The ending of Guardians of Paradise is currently doing that irritating thing where the closer you get, the further away it appears to actually be, rather like in a bad dream. I spent yesterday finishing what I thought was the penultimate chapter. So far I’ve spent today re-writing it and have now concluded that it […]
Inveterate blagger that I am, I’ve just managed to get myself added to the bill at Forbidden Planet’s SF signing spectacular next Thursday (22nd), from 5pm to 7pm in the Shaftsbury Avenue store. Already appearing are: Joe Abercrombie Alex Bell Mark Chadbourn David Devereux Jon Courtenay Grimwood Tom Lloyd Suzanne McLeod Steven Savile James Swallow […]
As anyone who’s seriously had a go at it will tell you, writing is an iterative process. The first draft is just the start. It will be revised, often many times, sometimes so many that the words you end up with bear very little resemblance to the words you originally wrote. What I hadn’t realised […]
Back from The Village now: cold and liver-damaged but happy. Our cottage was distinctly chilly (we left the oven on to heat the kitchen most evenings) but it had the best view evah: most mornings I lay in bed and watched the sun rise over the hills on the far side of the partially ice-bound […]
The first draft of ‘Guardians’ is up to 79,000 words now – I expect it’ll come in around 90 to 95K in the end. The next couple of chapters are planned in some detail, though the big coming-together-with running-around-and-potential-violence is still somewhat vague, as is the fall-out afterwards. And now, a few days off while […]
I’ve now worked out enough of the run-up to the denouement of Guardians of Paradise to know who’s doing what to whom, and when and where they’re doing it. I still have only the vaguest idea what will happen when all this set-up pays off and we get to the big confrontation and subsequent fall-out, […]
This may seem odd, but my writing currently bears an odd resemblance to travelling on public transport. I’d better explain: A couple of weeks back, when I had to abandon Guardians of Paradise in favour of deadline-driven stuff like editing and proofreading, I was having problems with two out of my four viewpoint characters being […]
I’ve now returned the edited ms of Consorts of Heaven to my editor. I found a number of further typos, most of them minor, but one letter can make all the difference: for example, butter is made in a dairy, not a diary. In case these references are giving the impression I’m writing fantasy, I […]
Most of the way through the final re-read of Consorts of Heaven after the final changes, and I’m mildly concerned. As with the proofreading of Principles, I’m finding more wrong than I should, and I know there’s no safety-net: this version of Consorts has been copy-edited, and though it should be professionally proofread before going […]
I’ve now completed and returned the page proofs for the mass-market paperback of Principles of Angels. There weren’t many changes: really, given that the text had already been proofread by myself for the trade paperback (and presumably also by a professional proofreader), there shouldn’t have been any, but I suspect stuff will always get through. […]