Missing The Boat

Two years in storage!

After joining a very interesting site (www.authonomy.com) and trying to get involved in order to pretend to myself I'm doing something worthwhile with regards to getting my book noticed, I found a forum thread that led me to another forum thread, which basically confirmed to me something that an author friend of mine had already alluded to... the free Kindle promotions I've been doing have become worthless.

Well, not worthless. I still get the occasional review of them (or maybe from one of my meagre paid sales that sometimes limp into view like an asthmatic greyhound), but the surge of sales I had after my first promo in the summer will most likely never be repeated.

It seems that self published books are now not showing up on as many 'customers also bought' feeds after they have been bought for free (or maybe actually bought too!). Apparently 2010 and 2011 were the years for doing the promo, with big dollar flying about post promo.

The Binary Man was finished in March 2010. I could have had two years of joy if I'd just grabbed that brass ring, and peed into the wind.

So it's going to be a long, hard road unless I get published, or promote the heckings out of my books (a painful task which I don't have enough time for if I want to actually write as well).

I think for the moment I'll just keep writing and pretend my other job is a dream... a long, twelve hour a day dream.

Keep Cutting.



 

Keep cutting.

Well after a few weeks away from blogging I thought I'd post a quick update on my progress. The Real Thing was completed on time, meaning I won the Nanowrimo. The draft? Absolutely appalling. I think I will have to slice it to pieces to even make a decent short novella. The one shining light is that it makes sense, despite it's convolutions.

So it's back to more serious fare, the Cuts of Flesh series! The first draft of Sark (the second part) has been sent off to my proof reading horror aficionados, so hopefully it will get a majority thumbs up vote and after a bit of tweaking it will be released onto the unsuspecting public.

Not wanting to rest in between my actual work (which is a mighty task at the moment as I work in retail), I have moved straight on to the third part of the Cuts of Flesh series.

I am really enjoying the character development and atmosphere, it seems very different to everything else I've done (as if it has an eldritch life of its own), but I am finding it increasingly difficult to ensure that the plot is satisfying and most importantly logical, especially when I think ahead to the final part. As I've released the first part and will soon release the second the protagonist's previous activities are set in stone. I can't change anything to accommodate a late conceived plot idea.

I have a small idea for the end but will it still hold merit after all that will go before, many of the details of which I make up as I write, throwing in obstacles and details that seem interesting at the time. It will be a mammoth task to weave all the plot strands together but hopefully an enjoyable one.

My plan is to release a paperback when all six are complete to be on sale alongside the kindle version, hopefully before the end of next year.

Samples of all my books are available to read at my new 'official' website at http://jakeprytherch.wix.com/main



The Real Thing

 

The project is underway!

It's almost the half way mark of November and my attempt at squeezing a first draft in between a new job and a poorly family is proving a formidable challenge (which is why I'm up and writing at four in the morning. Hello again coffee).

The novel is starting to take shape though and is proving to be a spiritual successor to The Binary Man (though hopefully a little less convoluted).

The greatest challenge is forcing myself onwards through the regular cringe inducing bad passages (insert your innuendo here, hard). These are proving to be many and often due to having largely no plot at the outset and essentially throwing in characters and seeing what they end up doing based on the character traits I have given them. This has led to the book becoming some sort of pulp fiction odyssey.

I hadn't intended to write something quite so overblown again and was on the verge of throwing in the towel at the ten thousand word mark, but then I read an interesting pep talk on the nanowrimo webiste (http://www.nanowrimo.org/). The kernal of knowledge that I gleaned from it was 'just keep writing and try to enjoy it. Edit it or kill it later'. It sounds so simple!

So that's what I'm trying to do, push through the chaff (endless), enjoy the wheat (a couple of grains), and simply enjoy the ride...

 

Welcome to Techosaka.

The city came into view slowly, colossal towers punctuated with red and green luminescent pinpoints, bursting out of the suburban sprawl like fingers clawing at the night sky and grasping for the barely visible stars...

The impossible quest

Today I start my attempt at writing 50,000 words in November for National Novel Writing Month. This will be next to impossible but nothing was ever done without trying! It will tentatively be named "The Real Thing", and I will post more details as soon as I get a decent amount done!

 



Whinge

Heal The Sick, Raise The Dead is currently free on kindle from amazon! Check out your territory's site now!

 

It's been a while since my last blog post, partly due to pressure of work outside of writing (this is still officially a hobby for me unfortunately) and partly because despondency has crept thoughout my brain at the whole process. I won't go into details as it would be whinging of the highest order as I knew that this would be an uphill struggle (taking years) from the start, but I was hoping I'd have a little more to show for my efforts than I do at the moment.

 

I have had a lot of support with my writing from family, friends and readers and I feel I'm letting them down now when I get to the computer to write and the stress of work or family crushes all sense of narrative structure. I end up writing absolute junk just to try and get some words down, trying to force my mind to pull something worthwhile from the mess in my mind, which then makes me more depressed on the read back.

 

Coffee has to go, I know that. I need more sleep too but I've just signed up for NaNoWriMo so that's going to be a tall order.

 

On the plus side I had a delightfully creepy dream the other night that I'm writing into a short story. It's another biscuit jammed into my already crammed barrel of a life but it's at least gettting the mind working again. I'll post it on the blog as soon as it's finished. 

Heal The Sick, Raise The Dead promo video from Hoax

Here it is, enjoy!



https://vimeo.com/51385034

Words and blogs.

Well, The blog has been up for the best part of two months (I think, I can't be bothered to check), and I've tried to be quite regular in my updating, but it's very hard to keep to. This is not particularly due to time constraints (my early morning writing sessions are becoming quite a habit, though getting up at half four is a lot less fun now it is so very dark), but more to do with the fact that I fear that I will have nothing interesting to say. I have a lot less issue with people reading my fiction than actually having to describe it. Writing a synopsis for the Harper Voyager submission was an acute torture and I felt embarressed with every word. My greatest worry is appearing childish. Are my ideas juvenile for my age? The Dr Who poster I have put up in my makeshift study could suggest that... but I like to think I have a reasonable maturity in most areas of my life. I've recently had a look around some others blogs and seen people younger than me wrapping words into meanings that I would never think of, clearly fans of literary fiction. I remember being bamboozled by such books at university, trying hard to find some sort of enjoyment in them. I can see the skill certainly, but the books I have enjoyed the most have strong and interesting ideas well conveyed. I will just have to hope that my writing style develops over the years to such a level where I can convey some good ideas in a fairly skillful way.
No Hundred Years of Solitude here!