Good morning, Readers!

I received the second round of edits for Skylark last night, along with a really lovely note from the editor.  With her permission, I've quoted some of her kind words:​

I was in a really low place yesterday, hitting the second day of a numbing depressive episode.  These remarks didn't cure it.  I'm still feeling that emptiness like a lead blanket.  But it did put a smile on my face, and for a little bit, I did feel a little lighter.

Also, yes, I was happy that I made the editor cry.  It's not that I'm an awful human.  I mean, I am, but that's not why I was happy.  It made me happy because it means that I hit the right emotional resonances.  I wrote well.  An emotional response to the work is a writer's dream.  I'm really pleased that I did it right.

It's so weird.  Normally, it takes me anywhere between three months to a couple of years to write a book.  Skylark took me a month.  This book poured out of me.  I skipped training and stayed up late to get the words that were flooding out onto the page to prevent their loss.  It was the easiest write I've ever had.

Because of that, I was worried that it was utter shit, and my friends were just being nice when they were being complimentary about it.

Every bit of praise helps my crippling insecurities.

As I've been given the manuscript back with editing notes, I'm off to do that for the next little bit.  Everything else is on hold as I work.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

So... people are ragging on video games again.  It must be a day ending in y.  There are currently a slew of uninformed thoughts and opinions about video games and the people who play them.  The one that jumped out at me last night was that playing video games screws around with one's sense of empathy.

Wut?

So, Laura Shortridge put out a call on Twitter asking for examples of video games that made you have all the feels.  I listed two, with another I've heard great things about.

Just spotted the typo there.  I meant #DetroitBecomeHuman.  Meh.  I'll chalk that down to my fat fingers typing on my phone.

The point is, most video games have stories that are incredibly deep, that explore difficult issues, and display characters that manage to pull the player in and give them all the feels.  That is the technical term.  They contain stories that are just as good (and sometimes better) than novels.  They're deeply affecting.  And it's true.  I cried when (spoilers) Joel lost his daughter in The Last of Us.  Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice had me sobbing on my live stream (just as the viewers of that particular let's play), and I ugly cried off stream for twenty minutes afterwards.  It hit me so hard.  I've been desperately avoiding spoilers for Detroit: Become Human, but I am hearing a constant stream of gushing over a character called Connor.

"Video games encourage lack of empathy."

I would argue the exact opposite is true.

Of course there are violent video games, shoot 'em ups and the like, yet even these tend to have something behind them.  The motivation is often something along the lines of saving loved ones, or the world.  Yes, they're violent and gory and the player is challenged to kill people by the score, but player motivation is often quite noble.  If you only see the action sequences of the game, you've missed the biggest part of it.

Not all violent games have that player motivation, of course.  Some really are just kill as many people as possible, but there are fewer of those games than most people unfamiliar with gaming assume.

Now, they've added gaming as a disorder.  I disagree with that too.

Adults watch, on average, five hours of television a day.  A day.  No one bats an eyelid at this statistic.  No one calls that a 'television disorder.'  Binge watching entire television shows is accepted and normal.  Playing a game straight through from start to finish is "excessive."

Gaming is my television.  People ask me if I've seen such and such a show?  I tell them I'm in ancient Egypt, too busy defending freedom from The Order to bother with that show.  Or any show.  And, for my entertainment value, I much prefer gaming to television.  Gaming is active.  My brain is working when I game.  Often, it's working really hard, processing data, making decisions, getting quick time events all wrong...

I find I cannot stand letting my brain do nothing while I'm awake.  If that happens, I get twitchy.  My legs starts going, or I'll rock myself a little, or I'll get distracted and start looking at my phone, or picking at my nails.  My brain needs to be active while I'm awake.  And so when I need some downtime, I game, rather than watch television.

Sometimes I watch YouTube, because those are short videos, and I'm less likely to get twitchy.
  
If someone is gaming so much that it is negatively impacting their life, the gaming is not the problem.  It is a symptom.  Like watching too much television.  Or eating too much (or too little).  Or staying in bed too long.  Gaming is a crutch people may use to escape their problems.  It is not the problem itself.

So, people who don't game, stop trying to pathologise gaming.  Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it's wrong or evil.  Stop pretending it is to make yourself feel better about your ignorance.  You're dead fucking wrong.

This has been a public service announcement.

Now get off my lawn.

Good morning, Readers!

I am at last all caught up on my game play video editing, and can now turn back to more literary pursuits.  First on the list, Beta Reading for a friend, who is off in Edinburgh right now, having a delightful time and making me incredibly jealous with his gorgeous photos of the city.

I would like to win the lottery now, so that I too, may go travelling.

The point is, I'm back to the whole reading and writing thing, and I'm pleased.  I'm really excited to get stuck into Evan's book.  I've had the pleasure of hearing him read sections from it, and I'm already in love with it.  He has a masterful way with words, and the beauty of language is something I really appreciate when I'm reading.

And then I have to do the sketchiest outlines ever for the next books in the two series I'm currently writing.  By sketchiest outlines, I mean, basically, just write down how they end so I have an end goal.  How the characters get there is entirely up to them.

Totally unrelated, I have been watching everything outside of actual game play of Detroit: Become Human, and I need this game.  I mean, it's more like an interactive film, but still, I need it.

Parents, get your kids into video games.  There'll be no money for drugs or alcohol.  Or food.  Or rent.

Right.  I have to get on with it.

What are you up to today?

Good morning, Readers!

Publishing is hard, guys.

The odds are not stacked in your favour.  In fact, it's the exact opposite. Everything is against you.

There are so many blockades on the path to your dreams, and people on the outside looking in simply do not see them.  I have had so many conversations with new writers (or, at least, new to trying to get published writers) who are despondent or indignant about the fact that they haven't been snapped up by a publisher yet.  Part of it, for one person, is perhaps an overestimation of both their abilities and just how "easy" it's supposed to be.  They've bought into the weird propaganda that writing and getting published is easy.  That anyone can do it.  That it's a simple way to make bank.

While I would never discourage anyone from chasing their dreams, I feel obligated to smack people with a dose of reality.  Or several.  Publishing is not a game of skill.  Certainly, skill in the craft will get you further (though sometimes not. We've all read those books which makes up stop and wonder just how the exactly that drivel got published, but that's another story).  But that's barely even half the battle.  You have to get your work out there.

How you get out there is really up to you.  You can face the trials and uncertainty of submitting to the large gatekeepers; the big six (or is it five now? Four?), and the well-known magazines for you short stories.  But everyone is trying to get in.  Your work is up against a plethora of writers and their works, and a significant portion of those writers will be better than you, or have a fresher idea, or have some indescribable pull that will mean your work gets passed in favour of theirs.  This road leads to a lot of rejection and disappointment.

Until it doesn't.  And you score that coveted contract.

You could go the small press route, but that has a number of risks on top of the competition, and therefore possibility of rejection.  Many small presses do not last long.  They either overreach or can't sell, and the press collapses.  Often they're poorly run, and you end up in a fight to get the rights to your own damned work after this happens.  To be clear, that's not every small press.  I've been fortunate with Renaissance, for example.  I love working with them, too.  Then there is the issue of getting the public to pay attention to you.  Small presses generally do not have the budget, the expertise or the staff to market your book like crazy.  They won't be taking out ads on your behalf.  They will have a smaller list of resources, like bloggers willing to accept books for review.  Fewer award programmes will be willing to consider your books (even in awards that claim otherwise.  I've heard stories, people.  Stories).  Certainly, snobbish book reviewers of larger magazines and papers will be less interested in looking at your stuff.

This gets worse if you self-publish.  Sure, you won't face the rocky seas of submission and rejection, but you will have to spend an exhausting amount of time creating book covers, doing the editing, interior formatting, the registering of ISBNs, the selling and distributing.  If you are not savvy enough (waves furiously), then you will have to hire someone or a few people to do that for you.  All that time and expense spent on things other than writing.  And then, it's even harder to get noticed, reviewed, or considered for awards.

If that's not bad enough, no matter which route you take, there is absolutely no guarantee that your work will take with readers.  It is entirely possible that your book, despite all the hurdles it has jumped thus far, will fall at the last one.  No one reads your book.  If you're with a publisher, they will likely drop you, and you're back at square one.  If you're self-published, your dreams of being recognised will fall and shatter.

I'm not saying don't do it.  At all.  What I am saying, is you need to work.  Work on your craft, yes.  But also work hard to be seen.  Don't give up.  Don't get bitter.  Writing is not an easy thing to do, and doing it does not mean that all your hard work will be so much as glanced at by lady luck.  All that work, and it may never get seen.

That is the reality.

Not an especially thrilling one is it?  If this had you depressed, then consider this: for all the challenges, hurdles and blockades put in your path as you fight for your dream, imagine how so very sweet it will taste when your finally achieve it.

If you want to win at the publishing game, you just have to keep at it.  But be aware, there is a chance you might never win.

Do it anyway.

Right, that's all I wanted to say.  I'm off to edit a video, and get started on the next set of beta readings I have promised.  Then... Well, then, I get to start writing again.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I'm almost done!  I'm almost caught up on all my video editing!  I can get back to reading and writing soon!

YAY!

Until then, things are very dull around here.  I'm doing nothing but video edits.  While I appreciate the break from the pretty heavy subject matter of my The Great Man series, I feel like my brain is starting to rot.  I need to get back to my literary pursuits.

This should happen next week, if I can just get these last two videos edited together by the end of this week.

I should really get onto that.

It may not happen today.

Also, I just want to sleep.  I'm blaming the cold, rainy weather.  It is my favourite weather, but only when I can snuggle up with kitties and tea and a good book.

Right, since I have nothing of note to say, I'll just leave you all alone and get on with... procrastinating, let's be honest.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

So, yesterday.  Yesterday, instead of editing together a highlight reel and being finally caught up there, I instead started mucking around in my drawing software, trying to figure out at least a bare-bones idea for a book cover.

It took me all day.  I painted stuff, rearranged free images, played with settings, bought the license to a spaceship image, mucked around with that, switched stuff around, switched it back, crashed my computer twice (it's old and can't handle the software very well)...

By the end of it, I had an image I kinda liked.  The more I looked at it, the more I liked it.  I sent it off to my publisher to get their opinion, and they liked it.

So... uh... It looks like we have a book cover for Skylark.  Quite by accident.

I'm not sure how I feel about it.  Looking at the book cover idea this morning with fresh eyes, I still like the image, but I can see every flaw, and I'm worried about the licensing of that spaceship because I don't know how any of this stuff really works...  I paid for it, I swear.

But, hey.  There is a book cover.

There will be a book cover reveal soon-ish, I guess, since we kinda have a book cover now.  By accident.

And the blurb is all written and stuff, so...

I guess that means that other than the last of the edits and the interior formatting, the book will be pretty much ready to publish this year.  Whether or not it'll actually be published this year is another matter, since it relies on the publishers schedule (and they're booked pretty full).

I will email them and request as much of a buffer as possible, so we can set up a pre-order thingy for those who want the book the minute it comes out.  That might be this year.

It is still likely to be next year.  If you're waiting with baited breath, please don't!

Okay, now I have to do the work I neglected to do yesterday.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I still am no closer to a book cover, but I am getting an idea.  I will be playing around with it for a bit to see if it's an idea that works.

As of right now, however, I have three more videos to edit together, and then I'm all caught up.

Due to having nothing to report, I'll be leaving my Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice highlight videos here for you to waste your time with.  This game terrified me, enthralled me, and made me cry a solid twenty minutes after it ended.  Also, the combat system was the best I've played yet.

Okay, now I'm going to start editing together the Rise of the Tomb Raider highlights.

​Ciao!