Blowing Your Socks Off

Image: John Lund

I’ve made a slight amendment to my GDR work plan for this month. My fault, because I forgot to take into account something vital that I would have to complete by the end of the month in order for November to kick off to a good start.

After a year off, I’ve signed up for NaNoWriMo again—that’s National Novel Writing Month for those who do not know, and it starts on November 1st.

It’s been two years. I took last year off because it didn’t fit in with my annual plan and I needed time away from it. But now it fits perfectly into what I’m trying to achieve this year and I’ve missed the buzz, the excitement of it all and the intensity that writing a novel in a month generates.

So I’ve changed the following line:

* Start work on 2nd draft of BACCARA BURNING

To this:

* Complete 2nd draft rewrite of BACCARA BURNING
* Work out main plot points of NaNoWriMo novel

So, what will my novel be, I’m sure you’re asking? Way back, and I mean way back in time when I first began writing, I conceived a novel about a group of friends living in Glasgow who all get caught up in the murder of a young woman. It was called A FRIEND TO DIE FOR, and although it remained unfinished (I wrote several unfinished drafts between 2003 and 2005) I thought it was a damn good idea for a crime novel. The reason I kept stopping was because I didn’t know how to write it; it was written from multiple points of view and to be honest, I just didn’t have the skills to do it.

Now I do. I’m confident I can complete the full novel and do a good job on it. I’ve not looked at what I wrote back then and I’m not going to—the writing will be trash and I don’t want it to influence me—but the plot is more or less still in my head and with a bit of freshening up, I’m going to use it.

The first step then is to roughly plot out the main points I need to hit through the story. I’m charged to start writing it and I’m really looking forward to meeting the characters once more. November is going to be a blast; I can’t wait for those 5am starts so I can get 2000 words in before work!

The next piece of news will blow your socks off: issue 13 of the Ranfurly Review is almost good to go. I have, two months in advance of publication, prepared and edited the full layout of the magazine including the front cover! All that remains is the editorial, which I shall write nearer the time. I’m now in a position I can do the same for issue 14, not due out until next March, because I already have all the contributors lined up for it. As the big man, Mr. J. Brown, once said: Woooaaah! It feels good!

I had an egg sandwich for my dinner last night. I’m only mentioning it because it was the best fried egg I’ve made in quite a while; perfectly strong to hold the yolk, but when it burst, the flow and colour of the yellow liquid delight was to perfection.

I posted a write-up for last week’s Fun Lovin’ Criminals gig over at my sister site, Man in the East. It never made it into News of the World but tenacity is my fortitude.

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Until tomorrow, ciao!