This Blogging Lark
As some of you who know me (or read my About Me piece) know, I was a sports blogger for about five years before I decided to write a novel. Just like novel writing, sports blogging involves a lot of sitting in front of a computer churning out words. Like novel writing, blogging requires a degree of creativity and individuality to stay separate from the pack (if not ahead). Finally, like novel writing, blogging can be a pain in the pooh chute when you’re not in the zone. This, my friends is probably why I’m so sporadic in my posts.
Excuses, excuses! Blah, blah, blah! Yeah, I know. Suck it up, buttercup, and all that. Anyway, enough with my voyage of self-discovery, I promised you some insight into my next novel. However, I’m not sure which one it will be. My biggest problem when I sit down to write (also a blogging issue) is, whatever I intend to work on, is not what’s buzzing around in my puny brain.
So here’s what is on my to-do list (I think I’ve mentioned it before):
- A book of short stories based on Irish folklore. These should be next, but I might try and have them published separately in magazines and the like
- A retelling of the wonderful Second Battle of Moytura, an Irish legend written with the intention of inspiring the Irish people to band together and kick Viking raider butt once and for all
- A story of a man driven by revenge who finds his humanity through the unlikeliest of ways
- I’ve got three other ideas in the pipeline that I’m pretty excited about, but I’ll keep these under my hat for now.
I did promise to have finished a book by the end of June, and I intend to keep that, even though I’m at best halfway done on any of them. Setting a deadline works for me, I always cracked my personal whip when I had to get things done in a hurry.
I also intend to write a post every Tuesday night, giving progress updates (boring) and other ramblings. Basically whatever pops into my twisted brain.
Other News/Random Items
My little girl is eight years old in two weeks. Eight years old! When the hell did that happen?
I don’t know how many of you like Horror or other genres, but I watched Slasher on Netflix and thought it was great. The casting was good and the storyline was first class, keeping the killer a mystery until the very end. Plus there was an end, not a series that will go on forever. Or until it’s cancelled. The show needs to give American Horror Story their opening credits back though.
I’ve been reading a lot of short stories lately, mainly because they’re free, but some of them are terrific. If you like your horror cosmic, check out Ansible 15717 by Stant Litore. For fantasy, Grimsdalr by Joshua Robertson has a nice Beowulf tone to it. I try to review every book I read nowadays, so if you’re interested, you can find me on Goodreads.
That’s all for now. Until Tuesday,
Al
