Here's Hoping For A Better New Year

Hi Guys,

Running a little behind schedule with my writing at the moment - as usual! But once again I have an excuse!!!

 

In my case it began with a boil or a pimple on my back, somewhere about the middle of December. No big deal you'd think - except that it itched abominably and was right between my shoulder blades which drove me a little crazy. So for the next week or so I was imitating my cats, and rubbing myself like crazy against door posts.  But I live alone and the cats didn't say anything, so so what?!

Then whatever it was on my back became infected. So I trundled off to the Doc's and got some antibiotics as you do and for a time I thought everything was coming right. Until it wasn't Somewhere around the start of the New Year the antibiotics ran out and I just started getting sicker and sicker. We're talking major fever and incredible pain as if someone had a fist full of broken glass in my back and was squeezing. Which finally resulted in my calling for an ambulance in the middle of the night.

Roll on from there and I got to spend a few nights in the ED while they cut out a couple of absesses out of my back, one of which was the size of a golf ball, and then got to enjoy uncomfortable hospital beds for the rest of the week - though the food was fantastic!

 

After that they sent me home with a cyborg bandage - I'm not kidding! The damned thing is a bandage that the district nurses keep applying to my back every few days and which comes with its own suction pump that I have to carry everywhere. And every few days they cart away another cup full of ooze from my back. They tell me they'll be doing this for the next two months! Meanwhile I'm utterly exhausted, my back both itches and aches constantly, and it has become very hard to think about anything for more than a couple of seconds. Hence the reason I'm so far behind in my writing. And the nurses keep taking photos of my back! They say it looks a little like a bullet wound!

All because of a boil!

I"m not sure what the lesson here is. Don't scratch? Always keep your door posts nice and sterile? Maybe just that I'm getting older and more prone to these sorts of things? And it's more dangerous in the height of summer when you're sweating constantly? Or perhaps that I'm just a natural living pus factory!

Anyway, the upshot is that I haven't done any writing or editing for about a month. But the good news is that Gorgon's Run has still been through three complete edits, and I'm hoping as I start to find a little more energy, that I'll be able to do the final pass through before the end of the month and publish it. There's always hope!

So that's been the end of 2021 and the start 0f 2022 for me. Not the best of times really. But I suppose I've lost a little weight which is always good. I hope all of you have had better starts to the year and with a little luck, my next post will be to tell you that Gorgon's Run is out and Farry is nearly ready to start going through editing.

So cheers and a Happy new year to you all.

Cheers, Greg.

Gorgon's Run

Hi Guys,

Thought I'd just drop you a note to let you know that the next book is in process. The first draft is done and currently I'm busy revising it. The books called Gorgon's Run, and it's an urban fantasy, a little like the Wizard at Law series. (But possibly a bit darker in tone)) Hope fully it should be out in December, well before Christmas! It's also a little different in that the main hero is actually a gorgon! (And a police officer) The artwork for the cover camer from 123RF as a lot of my stuff does these days. But just to show you how I modified it, here's the original image I purchased.

And by the way - the monster may not actually be the villain of the piece. He may just be a lonely old sea monster looking for love!!! Aren't we all?!


Cheers, Greg

Who? is out!

Hi Guys, 

 

 

 Well this has got to be something of a record for me - two posts in two weeks! But also two books! But having said that I'm extremely happy to have got both books done - and extremely tired! (It also may be a while before the next book comes out, as I was devoting all my efforts to these two books and everything else is a way off.)

Who is a science fantasy novel set in the near future when global warming is starting to dictate the will of the world, and when exotics - vampires, werewolves and other odd people - have been exposed. When their exposure has required a formation of a specialized world wide policing initiative - the Exotic Protection Service or Dog Squad. And where my main protagonist is actually something completely new (or old) a skin walker.

I had a lot of fun writing it and I hope you'll have a lot of fun reading it.

It's actually been good to get back into just solid writing and putting away the troubles of the world for a bit, and I think that maybe one of the best things about writing. Though I worry that the time is coming when I may be unable to continue as my eyesight worsens. It's nothing revolutionary, just a cataract and presbyopia, but I'm utterly opposed to the idea of someone with a scalpel getting anywhere near my eyes! Novartis has a drug for the presbyopia coming out for those who are affected - UNR844 - roughly one seventh of the world's population, but they don't seem to be in a hurry to market it. So the message here is if you are starting to suffer the effects of old man's eye, send them a letter.

In the meantime I'll keep struggling on and I'll wish all of you the best.

Cheers, Greg.

Prince Of Stars

Hi Guys,

Ok, still behind in my posting unfortunately. Still dealing with a lot of personal stuff I'm afraid. But that's life I suppose and I'm slowly getting through it. 

Anyway, even if I'm a bit slow in posting, I have still been keeping up with the writing. (At the moment I've been finding it quite therapeutic to just be able to lose myself in my writing - and also in UTube music videos!) And my latest space opera, Prince of Stars has just been pubbed. 

I'm quite pleased with the book. It has a fun element about it and a feel of a seventies style space adventure which will hopefully make for an enjoyable read. Given some of the stuff that's been happening in my own world that was something of a blessing to be able to escape into when I was writing it. And I think the cover, above, is a beaut too. It was one of those images that just seemed to grab my eyes when I first saw it.

And the good news is that I've also completed an urban sci fi called Who? which is now just starting to go through the editing process. It is a somewhat genre bending work set in the 2040's and definitely sci fi but including werewolves, vampires and skin walkers. Hopefully Who should be out in the next month or so.But the cover is as yet a work in progress. It's really hard to find something that fits the lead character who is a gender swapping, shape changer, millionaire recluse living on his own island  - but I'm working on it!

There's also a fantasy in the works - Jax - which starts with the main character's execution - but that's a little way off yet.

Anyway, I hope that that brings you guys a little cheer in these strange days and you're all well etc.

Cheers, Greg.

Writing In a Time of Covid

 Hi Guys,

Another long pause between posts - and between books. The good news is that Modesty is out. And that another book - The Traveller - is now through its first draft and has had two complete revisions and edits. It's a steam punk fantasy book with a main protagonist who can travel between worlds - other fantasy worlds - on a steam powered motor bike of course!

The reasons for the delay are many and varied. But lets just say that 2021 has been a shocker of a year for me. I suppose we're all due one now and again. 

It began with my sister coming to stay with me after becoming unemployed. And while that's no bad thing, it is a shock to the system for someone who's been living alone for so long to suddenly have to share a house with someone - and three cats!

And not long after that the plague arrived! Yeah, maybe it was technically a cold. But I have never had a cold that lasted a month before. Or one that left me coughing so much and so powerfully that it was literally agony to breathe. Or one that wiped all the energy from my system for another month and a half after that.

It wasn't covid, at least I don't think so. But man - it really made me think. If I did catch that damn bug, I definitely wouldn't survive it! Luckily I've now had my first shot and am looking forwards to the second and immunity. Yeah!!!

After that of course 2021 took another unexpected and terrible turn just as I had got back into writing. My mother who was elderly and living in a retirement facility, became ill. And literally the day after I published Modesty I was driving down to Wellington to be by her bedside. She died a couple of days later. And the only thing I can say about that is that even though I knew it was coming, I wasn't prepared for it. I'd guess that nobody ever really is.

Anyway, since then I've been trying to get back to work. It's difficult to concentrate unfortunately, my thoughts keep wandering, but I will return to things in time. And The Traveller will probably be out in a few weeks.

In the meantime, I wish you all the best and hope you're having a better year than I am. Oh, and I cannot stress this enough - get yourselves vaccinated!

Cheers, Greg.

Anomalies

 Hi Guys,

Thought I'd better pull finger and get out a post this year - especially now that my first book is out for 2021.

Anomalies was a struggle to write and in fact I had to rewrite it several times before it reached a stage I was satisfied with. I think that's because it was one of the books that changed along the way. Though in it's case it wasn't the plot or the characters that fought to be something else, it was that the book developed an underlying theme. 

 In essence while you can read Anomalies as a straight forwards and hopefully enjoyable urban sci fi with a few thoughts on genetic engineering etc, it has an underlying theme about identity. Who are we and who do we think we are? And perhaps the most important question of all - who do we choose to be? All the main characters are wrestling with these questions throughout the story - with varying degrees of success. And while most of their issues are related to various forms of genetic engineering carried out upon them, it's still a question that can and probably should be asked by every one of us as we grow and change.

Anyway that's the nature of the book. Here's the blurb and I hope you enjoy it.

ANOMALIES:

Clem Atkins has lived happily on Coast Road in the Coromandel for sixteen years. To his neighbors he is nothing but a beach bum with an annoyingly loud car and a terrible wardrobe. They have no idea he escaped from a genetics lab as a child.

 

His neighbors also have no idea that the drug rehabilitation facility known as the Sanctuary, just a few k's down the road, is an alien base. And they would never suspect that Callie who peddles her way up and down the road every week to sell the Sanctuary's produce, is a surgically and genetically altered woman from another world.

 

And then there's Maggie, who only knows that she was built to be a spy, and she doesn't want to do that anymore. But there is no walking away from her life for those like her. And she doesn't know how to escape.

 

But when the navy shows up one day and starts bombing the Sanctuary the time for not knowing has to pass. It's time to start asking questions – and hope that the answers don't kill them all.

 

Cheers, Greg.

 

Lessons From French Class!

 Hi Guys,

Just realised that it's been a while since I posted. There's a reason for that - just not a good one! But yes I have been writing - a lot. Sadly only some of the time on Chy. But the good news is that I'm now in the last leg of that book and hope to have it out by the end of the year (yes this one!).

Anyway I thought I'd give you something to enjoy for Christmas. A true anecdote from my unfortunate past as a student. And yes there is a reason I chose that particular cartoon as a header. It seems so appropriate to me when I look back on my life!

Anyway they say that every good story should have a prologue, just as every good character should have a back story. I believe it applies to authors too. So here's one of mine.

 So a long time ago - more years than I care to admit to - or remember - I had to study French for school. And I was a terrible student of French. But really, if I can't spell in English or punctuate, what would have ever made them think I could do it in French?!

Anyway I was terrible at French. And come the end of the fourth form after two long years of complete failure and abject humiliation, the French master - a man we knew as Rubber Lips Anderson - had to finally admit defeat with me. But there were still tests to do. And so one day as he was preparing the class for one of them he decided to throw me an easy question. You know one of those most basic of questions just so he could satisfy himself that I'd actually learned something.

So he asked me in front of the whole class: "Curtis, when do you say "Si" in French?"

Naturally after two long years of study and having a huge encyclopedia of French vocab in my head (Not!) I knew it would be in there somewhere. And I searched desperately for the word. But it just wasn't there. I promise you though - I really did try. So in the end, knowing that another humiliating defeat was in store for me, and sweating just a little, I finally found an answer. The only answer I could think of.

I told him, "When you're speaking Spanish Sir?"

That day while my fellow students were falling all about themselves, laughing, I learned two very important life lessons.

The first was simple. That "Si" in French means "if". So I guess old Rubber Lips did actually teach me something. He should be proud.

The second was more in the nature of practical mathematics. Never sit at a desk within one metre of the Master's desk when he has a metre rule! My ear still hurts from the memory of having that wicked instrument of education wrapped around it!

Anyway I hope that brings you all some cheer for the holidays, and explains why my next book - "Practical Everyday French" - may be a little way off!

Merry Christmas all, and keep safe.

Cheers, Greg.