Weekly pics--round 1

I've decided to post photos regularly here--once a week, probably on Fridays. They won't be big (big ones will waste bandwidth), but they'll be big enough to give you a fair idea of what my little realm is like. I've got a huge collection, so it'll take a while to get through them all.

Firstly, a picture of Tunstall Forest in the snow. This one was taken during the heavy snowfall last winter.



Secondly, the beechwood near Chillesford. This is one of my all-time favourite photos (I had it on my desktop for months).



All photos copyright (C) James Roddie 2002 (that's right, my brother's the digital photography guy. I don't seem to have the knack.)

Testing, testing ...

It's just occurred to me that it's perfectly possible to post images in the sidebar, using the template, so what's to stop me from doing it here? I've pasted the code for the 'AR' logo directly from the sidebar. Trial run will commence in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

Out of the block!

I told you I'd beat it, and I did. Three days of zero writing can do wonders when you're working at NaNo speed seven days a week. I wrote just over a thousand words yesterday, which is worse than usual, but better than nothing.

I hope to be back at my usual rate by tomorrow at the latest, and as I'm literally in the last chapter (with the exception of the pseudo-epilogue), I should be finished in just under a week. Then I'll get my first lot of revision done and pray it all hangs together.

What other exciting things have happened? Oh yes, the snow. We don't usually get much here, but I measured a total of about two inches during the course of today and yesterday (not all at once; some of it melted). The forest is almost hauntingly beautiful in the snow; the birch thickets and larch groves give it an almost alpine serenity, and even the uniform plantations of Corsican Pine take on a magical radiance. We don't get enough snow here. Winter seems to be in the blood of the English. Snow also helps to highlight the sheer ancientness of the landscape of the Sandlings--humans have lived here for a hundred thousand years, since the tail end of the last Ice Age. I have found flint tools made by Neanderthals; even the comparatively common Mesolithic and early Neolithic flints are pretty ancient by any standard. What's the saying? 'To an American, a hundred years is a long time, but to an Englishman, a hundred miles is a long way.' *grins* The Sandlings is an incredibly ancient realm, and yet it's such a small place; I can walk to the far western borders of the area in only a few hours.

I'm itching to post photographs here; I wish I had a Blogger Pro account. Maybe I'll invest in one sometime.

Slow going

Not much done on Cold Witness this weekend. I think I've worked out the plot for my final chapter (so close!), but I just can't seem to get myself to write it. I think I've entered another mini-block period again; my writing time seems to be overtaken with endless sessions of procrastination.

The problem is this: how to tie up all the remaining subplots. I have a number of threads that have yet to be fully resolved, and I'm finding it difficult to work out how I can bring them all together. I refuse to be drawn into a situation where Major Wheatley, knowing his victims won't survive, decides to tell Foyle and the others about everything he's been doing. It's cliched. You know; 'You're not going to live to tell the tale, so there's no harm in telling you all how I carried out my dastardly plan.' Not only is it cliched, it also qualifies as exposition, and that's something I want to avoid. So how do I reveal these elements to Foyle and the others in a dramatic, Show-Don't-Tell-type way?

In an attempt to solve the problem, I've started reading through the bulk of the book to pick up all the details of the previous subplots I have yet to resolve. Although it's cut into my writing time, it's been a very valuable experience; I've discovered that the whole subplot connected with the Bentwaters/Woodbridge complex and the UFOs doesn't seem to have any bearing on the overall plot. As things stand, it's a loose end, so I have to find a way of integrating this into the climax as well. How am I going to do that? I've only got 30-35 pages in this chapter!

I'll get over this mini-block. When I get stuck, a few days of rest always helps. It's been fun reading through Cold Witness, too; despite a few inconsistencies, it's a good story to read. I'm thankful that I've had strong characters to help me through the hard parts. I can't claim all the credit: Colonel Foyle, Christina, Johnny, Doctor Morgan and the rest of them have written most of the story. They've been great people to work with, and I'll miss them. But writing must go on!

I'm starting to look ahead. Beyond Cold Witness lies part II of The Twilight Trilogy, and although I feel that PCW is my best work to date, I really want to be back in the world of Rhys, Cathany and Hadrin. One can only take so much of the cold and dark of Orfordness before you start wanting a change of scenery. It's winter in the Inner Lands at the moment, so when I get back there I should be treated to some stunning mountain views. See you there! :)

System upgrade

Aha! What's this nice shiny package that's just come through the post? What's this brushed-metal 'X' symbol about seven inches high sitting smugly amidst his field of black? It's the boxed edition of Mac OS X 10.3: Panther!
Didn't get any writing done last night; I was configuring my new operating system. Mac OS 10.3 is so much better than 10.2 (codenamed 'Jaguar'). The metal Finder windows look a bit ... off ... to begin with, but it's faster, and it doesn't crash. I think I had a problem with my system before, because the machine would crash every time I plugged anything into the USB ports. But now, it works like a dream. TextEdit looks naff, though. They changed from the nice square buttons in 10.2 back to the silly rounded-edged ones featuring in TextEdit from Mac OS 10.1. I think I can live with that, though.

Hehe. At this rate, Kate's going to have finished her rewrites of Revival before I even finish the first draft of Cold Witness. She's roaring ahead, but I'm sort of, well, stuck. The problem is that I never fully outlined the last two chapters, so I'm having to make them up as I go along. I know I have to tie in all the subplots and make a nice, rounded ending, but I'm having problems working out how. Well, it'll come to me in time. Let's just hope it doesn't take too much time.

And the exams are over until June!

I just got out of the dreaded 2515 exam. It's one of those exams where you get a sheet full of nebulous questions like 'Modern mobile phones have video capabilities. Discuss. [12 marks]'. I mean, how are we meant to spend 12 marks (that's about 600 words) on that? Apart from anything else, we're given so little information. 'Discuss video phones.' Yeah, great. They always leave the really ambiguous questions until last. You're in the last fifteen minutes of the exam, you think you've got everything pretty much sorted, and ... WHAM! Jesus Christ, what the hell is that?! Another Question From Hell come to eat me. *grr* I believe I've ranted about the evil OCR exam board in here before. They're one of the most rant-worthy institutions in Great Britain (and we've got the Labour Government in charge, so that's quite something :) ).

Anyway, most of the exam was reasonable. Well, comparatively reasonable. Again, nothing I actually revised came up in the exam, but I guess I should learn to expect that from OCR. Actually, it's probably the evil gods of Luck and Chance again. They're always against me. Guess I'll go eat worms.

:)

Seriously, the luck you both sent me helped. Instead of going into the exam thinking I was in trouble, I went in there thinking that maybe I could beat it. And you know what? Despite the evil 12-mark question at the end, I think I did. Yay!

Exam done--and I survived

Well, it didn't turn out too bad. As usual, none of the stuff I'd spent my really intensive revision on came up, but that's just life (or is it Murphy's law?). Anyway, I screwed up on the stereoisomerism section. We were specifically told that we couldn't expect to be tested on how stereoisomerism affects the action of medicines--and yet about a fifth of the exam was on just that. How am I supposed to know how the shape of 2-methylhydroxyaminopropanoic acid (or whatever) affects treatment of HIV?! I know the basics of stereoisomerism, but we passed through the 'How Chemists Design Molecules' section in about one lesson. Oh well. I gave it a pretty good shot, and by and large I think I did okay. Some of the questions were really easy, like the bits on condensation polymerisation and dipeptides. I always get those bits right.

Anyway, time for an update on Cold Witness. I passed the 100,000th word last night, which was pretty awsome. The Rendlesham Incident is over ... but THREATS AND LIES is about to begin. I've got to the point where the NSA quit messing around and start acting like the Gestapo. *grins* My MCs aren't going to like this very much.

I reckon I've got two big chapters to go (at about 5K each) plus maybe a final, ultra-small one. It'll be kind of like an epilogue, just ... well, not called an epilogue. I'm thinking of having Major Wheatley escape from the facility during NIGHT TERRORS, only to have him come back later on to do more damage. If I can nicely tie it in with some of the subplots from the beginning of the book, it should make quite a powerful ending.

Okay, back to my revision. I've got my final exam tomorrow: 2515, or 'Applications and Implications of ICT'. *urgh*. Shuddershuddershudder.

Exam in half an hour!


My Chains, Rings and Spectroscopy (Organic Chemistry) exam commences in half an hour. I think I've done all the revision I need. Fingers and other appropriate appendages are crossed. Wish me luck! I'll give you an update when it's all over (2 hours from now).

A Macintosh post

Apple's making profits again! They reported a net profit of $63,000,000 last quarter, compared with a net loss of $8,000,000 during the last quarter of 2002. Things are looking up!

I've thought a lot about this subject. I know it's unlikely, but if Apple ever were to regain market superiority against Microsoft, would the world really be a better place for us Mac users? As things stand, Apple is making outstanding products because it has to keep ahead. Steve Jobs's plan was to 'innovate the way out of the economic downturn' (something like that, anyway). So Macs are now better than they've ever been before. But if Apple were to find itself in the dominant position, with far less powerful competition ... where's the need to push forwards? Look what happened to the Windows world. They hammered Apple, then settled into their role of dominant computing factor on planet Earth. And now ... well, let's face it. Windows boxes are boring. There's hardly any innovation or genuinely good design out there. Thousands of new IBM clones are designed and shipped every year, and they're practically all the same; any attempt to break the trend ends up looking ridiculous.

I like Macs because a high degree of care has been put into their design. Every single part of them has been engineered to be the best it can possibly be. I also have a Windows PC at home (I needed Microsoft Office, and it was actually cheaper to buy an IBM than Office for Mac at the time), and I hate the thing. It's big, beige, and ugly. Lumps of tacky silver plastic have been nailed onto the front to give it a Pro And Space-Age Finish. Still, they have their uses; Microsoft Office is essential for some things, and I don't really mind Windows XP, so long as I don't have to use it as a matter of course. And without the ubiquitous presence of Microsoft, Apple will probably get just as flabby as Microsoft has, and then we'll all be in the lurch. Many Mac users choose Apple not just because they're better, but because they're different, and in a good way.

I just ordered a copy of Mac OS 10.3 for my iBook. It's amazing to think that I've only had the iBook for about five months, and yet it's already out of date. The G3 processor has been dumped in the same trashcan as the 604e, and the 603e before it, and the 68000 processors before that ... yikes. I can actually remember a time when the Macintosh SE30 was a pretty damned good computer (you know, 9" black and white screen, 16 MHz processor, 20 MB hard disk). *lol* And I'm only seventeen years old, too. How time does fly ...

And it's a new personal record!

After a couple of days of zero writing time last week, I put in a phenominal effort on Saturday and managed to write ... (wait for it) ...

5,100 words!

I've beaten my previous record by a hundred words. I usually manage to average about 3,000 per day, but I quickly run out of energy as I reach the 4K point. But on Saturday ... well, it was magic. The story just kept on flowing. I think it's because I've finally reached the point that I've been waiting for; the Rendlesham Incident.

Holton and his team of three have just driven along the East Gate road towards Gate 10. They met Airman Walton at the turnoff (trying to get the busted light-alls to work), and are now continuing along the fire track into the forest. I'm basing the route on the night-hike I conducted a couple of weeks back; most of the pines were knocked over in the hurricane of '87, but the forest looks pretty much the same now as it did in 1980. It was real eerie standing on the edge of the farmer's field at Capel Green, watching the sweep of the Orfordness lighthouse illuminating the horizon.

I'm writing this chapter from the POV of Corporal Johnny Campbell (a fictional character), who's acting as a Lunar liason officer with the USAF security forces. He's kind of the UFO expert. Conflict arises from the fact that Holton doesn't believe in UFOs, and, in his own words, is setting out to 'put this baby to bed once and for all'. (Hey, I think my grasp of the American language is improving, don't you think? :) )

Oh yes, and I saw The Return of the King yesterday, too. It is, in my humble opinion, the best film ever made. Epic doesn't do it justice. You know, I reckon that the amount of fantasy being written this year will rocket worldwide; not only from people trying to cash in on the success of ROTK, but from people truly inspired to write fantasy. It was so gripping I think my body turned itself off for about two hours. My brain had all the fun yesterday evening.
Anyway, it was certainly worth the wait. It's unbelievable how long films take to get to the cinemas out here in the Sandlings. I think it was showing in Ipswich a week or so back, but I didn't feel like travelling ten miles to see it. We waited until it came to Woodbridge; it doesn't show in Aldeburgh until mid-February. *sighs* The perils of living in a small patch of wilderness surrounded by comparatively sub-urban lands. (Actually, my definition of sub-urbia will probably fit most people's idea of open countryside. Still ... )

A narrow squeak

It's just occurred to me how precarious writing Cold Witness can be. In essence, I'm writing a book about real places and real events. Some of the events that feature strongly in the book are well known the world over (such as the Rendlesham Forest incident and the AN/FPS-95 project). As interest in the Rendlesham case is recently hotting up--due to anticipation over the MoD's scheduled release of their evidence in 2005--how do I know that somebody else hasn't already published a book along almost identical lines? It's possible. In fact, it's statistically likely.

I'm reading the latest book on the Rendlesham case at the moment; You can't tell the people, by Georgina Bruni. In it she ridicules the theory that Cold Witness had anything to do with the Rendlesham case. I don't have a problem with that; I'm interested in this field, but I don't overly care what really happened. However, one sentence struck me cold. It went something like this:

"This area is obviously very attractive to the men from the Ministry, especially those from Air Staff 2A, the MoD's UFO desk. One such man, Nick Pope, who led the UFO desk for some years, has recently written two science fiction books on a similar subject: Operation Thunder Child and Operation Lightning Strike."

Ouch. Bugger. Christ.
Those were the first three words that passed through my head at that point. The next were: what the hell am I going to do about this?

Luckily, Nick Pope's books don't follow the Cold Witness theory. I've looked them up; they're both about how the government would deal with a genuine case of alien invasion. But let me tell you, it scared the willies out of me. I realise that a thousand other writers could be writing about Cold Witness--and because my book is so closely based around real events, who knows how similar it could turn out to be? The saying 'your work will always be original because you're writing it' doesn't apply here. I'm taking real-world stuff and feeding it into the novel, without that much alteration on my part.

I'm starting to get uncomfortable about this. I know that no book is ever wasted; in breaking into a new genre, I've flexed my writing muscles and allowed myself to think along totally new lines (for me, anyway). But what happens if I try to publish it, only to find that there's a dozen books exactly like it on the market?

*Gurgles in excitement*

I'm over 90,000 words! Only a hundred sides left of Cold Witness to write!

It gets better daily. I'm into the chapter "LIVE TARGET" now, which means that Foyle's bosses in the NSA are demanding he use the facility to shoot down an incoming "unknown" ... but it's flying at nearly 20,000 miles per hour, and it's heading right for the Bentwaters/Woodbridge airbase complex. The array's still trashed from the last test fire (due to Major Wheatley's little "modifications"), so Foyle's shouting at his superiors and generally being threatened by the men in black. Lieutenant Colonel Holton (fictional equivalent of Lt. Col. Halt of the USAF) has just reported a UFO sighting in Rendlesham Forest, too. Obviously that's the 'Night One' incident, where Burroughs and Penniston investigate weird lights in the woods.
Foyle's starting to get a really bad feeling about the whole business. It's part of the unspoken lore of Orfordness that UFOs bring disaster and misfortune with them, and as they have now had no less than four UFO sightings in two days, Foyle's beginning to wonder what the hell is going on. The other officers are worried too, especially Wheatley, who is desperately trying to stop Foyle from firing the weapon a third time. He needs it for his own plans, you see, so he doesn't want it totally burnt up by the time he gets his slimy claws in it.

I can't believe I'll be into the chapter "THE RENDLESHAM INCIDENT" within a couple of days. It seems like only a couple of weeks since I was planning that chapter ... hey, it was only a couple of weeks! Wow!
And then ... after the Rendlesham Incident ... we've got "THREATS AND LIES" and "NIGHT TERRORS". NIGHT TERRORS is the ultimate climax of the book, when Wheatley finally begins his nasty little operation (provisionally entitled Operation Endgame). The Ethereal Sword psychotronic weapon will finally be pumped up to its full power, and then ... well, I'm fully expecting some of my characters to die from terror. Let's just hope the MCs manage to survive.

I'm worried about one thing, though: Christina's subplot. I'm swiftly running out of space in the book, and her subplot still hasn't fully been resolved. I'm thinking about her playing a crucial role in NIGHT TERRORS, but she honestly doesn't have what it takes to crawl down into the dark, radioactive bunker and start pressing buttons (especially not with monsters and ghosts attacking her from all sides). I can't really have the last chapter I planned, named "ONLY THE BEGINNING", because it's just too anti-climactic after the high drama of NIGHT TERRORS. I'm also worried about the paramilitary subplot; although they're connected with Wheatley's plans, I'm scared that they won't seem important enough. Maybe I should include them in the climax, too.

*sighs* I remember a time when I would have to think up more stuff to put in the book, just to make it long enough. Now I'm trying to think of ways to stuff all the necessary plot into a 110K-120K package. Oh, for the Bad Old Days ...

High school stuff

Exams: one down, two to go!

2512 went easily enough yesterday. As it was a resit (I did the first pass at it this time last year), most of the stuff was easy; I've been revising for it for six months, so there were no worries there. But a few questions confused the hell out of me. In a 2512 paper, you'd expect to find questions from the 2512 syllabus ... right? Wrong. At least two of the questions were from the 2515 syllabus, and one was from a module I haven't even done yet. Luckily I'm studying 2515 in ICT right now, so it wasn't too much of a problem. But the question about Virtual LANs (whatever the hell they are) really caught me out. You should have heard all the Lower Sixth (ie. non-retake people) ranting about it afterwards. They haven't done any of the 2515 course yet, obviously, so they could only guess at about 20% of the questions. *grr*. One of these days, the almighty OCR exam board is going to get what it deserves (and hopefully in the orifice it deserves it in, too :) ).

On a lighter note, I got the marks back from my first D&T coursework module (that's the Designing half of the coursework). I'm designing a special keyboard stand to help relieve RSI symptoms, with built in light-sensitive Superbright LED array keyboard lighting *pauses to breath*. Anyway, Mr. Chapman (a really great teacher) gave me 75 out of 90, which is nicely into the A-grade range. I actually think I'm improving all-round at school right now; my grades are steadily increasing in Organic Chemistry, always a subject that I've found difficult. I'm really glad I got good marks for this piece of D&T coursework, though; it's taken me about six months to do, and I've included some of my finest CAD models in the folder. I always prefer CAD to hand drawings. I also added the sum of all my electronic knowledge, gleaned from my GCSE Electronics course (the one where we had a P.E teacher who knew more about footballs than he did about resistors. I ended up teaching most of the classes. No kidding). Potential divider resistor networks are always great fun.

So, two exams to go. Next Wednesday: C,R+S (Organic Chemistry). Next Thursday: 2515 (the second ICT module). Wish me luck!

Oh damn

It would appear that some of the theories surrounding the Rendlesham/Bentwaters UFO case have changed somewhat over the past couple of years. My sources for Cold Witness largely come from a book published three years ago, but since then, new evidence has come to light. Apparently, the satellite that came down on Christmas night, 1980, was not in fact the Cosmos 749; it was the upper stage of the Cosmos 3M launch vessel. That changes things somewhat, but I think I can work it into the book.
Also, some of the original witnesses now admit that they may, in fact, have been chasing the beam of the Orfordness lighthouse through the woods. Having visited the site at night, I find that extremely hard to believe. Nobody in their right mind could possibly mistake the sweep of the lighthouse for a goddamn UFO. For one thing it's much too high, on the eastern horizon (Halt's tape said the unknown seemed to be a couple of feet above ground level). Secondly, it looks ordinary. It doesn't look the slightest bit weird.
And what about the RADIATION READINGS?! Ten times above normal. I hardly think a lighthouse could have caused that.

I don't really suppose it matters. Cold Witness, as a novel, is meant to be a work of fiction. I never intended it to act as a mirror to the actual events; rather, it's my impression of them. It's a fictional exploration of the mystery of Orfordness. If it gets published, though, the UFO community are going to do their best to tear me to pieces and throw me to the lions. They don't like people who offer "alternative explanations". So long as I get my basic facts right, though, I should be in the clear.

I just hope the witnesses don't decide to hunt me down and lynch me. I've changed all their names, of course, but still ...

Newsflash

Two more prisoners have escaped from Hollesley Bay prison. The helicopters are still searching the forests from last time! Once more, I ask the universe: when is it going to end?

Brown Bear Picnic

I'm finally into the climax of Cold Witness. The chapter entitled BEAR TRAP has come up and clobbered me on the ear, way before I'm ready for it.
This is the point where the borders between fact and fiction become very indistinct. Almost everything that happens in this chapter is based directly on real events--the crazy stuff that happened over Christmas 1980. There really was a meteor shower, and the Cosmos 749 satellite (a.k.a "Brown Bear") really did change course suddenly during re-entry and break up over East Anglia. I've got to the point where I'm having to check and re-check my research data, comparing it with the stuff I'm writing. I've even got the exact re-entry bearing of the satellite built into the dialogue (example):

Foyle scratched his head. 'What's the current target bearing, Doctor?'
Doctor Morgan checked his monitor. '74 degrees, 19 degrees off the horizon. Orbit is degrading at a rate of one degree every thirty seconds. It'll be out of range in seven minutes, sir.'

Right now, I'm spending as much time researching as I am writing; the perils of writing a book based so closely on reality. I'm not too worried, though. I actually think it gives the story a great feeling of depth.

(Oh yes, and more fun stuff follows. Doctor Morgan's radar telemetry indicates that Cosmos 749 has entirely burned up--well, almost entirely. The nuclear motor is heading directly towards Orfordness, and with the bunker under three foot of water and badly irradiated, they've got nowhere to hide. Yay! More yummy conflict!)

Plot eccentricities

I always knew Cold Witness would be something different, but right now it's hitting home just how different it really is. I've come to the start of the climax section--in this case, the last 175 pages of the book, where all the subplots come together and the elusive answer is revealed. My next chapter (labelled SECOND ENCOUNTER) was initially supposed to be a UFO sighting. Lunar Squadron gets out there onto the marshes with all their kit, and Lt. Brown gets to nuke alien spaceships with his DEMP-3 gun (which really makes his day). It was meant to be fairly intense; a view into a world parallel to and yet beyond our own.
But. (There's always one, isn't there?) As the chapter title suggests, there has already been an "encounter" before this--First Encounter, the third chapter of the book. That's when our little friends come to say hi for the first time. And I've also got a kind of third encounter planned; the world-famous Rendlesham/Bentwaters Incident, where USAF SPs and Lunar personnel from Cold Witness investigate a crashed UFO in Rendlesham Forest. This Rendlesham Incident forms one of the pivotal points in the plot, and as it's so famous, I really want to get it right. Above all, it needs to feel authentic. I've visited the actual landing site of Capel Green at night. Standing there on the edge of the forest with the moon rising over the Stonbridge Marshes to the south and the sweep of Orfordness lighthouse on the far horizon is an eerie experience. That chapter will be an important one.

So here's the problem. If I have another UFO encounter two chapters before the Rendlesham Incident, it will severely detract from the otherworldliness of the events later on. And that's something I have to avoid. Above all else, the Rendelsham Incident must make the reader really feel from the point of view of the officers involved. They knew they were mixed up in something way beyond their comprehension.
But if I have another chapter almost exactly like it fifty pages further back, that effect will be deadened. I'll lose the unique sense of strangeness, and the climax of the book will be badly damaged as a consequence.

The solution to the problem? I play down Second Encounter, but concentrate far more on the reactions of my characters. Most of the Cold Witness staff left for their Christmas holidays about three days ago, so there's only about ten people left on the base. The power of the ubiquitous "bunker field" is growing daily, making everyone uneasy and paranoid. If they think they're being spied on by UFOs, on top of all their other problems .... well, you can imagine it. Some of the officers are already starting to get superstitious about it (you know, stuff like 'It all started going wrong after that damned UFO turned up, didn't it?'). If I can use a minor UFO sighting to heighten the general feeling that something is not quite right, it will have far more impact, and in a way that is more useful to my plot. Maybe I can even get the officers at each others' throats again. *grins*

*Phew*. Let me tell you, plotting Cold Witness can be a daunting task.

Eek!

I saw something scary on the national news today. About six months ago, a children's doctor went missing. His body has just been found--in a quarry near the summit of Coniston Old Man, a mountain in the Lake District.
Okay, so here's the scary part for me. Five months ago, my family and I went on holiday in the Lake District. We climbed the west path up the Old Man towards Goat's Water and Dow Crag ... and guess what; that quarry was about ten metres north of the path we were on. I remember my dad saying something like 'Why don't we go and check out that quarry?' Amber, whose tail was between her legs at that point, gave him a dour look and collapsed in the mud. She refused to go a paw further, so we just went on up to Goat's Water and back down again.
But ... what if we had gone to look at that slate quarry? It's rather sickening.

On the writing front, I've passed the 75K mark, and have just this minute put the finishing touches to the chapter entitled THE ELUSIVE ANSWER. The "single answer to all the riddles" (as the eloquent Colonel Foyle calls it) has already been revealed to the readers, although it's still not clear how all the threads tie in together. Never fear, dear readers; all will be revealed, but you'll have to wait until the chapter NIGHT TERRORS to fully understand. Muahahaha. My technique in this case is to show the readers who the KGB agent is (it's Major Wheatley), then have them guessing how he could possibly be responsible for all the other disasters at Cold Witness. Believe me, the readers will be in for one hell of a surprise when they come to that chapter.

I've also put a snippet of Cold Witness up on the Forward Motion "Snippets" board. It's a creepy final scene to the chapter SOMETHING'S DOWN THERE, where Major Wheatley goes down into his secret bunker to work on the Ethereal Sword psychotronic weapon. There's some pretty scary description, mostly internal thoughts from Wheatley's POV. Read it ... if you dare!

The call of LOAF

I can't believe it, but it's happening. The damned story I chucked out last February has begun to whisper to me again.
The Life of a Falcon trilogy was my first attempt at novel writing. I initially planned it in three parts, to be provisionally named The Falcon's Flight, The Dark behind the Moon, and Yesterday's Shadow. I only ended up doing the first two, each of which was just over 50,000 words long. TFF took over three years to write, and it read like a narrative; the entire thing was just like "Migril did this, Migril did that, then he rode into X village and said 'Ho, Landlord, a flagon of ale.' The landlord said 'That'll be two Gold Pieces, Ooo Arg.' Migril paid him the money and rode off into the sunset, then killed two Goblins and rode into Y village and said ..." Yuckyuckyuckyuckyuck. You get the hideous picture. (And Graeme, if you read this, don't you dare say "I told you so".)
Anyway, it finally dawned on me (after going on like this for two years) that it was total rubbish, so I did a complete rewrite. It was bad and hard to read, but at least it attempted to address such issues as PLOT and CHARACTERISATION. It couldn't really masquerade as a novel yet, but it was getting there. I then started revising ... and revising ... and revising ... including several more complete rewrites. I finally got so sick and tired with the whole rotten lot that I chucked it in the trashcan for good last February, then started writing Darkness in the Forest. It was a new beginning; I could feel it in my blood. Time to quit messing around with LOAF and start acting like a writer.

The problem is this; no matter how unbelievably rubbish LOAF might be, there is a sparkling gem in the centre. The initial emotion that spawned the whole story was so powerful that I was spurred into writing a novel--something I had only ever dreamed of doing before. I was 13 at the time, and I hadn't a clue about how to do it, but what the hell; I started to do it anyway. Looking back, it was the best thing that could have happened to me. It showed me how much I could improve, and it gave me the necessary kick to improve it.
Anyway, I'm digressing. I read the first chapter of LOAF yesterday, and despite the fact that it looks like a 4-year-old has written it, the emotion is there. I can still remember how it felt. And ... well, damn. I want to write it. I want to take the power that made we start writing back in the Bad Old Days and polish it into something really worth doing.
I even had a name for this haunting, mysterious emotion: it was the dark behind the moon. It was the little thrill that runs through you when you think of a long, empty road on a moonlit night and bare winter trees whispering to each other as you walk past. It was the flight of falcons across the empty sky; it was the rain splattering against the windows of some forgotten castle. It was the blaze of logs in the hearth on a cold evening, and the dusting of snow over a forest of larch and birch. It was the very essence of everything that I know as Fantasy.

I've read books that have captured this emotion. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, and The Road to Underfall by Mike Jeffries. One thing I have always wanted to do is write something that conveys it to such a level of power--but I started it too soon, when I was inexperienced and untried as a writer.
But now ... now, I've almost finished my fifth book, and I have three others planned and ready to go. I want to keep LOAF2 (as this new concept has become) until I've finished The Twilight Trilogy and the Cold Witness books. I'm going to keep it until 2005, as something to look forward to when writing seems to dull to bother with anymore. It's going to be everything that I wanted LOAF to be, and yet couldn't make it. I will start with the same scenario--a forgotten castle on a lonely hill, with the wind and rain singing in the halyards of the flags and a few miserable sentries keeping watch on the crumbling battlements. I will work from that point, and I will strive towards the apex of impossible goodness that I will never reach, but can only hope to achieve.

Who knows? Maybe it'll work next time. After all, a story is never wasted.

(Edit: I've just added up the amount of words I wrote last year. I can't get an exact figure, but I'm pretty certain it's getting on for 900,000. That includes the rewrites of LOAF, the first draft of DITF, Twilight 1 and my 73K on Cold Witness so far. Way to go! Let's try for a million next year!)

Crit up on Roving

For anyone who wants to take a look at how Cold Witness is progressing, I've got a section of it up on the Roving Crits board at Forward Motion. It's scene 7 of the chapter GHOST WARFARE, where Lunar Squadron and the Russian soldiers start saturating each other with heavy-duty electrical fields. It's great fun.

70K and beyond!

I'm back. Project Cold Witness has passed its 70,000th word and is steaming full speed ahead. The plot is deepening with every new page I write--but it's taking a somewhat different direction to the story I originally planned. Initially, I wanted the story to be about the Cold Witness team's struggle to overcome the alien visitations which the facility was plagued with. I'm still having the occasional UFO sighting, but now it's become much more sinister. I've got sealed off bunkers deep underground, filled with radiation and flooded with seawater. I've got a mysterious energy field emanating from the bunker that creates terrifying hallucinations and is sending everyone slowly mad. But perhaps best of all, I've got an insane officer who has the power to control the enigmatic "bunker field" ... and has no problems with using it for his own ends. Russians have just landed on Orfordness with their own psychotronic weapons, too, and there's some lovely firefights between Lunar Squadron and the Russkies. I love this stuff!

Anyway, here's my plan for 2004.
Finish Cold Witness and start outlining Twilight: Part II.
Revise Twilight: Part I, then start writing Part II.
Finish Twilight: Part II, then revise Cold Witness.
And after that, we'll just have to see.

(By the way, thank you, Kate, for nudging me in the right direction. I've decided to leave Darkness in the Forest until I feel myself actually wanting to revise it; there's too much work involved, and at the moment I just don't have the motivation to get it done. I'll work on The Twilight Trilogy and the Cold Witness novels this year, I think. They're more rewarding.)