Blog

Burning through the vanities to leave a seamless narrative.

Hey, and hello to new subscribers and regular readers—and to any irregulars, skirmishers, and fresh faces who wandered by.

The Anatomy of the Flame

Ever built a bonfire?

Not of vanities, but of wood.

Back in the day, when men still hung around in caves, a campfire meant survival. Here, after the mammoth dinner, the storytellers would stand before the flames and feed their audience’s imagination.

Building a fire is a process. Any fire...

Print, Process, and the Paranormal: Looking Behind the Stories

King in the Dark: Combined Print Edition

Into Darkness, When Duty Calls, and Swan’s Song

Is live, and it’s been interesting.

The Long Road from Manuscript to Print

I’m really a newb at publishing. Not so much writing, I’ve been typing it seems forever, but there’s the problem.

I feel I spend 99% of my time word-processing, and that’s a skill-set, like typing itself, I have a rhythm and habit, it feels as natural as anything else I do...

Print problems, fresh fiction, and the 80/20 rule

Shorter Friday Newsletter message today, because life leaves me busy. King in the Dark's print edition is taking a little longer than I hoped.

I am a bit of a perfectionist, and, in contrast, I can be lazy… my many faults aside, knowing when to stop is a vexing question.

Effort

Spent (Minimal) -> 80% Good Enough

(Massive) -> 99% Perfect

Value Gained

There’s a logical argument that chasing perfection is a perfect example of the law of...

Where the machine finds the slips, and the writer guards the soul

I hope to launch King in the Dark as a print edition, combining the prequel and parts one and two—very soon!

I’m still chasing some minor errors, punctuation, commas, and periods, and the occasional missing quote symbol…

I often joke about waterlemons, because the meme is true—at least for me! My mind fills in the gaps; mental auto-correct. I know I’m not alone.

We learn to read one letter at a time and then speed up by recognising...

Imagined emotions, muddy drafts, plot holes, and the long ride home

Imagined Emotions

Writing is the business of imagined emotions. Writers are dealers, indulging in their own drug of choice.

Our brains fire in a chemical soup, and whether we’re reading another writer’s inventions or dallying in our own, the subconscious rolls along, not caring whether the thrills are real or imagined.

The rollercoaster ride at the fair presents a false sense of danger, and the body, at this primal level, reacts,...

The difference between assistance and authorship

Reading through King in the Dark as a complete work before I commit to a print edition. So far, so good!

I’m more accurate than I was when I first self-published; however, that’s mostly down to the better tools available today. Also, I am blessed by helpful beta-readers, who bring a necessary human overview.

What I bring to the table is not the promise that I don’t use tools to help me, but rather, that the one doing the creative writing is me....

Tropes, Brain Fluid & Love That Defies Death

A story involving intimacy, two people meet and form a union.

I could describe Pride and Prejudice, or the one where a plumber drops his toolkit to work on the pipe, and the lady drops her drawers.

These are polar opposites.

I’ve opined before that fiction is all fantasy, and why I prefer the older terms Sword and Sorcery / Science Fiction, and noted that stories enjoyed by folks who would never admit to liking either will enjoy the fantastical...

Well, without further ado, let me announce that King in the Dark: Part 2 — Swan’s Song is available to buy on Amazon!

The author would like to thank his friends for their kindness and support; without diligent beta-readers, this series would not be possible.

I have written about the writing process and word-building for King in the Dark across several newsletters. For the uninitiated, this is a historical novel-meets-urban fantasy.

It began as a prequel concept that spawned its own prequel, an...

Fantasy is all made up.

Whether a story is set yesterday in a close approximation of reality or if the author invents Realtown in Real County, complete with a realtor who is really good at their job. Comfy or cosy, chaotic or catastrophic.

For this reason, I look fondly back to when, as a boy, I perused the Sword and Sorcery section of my friendly neighbourhood bookshop, because I knew what this meant—a fantasy about swords or some sort, with magic of some kind.

Times change, and so do...

Three times around… Re-reading King in the Dark Part Two, before launching the book. A necessary work.

So what does that look like?

Every author develops their own way of doing things. I reckon, absent a randomised controlled trial... that two people could have almost identical approaches, and create very different works. Tone, style and genre. I’m just as sure another pair might create similar stories using diametrically opposing methods.

Methods are often defined this way: by the seat of your...

Friday Newsletter, or Trusting the Reader (Even When AI Doesn’t)

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.Respect your reader’s time—make every moment count.

The first rule of ‘write club’, according to Kurt Vonnegut.

Often called his “Creative Writing 101” his advice totals eight, however, I’ve been working through these rules like a beauty queen’s results—in reverse order,

So at last dear reader, we’re finally at rule one.

The Golden...

From Iceberg to Heartfelt.

It’s Good Friday once again. A week hath passed, the draft of King in the Dark: Part Two — Swan’s Song is being polished—again, second read through… and so again I pause.

March: “In like a lion, out like a lamb” or vice versa.

While March is over, the ‘lion’ is late, the genteel ‘lamb-like’ start to last month, as the proverb warns, promises a ‘lion-like’ end, and Storm Dave hits this weekend. What’s a few days between friends?

Right now, it’s just a bit grey and damp....

It’s Friday once more. A week hath passed, the draft of King in the Dark: Part Two — Swan’s Song is being polished.

I’m at chapter 89 of 128 in King in the Dark. Part two commences with chapter 50. So, 39 down, 49 to go...

I pause to march backwards through Kurt Vonnegut’s list from the preface to Bagombo Snuff Box.

Next:

Rule #3: Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

Vonnegut’s rules are impactful in part because they are a tad hyperbolic. Every character?...

As my long-suffering, irregular readers might remember, I began working backwards through Kurt Vonnegut’s famous list of 8 rules for creative writing, which appeared in the preface to his 1999 short story collection Bagombo Snuff Box.

After a two-week hiatus, it’s a fitting time to return, and in reverse order, the next rule is #4

Every sentence must do one of two things: reveal character or advance the action.

Why so apt?

Well, I’ve completed the second part of King in the Dark. Here’s a...

When the outline meets reality and politely asks, ‘What now?’

As a writer, I’m a plotter; it means my answer remains…

As I get older, my plans adjust. “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” Writing is one place where I get to go on rip-roaring adventures in my head. “The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age.” In my head, I can be a genius—seriously, all my characters agree. After all, great minds think alike.

Okay, fools...

Stacking my files in the digital age doesn’t look like a warehouse in Indiana Jones, which inspired a wacky TV show; it’s file trees in the drive, and oh boy, how have they changed, right? |

Still, I started on Substack, and it’s fun to get back on the horse, as it were, with another social network.

This being a newsletter, what’s the news? Well, sometimes it falls into this: ‘news to me,’ or, in internet speak, ‘this days old when I learned that…’ In England and her colonies from 1155 to...

Hey, and hello to new subscribers and regular readers.

In the previous three Newsletters, I’ve mused on Kurt Vonnegut’s famous list of 8 rules for creative writing, one at a time, starting with 8,— 7 and 6. So, in reverse order, the next one is…

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

Those ardent fans who hang on my every word will remember I mentioned this rule before. There’s a related advisory that goes something along the lines of ‘Avoid opening with birth, childhood, school days, or...

Hey, and hello to new subscribers and regular readers.

Kurt Vonnegut’s famous list of 8 rules for creative writing appeared in the preface to his 1999 short story collection Bagombo Snuff Box.

Like many observations about life, these are general rules, and there are always exceptions.

Vonnegut pointed out that Flannery O'Connor, a prominent short story writer of his era, often disregarded these rules, except for the first one. He observed that "Great writers tend to do that."

Exceptional...

Last week, I pontificated on Kurt Vonnegut’s famous list of 8 rules for creative writing. You can find them and last week's Newsletter over at my blog here.

Or rather, I concentrated on the one that bothered me the most.

Rule 8.

"Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages."

My...

Hey, and hello to new subscribers and regular readers.

Kurt Vonnegut’s famous list of 8 rules for creative writing appeared in the preface to his 1999 short story collection Bagombo Snuff Box.

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
   
   
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
   
   
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
   
   
4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character...