Reading about Orlando, I feel the need so say or do something. What, I don’t know. These things always leave me so helpless. But it’s not about me, I know that. There are people out there who can do something and, to them, I must urge: we need gun control now.
We need peace now.
Understanding, right now.
This isn’t usually a political blog, but I can’t just sit here and not talk about this. Not when people are dying.
End violence. End hate.
For too many people, it’s already too late.
What if our own brains weren’t, in fact, our brains? What if, several millennia ago, when the earth was still evolving, and we humans were not quite us humans, yet – what if aliens had visited us then, and planted themselves firmly inside our forming skulls? What if that was the reason we, apart from all other earth life, are sentient? What if that was why we were always so uncertain, so lost; always reaching for that elusive something that would give our lives meaning?
…if I had any talent as a sci-fi author, I would write a novel aiming to answer the questions above. But I’m not, and I’m not going to try. Thus, this is just another idea for the scrap folder, or inspiration for anyone who wants it. (Does anyone want it? Am I shouting out into the void? The alien’s at me again. Must go.)
Looking for a quick-read to devour during this brief blink of sun? Well, look no further. Four Season Summer – my first Kindle short – is free this long weekend: 3rd to the 6th June!
As I said in a recent post, I have started work on a new novel. My plan is to put together a first draft of it during the next round of Camp NaNoWriMo, next month.
In the meantime, though, my writing goal for June is 10,000 words, same as last month.
I didn’t meet my May goal, but I did write a total of 7,000 – made up of:
I also edited one other piece and reformatted a lot of my back catalog.
Works Submitted: 3 poems to one journal, and a piece of flash fiction to another.
If you want to read about what work I did for clients during the month of May, click here.
This month, I finished We Were Liars by E Lockhart (the ending almost ruined me, I swear!), read A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Wolf, and X-Men: The Unlikely Saga of Xavier, Magneto, and Stan (a graphic novel, binding up four individual comics).
I also started Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screen Writing You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder.
Speaking of Comics, though, I was lucky enough to attend Showmasters ComicCon in Belfast this month, at which I picked up three Angel comics, and a Willow comic, as well as Malorie Blackman’s new novel: Chasing the Stars.
Goodreads Update: 18 books into my 45 book goal for the year = right on target.
No sooner had I pitched out a boatload of ideas that were only weighing me down* did I get the brand new idea for a novel. But not just the general concept – several chapter outlines, a title, a log line, and a synopsis, too!
I know I’m trying hard not to start anything new, right now, but this story has really grabbed me, and I’m scared to miss the opportunity, so I’m going to run with it for a while.
With all of that in mind, I also had another idea for a story, and this second idea I am not chasing. I will put it down here just to get it out of my mind, however. As always, feel free to resurrect it and make it your own.
So, here’s the idea: what if there was an alien invasion of earth, but the aliens didn’t come for us? What if the aliens had, in fact, no interest in humans one way or another but had come with the intention of wiping out something else? This is the part of the story I haven’t got worked out. I don’t know what the ‘something else’ might be. Maybe mosquitoes, or cockroaches, or lint. Maybe tacos.
I want to see how that changes the standard tropes of us going to war with them (aliens, I mean, not tacos… though, maybe that could- no. No more plot bunnies!); the standard thing of always having our own race at the center of everything.
Someone write that story. I dare you!
On Tuesday I was at the Crescent Arts Centre for the launch of this year’s Belfast Book Festival. I was there as the Women Aloud NI representative, as Jane Talbot (founder of the Women Aloud movement, who also has an event in the festival program) wasn’t able to make it.
As it happens, there are quite a few other Women Aloud women taking part in the festival, which runs over the course of eleven days (9 – 19th June).
Keith Acheson, director of Crescent Arts, says 2016 has more of a focus on women writers than ever.
I’m personally very excited to take in as many events as I can. There’s a good range, in both genre and price, with many events being free.
A long long time ago*, in a corner of the internet far far away**, I said that the new plan was to clear out some ideas for projects I know I’m never going to finish from the back of my mind, where they only serve as distractions from the real projects I should be focusing on. Well, I’ve been semi-successful in this, so far, but I want to clear out some more, and I’m going to do that right here, right now. Consider this post a kind of idea graveyard. And hey, if you like the sound of any of my abandoned ideas, then feel free to resurrect them, by all means. I’d love to hear from you if you’re inspired by anything below.
Ideas Currently Being Ditched:
Phew. I thought that’d be hard, but it was actually a relief to put all those drafts in my scrap folder.
Onwards and upwards, pigeons!
*February 2015, to be exact
**This blog post right here
Here it is: my first monthly round up of what I wrote during the last thirty days, (as promised here).
The goal was 17,000 words, and I made it to 9,000 including:
And this is the part why I tell you why it’s okay that I didn’t meet my goal: *takes deep breath* …I have tossed out the most recent draft of my first novel, replotted, and am starting again from scratch.
For maybe the fifteenth time.
Yes, seriously.
Am I crazy? Probably. But I’m doing it anyway. I swear one day this thing will be finished, and I will be happy with it.
’till then, I’m setting the goal for next month at 10,000 words.
*I’m counting posts for this blog and the blog over on my other website, but not the blog posts I wrote for clients.
This has been a fairly slow reading month for me, but I did work my way through a stack of old magazines about the history of Belfast, as loaned to me by my partner’s father.
I also read The Servant, a short story by the same author as The Horologicon, which I read last year. And I started We Were Liars by E Lockhart.
Just yesterday I got a paperback copy of Career of Evil – the new Robert Galbraith book – which I’m mega excited about (maybe even too excited!), but that’s pretty much it.
Goodreads Update: 15 books into my 45 book goal for the year = 1 book ahead of schedule.
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