I wrote a quick blog post about my thoughts on this quote. In it, I look at how the reasons I love writing at night
However, you’ll have to go visit my new site to be able to read it…
H.P. Lovecraft on “Writers”
lessons learned
Apologies For My Recent Radio Silence!
There are a number of reasons for my recent silence here on “Ramblings of an Author”, and I can only apologize for not having been able to give advanced notice.
Part of the reason is that over the holiday season I was very distracted by a couple of exciting projects.
More recently, it’s because I’m stepping into a new role for this year’s Brain to Books Cyber Convention & Book Expo.
Reason #1 – My New Author Website
Back on December 21st I announced that I was setting up a new author website, and http://timothybatesonauthor.com.
This has turned out to be a much bigger project than I anticipated at first.
- I had to decide on the appearance of the site, and I had way too many ideas at first.
- Then I needed to check into the available WordPress templates, and decided I didn’t want to spent to much on getting one custom made for me. Instead I chose to spend many hours building my own – And I’m very pleased with the initial results.
- Creating the basic pages for the site has taken some time, because it’s partly a migration from here, and my old Weebly site, and partly a major update of information and format.
- I had (and still have) some interesting challenges with the formatting and indexing of the blog pages. This part of the site is still very much a work in progress.
Please feel free to check out the site, and leave me any notes, feedback, criticisms, navigation problems, etc. in the comments below.
For the short term I’ll be blogging on both sites, with slightly different content going out on the new site. Once I have that site settled in, and all the bugs worked out, I’ll be moving there exclusively.
Here’s the bonus homework. Visit the new site, and make sure you check out a blog post. Scroll to the bottom, and subscribe for email notification of new posts.
Reason #2 – Brain To Book Cyber Convention & Book Expo 2019
(Please note, the image is from the 2018 event, so the dates are wrong).
This year’s Brain to Books Cyber Convention and Book Expo will be running from April 12th through April 14th 2019, and I have agreed to take on a more active role than ever before.
Previously I’ve been a participating author, and then the Genre Manager for the Fantasy events. This in itself has been a lot of work, because it means coordinating blog tours, competitions, giveaways, live discussion panels, and a host of authors.
Well, this year, I’ve done something really crazy, and agreed to take on an overhaul of the event site, and much of the setup work for the event. But, I won’t be alone, because we always have a great team of volunteers t get everything running.
Reason #3 – “Metal Earth” Model Kits
My wife and I have become hooked on the model kits from “Metal Earth”. Sandi loves to buy me the kits, and I keep making them.
They’re a fun challenge, with several levels of difficulty and size.
My wife brought me the Colosseum and the Parthenon for Christmas, and then we added another seven kits about a week ago.
I recently reviewed four of the Doctor Who themed kits, over on my new site. There is also a breakdown of how I found the assembly of the “Cyberman Head” kit (shown completed above).
Reason #4 – Creative Overload
Between all these projects, I’ve been so busy creating things that I actually ran out of material to post here.
But don’t despair, I have started working on a line-up of articles and posts for my new site, and I still have some guest posts to come on here.
Going Forward…
I’m going to allow the existing posts I have scheduled for other authors go out as planned through February.
After that I’m going to be moving all new posts to http://timothybatesonauthor.com, so please be sure to subscribe for updates. Over the coming weeks, I’ll post more reminders of what’s happening, and when.
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Stephen King on “Monsters”
I wrote a quick blog post about my thoughts on this quote. In it, I look at how the ghosts and monsters it references play a part in shaping my own as a writer.
However, you’ll have to go visit my new site to be able to read it…
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Someone Else’s Words – C.S. Lewis on Random
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Friday Insight #5 – NaNoWriMo And “Of Wolves And Men”
NaNoWriMo ends today, but I already achieved the goal of 50,000 words back on Tuesday 27th November.
- But that didn’t stop me, and I’ll be writing right up until the end of tonight to see how far I can get.
- I’ll be posting further samples of the story-in-progress until I’ve finished the first draft.
- All samples will continue to be in unedited form, so you’re getting a deep insight into my writing process…
Click the button below, and bookmark the page, so you can keep track of my progress throughout the month.
{BEGINNING OF SAMPLE}
I was grateful that we hadn’t gone far when Nazurl indicated that we’d lost our pursuers, and we had a chance to slow down a little. I had no idea where were, but Nazurl seemed to have a rough idea.
“I’m going to need your muscles again” She said,pointing to a ladder leading to another huge drain cover. Sunlight streamed down through the two holes, and it couldn’t have been a more welcome sight.
However, I found myself hoping that it opened into a quiet alleyway, or something, because I reeked of sewer slime, and my fur felt matted around the muzzle.
I shifted back to human form, and made a grab forNazurl’s backpack, wanting the clothes that she’d packed, before I even considered opening that drain. Ripping the bag off her shoulders, I pulled it open, and was disappointed to see only a pair of jogging bottoms and a pair of flip flops. In the middle of fall, Nazurl had chosen to outfit me in the least amount of clothing possible, without getting me arrested.
I growled in frustration, but then I also had to consider that she had probably had very little warning that I was investigating Jimmy’s death. And even less that we were going to have to escape a bunch of gun toting maniacs.
Climbing the ladder carefully, I wrapped one arm round the top rung of the ladder and shoved hard against the huge steel cover.Thankfully it gave way a little easier than the one in the Cup’s storeroom had,and I slid it to one side carefully.
I heard Nazurl climbing below me, and hauled myself up into the sunlight, blinking to try and adjust to the harsh light. Shouts and laughter greeted me as I finally managed to get my bearings, and people had started to notice something out of the ordinary happening.
“Bagley Hall” I muttered to myself as the double arched entryway caught my eye. I could hear the fountain running behind me, and I paused there half in, half out of the manhole cover, not believing our bad luck.
A yell from below reminded me that I wasn’t the only one trying to get out of the darkness below, and I finally climbed the rest of the way out. Leaning down through the hole, I helped Nazurl work her way into the sunlight, before sliding the cover back into place. Even if our pursuit hadn’t located us yet, there was no reason to believe that they wouldn’t be close by, and I didn’t want to leave them any clues as to which way we’d gone.
{END OF SAMPLE}
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Midweek Mumbles – I’m A Winner At NaNoWriMo!
I’m officially a NaNoWriMo winner, as off 7:30pm on November 27th 2018.
Today was a surprisingly amazing day of writing. I wrote over 4,000 words and finished NaNoWRiMo three days ahead of the deadline.
“Of Wolves And Men” now sits at a nice 50,163 words, and I’m reaching the half-way marker. Things are only going to get more interesting for our hero from here on out.
What Now?
- I’m going to keep writing hard and fast until the end of the month
- Then I’m going to slow down a little so I can work out the end of the story before I reach it
- I’ll keep posting the Friday Insight posts until just before the novel reaches it’s end
If you’re interested in seeing where my NaNoWriMo total finishes, check out my profile.
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Friday Insight #4 – NaNoWriMo And “Of Wolves And Men”
If you’ve been around the last few weeks, you’ll know I’m doing NaNoWriMo as motivation to get a good solid start on “Of Wolves & Men”. And I’m bringing you along for the ride.
- Each Friday in November, I’m posting a sample of what I’ve written that week.
- All the samples will be in unedited form, so you’re getting a deep insight into my writing process…
Click the button below, and bookmark the page, so you can keep track of my progress throughout the month.
{BEGINNING OF SAMPLE}
I set the file aside so that I could pull a notepad toward me. I scribbled down every fact I could remember about the crime scene in which I’d watched Jimmy die. I had to be missing something. Nothing could walk through walls, except for ghosts, and even the most malevolent of manifestations that I’d encountered didn’t possess the kind of strength required to inflict significant physical harm.
Someone once said something along the lines of“when you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left, no matter how improbable,must be the truth”. It was one of the Chief’s favorite lines, but whoever had said it couldn’t have been taking the STF’s line of work into account.
So, I thought about what kinds of creature couldn’t inflict the damage I’d seen on the two bodies. The list was huge, so I wrote down the list that could…
By the time I’d finished assembling the list, I’d crossed out several of the options, and what I was left with wasn’t very useful. Angels, Demons, Vampires, Fae, Wizards, a drug enhanced mortal, or even something I’d never come across before.
Of them all, I wasn’t sure if I believed the stories about angels and demons, because of the connection to religions I had a hard time accepting. However, the next three options left me with species that couldn’t teleport, as far as I knew. Unfortunately, the last of the choices only left me with the improbable, so I wrote a list of the things that had made no sense about the crime scene.
Jimmy and his lover had died from massive trauma,but I’d seen nothing that indicate that any weapons had been used. The door had been locked, the ventilation remained undisturbed, and was too narrow for a person to fit through. The windows didn’t open, and even if they had opened, it was still a drop of several floors to street level.
I found myself thinking about some of the classic locked room mysteries I’d read growing up. Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember how the detectives had solved those problems or think of any that had accounted for the existence of the supernatural.
I needed another perspective on the problem, and so I decided to try give myself a visual reminder of the crime scene. It was with tears, and a pain in my heart that I sat down and sketched out the layout of Jimmy’s office. That much at least I didn’t need to think about too much.
But then I had to dig deep, and allow myself to see the devastation, as I tried to mark in the bodies, the locations of the furniture, and all the other things that turned the office into a crime scene.Unfortunately, I was unable to get past the sight of Jimmy as I felt him die.Cooperfield might have been right when she’d told me I was too close to the case.
I sat there for some time, before giving up on my efforts to establish the peculiarities of the crime scene. Maybe all I needed was a shower to wake me up after a very long, and traumatic day.
{END OF SAMPLE}
Drop a note in the comments below, and let me know what you think of this insight into my writing process…
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My New Website Is Coming!
There comes a point in every author’s career where they need to have a website that is entirely theirs to control.
Since I started writing I’ve had my blog hosted here on WordPress, and my website hosted through Weebly. And I’ve been very proud of the work I’ve done on both sites, but keeping a consistent look between the two sites has been difficult.
Even worse, if either site decided to delete my accounts I would lose everything I’d produced.
So now it’s time for a huge change, and that means I’m taking control of everything.
What’s Coming Up?
If you scrolled this far, you’ve seen a glimpse of the current state of development on the website. Here’s a few of the things you can expect to see:
- A dedicated page for each of my books
- A new author profile page
- An author services page
- A new home for my blogging
If you want to get a look at things as they develop over the next few weeks, you can see it at http://timothybatesonauthor.com.
How You Can Help…
- Visit http://timothybatesonauthor.com
- Play around on the site
- Click menu items
- Test buttons
- Check the correct pages come up
- Drop me a note of any problems that you find, or things you liked/disliked in the comments, or by email.
What I’m Offering In Return…
- Once I announce that the site is ready for public use, I’ll draw a lucky winner at random.
- They will receive a full set of my short stories, including:
Timothy Bateson (ramblings of an author) 