NaNo seems to have been going slow so far, which was not good, seeing as how I'll only have a couple of hours a day for the next week or so in which to write. But I've just completed my first fight scene, and suddenly, the next bits of plot are all lining up waiting for me to blunder through them. I only hope I can remember things long enough to get them written down.

Just thought I'd remind you all about my books.

General information pages

Book I Please Kill the Neighbours (But Don't Piss Them Off)

Most nuisance neighbours can be dealt with by a court order. When your neighbour is a country ruled by an evil wizard, we recommend a demon.
Of course, you need someone ... disposable ... to summon the damn thing.

Meet Cullan and his companions, Alys and Kenyon, and follow their adventures when they're blackmailed into escorting Morgan, a gifted young mage, into a hostile country so that she can fulfil her Destiny.

Book II Finish the Job So We Don't Have To

Whenever you kill an evil wizard, there are three things you should remember:
1. Kill his bodyguards and sidekicks as well;
2. Steal all his treasure;
3. Have an escape route planned in advance.
So... Second time lucky?

A second chance arrives for Cullan and his companions to loot the Tower of Morss - not that they really want to go back there after what happened last time. Especially with an invading army in the way. Oh, and having to kill the three most well-protected people in a besieged city first.

Book III All's Fair in Love and Politics

Inter-monarchial relationships can be tricky things. There are all sorts of things to consider concerning alliances, succession, trade, and so on. Not to mention security - with all the travelling between two countries that will be going on, it makes it easier for someone to, for example, kidnap someone.

When Queen Elspeth is abducted on a state visit to Galorndan, Cullan and his companions are ordered to once again travel several hundred miles to find someone - this time to rescue, not to kill. Although, someone probably will need killing while they're in the area.

 


Lulu.com store
Book I at CreateSpace
Book II at CreateSpace
Book III at CreateSpace
The books on Amazon.com

You know where to get them now - what are you waiting for?

My website has updated, with things like new pages, extracts from the now-finished NaNo, Book III of the Have Sword & Sorcery: Will Travel™ series, "All's Fair in Love and Politics". Expect it available to buy in early April 2009.

In other news, I'm still soliciting guest submissions for BeerMonster. I'll take anything before the end of the year.

I've finished! 50,460 words. Turns out I did nearly run out of story early, but hey, I still got there. I've got some editing still to do, polish up a few paragraphs, insert the odd sentence or two, make sure all the sentences make sense, that sort of thing. That usually adds a few dozen words to the total.

But, yeah, I've finished! "All's Fair in Love and Politics" is finished, and will be on certain electronic bookshelves within five months.

Well, it's halfway through NaNoWriMo, and I'm at 33,583 words, or 67.17% of the way through. It was a slow start, but that's all right, 'cos I had a very nice distraction. And now the words are coming fairly well, and things seem to be going well. Admittedly, I seem to be running out of plot a little sooner that I expected - but I think that happens every year anyway. Still, I should be on course to pass 50,000 by no later than the 23rd. Whether I'll still have any story left after that is another matter. But I should certainly be able to put up extracts on my website by the 25th, along with my winners logo.

After a slow start, I'm now up to 12½k on my NaNo. I'm hoping to maintain that sort of rate from now on, and finish around the 20th.

Aaargh! My flist is flooded by NaNoWriMo munchkins! Where are my real friends?

So: I's 206 miles to London, we've got a full imagination, half a backpack of furry animals, it's November, and we've got train tickets. Hit it.

Yesterday I went down to London for the London area kick-off party for the annual NaNoWriMo, and I brought my girlfriend with me. I brought my laptop with me, so I could write on the train, and I managed to get a little over 2,500 words done. I knew about there being wifi on the train, but I thought it cost money to access. If I had known it was free, I would have updated my wordcount then, instead of finding an internet cafe, and spending a pound to do it (we also went to a MacDOnald's for dinner, and they had free wifi as well, but again, I didn't know that).

After taking a photo at the Platform 9¾ trolley, we headed off to the Underground station, where we joined the queue to top-up Oyster cards. I think this is what slowed us down more than anything else, as the train got in on time just after 1.30, and it wasn't that long a wait to get on the tube to Camden, which doesn't take long to get to from LKX, but we still managed to arrive at the Spread Eagle at 2.15, rather than the just-before-2o'clock I'd planned. Hence, packed. Never mind. We found seats, unpacked the menagerie (haggis, green monkey, dog, bear, parrot, rhino), got drinks, food, and started with the party.

At first, this mainly meant that we talked to people as they flowed round us, then I got up and took the leaflets for my books and the idwcon_2009 round and let anyone who seemed vaguely interested take one. Then as the room cleared a bit, we wandered round it, dropping eaves on various conversations, and eventually ending up at the main table, that seemed to be doubling as writing central. We stayed there for a bit, talking shop and discussing how to bluff knowledge of Lovecraft, then left for dinner, and a hotel.

During my wanderings round the party, I found out that I was apparently the only author who had ever made one person miss their tube stop. I also got the idea to include a NaNo writing session at the IDWcon. I saw and chatted to people I hadn't seen in months again, and probably won't see them again for another year. All in all, a fun weekend.

Apparently, those nice people at NaNoWriMo have been negotiating away with some self-publishing companies, and one of them (CreateSpace, owned by Amazon.com Inc) has agreed to provide winning NaNo authours with a free print copy of their book from last year. Now, I already have copies of my books, thanks to Lulu.com, but here's where CreateSpace have an advantage: They can let me display my book for sale up on Amazon.com at no extra cost. So, obviously, that is something I shall be looking at very closely indeed.

If I do join CreateSpace, I will probably keep my Lulu account active, at least for the immediate future. Especially as it looks like CreateSpace are only going to be dealing in USD.

The HS&S:WT website has updated ahead of this year's NaNoWriMo.

The new information is about the NPCs that will make an appearance in the upcoming book, entitled "All's Fair in Love and Politics", which will be written this November, and available to buy next April.

The books have arrived!

The copies of the books for the launch offer (and for the cover artist) just this minute arrived by UPS. They look nice. I really like how the bordering effect turned out. Go buy a copy now and find out what I mean.

Please Kill the Neighbours (But Don't Piss Them Off)
£6.00 pb (save 25p) or £1.20 ebook (save 30p)
Most nuisance neighbours can be dealt with by a court order. When your neighbour is a country ruled by an evil wizard, we recommend a demon. Of course, you need someone - disposable - to summon the damn thing.
Meet Cullan and his companions, Alys and Kenyon, and follow their adventures when they're blackmailed into escorting Morgan, a gifted young mage, into a hostile country so that she can fulfil her Destiny.
(Extracts here)

Finish the Job so We Don't Have To
£6.25 pb (save 24p) or £1.20 ebook (save 30p)
Whenever you kill an evil wizard there are three things you should remember: Kill his bodyguards and sidekicks as well; Steal all his treasure; Have an escape route planned in advance. So ... second time lucky?
A second chance arrives for Cullan and his companions to loot the Tower of Morss - not that they really want to go back there, after what happened last time. Especially with an invading army in the way. Oh, and having to kill the three most well-protected people in a besieged city.
(Extracts here)

Pre-order only - no postage to pay!
Either respond to this post
or EMail brian at sabremeister dot me dot uk
with Your name, how many copies of each book you are going to buy, in which format
before 12noon Friday 4/4/8

Come to The Metropolitan Bar, Baker Street, London
on Saturday 12/4/8
after 6pm

Bring money
and good wishes for me as I move back to Yorkshire the day after

Signing can happen.

As from 4/4/08, both books will be available undiscounted at lulu.com, and you'll have to pay postage (somewhere in the region of £3.00) to get them.

Thanks to Ann-Cathrine Loo I now have very shiny cover art for my NaNo of 2006. Now that I have cover art, I can sell it!

Most nuisance neighbours can be dealt with by a court order. If your neighbour is a country ruled by an evil wizard, we recommend a demon.

Of course, you need someone ... disposable ... to summon the damn thing.

Extracts here.
Buy it here.

I've just written a rather harrowing passage of my NaNo. I'm almost shaking. I need to relax. I may need a drink - which is going to be difficult, as there's no beer in the house, and I'm not going out round here on a Friday night. I think the answer may lie in chocolate.

Brrrrrrr!!!!!

Facebook is weird. It doesn't explain anything very well, including how to post an event to just a group. So, in order to reduce confusion, I'm posting this here as well:

Come and write surrounded by words at the British Library Cafe on the Upper Ground Floor. You don't need a Reading Room pass -- just come through the doors, let the nice gentlemen search your bag, go up one flight of stairs and walk around to the cafe. Tuesday, NOV 20th. 5:30 - 7:30pm. Nearest tube: Kings Cross. Plug sockets don't quite abound but are available and food, though pricey, is available as well. The internet is available for a fee -- but you won't have time to look at it, as you'll be boosting your word count!

For cafe information:
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/visits/eatingatbl.html

For a map to the library:
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/visits/pdf/stpmap.pdf

How to spot me:
There will be signs, and a haggis, and maybe a green monkey as well.

The schedule:
5:30 - 5:45 arrival and greetings
5:45 - 6:30 speedy writing
6:30 - 6:45 break, re-feuling, gossip
6:45 - 7:30 more speedy writing

You don't have to break if you don't want to, but please no gossip allowed during the 45 minute writing periods. Plenty of gossip before and afterwards and in between, though.

If you RSVP, I'll know how many seats to save!


And it is definitely not cancelled, no matter what you might see elsewhere.