10% Longer

Made it to 55,000 at the weekend. I'm glad my plot is not going to plan, this is a far more interesting and natural progression. I may make it to 65K before collapsing and then I'm sure I can come up with another 5K through revision. 70,000 is the magic number, 4/5 of the way there!

Lacuna

...and I saw Angels shooting up on Orichalcum in alleyways...

Barista

Now will I regret doing this more than not doing this?

There is a brunette Barista in the Starbucks on Charing Cross, Glasgow, she looks a lot like a healthier PJ Harvey. If you happen to pass by and see her in there, ask her if she'll change her rules on dating customers then point her in my direction.

50,000 Reasons

Finally reached 50,000 words last night, this feels like a significant achievement for me. Its the level the write-a-book-in-a-month people have as their cut-off and I think it is the length typically assigned to the 'novella'. My next aim is for 60,000, but I am beginning to fear either the story or my writing style won't carry me that far.

Completion Pts 1 and 2

The holiday finally brought me round to reading through Enoch's Vault and making some changes. These are all done and essentially that is now finished. Except it still only clocked in at about 45,000 words. So hopefully Part 3 will conclude the story more satisfyingly while exploring a bit more of the ideas planted in the first two parts.

Scroll Fragments

These are two pieces of dialog, I think the first will go into Enoch's Vault, the other I don't know, but they were floating round my head and had to go somewhere:

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That's seems like a waste using the Name for that, why didn't you just ask God for his secrets?

God never speaks to anyone directly. It is thought even Moses only spoke to Metatron - the translated Enoch by coincidence. Angel comes from the Greek for messenger, if I want to learn God's secrets best to talk to those who know them and are willing to tell.

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You may have forgotton, or perhaps never knew in the first place come to think of it, that I can be quite charming when I'm interested in someone. My charm is like an atomic reaction, I'm radiant and aglow, captivating like a Holocaust truck bearing down on a myxo bunny. Occaisionally my charms have been known to be resisted but it's possible that some people get irradiated themselves in the afterglow. They may not be so able to resist. And that's basically how we met.

Write On

The reading went well last night. I was the third person up and nervous as hell. I think this helped my performance as I became totally hyped up and started chanelling the poor kid in my story. I was surprised (and grateful) for the support from the Edinburgh writers who came over to say that they'd enjoyed it. One had brought along her elderly mum, but depite the subject matter she seems to have taken it in good spirit, no need for a content warning yet ;-)

I'm now looking forward to doing more maybe we'll visit Writer's Bloc first or maybe begin our own home-grown solo effort as we managed a healthy and break-even audience on little budget and slight advertising. Thanks again to Phil and Neil for the planning and organising.

See you next time.

Write Off

I will be reading a short story written specially for the first annual Write Off. The event comprises writers from Edinburgh's Writer's Bloc and Glasgow's Way Out West (or the GSFWC) it is being held in the basement of Blackfriar's pub in the Merchant City on Tuesday the 7th December from 8pm. Entry is £2.

It should be a good evening, so come one come all to the premiere of 'The 23rd Nail'

That which is not dead, yet can eternal lie...

I thought Enoch's Vault was essentially finished. I was wrong.

I'm doing my editing and taking notes on changing it, but more of it has clawed its way up and is itching the inside of my head. It feels like a sore tooth that you play with, it hurts but its good too.

So I guess the second book will now more likely be part 3 of the original. At least that should get the word count up to something more acceptable to publishers.

Looking Ahead

My immediate work will be to complete the story begun in Enoch's Vault. I'm not sure of a name yet but Azazel's Hammer sounds good.

The next book is shaping up to centre on a group of homeless street kids and explore their mythology as they get caught up in discovering Glasgow's origins as a temple of the moon.

Enoch's Vault

Let me explain the story of Enoch's Vault.

Consultant Detective Alex McEwan finds the Sigil Slayer serial killer he has been hunting to have been killed by his own M.O. He learns Kate Harlow, an old love, is in danger from this new murderer and aided by sinister members of Scotland's occult underground he solves an ancient mystery to find her. He discovers he must prevent the fallen angels who fathered the monstrous Nephilim from returning to earth from the Abyss and avert Armageddon. But Kate claims she has become a Nephilim too.

Finished!

I have completed the second raw version of my first novel, Enoch's Vault. It is short of 50,000 words, so maybe a tough sell but I'm hoping that reading and re-drafting will expand on that. I like the body of the story, I'm not happy with the start and the end though.