Red Tails

I watched Redtails on DVD last night.  It's a WWII movie about the African American 332nd fighter group.  I've been looking forward to this for a while, a WWII fighter movie produced by George Lucas.  I was expecting a powerful human interest story coupled with some gung-ho fighter action.

This isn't what I got.  I expect these Black fighter pilots struggled really hard and were treated badly by their white counterparts.  This isn't how the film portrayed it at all.  It was all very light hearted, the closest it came to drama was one of the squadron walking into an Officer's club.  All the white officers turn around and look scandalised he's there.  One says "This is for Officer's only," the pilot replies, "I am an Officer."  The white officer clarifies, "A white's only Officer's club."

The pilot walks away before turning and running back in to hit one of the white officer's.  He wasn't punished for this.

The same pilot dates a white Italian girl.  They have an idealic relationship without any conflict.  This is Italy in 1944.  Musolini's Fascists have only just been removed from power.  Now I'm sure any survivors would be keeping their heads down, but still, I'd expect some anger to surface over a young woman dating a black American fighter pilot.

The fighter group are tasked with guarding bombers on attacks against Germany.  The bombers have been struggling from their fighter escorts being drawn away by decoys before the German fighters attack.  At first the bombers are worried about being defended by black fighter pilots.  When the German decoys sweep in, the Redtails stay with the bombers.  I expected the bomber pilots to think the Redtails were cowards, but they were just glad they did their jobs.  The Germans main force attacks and the Redtails save the bombers.  It's at this point the Redtails should have been accepted not earlier.  The writers/director just left the drama (truth) at home.

It was the same in battles.  At the end of the film, they tell us 66 pilots lost their lives in the 332nd fighter group.  During the entire film we see two pilots die.  I just did not feel these men were walking round with a life expectancy of only months.

All in all, Red Tails was an OK film.  A war film worthy of a lazy Sunday afternoon, not one that showed what the men who signed up to the Tuskagee program actually had to go through.

Crusade For Vengeance

Today I put my graphic designer hat on and created the cover for the print on demand copy of Crusade.  It was much easier this time than Reason.  I've learned a lot since then.  After that I checked the description I wrote last night and I was happy with it.  Crusade is just about ready.  All that is left is an edit a friend of mine is doing.  Hopefully I should be getting that in the next couple of days.

I really put my neck out this afternoon.  I have just finished submitting Reason to a few Literary Agents.  I'm very interested to see what they come back with.  You never know, today could be the start of it all changing.  I'm not going to get my hopes up though.

The real question is, what am I going to do now?  Reason is all up and running and Crusade is as far forward as currently possible.  I'm half tempted to start on book three, but I think I need a bit of a creativity break first.  Tomorrow I'm going to catch up on the podcast Writing Excuses and actually read something for a change.  I haven't sat down and read a book for months.  It'll be good for me to see someone else's writing and pick up sentence structures and other useful titbits.

I think I'm also going to write a couple of short stories that have been kicking round my head.  It'll be good to get back into the writing mode with something fun that'll never publish.

Crusade For Vengeance

Well, that's a bit of a surprise.  The amendments are all done.  I'd budgeted two full days for that and I thought they were going to be long days as well.  In the end, it took me less than a day to enter 330 pages worth of amendments.  To be fair, my previous edit was very comprehensive so I didn't find a lot to do.

I'm sure some of it was re-wording bit back to my first draft.  That is certainly a sign it's time to stop.

I've just been working on the description and I've put together a first draft.  I'll have another look at it in the morning and see how it is then.

That's me done for the day I think.  I resisted playing Settlers so I think I've earned it now for an hour or so.  I might go to an extra session of Karate later, I'm not sure.  I missed a couple due to this annoying cough/cold over the last few weeks.  It'll be alright if I go to two this week.

Crusade For Vengeance

I finished the final edit of Crusade earlier today.  It occurred to me that it will be the last editing I have to do until I finish the next book.  That is a real relief, editing isn't fun.  Writing is much more enjoyable.  I still have a fair bit to do before I get to start on book three though.  I estimate I won't start actually writing until after Christmas.

Defiance season two finished recently and I just watched the last two episodes back to back.  It was a very good ending and hopefully they are filming the third season.  I love the characters, the storylines and their not afraid to knock off a character here and there.

I've gotten into Elementary recently.  Sky has the first two seasons for download and with the package I have it doesn't cost me any extra.  I've really enjoyed it.  Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu are both very good.  For me though, the stand out has to be Natalie Dormer.  Her role is a real stand out and I hope she comes back in later seasons.

When I first saw it, I thought it was a bit derivative.  At the same time you had Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jr playing the same role.  Those aren't two actors you'd want to go up against, so I passed Elementary by.  To be fair I think Cumberbatch does it better and Downey is more Hollywood obviously, but Elementary does fill my quirky detective role.

Speaking of Quirky detective, when is season 7 of Castle going to be on UK TV??

I noticed something recently and I think Castle may have been the recent catalyst.  There are quite a few detective/cop shows with the straight laced female cop type paired with a quirky male partner.  You've got Castle, Elementary, Forever, Sleepy Hollows, Stalker and The Black List all using the same format.  It's all down to Mulder and Scully, though I'm sure it was done even before them.  Hmm, you could even throw Doctor Who in there and that pre-dates them all.

I was thinking about Avengers Assemble this morning while I brushed my teeth.  I've watched it at least six times now, the last time only a couple of weeks ago.  While I was thinking about it, it occurred to me that I would quite happily watch again this morning.  That is a truely great example of entertainment, story telling and writing.  Damn Joss Whedon is good.

Off to watch Gotham now.  Another excellent show.

Crusade For Vengeance

I started on the final Crusade for Vengeance edit yesterday.  It went very well, 70 pages during the day and a further 30 pages while my little girl was asleep.  I lost the first couple of hours as I needed to re-submit the files of Reason For Vengeance to Create Space.  Somehow this little square turned up in my manuscript at the end of six chapters.  It didn't show up on Word, only once it had been converted.  It was very strange and could only be seen when you use the track changes function.  When I had the first one I was able to paste it into search to delete the others.

My daughter had a bit of a rough night, last night and woke a couple of times coughing.  She's not ill really, it's one of those cold/cough things that doesn't go away.  The poor girl coughed so much she was sick at one point.  She was a real trooper though, after an initial and very understandable want to see her mummy, she settled down and let me clean her up.  Within half an hour we had her changed and her bedding replaced.  When her Mum got home she didn't even wake up and that's unusual.

The trickiest thing was her hair.  If you've seen my photo, you know I don't have much of it.  I haven't washed my own hair in almost ten years,.  Shower gel and a sponge is all I need these days.  I honestly had no idea where to start with hers.  I got most of the sick out of course, but it was pretty tangled.  I didn't feel confident in washing her hair for the first time, in the middle of the night, with an upset two year old.  Maybe once she had calmed down and was happy I should have tried.  I'll give it a go next time.

Today I'm up to 70 pages so far and I hope to get at least another 30 done before I'm off to look after my daughter again.  I'm well on target to get it finished by end of play Monday.

Reason For Vengeance

Today was a very productive day.  I'd budgeted 3 days to get Reason formatted and uploaded.  That's about what it took me last time.  Imagine my surprise when it was all done by 3.00pm.  There were a couple of hiccups, I forgot the final spellcheck until I was halfway through the first format.  I'm glad I remembered, it picked up about ten typo's from my edit amendments.

A bit later, while I was doing the Create Space format, I realised I wasn't doing the latest version.  I was actually formatting the previous version of Reason.  That cost me about an hour.

I'm very happy with it all and hopefully it will all be up for sale shortly across Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, Apple, Barnes & Nobles and loads more.  I can't wait to order the new hard copy.

This afternoon I took a bit of time out to watch TV, finish my Christmas cards and wrap all the presents.  I can then start fresh tomorrow on the Crusade final edit.  I've already got a head start on that by doing 24 pages last night while my little girl was alseep.  I'll be doing the same tomorrow and Friday night.

One annoying thing today.  I wanted to get my daughter a small present to go with her bigger ones.  I was thinking of a My Little Pony toy, nothing fancy.  They only had the big stuff in Toys R us yesterday so I got her a Littlest Pet Shop toy.  The head moves when you brush it's hair.  Perfect!  No, the brush has a magnet in it and I didn't notice.  It's my own fault, it did have warning labels all over it and said it was for 4+.  Oh well, I'll have to sort something else out and time is disappearing fast.

Crusade For Vengeance

With the final edit of Reason complete I went to work on the new chapters I wrote for Crusade.  There are 50 pages and, based on my recent work, I presumed it would take all morning for the edit.  This afternoon I needed to pop out for the last of the Christmas shopping and I'm off in a few minutes to pick up my little girl.  My plan was to finish the edit and take it with me to work on once she was asleep.

I actually had the edit done by 11.30 and all the amendments done by lunch.  I was back by 3.00 pm so I've spent the last hour printing off Crusade for it's final edit.  I have the first 50 pages in my bag to work on later.

I could not believe how little I needed to amend the new stuff.  I've been implementing everything I've learned over the last six months into my writing.  It's a lot cleaner now and needs less polish.  How much of that is rose tinted glasses syndrome, I couldn't honestly tell you.

I do feel very good about it all though.

P.S.  I spelt syndrome right on the first go.  Cool!

Reason For Vengeance

Things seem to be going well at the moment.  I'm on a real roll with my work.  Today it was my plan to complete the amendments for Reason and I did.  It took a ten hour day, but it was worth it.  I've also printed off the pages of the additional chapters for Crusade I finished writing last week.  I'll be editing those tomorrow morning.

If everything goes to plan, the new updated edition of Reason will be uploaded at the end of the week.  Hopefully I will then be able to have Crusade published before Christmas.  When I say before, I could well be talking about Christmas Eve.  The schedule is a bit tight, but I believe it is achievable.

When I went out on Friday night, I noticed I've got to use the next notch up on my belt.  Not good.  I've let my exercise really slip over the last five months.  That is also part of my grand scheme.  Get back on with the exercise.  I managed my full workout this morning and I want to do that every day this week, with a run to finish on Friday.

All in all, it's looking good.

Reason For Vengeance

It's Sunday and I'm working.  Not a lot, but I wanted to get a couple of hours in today.  30 pages amended, bringing the total to 100.  The plan for tomorrow is to import them all by the end of the day.  It should be possible.  I'm averaging about twenty pages an hour and I have one hundred and ninety to do.  It will still be a long day.

I was on Goodread's earlier and I stumbled on books by Richard Castle, as in the murder/mystery series Castle with Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic.  I'm a big fan of the show, I think it's brilliant and I can't wait until season seven comes out in the UK.  I was confused how a fictional author could write books.  It turns out they've written the books they made up for the show.  I wanted to get on with the editing so I didn't look into them.  I'm going straight back to Goodread's and see if they've had good reviews.  If so, I'll give them a go.

Last night I was looking after my two year old.  After she went to bed I did thirty pages of amendments.  Later in the night, after I finished she woke up.  She didn't complain or anything, but she looked so cute with her mussed up hair, I gave her a big cuddle.  To be honest, with her relaxed on my shoulder, I didn't want to put her down.  Eventually I got up the will power to put her back to bed.

I've been trying to quantify my feelings while I was hugging her and I can't.  The love I feel for my little girl is so immense I can't describe it.

Well that was a bit mushy, still true though.

Back to the writing stuff, I've added the soundtrack to X-Men 2 to my writing/work playlist.  It's a good choice.

Reason For Vengeance

I did it as planned yesterday.  I completed the edit of Reason and even did ten pages of amendments before going out.  To keep the momentum going I've just finished more 26 pages.  I'm looking after my two year old tonight so I plan to get some done once she's asleep.

If I keep this up, Reason will be updated before Friday.  That would be a real boost for me.

It was a late night with a few beers last night and I'm knackered.  I think I've earned an hour on Batman Arkham City.

Oops, I'm so tired I sent it out without even spell checking.  The edit function is very useful!

Reason For Vengeance

Another 100 pages edited while sitting in an uncomfortable seat yesterday.  I bet I'm going to pay for that later.  The plan is to finish the edit today and begin entering all the amendments over the weekend.  I really feel like I'm on a roll at the moment and I don't want to let up.

Hopefully I should have the revised edition up by Wednesday/Thursday next week.  It all depends on how long it takes me to do the formatting.

One of the strange things is that I am actually enjoying reading the book again.  I wrote it and read it at least a dozen times by now, but I still enjoy it.  I wonder if other writers feel that?

On a completely different note, I can't believe Mclaren still haven't sorted their driver line up for next year.  I really feel for Jenson Button, I think he's proved he still has it as a potential champion winner, if they give him a good enough car.

Time to get back to that lovely chair.  Onwards!

Reason For Vengeance

I struggled to focus on Tuesday when I started re-editing Reason.  Yesterday I tried something new.  I didn't turn my computer on and worked at the dining room table downstairs.  I can't say it was the most comfortable place to work, but there were no distractions.  I didn't even have music playing, I was completely cut off and it worked.  I edited over a hundred pages yesterday and it was careful, word by word checking.

I can't believe some of the stuff I found.  Mostly it was a distinct lack of punctuation and I expected that.  I've learned a lot since publishing it, hence why the re-edit and re-publication.  What really surprised me were the double words, words out of order and wrong words.  Not many, but more than I expected.  It shows you are never ready to publish, all you can do, is the best you can on a given day.


My cold and cough came back yesterday and I skipped Karate, very annoying.  I spent the time well though by doing an extra fifteen pages, so at least it wasn't wasted.

Time to get back to it and shut down my computer again.

Crusade For Vengeance

Today started well.  I amended the second part of Crusade to accommodate the new chapters I'd written.  After that I went through the following editing exercises:

Checking I'd used OK and no Ok or ok.
I'd added the capital for words I'm using for some technologies.
Checking I used past and passed correctly.
Wrote a small addition to the end of Crusade

That all took me to lunch time so I printed off the manuscript for Reason again.  I wanted to start on it's last edit before re-publication.  When I started to look at it about 2.30 pm, I found I had just run out of steam.  I didn't have the focus to check every word.

I needed to pop into town at some point this week so I went and did that rather than completely waste the afternoon.

New day tomorrow and a new start.  I think I'll do the editing downstairs where there are no distractions.

Crusade For Vengeance

I had a good afternoon in London on Friday.  I met up with some old friends in a pub by Covent Garden.  There was good beer and good conversation.  I like going into London, I worked there for eight years and there are some parts I know well.  I get the train into Euston station and then it's a pleasant walk down to Covent Garden.  On previous trips I've arrived earlier and gone to the British Library and the British Museum, both are nearby.  I actually walk past the British Museum.

Today was a good day.  Another 5,000 good words written and as it happens, that finishes off the additional section I've been writing.  It came in at a total of 21,000 words and, if it's all included, will bring the total of the book to 148,500.  A much more respectable number.

I need to make some amendments to integrate it into the story but nothing too bad.  I just finished one of those and I think I only need to do one more.

Something I have noticed is that my spelling has improved. It's no way near perfect, but I'm getting a lot more words correct than I used to.  Now if only I could get my grammar and punctuation up to the same level.  Word doesn't really cover punctuation very well.

I do have a second addition in mind for the book.  I've been thinking about it and I'm not so sure anymore.  If I do it, it moves a major character out of position and a whole stack of cards comes crashing down.  Fixing a weak point could have far bigger ramifications.  I'm really not sure.  Hmm, I just had an idea of another way to write it or more accurately, one of the suggested amendments might make more sense now.  Something to consider overnight.

Well it's been a ten and a half hour day’s work and my dinner is almost ready.  Time to call it a day.

Crusade For Vengeance

The second productive day in a row!  5,500 words today and it was a normal day, start at 9.00 am, finish at 6.00 pm.  I am back up to speed.  I really could have continued on, the next couple of thousand words are buzzing round my head, but they will have to wait at least until Sunday.

Thursday night I go an see my little girl and tomorrow I'm off down to London to catch up with some old friends.  I'm not leaving until midday so I will be reading through all of the new stuff in the morning and taking a printed copy for proper editing on the train.

I'm on twitter and I wanted to update through my phone and can you believe it, I can't!  My HTC Wildfire with Android 2.2 isn't supported by twitter.  To be fair I am a bit old fashioned, I normally only use my phone as a phone with an occasional pic.  I normally leave the internet switched off to save battery.

I really was gobsmacked to see I couldn't use twitter though.  Oh well.  It's annoying but I'm not going to get a new phone.  I like my Wildfire, it's small enough to fit in my pocket easily and light.  Before that I used a Motorola Razor, Nokia 8210 and originally a Nokia 6110.  In seventeen years, that's not very many.  There were two more, a Motorola that made me swear off them for life (it didn't stick, the Razor came much later) and an LG I used for less than a year I think.

What I look for in a phone size and weight.  The new iphone is really not designed for me.

Crusade For Vengeance

Yay, I am almost back up to speed.  5,000 words today.  I say almost because I started writing at 8.15 am.  It's been a long day.  I would keep going for another hour but tonight is Karate and I need to have dinner first.

I normally have lunch at about 1pm and watch a recorded program while I eat.  Today it was Quantum Leap and I am really enjoying watching them again.  The thing that always catches me though is Doctors.  It's on from 1.45 to 2.15 and I generally catch it about 1.50/1.55.  It's day time TV and let's face it, that normally means complete drivel.

Doctors is different though with some fairly punchy, well written stories.  Today it told the tale of a woman in her twenties, she moved from Nigeria and died alone in her flat on Christmas day.  She wasn't found for two years.  The last person to see her alive was her neighbour.  They were meant to have Christmas Dinner together at his house, two lonely people coming together because they had no one else.

He didn't report her as missing and didn't think anything was wrong about her because he was a convicted criminal.  He thought she had stood him up because she found out and avoided him from then on.

It does sound a little far-fetched but trust me it's not.  I've personally seen both of these things happen.  Of course they were separate but it's still a worthwhile story to tell and is indicative of the storylines Doctors produces.  I caught EastEnders last night and I watched it purely to see how it compares.  Doctors certainly isn't as dramatic but in its quiet understated way I think it tells much better and more relevant stories.

Hopefully tomorrow I can mange a similar level of productivity as today.  These extra chapters certainly are going to add a lot to the book.  It currently sits at 127,000 words and I'm at 10,000 already with the new stuff.  I think I'm only a third of the way through.  I've very pleased with that, I want my books to be around the 150,000 word mark so they give real value for money.

Crusade For Vengeance

It's been a while again since my last post.  Not much to report really other than my struggles with finishing Crusade.

The book is about 95% there now with most of the editing done.  At the moment I am trying to write about three additional chapters.  One of my alpha readers suggested that Hanna became too competent suddenly without any build up.  He was right, it was something I had noticed but I wasn't sure if it was just me being overly critical.  It's very difficult to have a good perspective on my own work.

In Reason he is responsible for Julianna.  He suggested I should use the rebellion more in the story and from that came the Hive and Julianna.

After he told me this the scenario came to me fairly quickly and in a couple of hours I had a section mapped out more completely than ever before.  The one thing I couldn't think of was the original hook, the starting point that gets the ball rolling.  It took me over a week of procrastinating to find it.  Once I did, it has really been difficult to write.

My days have been, 1000, 500, 1,500, 2,500 words with whole days of nothing in between.  Not good.  I am feeling more positive now than I have for a couple of weeks though.  The first chapter is done and I'm very pleased with it.

Now I'm stuck again as now I'm at point B, I don't know how to get to point C.  What's the angle of attack?  What are Hanna and Deni going to do?  I don't know.  Hopefully I'll have some inspiration overnight and come up with something.

Reason For Vengeance

Hmm, I'm getting lazy with this blogging.  I need to improve.  The problem is that editing doesn't come up with much worthwhile to report.  It's day after day of drudgery, important drudgery but still drudgery.

Today I've been looking and removing the unneeded 'had' and 'that' words from Reason.  I was very pleased with getting through 272 pages in one day and re-wording some sentences while I was at it.

It's strange, as I wrote it all this year, how much better I can write a sentence now, blogging not included.  I wonder if I'll be looking back a year from now and wonder what I was thinking by publishing this series without more practise?  Oh well, I've kind of committed myself now so I have to push on.

I watched Dominion on Friday and I was impressed, good story, reasonable effects and reasonable actors.  I'm looking forward to the next instalment.

My daughter and I went to one of these soft play places yesterday.  She really enjoys it and so do I.  For me the best thing is seeing her manage all the obstacles without my help for the first time.  She's only two and a half and so she's always been a little too small, or not co-ordinated enough.  It's just amazing to see her getting stronger and more confident.  Long may it continue.

Crusade For Vengeance

Slowly but surely Crusade is coming along.  The edit is complete and I'm working through the amendments.  Two more days and I think they'll be be done.  I'll then print it a third time and do a final read through.  I'm not going to hit my 31st of Oct publishing date but I'm happier with a better product.

I found something interesting during my editing.  I used 'had' 1,932 times and 'that' 1616.  When I looked at them, I saw they weren't necessary or I should be using words like used, needed, were, etc instead.  I'm currently on page 174 out of 275 and I am down to 1154 hads.  It makes a big difference.  I need to go through Reason for them as well.  That's got over 2,000 hads.

On the TV front, I now have ten programs recording on a Thursday:

Star Wars Rebels
Quantum Leap (They started re-running it from episode one this week)
Arrow
The Big Bang Theory (must see)
Defiance
Scandal
Forever
Franklyn & Bash
Scorpian
Dominon

That's a lot.  I haven't seen Dominon yet so it might not stay.

If anyone is interested, I have the following also recording during the week.

Gotham (must see)
Have I Got More News For You
The Flash
The Apprentice
Sleepy Hollow
The Apprentice: You're Fired
Legends
The Last Ship
Agents of Shield
The Blacklist (must see)
The F1 Show
Doctor Who
Hawai 5.0

Now I just need to fit it in around my writing!

Crusade For Vengeance

I've been slogging on.  Another 70 pages edited today.  It's hard work.  Every half an hour or so I need to tell myself to stick with it and keep going.

I hit a dead spot at about 11.00 am yesterday and came to a grinding halt.  It took me five hours to get back into it.  At least I didn't do that today.

On a positive note I finally found the answer to a conundrum that had been haunting me for weeks.  A friend pointed out the below sentance from Reason.


"If they were lucky Deni or Hanna would have time to give Tern’s name but if they were unlucky or more accurately unprepared they would be incapacitated before they could enact their Bosses protection."

He said my use of enact was incorrect.  After looking into it I found he was right but for the life of me, I couldn't think of the word I should use.  I stumbled across it today - invoke.

I'll have that changed in my updated version.