Month: May 2014

The more I write the more the ideas keep flowing.

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Hello

 

I finished Eriden Grainger’s little yarn about how she has fared since the events of ‘The Town of the Mountain’ took place. I mentioned last time that she had a lot of worries on her plate. She still does by the end of the story but she now has a clearer idea of what value she may have to Manchester and its demon problem.

As she arrives in Manchester she is welcomed by a policeman who is flanked by five more policeman. Is this some kind of welcome wagon you may ask? Not really. The policeman is not so subtly letting Eriden know that he is scared of her. She finds out that none of the police on show, and probably most of the ones that aren’t, believe in the hunters or value them in anyway. Despite Markus’s already titanic efforts to reduce the demon population. Once she finds this out, she knows that she can’t wait to get to work and prove them wrong. She watches a local news report and see’s Markus being interviewed after his heroics which have been charted in his own short story. He then pays her a visit and fills her in a little bit more. I have always liked linking stories together using only one or two lines or just a small paragraph. Anytime this happens in a film or in a book I get excited. I just don’t want to do it too often though. It is helping me move these stories along so I’ll keeping doing it for now but I’ll stop soon. Honest.

And a related note, at the rate I’m going with planning the second book I’m asking myself, should I start writing it soon? No, I shall not. I’ll need to do plenty of planning and note writing before I do that. I might do it for NaNoWriMo this year. Hmm…..I’ve just paused for a few minutes while writing this to contemplate something I’m going to do in November. I always disliked people who relentlessly wish their lives away. Maybe my impending 31st birthday is making me think like a grown up or summat. I dunno. Whatever.

Other than the above, I’ve had a quiet week. I applied for a new job. I went out for drinks for a friend’s birthday, chilled on Saturday and won £14 betting on the Champions League final (cheers Mr Ramos), visited a food festival before more drinks and watched the latest X-Men movie. Come to think of it, maybe my week hasn’t been that quiet.

I’m going now.

Bye Bye

 

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A story almost done…but my 2nd 10k run completed!

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So, following on from last time, the next short story that will help to shape my ‘Town of the Mountain’ follow up is shaping up nicely. It’s entitled ‘The Worry’ and centres on Eriden Grainger, the chief heroine of the Town of the Mountain. I wondered how I would go about this story and, like the first story ‘The Hunt’, I just wrote what I felt like writing.

Eriden is worried that she isn’t as good a hunter as she used to be. The Town of the Mountain ended with an almighty battle featuring all the bugbears of the forest, of which there were chuffin loads, attacking the hunters. Our hero hunters won but now that the town is peaceful, and has been for a while when we drop back into Eriden’s life. It is very quiet and very boring. You see, there aren’t any bugbears to fight. Or any monsters of any kind for that matter. So, with this in mind she decides to join up with Markus in Manchester to fight off the City’s demon infestation. However, she feels out of shape and worries that she may not be able to do what she did for her town for a big city. She also worries about her new boyfriend and not being around for him. And she worries about her mother, who has finally started talking to her again after years of neglecting her, will become as distant as she used to be. My, oh my have I given her a lot of worries. It does mean that the story is flowing quite well and I’m able to try my hand at writing emotional stuff and that. Which is something I actually quite like to write. I will hopefully have finished the story by this time next week so I’ll let you know how it went.

And…I ran the Bupa Manchester 10K for the second year running! I had been worrying about how I would do in the weeks running up to the run. I put myself down for the second wave which is one up from last year. Immediately in my head I thought that everyone else was going to be faster than me and leave me in their collective dust thus allowing me to finish last out of a hell of a lot of people. But, as the race drew nearer and I inched my way forward towards the starting line my confidence grew. And…I was off! I was tempted to just go for it at the beginning but I settled into a comfortable pace. The amazing heat didn’t help matters but the support of strangers on the side lines was brilliant. I finished it in 54 mins exactly in 6533rd place. That was 50 seconds quicker than last time and 2094 places higher. I’m happy to say the least. Got a medal as well.

Right then. I’m off. Thanks for reading and have a good week.

Good bye

Another story done with. And a load more to write.

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Hello

 

As I mentioned last time around, I sat down and wrote something off the top of my head. Whatever came into my head, I was going to write and hopefully it would make sense. Or could make sense after a few edits. It turned into the first short story regarding the exploits of my main character after my bugbear story, Town of the Mountain. And…

I finished it!

I have always enjoyed writing action scenes and seem to type quicker when I do. A majority of the story was to do with a hunter, our hero Markus, fighting a huge, winged demon. I ended up making the demon a teenager which I didn’t expect. It also allowed me to add in a bit of humour, hopefully, into the story. It broke it up quite well. I may add a bit more into it in the edit. Whenever that is. I talked myself into writing a short story to carry on each of the main and secondary characters tales after Town of the Mountain. This equates to about 12 stories at least. It’ll keep me out of trouble and busy which is always good.

So, the story, called ‘The Hunt’, which is a working title by the way, came up to just over 2000 words. I’ve decided to make this my short story word count for each of these ditties that will help to start to map out the sequel to Town of the Mountain. The sequel, at this point anyway, centre around our hero’s helping out the rest of Britain which, like the hero’s little town, is overrun by some kind of monster. For example, Manchester will be infested with winged demons. London will be infested with vampires. Birmingham will be infested with Dragons. And so on in that fashion. I’m not sure how I’ll incorporate all of this into one story but I do like a challenge.

I remember a time I would have balked at that last sentence. Any challenge I used to like, say five years ago and most of the time before that, would have been from a computer game. Now I actually like challenges which could shape my future. This new found drive has also spilled into my day job. I set myself a goal of getting a new job that could open up possible opportunities later in life and I have. It’s only a secondment but I have to start somewhere. Here’s to a new challenge!

Right, I’m off to relax as I’m feeling tired. All this challenge talk is wearing me out.

Good pie!

One off, One on, and a pleasant surprise?

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Hello

 

In case you noticed, I didn’t update my little corner of the internet last week. That was because I had done exactly bugger all in the way of writing. I’m not sure how it happened but that week just flew by. I do remember thinking about what I was going to write next though. When I had chance. Which was never during that week. But I did keep on reading Dorian Gray. I think it was once on the tram to work. So that was One week off writing. But then…

One week on it! As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I was considering writing a short story based around the idea of the two greatest warriors of a fictional planet. But, I’m thinking that will make a good, full length story or a novella. As I was writing the synopsis and background to it I realised a short story would end up long or novella anyway. Having put that on the back burner, I decided to sit down and write off the top of my head. The last time I did this, wanting to write a short story only, just so I can get a story written as the time before that, a few years back, I did the same thing and it ended up getting really, really long. I’ll get back to that little ditty at some point.

Anyway, I sat down to write a few years ago, off the top of my head, and that turned into my bugbear odyssey, The Town of the Mountain. And as I sat down to write a few days ago I began to tell the tale of a hunt. A bloke hunting and fighting a demon. Which has turned into part of the second book to follow on from Town of the Mountain. It has been running around my head for about a year now so I thought, why not put some of it down on paper. I’m planning on several short stories focusing on all the main characters that will feature in the second book. I have to say, taking a week off can be pretty good sometimes. I took a week off from running as well, which led to…

A pleasant surprise? I ran my quickest run for ages after a week off. Although what I got next took the goodness of that away. I received my running number for the Manchester Bupa 10k Run 18/05/2014. Last year I was in the third group to run, now I’ve gone and put myself in the second group. The white one. The group I remarked on, as they ran passed in the opposite direction looking all professional and that as I ran passed trying not to laugh at the guy dressed as a Rubik Cube, how professional and that they all looked. I was a little worried after I opened the letter but now, I’m looking forward to it. A challenge for me to beat last years’ time. And push myself further as well. I’ll go for a beer afterwards anyway so there is that.

Right, I’m off to do some chores. Hope you have a good week.

Bye