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12 Books in 12 Months

writing books and blogging about it

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Edinburgh

Writing Science Fiction

You probably know the drill by now, dear reader.  It is the first of the month, so I am discarding book 7 like an old belt with no buckle and beginning afresh on book 8, my Sci-Fi opus.

I was provocatively poor at science in school, sitting Standard Grade Physics and Chemistry for no real reason that I can recall (I think most of my friends were doing it) and wishing later that I’d done Biology instead because at that level it seemed to involve a lot of writing, something I am good at, as opposed to learning equations, something I am bad at.  For this reason you will not be getting a hard sci fi book out of me, because any attempts to be technical will be about as convincing as John Yates in front of the Select Committee.  Furthermore I have the eternal lack of research problem, which always makes avoiding cliches a challenge.  Still, I haven’t let it stop me any other month and I shall persevere this time too. Continue reading “Writing Science Fiction”

Royal Wedding #2

Today in Edinburgh (my place of residence since June 2008) there is a totally exciting royal wedding.  That horse riding royal one is marrying a rugby player (who may also ride horses, I don’t really know).

According to my sources (Twitter) a group of people from the Highlands have been camping near Canongate Kirk since 2pm yesterday in order to catch a glimpse of the happy couple.  The wedding is at 3pm today.  For my part, I am sitting in the flat listening to Andrew Collins and Josie Long on BBC Radio 6 Music, eating cold pizza and trying to work out a realistic word count target that I can reach before midnight tomorrow.  When the bell tolls 3, meanwhile, I’ll likely be on my way to Perthshire.  Different strokes for different folks.

Continue reading “Royal Wedding #2”

Banana Me Beautiful

Emily in action

Last night I went to a book launch, the first I’ve ever attended (although hopefully not the last, or this blog is a smidge redundant).

The book was Banana Me Beautiful, the author is Renaissance woman* Emily Dodd, and you can buy it off the internet for a fiver, most of which goes towards supporting mental health charities.  It’s only available in eBook format just now, with the paperback version coming out in about six months, and it contains art and poetry.

Now, until a few years ago I was the sort of person – along with an awful lot of The Great British Public – who claimed I was ‘not that into poetry’.

Continue reading “Banana Me Beautiful”

Book Seven

This weekend, I have mostly been playing in the sunshine – as I’m sure you have too if you’ve got any sense.  Was this conducive to writing book seven?  Of course not.  But our flat is one of those Edinburgh specials; ice-on-the-inside-of-the-window-cold during winter and bone-meltingly-sauna-like as soon as there’s a hint of sunshine, so I doubt I’d have done any more if I’d remained indoors.  Sweat in places I didn’t know I had, perhaps.

Continue reading “Book Seven”

A Progress Report

Today being the 27th of the month, I am remarkably close to the half way point of the whole 12 books in 12 months fiasco (unless you count book 13, I suppose, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves).

Unfortunately this happens to be the point where progress has slowed down an embarrassing amount.  I ought to be basically done with book six by now, yet I’ve only written about 10,000 words.  Almost all of which is background and characterisation that I foresee myself editing down to maybe a few paragraphs in the final book.  It’s the type of stuff that it makes sense to know as an author, but probably feels a bit long winded and boring to the reader.  Pottermore, rather than the material a gripping plot is crafted from.

Continue reading “A Progress Report”

Leith FM Interview

As promised, here is a link to my interview with Simon Fielding on Leith FM from last Friday.  It’s about 40 minutes long and is completely fascinating, so I urge you to make the time.  Unfortunately the last part (FAQs) is missing, but you’ll get the gist.

http://soundcloud.com/periwinklewine/leithfm

In other news, I’m still looking for stories from hacks, so if you want to help me out with book 6 leave a comment here or on facebook, or email ali.george85@yahoo.com.

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