Moving and the pursuit of fiction

First blog post since January. Hmm... I guess the resolution to be a regular blogger didn't exactly work out.

Oh well, onward we go.

This evening, I packed the last of my books into boxes. We're moving on Friday and as always, I have left pretty much everything until the last minute.

I had a delightful conversation with a member of the Sky 'moving home' team earlier this week, in which they oh so helpfully said that the gargantuan hole in the wall through which the satellite cable runs is 'not their problem'. Also, the earliest they can come to set us up at the new place is next Thursday, which means a week without television.

The other half is distraught. I, on the other hand, am secretly pleased. No tv means no temptation to laze around in a semi-coma every evening watching whatever crap is on the box. No tv means I might actually get some of my sodding assignment done (which I really should be doing right now!)

I will also have no internet, which is potentially more distressing than no tv.

I'm really into podcast fiction at the moment. Loving Xenos Beach by Graham Joyce on the Dark Fiction Magazine website. I don't actually listen on an iPod. I think that I must be one of the few people in the universe who doesn't own an mp3 player. I am thinking, however that in the pursuit of fiction it may be a worthy investment.
  

One space or two...?

I discovered something on twitter the other day that shook my entire world.

It turns out that I have been typing incorrectly for my entire life. After a full stop I always hit the space bar twice. That's the way I was taught was correct, that's how I've always done it. A double tap on the space bar at the end of a sentence is like breathing to me. But apparently one space is actually correct and therefore, as a writer by trade and by leisure, I must re-wire my brain and force my fingers to conform.

I think I'm more amazed that in all my years in education, at 6th Form and university, no-one has ever pulled me up on this astounding error, which I consider to be such a vital part of the writing process.

On the bright side, at least I found out now and not 30 years down the line...

   

New Year, New Plan

First post of 2011 - Happy New Year! (although it's not really new anymore...) 

I don't bother making a New Year's Resolution as I never keep them and I tend to make the same ones year after year, which defeats the point entirely.

Having said that, I am going to focus much more on writing this year and in particular, getting my writing out there and published.

Fantasy & Horror Book Review: The Silent Land, Death Most Definite, Zombie Apocalypse!

I've been meaning to do one of these for a while.  I've read some fantastic books this year, a couple of which aren't normally my cup of tea, but I think it's important to read something a bit different now and again.

So, of the most recently read books, here goes... 

One I Love: The Silent Land by Graham Joyce

I had been eagerly anticipating this book and Joyce's latest offering didn't disappoint. I would even go as far to say that I think it is his best novel to date.  A ghost-love story, The Silent Land slowly sinks its hooks into you, in true Joyce style, until the moment of clarity hits you and you realise that you have given yourself over to the story. My breaking point was a couple of chapters in when the 'snow fell like goose feathers'...  Joyce's clean, minimalistic style allows the story to unfold without wasting time on unneccessary details.

Overall, The Silent Land is a beautiful and powerful novel, that reminds us just how terrifying it is to be human. 


Good Impulse Buy: Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson

An impulse buy that paid off, Death Most Definite takes on the necromancer segment of the urban fantasy genre.  Steven de Selby is part of a community of necromancers who work for Death.  When someone starts killing off all the necromancers, it's up to Steven to find out who is behind the murders and to stay alive, with the help of an attractive-but-dead female necromancer.  Jamieson hails from Australia and the entire novel is set in Brisbane, which makes it a bit different from the majority of the US based urban fantasy novels.  Steven is low on the pecking order and a bit of a waster which leads to some interesting character development as the story progresses. 

In places it is a bit cliched (dead girl is brought back from the dead), however most of the novel is fresh and different to other novels on the urban fantasy market.  (Steven riding a bicycle through the Hell was a favourite moment.) Overall, worth a read if you're after something different. 

            
Wouldn't Normally Read But LOVED: Zombie Apocalypse! ed. by Stephen Jones

 I picked this up at FantasyCon in September and although I would never normally go for anything with zombies (deeply rooted terror from childhood), I found that I couldn't put it down. 

Zombie Apocalypse! is a collection of linked short stories all centred around the theme of... you guessed it, a zombie apocalypse.  With contributions from some outstanding horror writers including Sarah Pinborough and Tim Lebbon, the story unfolds through recovered emails, transcripts, government documents and twitter conversations.  The narrative progresses through different accounts from individuals across society, bringing an authenticity that is truly frightening. 

Zombie Apocalypse! is brutal, hilarious and terrifying (it could actually happen!)  Like The Silent Land it touches the part of us that is human.  At the end of the world, we will cling to the ones we love.          

      
Currently reading: The Night Land by William Hope Hodgeson, as recommended by my dad.  Will report back!

Merry Christmas!

Against the odds: 50,000 to 1,097

On Monday I started working on a story for NaNoWriMo.  The aim is to write a 50,000 word novel by 30th November, which works out at around 1,600ish words a day.  By Tuesday I had 1,097 words.

Today I still have 1,097 words. 

Now, the chances of me catching up on the missed wordcount are pretty slim and with everything going on at the moment, (still fighting off a cold, busy week at work, water & electric company to phone, bills to pay etc,etc) it would make sense for me to admit defeat, right?          

Right.  Except that I don't want to, because the 1,097 words I have written are the start of the novel I have been attempting to write for the past 7 years.    

Time to crack on!

Too many books... (or not enough?)

I've just moved into a new flat and have found that I seriously underestimated how many books I own.  I must have had at least a dozen boxes of books, if not more.  How on earth did I get so many books!?  OK, the crap I bought whilst working in a discount bookshop probably accounts for at least a third, and then there's the uni texts, the 'literary' texts, reference books, not to mention all the cookbooks (most of which I have never used)... 

And then there are the books I love.  The ones I read over and over again. 
I'm fairly sure that I have the largest collection of urban fantasy/paranormal/supernatural fiction outside of the Waterstone's 'Dark Fantasy' aisle.

I don't think that's a bad thing. Not really...


   

Why I don't keep a blog...

There's a reason why I haven't kept a blog or diary for years; I forget about them and leave them to rot, either in the back of a drawer or in the dusty corners of the internet. I'm pretty sure my old Livejournal page is still out there somewhere, rattling around.

I've just finished reading Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger - a very creepy book, especially before bed. I thought it was brilliantly written, she just gets better and better with each novel, although the lack of Victorian lesbians in this one was slightly disappointing.

I've decided to quit whinging about my own writing and have become much stricter over the past few months about making time to write. I've found my lunch hour provides a perfect opportunity to get a few paragraphs or pages out. GoogleDocs is my saviour!

Currently working on a short story about female werewolves. Watch this space.