Today, in a fit of pique, I’ve been working on the long overdue edit of The Spires At Midnight. I also have a notepad that’s beginning to fill with proposed endings for a load of other projects that need to get cleared off the tabletop.
Posted on January 1st, 2012 at 11:02 pm — No Comments »
Posted on December 20th, 2011 at 10:57 pm — No Comments »
Got an e-mail from Remote Push about Flurb, ‘a webzine of astonishing tales’.
Posted on October 31st, 2011 at 8:14 pm — 1 Comment »
So it (almost) begins…
Other than this post I’ll not be thinking of NaNoWriMo. Tomorrow is when all the fun begins and despite not having a proper coherent story I’m refusing to fret.
Posted on October 27th, 2011 at 10:50 am — No Comments »
Today, at some point, I’ll be planning the NaNoWriMo for this year. Was going to do it earlier in the week but loads of distractions got in the way.
Posted on October 6th, 2011 at 8:57 am — No Comments »
Well, the first run of Spires at Midnight has been finished! Man, I happy about that. 
Despite it being patchy as hell… 
Posted on October 2nd, 2011 at 2:00 pm — No Comments »
I’ve been looking through my archives for inspiration. Looking for a story that jumps out, crying ‘look at me!’ And Spires At Midnight responded.
Posted on October 1st, 2011 at 10:16 pm — 1 Comment »
Err, yeah. Desert of Zin is back online. Whoo. I can almost feel the ripples of excitement coming through the ether…
Posted on May 3rd, 2011 at 10:23 pm — 1 Comment »
Yeah, let’s talk today about Premiata Forneria Marconi, specifically their album Per Un Amico. It’s a rare bag of Italian prog brilliance.
Posted on May 2nd, 2011 at 11:15 pm — 2 Comments »
Aphrodite’s Child. Heh, where am I going to start with this?
A 60s/70s band from Greece with Vangelis and Greek crooner Demis Roussos among the members. Released three albums of which I have the third and final: 666 (The Apocalypse of John, 13/18).
Posted on May 1st, 2011 at 11:09 pm — No Comments »
On Friday 13th May, I’ll be mixing it up with my fellow Prog Crusaders, capes a-flowing for Progressive Rock masters Pallas. So, I thought I’d bang on for the next 13 days about all the things I like about the genre. Talk about defending the indefensible… Although I’ll enthuse about the mighty Pallas one of these next days, today I’ll have to start with my first true love of Prog: Yes! (The exclamation mark is optional…)
Posted on May 1st, 2011 at 5:10 pm — No Comments »
I’ve been trawling the internet this afternoon looking at who is running locally in the elections this week (may 5th for those who have forgotten).
Normally I’m none to bothered about politics. i don’t like it, I don’t trust it so i tend to stay away from political discussions. Most of it involves bad rhetoric, time that can be spent doing something more worthwhile, like scratching my bum.
Posted on April 30th, 2011 at 9:05 pm — No Comments »
Since my last post, I received two kind offers to pick up / pay for the domain so that I could continue churning out my special brand of second-rate fiction…
I’ve not accepted them and this is why.
Posted on April 30th, 2011 at 7:52 pm — No Comments »
I’ve been gaming, in one form or another, for as long as I can remember.
Posted on April 29th, 2011 at 10:57 am — No Comments »
Prince William and some girl called Kate are getting married in minutes. Now, I’m not a royalist or a republican. I’m one of the great unrepresented. I just don’t care much.
Posted on April 28th, 2011 at 9:31 pm — 2 Comments »
On the back of buying the Saboteur and Ruthy and I talking about the nude content, leading onto a lament for the way our society and the media sexualise nudity (look, boobs!), we had been thinking about acceptable levels of content to subject Aurora to.
Posted on April 27th, 2011 at 5:22 pm — No Comments »
When I was working my way out of my depression, way back over a year ago, Ruth had me on her Task Centred Therapy, which (and I’m simplifying things here) involved picking a task and dedicating all your mind to it. Didn’t matter if you finished it or not, purely working on the task was enough.
Posted on April 26th, 2011 at 10:21 pm — No Comments »
I have his other website, Cold Head Press (Don’t check it out, there’s no content there at the moment). When I first bought the domain and set up the site it was in the pre-Aurora haze of ‘I have the time to do anything!’ The problem with having all that time is the tendency not to spend it wisely.
Posted on April 25th, 2011 at 11:23 pm — No Comments »
I picked up this game midweek – The Saboteur, by Pandemic Games – and I’ve already trawled through a quarter of it. Good game. And there’s a patch to download called The Midnight Show which, other than providing some useful game extras, makes the clothing of the dancers even skimpier then usual. Use your imagination. But there’s a lot more to the game than ‘look, titties!’
Posted on April 24th, 2011 at 5:57 pm — No Comments »
A new charity shop in Partick. A new one? As if we need any more, but there it is – Save The Children – around the corner from Partick Underground on Dumbarton Road. And books, for the time being at least, are £1 each…
Posted on April 24th, 2011 at 5:03 pm — No Comments »
Given the choice I’ll always take cake, thanks all the same. It’s Easter Sunday. He has risen, He has risen indeed. A wee bit of free liturgy for you there. No extra cost. I’m good like that.
Posted on April 18th, 2011 at 10:52 pm — 1 Comment »
This was sent to me via Mr Push. Apparently it has been doing the rounds on Twitter and the like.
“BBC attacked by authors for ‘sneering tone’ in book shows” from telegraph.co.uk.
Posted on April 13th, 2011 at 11:58 pm — 1 Comment »
I only watched the first half of the first series and the odd episode of further series. Then Ruth only started working through the sixth and final season. I can’t say there’s much chance of me fully understanding everything that’s going on.
Posted on April 12th, 2011 at 11:40 pm — 4 Comments »
Today, according to the logo-meisters at Google, is the 50th anniversary of the first manned spaceflight.
Posted on March 25th, 2011 at 8:36 am — No Comments »
yWriter has long been my weapon of choice. It’s lightweight, straightforward and has a host of additional features. It’s one of the better author tools out there. But on Linux and running on Mono it’s buggy as hell.
So, for one story, i’ll be giving LyX a go. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 24th, 2011 at 9:43 pm — 2 Comments »
Well, it’s been a good week. Other than a few bangers at work that seem intent on ruining it for everyone, I’ve been in a remarkably chipper mood.
And from the title of the post, can you guess why? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 13th, 2011 at 12:18 pm — No Comments »
Yeah, as the SVQ is out of the road, and after a week off from things I would really had to do, I cracked on with my writing yesterday.
Posted on March 12th, 2011 at 6:45 pm — 2 Comments »
This time 1.5k of my guys against the same amount of Chaos Space Marines. It was at GW Glasgow against Graeme on Thursday evening on a pokey wee 4ft square board. Annihilation mission with a Pitched Battle deployment.
Posted on February 25th, 2011 at 7:09 pm — No Comments »
Posted on February 18th, 2011 at 8:39 pm — No Comments »
Despite the whole “I have college work still to finish” thing, I have a new story bubbling up through the old noggin.
Posted on February 13th, 2011 at 4:19 pm — 1 Comment »
It’s been hectic here in Casa Big Al. My SVQ is due soon, so a lot of my not working time has been focused on chewing through the thick language of my outstanding modules.
Posted on January 29th, 2011 at 6:43 pm — 1 Comment »
The third edition hardback of Call of Cthulhu arrived today! Whoo!
Posted on January 21st, 2011 at 5:17 pm — No Comments »
Posted on January 10th, 2011 at 6:42 pm — No Comments »
Yesterday I nipped in to the Glasgow Games Workshop store, for my over-priced gaming magazine and to scope out future plastic crack, and while i was watching two kids doing their best to play the fastest game I’ve ever seen, I ended up talking to their grandmother.
Posted on January 9th, 2011 at 8:10 pm — 3 Comments »
It’s a wonderful movie. Just wonderful.
It’s easily one of the best kids movies of all time. Certainly It’s one that I want Aurora to enjoy as she grows up.
But as we Ruth and I watched it (part of the streaming service we have from LoveFilm through our PS3 – it’s a wonder I ever leave the flat) we noticed that everything is set up for Charlie to succeed.
Posted on January 8th, 2011 at 8:51 pm — No Comments »
I was going to do a number of things today. I had planned to hit the library early doors to get some quiet college work time. But I had promised Ruthy a lie-in and looking after Aurora is not conducive to getting much done.
Posted on January 4th, 2011 at 5:24 pm — No Comments »
Could be, could be…
I HAVE been writing as a matter of fact. I have a project I’m working on (i always do) and it’s one that I have a deadline for.
Posted on January 1st, 2011 at 8:54 pm — No Comments »
Heh, it’s Ruthy’s old laptop. She got a new one for Christmas and I now have my mitts on her old Compaq Presario V5000. Which now has Ubuntu 10.10 powering it…
Posted on January 1st, 2011 at 12:17 pm — No Comments »
Yep, we’ve survived the threats of ‘Apocalypse Snow’ and have arrived in 2011 relatively unscathed. A win, I think.
Posted on December 28th, 2010 at 7:56 pm — No Comments »
Just got round to watching this. Didn’t think Up could beat Wall-E, I didn’t think anything could to be honest.
Posted on December 27th, 2010 at 7:14 pm — No Comments »
It certainly has been some year. Looking at her today, with rusk residue on her face and fingers and that already well used ‘butter wouldn’t melt’ look in her eyes, it’s difficult to see where all the time has gone.
Posted on December 8th, 2010 at 10:02 am — 4 Comments »
Two weeks ago today I had my first game of Warhammer 40k in about 17 (ish) years. And it was glorious. Ah, the small joys of moving metal and plastic men across a make-believe war zone. Futuristic men though. In space armour. That makes all the difference.
Posted on December 1st, 2010 at 9:11 am — 1 Comment »
I’ve become a big fan of Pallas. Neil Psychochicken, Bruce Sphenodon and I went to see them a few months ago at The Ferry in Glasgow. We wore gold capes. Eventually, so did the band. The gods of prog were pleased…
Posted on November 21st, 2010 at 8:52 pm — No Comments »
I stumbled upon these two products from Spartan Games: Dystopian Wars (Global Warfare in a Victorian Sci-Fi Age) and Firestorm Armada (space combat in a war torn universe).
Hmm, shiny, shiny…
Of course, I have no time for any additional miniatures, painting-wise. However, if I used my time off wisely…
- Alistair
Posted on November 19th, 2010 at 10:47 pm — 2 Comments »
I’ve got two weeks off work. I’m not going anywhere nice, this was one of those ‘use your holiday time or lose it’ moments, but I have every intention of getting the best out on my time.
Posted on November 14th, 2010 at 11:35 pm — No Comments »
I received my copy of the new (well, newish) Dungeons and Dragons Starter Set.
(I’m sure my old church will be concerned about its ‘gateway to the occult’ potential…)
Posted on November 14th, 2010 at 10:41 pm — 2 Comments »
It’s Not National Novel Writing Month. I have officially decreed it so.
Posted on November 10th, 2010 at 8:31 pm — No Comments »
Hmm, bit of a problem. I’ve written next to nothing for the last three days.
For the life of me, I just can’t find the inspiration or the words.
Maybe It’ll be different tomorrow.
- Alistair
Posted on November 7th, 2010 at 10:37 pm — No Comments »
Expected target : 11669
Actual wordcount : 11669
Saturday was a writing lite day. Wasn’t too bothered about it as Aurora has overnight with Ruth’s parents and I was having a day of films, beer and veging out. Bliss.
And today has been a fine day of catch up.
The last few days I’ve been really down about the whole experience but today, with the usual NaNoWriMo magic, i’ve really enjoyed the writing. Everything has fallen into place.
- Alistair
Posted on November 5th, 2010 at 11:19 pm — 1 Comment »
Expected target : 8335
Actual wordcount : 8533
Wow, it was a struggle today. Just got through the morgue scene despite not having any actual knowledge of the real world process and any actual medical expertise. Anyone out there with a medical background want to help me not dig myself into a story grave?
Other than that I’m a bit concerned that I’m running out of steam already. Still on track but boy, it was hard.
Also, I’m aware that these posts are ‘wordcount, wordcount, complaints about the strain’. Hopefully tomorrow afternoon, I’ll take a break from battering words into place long enough to share a bit more about my process this year. But tonight I’m just too damn tired.
See you all in the morning…
- Alistair
Posted on November 4th, 2010 at 11:47 pm — No Comments »
Expected target : 6668
Actual wordcount : 6748
On track. Little time to write, so I’m not altogether sure how I’m doing it. I have a few day’s off now so I’d like to get a bit ahead. Gain a bit of ground…
- Alistair
Posted on November 3rd, 2010 at 11:48 pm — No Comments »
Expected target : 5001
Actual wordcount : 5032
Caught up again. Have a few days off over the weekend so I’m hoping for good writing time then. And Aurora is staying overnight with in-laws Saturday to Sunday so peace to write! Whoo!
It was a struggle today, but not a words struggle. Just a ‘finding time to write’ struggle!
- Alistair
Posted on November 2nd, 2010 at 11:18 pm — No Comments »
Expected target : 3334
Actual wordcount : 3151
Not brilliant but not bad considering. I left for work just before 8 this morning and got back tonight just before 10. Not conducive to writing but I’ve spent the last hour and a bit copying what I’ve managed to scribble down in a notepad today into yWriter.
More time, and writing, tomorrow.
- Alistair
Posted on November 1st, 2010 at 10:28 pm — No Comments »
Expected target : 1667
Actual wordcount : 2004
Been tough today. Aurora caused a sleepless night but the WriMo was started early as a result. I had a notepad at work today for break/lunch/spare-time scribbling.
I almost crashed when I realised that I was really labouring. A post on Twitter got a response from Mr Push with some well timed encouragement. That and realising that the story I was trying to tell was too serious. Once the mood was lightened a bit, the words came.
- Alistair
Posted on November 1st, 2010 at 2:51 am — No Comments »
In less than perfect circumstances my WriMo has officially started!
Aurora has been up since 1.30, upset and unwell, and there’s little chance of me getting sleep any time soon. Best make use of the time awake. Certainly I’ll be knackered once I get in from work tonight so any waking time is potential writing time!
-Alistair
Posted on October 26th, 2010 at 10:53 pm — No Comments »
(Inspired by this post.)
I’ve been capturing notes dilligently today, while I’ve had downtime at work, and with days to go before the start I’m happy with what I have.
Posted on October 25th, 2010 at 6:59 pm — 3 Comments »
I know it’s only the 25th (only the 25th? It starts a week today!) but I’m already dead keen to get cracking at this year’s NaNo. I spent some of the day today working on ideas. I’m still going to do the same story I rattled on about before but i’m working on some of the side plots at the moment. Something to pad it out and make it less one-dimensional.
I’m not sure if they’ll work but if I can get away with the main story (which I’m still playing close to my chest) then I can really justify anything. Some of these sub-plots should be toffee…
(If you’re interested in what I’m doing, the project is called NaNoWriMo. Head over and check it out.)
-Alistair
Posted on October 6th, 2010 at 10:56 pm — No Comments »
I’ve been waiting for this new series (which started tonight at 9pm) for ages, especially as they’ve had it in the can for a good while, unable to show it in case Lord Sugar influenced anyone during the last election.
Aye, fine. But it’s back and it’s just the best thing the BBC produce. Or the best thing when Doctor Who or Sherlock isn’t on.
What I especially like about it, and there’ll be no spoilers here as to who got fired, is that these guys are meant to be some of the best and brightest. And they’re pretty much a shambles. Other than things like Big Brother where you have a dozen ramdom tossers. At least these guys are ment to be a bit less random. As tossers.
- Alistair
Posted on October 3rd, 2010 at 2:40 pm — 1 Comment »
Less than a month to go until NaNoWriMo and I’m getting that familiar itch. (no, not THAT familiar itch…)
Posted on October 2nd, 2010 at 9:02 pm — No Comments »
On going through the additional miniatures I now have (yesterday’s post) I’ve had a closer look at the Space Hulk / Advanced Space Crusade ones along with a quick glance at the ASC rules.
Posted on October 1st, 2010 at 7:58 pm — 1 Comment »
(Well, only if it’s a small-ish table… )
My mum and sister visited today, to spend some time with the Aurora-monster, and they brought with them a bountiful harvest of a bag of gaming miniatures.
Posted on September 12th, 2010 at 10:00 am — 3 Comments »
I logged on FaceBook this morning to see a friend had posted about the rapidly approaching NaNoWriMo. Apparently we have six weeks until it begins.
Aww, hell.
I’m of a thinking that I might be body-swerving the nano this year. But then in six weeks a perfect idea might fall into my lap which just demands attention. Or not.
Too much to do and never enough time.
- Alistair
Posted on September 11th, 2010 at 8:02 pm — No Comments »
I realised today that I get hits on my site to this post, and I realised I don’t use yWriter in the same way any more. Currently I’m running it within a Virtualbox session running an old copy of Windows XP I had kicking around, gathering dust.
Posted on September 4th, 2010 at 8:44 pm — No Comments »
Aurora has some childcare (whoo!) which gave myself and Ruthy a rare afternoon off. Bliss.
Posted on August 29th, 2010 at 8:59 pm — No Comments »
So, despite my lack of sleep I had a relatively good day of writing today. It was Towers Over The Clyde, the sequel to Living On Reputation.
It was good to get back into it (it always is) and a rough first chapter has finally been finished!
I have some really crazy ideas for the rest of the story, I’m really letting my imagination run riot with this one.
- Alistair
Posted on August 29th, 2010 at 8:43 pm — 1 Comment »
Bloomin’ hell, I’m shattered after being up since 3.30 this morning. Woke with the worst case of trapped wind ever and had to head out for a long, long walk to shift it. Got back in and it was 4.30am. Still no sleep. Got through my early shift and it’s been a long day.
Aurora is asleep, dinner is soon and an early night is calling methinks…
- Alistair
Posted on August 28th, 2010 at 10:41 am — No Comments »
Fantasy Flight Games, makers of many fine games (including the Call of Cthulhu Card Game and the Arkham Horror boardgame), have been milking their Games Workshop licence in the years since they got it. And all power to them, their standard of quality across all the games they produce seems to be consistently high.
Posted on August 27th, 2010 at 5:56 pm — 1 Comment »
I haven’t written anything in ages. Absolutely ages. Which is a shame ‘cos I was really getting into it. Then, as always happens, real life comes hurtling into view.
Posted on August 27th, 2010 at 2:28 pm — 2 Comments »
The five man squad of Grey Knights, mentioned here, have been finished only to be replaced with another five. The Inquisitor and the Chimera have been joined by a Space Marine Sergeant (possibly painted in White Scars colours), a Grey Knight Terminator with Incinerator and a single Plaguebearer of Nurgle.
Oh, and 33 night goblins…
Still on a look out for a camera that’s decent enough to capture detail.
- Alistair
Posted on August 27th, 2010 at 1:50 pm — 5 Comments »
It’s been a busy wee week for the Bainster. One of the carers I work with has moved on to another job so I’m in the fortunate position of working with full time hours. Don’t really know how long that’ll last and I’ve forgotten how tiring a full-time week can be.
Posted on August 27th, 2010 at 8:33 am — No Comments »
Ruthy and I were discussing this morning the anti-Christ-like ways of the ever watch-able Jeremy Kyle, and the celebrity scandal episode with the wonderfully crazy Brigitte Nielsen. We thought that she’s a good match for the prince of darkness but another name was invoked who we thought would be a perfect match.
Grace Jones.
According to Ruthy, Grace Jones is “the screaming chaos that awaits us all at the end of time”.
Perfect. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
- Alistair
Posted on July 25th, 2010 at 7:07 pm — 1 Comment »
I had a deadline for Duality 2, a book produced locally, that was today. The story I was working on didn’t quite work and while I had a good beginning and ending, the middle just didn’t work out. So no submissions for Duality 2 for this boy. I’ll wait until Duality 3 and see if I have anything in mind that would work.
Now that’s out of the way I’ve been thinking of working on something a bit longer. Recently my story lengths have been getting shorter and shorter and after a comment by mrBen I thought that something with a bit more story to tell was on the cards.
So now I’m working on a sequel of sorts to Living on Reputation, something that was submitted recently for Mythaxis. And, hopefully, it should be a bit more weighty than I’ve been producing. It has the working title of Towers Over The Clyde.
To give you a hint, think of Glasgow cop-show Taggart but with wizards and a hint of H.P. Lovecraft. Lovely.
- Alistair
Posted on July 20th, 2010 at 11:12 pm — 1 Comment »
Next week is Read An RPG Book In Public Week. Make it so. Dust your favourite role-playing edition off your bookshelf and peruse it proudly in public.
I happen to be off work next week to look after Aurora so I might be doing Read An RPG Book To Your Daughter In Public Week.
All the info is at The Escapist.
- Alistair
Posted on July 18th, 2010 at 6:26 pm — 2 Comments »
Currently I have a five man squad of Grey Knight Space Marines, a Daemonhunter Inquisitor and an Imperial Guard Chimera. Although it’s slow progress I’m painting faster now than at any time since my teens. I’ll try and get some pics up but i’ll have to borrow someones digital camera.
Anybody have a decent one I can borrow for a while?
Thing is, as far as gaming is concerned, I have an odd selection of miniatures to choose from. I’ve only ever bought those I fancied painting at the time with no regard to whether or not it made a coherent army. Oh, well.
- Alistair
Posted on July 18th, 2010 at 11:43 am — 3 Comments »
I have until the end of the week to get a story finished. Talk about leaving it to the last minute.
The added challenge is Ruth had to head up north for family reasons and I have the little Aurora goblin all to myself until she gets back. Not exactly conducive to a peaceful writing environment but maybe I should get aurora to help me finish it?
Perhaps her critical eye is exactly what is needed…
- Alistair
Posted on July 9th, 2010 at 10:07 pm — No Comments »
That would be Warhammer Online then. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on July 8th, 2010 at 8:59 pm — No Comments »
It’s been a while so I thought I’d post a quick update where I am writing-wise.
Posted on June 22nd, 2010 at 1:06 pm — No Comments »
They’re looking for a novel, at least 80,000 words in length, to be submitted by 31th December 2010.
The theme is Anywhere but here, Anywhere but now. More details are on the Terry Pratchett website. I’ll have to put the thinking cap on.
- Alistair
Posted on June 22nd, 2010 at 11:46 am — No Comments »
Last week, after a few glasses of wine too many, I ordered the Warhammer Fantasy Battle boxed game, The Battle for Skull Pass, from Dark Sphere. I had confirmation from Dark Sphere yesterday that it had been dispatched and this morning…
Posted on June 18th, 2010 at 5:30 pm — 3 Comments »
Living On Reputation is a wee story of mine that’s been published by Mythaxis Magazine.
Posted on June 16th, 2010 at 10:55 pm — No Comments »
Things a picking up, as they often do when my confidence returns. Bit of a no-brainer there. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on June 16th, 2010 at 10:52 pm — No Comments »
I recently recategorised the blog with my gaming stuff falling under ’6 Rolling Freak’. It’s someone who does well with their dice rolls or is otherwise jammy with their playing, hence ‘you’re a 6 rolling freak’.
Posted on June 16th, 2010 at 10:46 pm — No Comments »
It has been a while (as usual) so I thought the blog required a bit of a update.
Posted on June 7th, 2010 at 7:01 pm — 3 Comments »
(Or ups and downs and the inevitable return of the Crisis of Confidence.)
I have a habit of becoming hermit-like every so often, even more than normal, and recently has been one of those periods. It’s annoying (a bloody pain to be honest) but it’s just something that has happened for years, easily since I hit my 20′s.
Now, I know this recent one is not a relapse of the poor mental health that plagued me last year. Generally I’ve been quite chipper. Work trundles on, they throw me some shifts if they’re feeling benevolent (joke, joke), Aurora is blossoming and Ruthy is as lovely as ever. A good and erstwhile chum is back from down south, it’s always good to have him around, and I have no reason to feel like this.
Yet I do.
Of course, the usual reason my mood suffers is due to the pressure I put myself under with my writing. Same old, same old. Perhaps I’m just going through the same mood I hit when I had my last whinge.
Ah, bugger. Prog beckons, I think. That should break me out of it.
- Alistair
Posted on May 30th, 2010 at 10:15 pm — 1 Comment »
Or, How I Managed to Convince My Wife To Have A Game Of Warhammer 40K…
Actually that’s not strictly true. She is interested in playing a game and seeing as I’ve had these blasted things on my shelf (still mostly unpainted mind) and not yet played them, I think this is a good move. And seeing as it’s been years and several editions between my last actual games. 16 years and three editions…
Tonight we set up the wee table, I cobbled together two small armies of futuristic metal (and plastic) soldiers, and we went over some of the rules. The idea is to spread the learning curve over several days and to use units that are pretty straightforward to play.
Tomorrow, hopefully, brings the game itself!
- Alistair
Posted on May 26th, 2010 at 8:46 pm — 1 Comment »
For a while, and for reasons I can’t possibly explain, I’ve been playing D&D Tiny Adventures on Facebook. And when I say ‘playing’ I mean I log in occasionally and click some buttons to send my character on another quest which, an hour later, will be finished and awaiting my further intervention.
Posted on May 12th, 2010 at 10:13 am — 4 Comments »
Bizarrely, I’m still working on this. Haven’t completed a full story since Day 1 but I’ve written anything up to 1000 words for each of them. I keep telling myself I’ll head back and fill in the gaps once I’ve finished the story for that day, and I might still do that, but I’m a busy boy with new job and baby. Only so many hours in the day to do any of this…
Posted on May 4th, 2010 at 5:28 pm — No Comments »
Still working on these guys.
Day 2 had wizards in a tower being assailed by an ancient foe.
Day 3 had a man falling uncontrollably between dying realities.
Day 4 has a real world tale of a man stepping up and putting himself in harms way to protect others.
They’ve all been started and none are finished yet…
- Alistair
Posted on May 1st, 2010 at 11:08 pm — No Comments »
Well, I gave it a try, despite my split shift and my incredible desire for sleep and have produced a very silly little story, 951 words of very silly story, and I’m very pleased with it.
It was a joy to write. It’s about a carer called Thor.
I’ve let Ruth read it, in a pre and untouched first edit I’ll have you know, and I hope she thinks it’s a fun and silly as I do.
It feels odd writing something and finishing it (for the most part) in a single day.
With no real plan what each day will bring, I’m interested what I’ll write tomorrow.
(For more info about what I’m doing, go here.)
- Alistair
Posted on April 30th, 2010 at 9:25 am — No Comments »
Despite the “spitting the dummy out” moment I had recently, I have taken the mindbogglingly foolish step of signing up for the StoryADay.org website.
The plan, according to the mentalists over there, is to write (finish) a story every day in May. The word count of these can be from 50 to 5000 words.
I’m promising nothing.
- Alistair
Posted on April 18th, 2010 at 6:28 pm — 5 Comments »
I’ve been having a bit of a struggle recently.
With everything I’ve written so far, even the stuff I think is half reasonable, I always get the feeling that it’s a bit flat. There’s always that voice at the back of my head telling me that it could have been richer in the detail and, well, just better. And I just don’t know how. The added concern is that my writing is never going to be more than mediocre.
Posted on April 15th, 2010 at 12:39 am — No Comments »
A while ago mrBen became aware that a number of sites on the shared hosting we had were hacked due to a bad plugin on one of the sites. Nothing major but annoying enough to be a pest. The site maybe down or have theme / plugin issues for the next while as I sort it out.
Posted on April 5th, 2010 at 12:53 pm — No Comments »
Posted on March 29th, 2010 at 11:26 pm — No Comments »
Finally! The book launch was on Friday just there and muggins here picked up two copies. I had already received my personal copy but my mother was over last week and my first ever copy of a book with a story of my very own found it’s way into her hands.
Posted on March 28th, 2010 at 11:37 pm — No Comments »
Posted on March 14th, 2010 at 10:25 pm — 1 Comment »
Righty, here’s part seven. I hope it meets with your approval.
- Alistair
Posted on March 7th, 2010 at 8:32 pm — No Comments »
Railman won’t be ready for Monday. Ruthy hasn’t been well and has been in quarantine for most of the day and Aurora isn’t all that well at the moment either.
If it’s tidy enough for early in the week I’ll release it then.
Sorry for the delay.
- Alistair
Posted on March 1st, 2010 at 3:30 pm — No Comments »
Words About Whiteinch is getting very real now. It’s odd, but as the first story of mine that’ll actually be in ACTUAL PRINT, I’m getting really really excited…
But the anthology is here on Amazon Uk.
Mwah ha ha ahahahahahahahaha…
*ahem*
Sorry about that.
Now I have to get the next few scenes of Railman out the way and work on other short stories, see if I can get them closer to publish standard. (of course, it’ll keep me away from the outstanding housework…)
- Alistair
Posted on March 1st, 2010 at 6:00 am — No Comments »
Here’s a belated part five of The Railman. It’s been a hectic week or two with much that has got in the way of regular updates. But I’m back on track now.
As usual all comments, criticisms and suggestions are welcome and if you know anyone who might like the story, don’t hesitate to spread the word!
-Alistair
Posted on February 8th, 2010 at 7:30 am — 5 Comments »
Part Five here guys. Still some scene setting going on. Things are moving in a direction I didn’t expect. let’s hope it pans out. As usual all comments, criticisms and suggestions are welcome.
- Alistair
Posted on February 1st, 2010 at 11:04 pm — No Comments »
The first of February’s Railman posts. I’m aware there should have been one on Friday and this should have been it. Oh well.
Feel free to leave a comment, criticism or suggestion.
- Alistair
