I asked it, but there are so many people who do Nanowrimo who say- I wrote it but it was crap. But no, I enjoyed writing it, and I enjoyed the story.

I was confused using the words ‘sigil’ and ‘glyph’ throughout, and I am going to have to decide which word I like, and what the actual difference between them are. It might be a regional dialect thing, in that some call the magic writing Sigil Work, others Glyph work. That’s for an edit.

The end fight scene for me needs more. They’re carrying swords, so why dont they use them? And the lead male went down far too quickly. I will re-write that with more sword play. And what frustrated me with the final scene was playing it out in my head, while dramatic music was playing, and thinking to myself- I hope my writing is as exciting as what I can see in my head! Which it never is, but that’s okay. The reader can fill in the stunt work for themselves.

Some stats for the month of November:

• Total Words Written – 94473
• Average Words Written per day – 3258
• Highest word count day – Wednesday the 16th – 10227
• Days not writing – 3 (Two Saturdays and the last day)
• Number of days not hitting daily word count – 5  (0, 0, 913, 1543, 1589)

I do have plans for my novel. With the number of people commenting on my Facebook updates desperate to read it, I have decided to e-book my novel. I am going to give it a quick read through in the next couple of days, just to find a few little bugs and wipe them off the screen. Then I will let it sit during December. In January I will give it an edit with the hammer. The story is fine, I am happy with the pacing and how long it takes to get where it needs to go. Language is a little bit over the place, so I will make sure when my male lead speaks it is all very proper. When my lady speaks it will be halting and a little bit confused. Actually, I may base her speech pattern off my Polish friend. She has been in Australia for 30 years but she still cannot grasp Australian slang. It is so cute.

And then the plan is to get the book up for purchase before Valentine’s Day. I am going to announce this on Facebook as well. I am putting it out, into the universe, there will be a release date. That way I can not hide behind the- oh yes I plan on getting it published. I will have announced it, and will target that date, and my inner perfectionist be DAMNED!

One of my best days was last Thursday. I managed to write 4146 words on my novel, while also putting together and writing a newsletter for my BNI group. Writing content, setting up the template and laying it all out was a very involved job. So being able to do both was a good experience for me. Showed that I can work and play at the same time. That would be a great work life balance for me, to be able to Copy Write, to do professional writing during the morning and afternoon, and then write into the evening on novels. I did that for a couple of days during November, and it worked.

So, how am I feeling now? I am actually a little sad I don’t have a novel to write. Yes, I know- but wait! You can still write! But I don’t want to get Book 2 going until have book 1 wrapped up nicely. I am not one of these multi-tasking writers, well not for novels. Not yet. The day a publishing house asks me to write this novel, and that novel, oh and help with this one, and here is loads of cash? Then I will adapt.

I have noticed that I sometimes settle into a nice rut of conversation. A lot of talk, quirky talk, not dull conversation. But the book doesn’t go anywhere. That was happening today. I was enjoying the conversation. My Alchemist was fitting my MC with a gun, explaining how and why it works, what types of potions it fires and such. I enjoyed it because the workings of the weapon made a sense of logic for me. And the way they described things- this is the casting plate. I like the term casting plate. Plate, being a physical, metal object, which allows the ‘casting’ of a spell. I want a mix of magic and technology, brought through alchemy. And I feel like I even have the language to do this.

However, the book wasn’t going anywhere. I had such fun creating the village of Thunderfall, way up in the mountains, that I wanted them to stay a few days. But in a book, in an adventure, that can’t happen. So I brought the bad guys there, in the middle of the night. Okay, they didn’t arrive there, a massive dragon blew their ship up and it crashed. I thought- if that doesn’t get their butts moving, nothing will!

A few interesting things have happened to the book and to the characters while I have been writing. Some characters have been wrestling with me. The lead male and female both wanted screen time at the start of the book. I would manage to get one under control and then the other would start acting up. Then those two were quite happy to hop along with the ride, until they decided they wanted to be lovers. Well, I intended that, but it took them a while. And now they cant keep their hands off each other. The poor boy, just as he is getting around first base, SURPRISE! Goblin attack

But what I think was the most intriguing thing to happen was to a character who lives with my alchemist. He was found as a child, in the wild, and she more or less adopted him. Not a motherly type, their relationship is more like friends. He is a very talented tinkerer, which is like an engineer. Except he draws pictures of creatures and puts cogs and gears and pulleys in them. He has this way of seeing the world as it would look like as a machine. And that was the character basis. Then, when my MC meets him for the first time, I discovered he was autistic. I honestly had no intention of making him so. It literally just happened. He hasnt fought me over it, he hasnt argued, he is quite happy seeing the world as he sees it,”much better this way”, as he likes to say. It surprised me. But I am happy with it.

Being at home with not much work has enabled me to pull out 5000 word days, 3000 word days and the like. However, I am thinking I may need to delegate Thursdays as my ‘maintenance’ days. I have just began the weekly newsletter duties for my BNI Chapter. Great idea, I will get content from everyone and put it into a newsletter for them. Actually a bit of work, chasing down people to email you content. Lay it out in a template and such, and then send out. Free of charge. It’s always the setting up of templates that is the biggest bit, next time will be copy and paste under the picture. And 2 other people have expressed interest in me creating a newsletter for them

And some have expressed interest in me creating and maintaining a Facebook page for them. So I think I will delegate Thursday to be THE DAY where I update newsletter templates, update Facebook. Thursday will be my day of social networking. I must be on Facebook! As a job! Who would have thought…