Weekly pics--round 18

It's the last day of school today--and, in accordance with Murphy's Law, I'm ill and unable to attend. Another burning stomach ache like last time. Food poisoning again? We'll see.

Anyway, these may be the last weekly photos I post for a while. School's over, so I won't be accessing the internet as frequenty as I had been before. I'll try to post here regularly (maybe even every day), but I won't be in much next week. So I'll see you all when I see you.

First, Orford Castle. This photo was taken October before last, during the big gale. It was pretty hard to stand on the riverwall that day without being blasted into the river.



Secondly, a red sunset over the forest. This picture was taken from the bottom of our garden, looking out over the meadow towards Blackland's Wood. This is the view I get most evenings while writing. It's nothing if not inspirational.



Writing's all up the creek at the moment--first it was James's birthday, then trying to get my palmtop working, now illness. I'm hoping to start work again tommorrow.

Photos (C) James Roddie 2002, 2003

Still nothing on PCW

I'm busy trying to get my new Palm handheld to work. This is starting to get very weird.

About a week ago, both my computer's mouse and my old Palm packed in. They just stopped working. I found out that my Palm was too old to be covered by the warranty, so I ordered a new one: a Palm Zire 31. It came yesterday. I plugged it into the mains for charging, but at the end of the four hours, it didn't work. I charged it again. And again, on another power outlet. Then I tried resetting it. Still no luck.

Is it pure coincidence that three electronic items failed in exactly the same way in such a short space of time? I'm going to contact Palm and ask them for a replacement machine--but this time, I'll charge it somewhere else and won't take it into my room. I'm starting to think there's some kind of power field in operation there which is disrupting things. Perhaps the house is sitting on top of a transient? Or maybe it's just the TV and computer?

Or ... but wait a moment, it's so obvious! Cold Witness has been activated again! Major Wheatley is targeting me with his Ethereal Sword! After all, the Sudbourne Marshes are only just over the hill. We're all doomed!

Slightly less dark thoughts

Okay ... I'm out of my mini-depression. Yesterday was just a bad day. I get them more often than I'd like.

Update: Cold Witness isn't doing much at this moment, largely due to my brother's birthday celebrations over the weekend, and the fact that I'm having to put in serious revision time for the exams. I'm only just at the 33K point (as you can see), and I wanted to be at 50K by the end of May ... zero chance of that now. And I'll be surprised if I get 10K in June. Too many exams.

So, it looks like PCW won't be ready for submission until October, possibly September. Here's what I need to do:

+ Finish second draft
+ Read through and note problems
+ Add or delete scenes as necessary
+ Preliminary line edit
+ Send manuscript off to Justin for crit (possibly others too)
+ Third draft (minimal revision, hopefully no new material required)
+ Final line edit on manuscript copy
+ Prepare for submission
+ Agent research

So, I've still got a long way to go. Let's hope I can get most of the work out of the way this summer.

Dark thoughts

The last week of school has begun. The lower sixth have already left on their study leave, and everything feels ... empty. There's so little to do except revise: the syllabus ended months ago in all of our subjects. This week seems a pointless exercise. It's depressing. And why this constant, overwhelming feeling of déjà vu? Why does this entire situation seem so familiar? I feel like I have already done all this a thousand times. But that's no surprise, really. Everything feels like that nowadays.

Sometimes I look back on my life and start to see some warped sense in the theory of reincarnation. Why did I develop such a swift affinity with the German language? Why do I find myself thinking in German sometimes, even though I can't remember half the words I once knew? And this constant, vast sense of familiarity is starting to get disturbing. I feel as if, when I learn something, I'm merely remembering it. And when alone, in the forest, echoes of some older age come blasting back through the barrier of years, and the world contracts to me and the woodland. Where did I learn to make flint tools of Neolithic design? Who taught me how to pressure-flake, how to make waterproof glue from pine resin and shredded birch bark? I instinctively know the forest and how to live there. And yet I never have.

I feel like an ancient soul, travelling the path through life for the thousandth time.

I'm confused by all this. This sense has been with me all my life, but only recently has it started to invade my day-by-day existence. The plain truth of it is that I seem to know and be able to do many things that I've never learned. Perhaps creepiest of all, I can read and write in a particular strain of Saxon runic characters (the early English FUTHORC mode). Where the hell did I learn that?

Sometimes I think I'm going completely stark raving mad. If you put this in context, bearing in mind that at one point I could also see ghosts (no kidding), apparently read the mind of my little brother, and feel 'presences' in churches, the evidence starts to mount. (Any psychiatrists in the house? Regulars: does this post sound like the ravings of a mad person to you? Or are all writers like this?)

Weekly pics--round 17

It's that time of week again! Good news on the writing front--I've reached over 30,000 words in the rewrite. Perhaps it isn't such a lost cause after all. Spent a lot of time renaming chapters to conform to a new chapter-naming rule (lots of GHOST chapters now, eg. GHOST WHISPERS, GHOST INCURSION, GHOST WARFARE).

My first photo this time round is of an area of Tunstall Forest which we call the Murky Wood. Even in zero mist and excellent outside visibility, you can't see far in this area. It's a mature plantation of Corsican Pines, due to be chopped by the Forestry Commission in a couple of years. Luckily I won't be living here by then. There's nothing I hate more than the sight of a large tract of land littered with raw stumps and broken branches. (that's probably why I don't walk in Rendlesham Forest that often any more.)



Secondly, a rainbow cutting across a thundering sky over the forest. This was taken from Gate 21 sometime in February, I think. Before anyone asks: No, we didn't mess around with the gamma or contrast. This photo is brought to you 'as is'. Behold ... and imagine what happened to us when the clouds released their deluge. :-)



Only one week of school left! Then freedom from the constant drudgery of revision, counter-revision, and endless lessons of exam questions and past papers!

More news: my brother, James (the guy you know as the owner of most of these photos), turns 15 on Sunday. We'll be taking a trip on the river in Tern, possibly landing on Orfordness and walking down to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment.

See you Monday!

Photos (C) James Roddie 2003

Multiple items of good news!

1. I'm out of the block! Got 1,800 words on Cold Witness last night, which is good considering I wrote it in only about an hour or so. I knew working on Riven would get me going again. At least I don't feel that dull sense of dread whenever I look at the PCW manuscript. I'm actually starting to feel optimistic about it!

2. .blogspot.com domains are now unblocked. I think it was just a hiccup on the school server again.

3. Our PM, Tony Blair, got purple flour thrown at him yesterday, which was quite funny. It's a good thing it didn't turn out to be Anthrax spores or something, though, because nobody bothered to put any security measures into effect. They all just sauntered out of the House of Commons, laughing about 'just another dry cleaning bill.'

4. After participating in a worldbuilding thread on FM, I now have a clear-cut conflict for The Riven Path: will Eborn and his friends get to Risgarth in time to warn them of what's coming to get them, or will Darmos en Chalicel and his big, bad sorcerers get there first and seize the advantage? (Actually, it can be summarised to this: will the ingenuity of a small group of small people triumph over the big powers, or will civilisation fall in on itself for the fourth and final time?)

Later

Did I really say 'Summer's here' only a couple of days ago? Taken a look at the Weatherpixie-thing recently? It's bucketing it down over here! Sandlings weather is so strange. Blistering hot one minute (complete with crackling bracken, chirruping crickets and the bedamned seagulls), then sloshing it down with rain the next (above features vanish mysteriously, leaving only the squawking seagulls). To this day I still can't figure out how, as soon as you cross the A12 into 'the land beyond', the weather changes so suddenly. Framlingham basks in desert heat while Orfordness runs in water. :-)

Gradually coming out of the block

Doing a little prewriting work on Riven Path is really helping. It's easy, light writing, without having to worry about sentence structure or realistic dialogue. Just jotting down my thoughts as they come. And better still, my mind's starting to turn over bits of Cold Witness, too. My way of beating the block is working!

Bad news: the school network has blocked all Blogger sites again, which means I can only access them from home now (and I mostly access the internet from school). It may be a temporary hiccup like last time, but if not, I may not be visiting your weblogs that much for the next couple of weeks. After that, I'll be at home full-time anyway. Just thought I'd let you all know.

Note: I can still read comments through Haloscan, and I can still access my blog through the 'dashboard' section. But all .blogspot.com domains are blocked.

Still blocked

As far as Cold Witness is concerned, that is. I decided to do some more Riven Path prewriting last night to see whether it would get me started again--it didn't, but it was useful work anyway.

I've now finished the background for all the main characters. Supporting characters have still to be developed (I've got their names, but nothing else), and I'm seeing several strong story possibilities emerging. What would happen if my two School of Applied Sciences students, Vilara and Casral, were implicated in a crime they didn't commit? What if they were chucked out of their university for good? Moreover, what if Darmos en Chalicel, the main villain, were to be responsible for their exile? I'm also thinking of having the criminal-type character, Abren Teskig (formerly Ersica Beckren), actually becoming a friend of the MCs. This is after he tries to mug them up Wandering Hill way. But what if he were to become close to Vi and Cas, only to betray their trust later on?

Just what I needed: a change. The PCW rewrites have to be done, but they get so tedious after a while. And I love prewriting.

I think I'll start on Cold Witness again tommorrow. After all, I haven't got much time left before I need to start my intensive pre-exam revision. *gulps*

Edit: Ordered a copy of Holly Lisle's Vincalis the Agitator last night. I've been meaning to get my hands on it for ages. If it's as good as people say, should be brilliant.

Website updated

I have fully updated my website, http://www.roddie.demon.co.uk/. I built it about six months ago and promptly forgot all about it, so it needed updating. Go and take a look if you want to read some brief snippets from PCW and PWL. (NOTE--the Articles section is currently empty, and the LOAF_collection.zip file is broken. I'll fix them soon.)

Good news / bad news

Good news

Summer's here! We've entered a spell of hot, dry weather, and although the barometer never goes under a thousand millibars these days, it's been over 1,020 all weekend. I went for a walk in the forest yesterday, and it was like high summer instead of late spring: the burning heat of the sun, the rustle and hiss of the adders, the constant whine and bite of horseflies ... what is the world coming to? The seasons are all wrong.

Second piece of good news: only two weeks of school left! I officially leave Thomas Mills High School on May 28th. After that, study leave and a month of exams ... then freedom. It's rather daunting.

Bad news

Zero writing done this weekend. I'm totally, hopelessly blocked. It usually happens to me in spring--something to do with the change of seasons. I have to start writing again today or I won't get anywhere before my exams start. Four days of not writing has left me jittery, because I always suffer from increasingly weird dreams when I can't write. I never remember the dreams when I wake up, but they leave me in a foul mood for the rest of the day. Writing's my way of excorsising the dreams. (Is this normal?)

Oh yes, and another prisoner has escaped from Hollesley Bay. :-)

Weekly pics--round 16

Another Orfordness-type theme this week. For those of you who don't know, this is a long spit of land not far from where I live. It's peppered with the rusting remains of old military bases, secret research installations, and even a World War 1 airfield. This is the primary setting for my current novel, Project Cold Witness.

Firstly, a wide-angle shot of the Orfordness lighthouse with the sun breaking over the clouds just over it. This was taken not long after dawn. The Orfordness lighthouse is most famed for being the standard explanation of the Rendlesham Forest UFO incident (but, seeing as the suspected landing site is nearly 15 miles away, I have my doubts).



Secondly, a long shot of the Cold Witness facility itself. The masts are hard to make out on this low-resolution picture, but the mudflats and the sinister blockhouse are plain to see.



Thirdly, a freebie pic! This isn't Orfordness, but the picture has been kicking around for a while and it's all relevant subject matter. I give you the most probable landing site for the Rendlesham UFO (unexplained lights seen near Woodbridge AFB, 27-28th December, 1980). There are three or four possible candidates all in a small area, but this one has the right atmosphere. And I've visited it at night, too, and that was creepy. Again, for those who don't know, the Rendlesham Incident features in the climax of Project Cold Witness. Did it really happen? Who knows. But it makes for fun research.



Photos (C) Alex Roddie 2004

Didn't get much done last night

Seven hundred words is all, but they were good ones (says I hopefully). I'm on to Chapter VII now: THE COBRA MIST EFFECT. I remembered this chapter as the part of the first draft where everything started getting boring. Reading it over again, I agree wholeheartedly--too much telling what the characters are doing and not enough showing. Happily, that's changing. I decided to have Foyle grilling the Security Police for shooting down Steven Knight, instead of just adding a paragraph with words to the effect of 'Foyle was cross and the SPs were punished'.

Oh yes, and they're about to search through the dead man's possessions. They'll find some things they didn't expect--like plastic explosives and a silenced handgun. This seems to prove that, with Steven in his disturbed mental state, he was the saboteur.

At least, that's what it seems to prove.

S
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I
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In reality, he's being set up by a conspiracy led by Major Wheatley and a shadowy man codenamed "Galahad". Some of the people on the mainland are in on it, too. Johnny (Steven's friend) came up with this theory originally, but with the new evidence, this hypothesis is discredited. He'll turn out to be right on all the important points later on in the plot.

But by that time, it's too late. Mwahahahahahaaaa.

What's this?

They changed the Blogger posting template again! I liked the old one. It worked the way I wanted. It was efficient and functional, but this ... well, I think they're just changing things for the hell of it.

Anyway, good things are happening with Cold Witness. I'm over the 25K point now, and I've just completed the scene where Steven Knight is shot down--so much better this time! For one thing, I made him important enough further back to make his death mean something. And I've added a new facet: Steven was suffering from Grade B psychotronysis, which explains his irrational attitude. He hears 'voices in the head' ordering him to do the things that end up with him getting shot down. I think these voices will be more important later on, too. (Oh, and even after his death, Steven will still be important--he'll change the way Johnny Campbell views the case).

You'll also no doubt be glad to hear that the militant locals, and the direct Russian intervention, have been introduced much sooner than in the first draft. They're playing a far more active role in the overall plot. And Major Wheatley is probably the least possible candidate for the saboteur at this point. In fact--and this is intentional--he isn't really an important character to begin with.

Rewrites are wonderful things. Oh--and I've posted the scenes I mentioned above on the Snippets board at Forward Motion.

(Note: There are definitely a couple of lurkers who read this blog regularly. See the little statcounter to the right? I can see you! Why don't you drop a comment and say hello? -AR)

One thing not to do when prewriting

I've started reading Holly Lisle's Secret Texts again. Fine ... but I'm also in the formative stages of a new fantasy world. There's no chance of the trilogy making an impact on Cold Witness (how different could the subject matter be?), but it's almost certain to influence worldbuilding for The Riven Path.

One big, ugly similarity I've noticed is the use of crater lakes and seas. Holly's world of Matrin is peppered with them, although most are over a thousand miles across. My western continent (that's Arca) has one big crater sea about 300 miles wide, plus an expanse of land known as Koiran's Belt that is covered with much smaller ones. The origin is different--the craters in Matrin were caused by the Wizard's War, whereas those in Arca were caused by a mixture of natural disaster and riven-nuclear bombardment--but they look damn similar on the map.

I'm proud to say that the magic system, social structure and technology of Arca is very different to that of Matrin. No chance of contamination there. But it's almost certain that something will pass between The Secret Texts and The Riven Path, probably without me even knowing it.

Good news: I'm out of my mini-block period and steaming toward the next major hurdle, the quarter-waypoint. Amazingly, although I'm adding material in the second draft, I'm currently ten pages behind the original in terms of length. This is great news! I always wanted to cut it down to size. I suppose this means my writing is tighter and less "waffly"? Only the coveted Final Draft will tell.

A strange weekend

Last weekend was composed of two 'off' days in quick succession. I get these sometimes--periods when nothing feels right, when everything seems ... different. In a weird way.

I get snappish. I get irritable. I've been horrible to my dog Amber, not letting her stop for a moment on walks (this may be to do with the fact that we were walking in torrential rain, but it may not). I've been unable to write properly--as I always am when I'm like this--and have achieved a miserable 3,000 words. In fact, the whole of last week wasn't quite right.

These are the times when the illusion of normality gets torn away, and I see my world for what it is. Does that make sense? Probably not. But I know that our perception of the world is based on what we're used to. A place feels comfortable because you know it. But if you suddenly feel you don't know that place, if you're seeing things differently, you don't like it one bit.

What's the Sandlings? I mean, really? Fifty square miles of sand and trees and mud. It is no longer the world of exploration and promise it was when I first moved here. I've grown used to the place, I know every field and every wood; and familiarity breeds contempt. It was the same back in Caxton. I only liked living there because I was near my friends, but once I moved, I realised how much I disliked the actual place.

I think I've probably offended quite a few people, both off- and on-line. If I haven't apologised to you already: sorry!

Weekly pics--round 15

I thought I'd show you something a little different this week. So this week's theme is ... animals of the Sandlings.

Firstly, the evil chaffinch himself. The little bugger still hasn't stopped banging on the window at every opportunity. It's driving us all completely raving mad. Scarily, he seems to be targeting a single family member: my grandmother, who lives in a seperate wing of the house. But we can hear it from everywhere. It's like being under seige ...



Secondly, the first snake of the year. My brother took this photo about two months ago. This area is chock-full of snakes of all descriptions, largely adders, grass snakes and slow worms (technically lizards). Adders are usually the most common. Walking across the heath in high summer is pretty dangerous, because the adders lie waiting in the heather to bite the unwary ankle on the way past. And the blistering Sandlings heat is just right for snakes.



News: my father is now a writer! Apparently, he's been secretly prewriting for a political-type novel for several months now. It's to be called Desperate Remedy (from a Guy Fawkes quote), and is an alternate-history set some time in the near future. My father has very strong political views (which can be summed up as 'Blair Should Be Tried For Treason'), and they're coming through very strongly in the plot. I recommended Forward Motion to him, but he isn't of the Internet generation. Pity.

(Note: posted part of Ch.5 of the Cold Witness rewrite on the Roving Crits board at FM. -AR)

Photos (C) James Roddie 2004

Good progress made

I'm nearly a sixth of the way through the Cold Witness rewrite now. Those who have read the first draft will remember the chapter "Men in Black": I've renamed it "Top Brass", and the NSA men in black creeps have been improved enormously. Evans now has a trace of humanity about him. He feels like a normal peson. I've also improved the bit where Christina is caught listening at the keyhole (she overhears a conversation between Foyle and Evans outlining the future of the project). This time, I've cut out the implausible possibility of Christina being 'done away with' by the NSA if she talks. Instead, Evans wants to apply Special Protocol 79, a system by which C. can be consigned to the US federal justice system, perhaps going to jail for an undefined period of time. Foyle objects to this (Christina is only 18, after all, and it was innocent mistake), and eventually he wins Evans over to his point of view. The only alternative is for C. to join the core staff, and for her clearance to be upgraded to Secret. 'You either know nothing or everything,' as Foyle said. Things are so much better this time!

Random endnote: I'm beginning to think that our house is possessed by the devil. This evil little sod of a bird has been attacking the windows over the past few days, banging his beak against the glass, spraying muck all over the windows. He's a chaffinch, I think: we all thought it looked so funny and sweet to begin with, until he started driving us round the bend. We ended up lighting candles and Tilly lanterns under all the windows to drive him off. The neighbours must think we're mad. Also, the door leading into the sitting room has inexplicably developed a maddening squeak that no amount of oil of WD-40 can fix. Christ! Between the door and the damned bird (and my parents screaming at the thing), there's no silence these days.

Yesterday was surreal

Two strange things happened yesterday.

Firstly, a member of the lower Sixth approached me in the library yesterday afternoon. He told me how great my D&T coursework was, and what's more, he knew all about reverse keyboard tilts, light-sensitive LED systems, and RSI's (my project was a specialised keyboard tray). He was practically brimming with praise! Apparently, Mr Chapman's been using my project, folder and all, as an exemplar piece of work for the year below me. They're just about to start this major project (I started it a year ago), and as they don't have any up-to-date pieces to show off, the D&T department have chosen mine.

The funny thing is this: The guy who approached me actually knows what my grade is, because Mr Chapman told them. I don't even know my grade yet. He offered to tell me what it was, but seeing as the damn project isn't even fully finished (I need to add a few bits and pieces), I told him I'd rather wait for the 'official' announcement. But it was nice hearing such naked adulation from someone in Year 12. It isn't often I get my ego stroked.

The second weird thing is to do with my old website, http://www.roddie.demon.co.uk/. On it I posted a range of extracts from some of my old novels and short stories, the most infamously notable being part of the Life of a Falcon trilogy. I received an email from Rachel Lisle (no, she's no relation to Holly Lisle), saying that she really liked LOAF and it was a shame I never submitted it. That's amazing in itself, because every person who's read LOAF before has told me what a load of cliched rubbish it was.

Rachel visited this blog, too (*waves* Hi, if you're reading!), and I sent her an email back saying that she's welcome to the rest of the LOAF files if she wants them. In fact, I got the idea of giving the novel to her. I know this sounds weird, and probably unwise, but I will never return to that novel ever again. It has too many memories and connotations associated with it. I wouldn't be able to make a decent rewrite of it. So ... Life of a Falcon is hers to complete, if she wants. I think there is promise there, beneath the congealed layer of crappy plotting, characterisation, style, grammar, spelling and everything else. It is a story that deserves to be told by someone, and if I can't do it, then I think somebody else should have the chance. (And no, Kate, I won't offer it to you, trilogy-type fantasy novel that it is: you will take one look at it and never speak to me again. I know you. :-) Besides, you have your own books to write).

Oh yes, and I also received an email from an old friend, saying that all my work was rubbish and I'd never be published. At least my novels are getting some attention! Who knows? This may be the start of a large fanbase!

So ... a weird day. (Apologies for long and rambling post. Will strive to be more concise in future.)

Stop press

Just got my preliminary marks back for my ICT project (NOT the one I mentioned above). We had ten months to do it, and I did most of the work in the last two. Anyway, here are the marks, subject to moderation:

104/120 : A

Yippee! This is about two grades higher than I needed! And God alone knows how I managed this ... but it's a welcome surprise.

Change of plan

I hate it when my short-term plans change. Changes in the long-term I can deal with, but I'm definitely a creature of structure and habit, so short-term changes annoy me.

In this case, I'm being forced to suspend Project White Light for the time being. My plan was to write 500 words a day on PWL this month, then 700 a day next month: this would enable me to get the Cold Witness rewrites and the PWL first draft finished at about the same time. But after only three days of trying to work on both books at once, it's not working out.

Here's the first problem. Many themes, characters and plot ideas are common to both books. Christina Elmwood and Johnny Campbell are MCs in PCW and PWL. But the books are set nine years apart, so these people have changed considerably. I'm just finding it impossible to go straight from rewriting a chapter of Cold Witness to writing original prose from their POV in White Light. Not only is it confusing, it's actually impossible. My mind can't adjust that quickly.

The second reason is ugly. The full-book critiques that I've so far received for Cold Witness have forced my mind into a different gear. I can look at my work with a truly critical eye now. So, after having written nothing on it for nearly two weeks, I go back to White Light and I see the same old problems cropping up again and again. It's almost as if there was some locked door in my mind that has now been opened, and now I can step through the door, I'm seeing things in a different way. I knew there were some plot problems in PWL ... but now I realise that they are big problems. I'm seeing the need for a total rewrite before I've even finished the first draft. That can't be good for enthusiasm.

So, Project White Light hits the Cold Storage folder until I can give it the attention it deserves. I think I'll wait until Cold Witness is completely finished in final draft form, or maybe even longer. I need a break from 1980's Suffolk. Time to be writing fantasy again.

Look on the bright side, Alex ... you'll get the time you need to finish Cold Witness and get the thing out of the door. That's going to be my main goal for this year, because I think I've finally learned patience. And if I can learn patience, then pretty much anything is possible. :-)

See you tomorrow!