London Trip

I went to london to meet up with some old work colleagues yesterday afternoon so I didn't do any writing.  Knowing I didn't have time to get into the writing I spent the time catching up on a few things, like reading through Thursday's stuff and reading up on writing tips.

Visiting london is always good fun and I enjoy walking its streets.  I was disappointed that I couldn't get a strawberry milkshake on the way home after the pub, I really fancied one.

One thing that made me laugh is the way people tend to make assumptions and not look beyound them.  The train home was late adn of the twelve carriages the first eight were not in use.  You had to walk all the way down the platform while not sure when the train was going to leave.  Naturally people were ducking onto the first couple of available carriages as soon as they could.  They filled right up to standing room only.  I had a Burger King meal with me and really wanted a seat so I went a little further.  The third carriage was half empty and I had plenty of room and a table to eat my food.

It was a nice relaxing ride home for me.

Return For Vengeance

I survived karate last night.  Only felt a little light headed during the warm ups.  Not recommended though and next time I give blood is a Friday so I won't have the same problem again.

The thing I love about writing is the creativity and spontaneity.  I'd roughed a plan of the next few scences and I was happy with them.  A little boring to write as they are the bits you need to get the story from M to R say.  I was writing my way through O and wondering how I am going to get everyone to R when a couple of hundred words before the end it comes to me and P changes completely.  Now I at the start of a nice little action sequence that builds on some very 2D characters and adds more colour to the world.  Hopefully it will turn out as well as the initial promise shows.

As a days writing, it went very well and I managed 6,400 words.

Total now at 68,000 (I'm rounding up slightly).

Return For Vengeance

Bother, I just realised something.  I went and gave blood this afternoon and I meant to get a sticker for my daughter but I forgot.  That's annoying.

Due to giving blood I had written this afternoon off for writing and budgeted 2,000 words for this morning.  It always takes me a while to get into the flow so I've never managed more than 2,500.  As it turns out I did 3,000 words which pleased me a lot.

I was actually home from giving blood by 3.30pm so I did consider carrying on but I felt I had already written the afternoon off and I really wanted to catch up with my reading.  I'm glad I did as well, it gave me an excellent idea how to structure the second half of the book.  Not copying, just inspired by what I was reading.

Time for some dinner now and then off to Karate.  Hopefully that won't be as bad an idea after giving blood as I think it might be.  We'll see.

Total now at 61,500 words.

Return For Vengeance

I had a nice weekend.  I saw my daughter for a couple of hours, the Grandprix was excellent, well done to Bottas but what happened to Massa?  I'm not sure we even saw his car once.  The BTCC was very good as well.  It was quite a sight to see 31 cars on the Knockhill circuit and another strong performance for Colin Turkington and Jason Plato.

I had planned to be working all day yesterday and treat it as a normal day instead of a bank holiday but I had too good a night out with an old mate on Sunday.  Three pints of beer and a whole bottle of red wine is not a good combination.  I was rough as old boots and my stomach still doesn't feel right.  Oh well, I only have myself to blame.

I'm off to see Expendables 3 shortly so I finished my day an hour and a half early and I had a short half hour break earlier.  Due to this I thought I was only going to be able to get about 5,000 words done and struggle to do that.  As it turns out I did 6,000 and that has really made my day.

Total now at 58,500.

Reason and Return for Vengeance

I launched Reason For Vengeance officially and I got a really good response from my friends.  It was very encouraging how many were willing to support me in this.  I've seen the sales go through on Amazon and hopefully, if they like the book, there will be some good reviews as well.

I also e-mailed Matt Hubel, the guy who did such an excellent job of the cover for Reason.  He has agreed to do Return as well which I am very pleased about.  Now I just need to work out what spec to give him!

I lost a bit of writing time this morning returning e-mails from my friends.  That certainly isn't a complaint, their supporting me and it was important that I did that.  It just made my day a little harder.  I pushed through though and I made my 6,000 word target.

That is 31,500 words this week.  I think that is the most I have done in that amount of time - checks calendar - yep, previous record of 28,000.  Wow.

Grand total of 52,500 words.  What can I manage next week?

Return For Vengeance

These are long days.  I was up at seven this morning, shave, brush my teeth, ten minutes of calisthenics, breakfast, shower and then off to do the weekly food shop.  By 8.30 am I was at my desk and on to work.  30 mins of social media, 60 mins running through yesterdays writing and then I start today's writing.  Hour break for lunch at 1.00 pm.

It is now just gone 6.00 pm and I've done 6,000 words so I've called it a day.  The oven is on for dinner and while it warms up I'm writing this.  I'll have dinner and then I'll be back at my desk by around 8.00 pm to do an hour of telling people about Reason.

That is not unusual for me when I'm in the zone editing or writing.  Of course there have been days where I have done nothing but play Settlers all day.  Those where when I let the pressure off.  Now I'm determined to have the first draft at approx 150,000 words done by the end of September.  To do that I have to write a minimum of 5,000 words a day, Monday to Friday.  I'm trying to do more than that to give myself a buffer.  Also the quicker I finish the quicker it gets published.

By the way, I'm not complaining.  I really don't mind doing all the work.  If people like what I'm writing, then I will reap all the benefit.  In my previous life I saved the company £1,000,000 and yet I saw none of that.

So anyway, onwards!  6,000 words written today and the total is now at 46,500 words!

Return For Vengeance

I tried to by exercise routine and a run on Monday morning but I felt ill halfway through the a weights rep so I stopped.  I left it yesterday to give whatever was in my system a chance to clear.  It might just be me not doing any regular exercise for the last couple of months.

Anyway.  I started my routine with a bit of trepidation this morning and I certainly didn't feel right but not as bad as Monday so I pushed on.  Got through the entire set and went for my run.  It was good, both my legs and cardio felt fine.  I actually worked out when I got back that it was the furthest I had run since doing the 10K round Silverstone more than two years ago.  I was pleased with that, now I just need to do it more regularly.

Nookpress have finally published Reason so I need to get out e-mails to everyone who said they were interested and get the word out.  Now it is crunch time to see what people think.

It has been a good day of writing.  I'm off to karate in a bit so I couldn't keep going until 7 pm, as I have been the last couple of days.  I was still determined to do the 5,000 and push as far past as I could.  Ended at 5,500 which I'm happy with.

Total now at 40,500 words.