The Bandstand?  Railman?  These ring any bells?

Lol.  Yeah, I’ve been a bad boy with letting a lot of writing duties slide.

Now, let’s not get carried away that by posting on the the 1st of January about this that I’ve made any bold New Year resolutions.  I have every belief that i’ll get caught up in ‘life’ just as I always do.

But I have been writing, doing a fair bit of work away from the blog.

Just keeping you in the loop. 

Being a parent and working a full-time week as shifts means that usable, personal time is more difficult to obtain.  The temptation to veg out at the end of the day, after Aurora goes down for the night, is a compelling one.

Recently though I’ve been a lot more determined.

• I’ve been regularly posting this week (which is a true miracle)
• I’ve been writing.  In fits and starts mostly but The Bandstand and Railman.  What about that then, eh?
• Miniature painting?  Err, maybe not.  But there’s always more time somewhere… 

And just to be clear, i’m not suffering from depression.  Sure, I’ve been feeling down recently, a bit out of sorts, but having other things to do is a good cure-all.

- Alistair

Anyway, the domain is up for renewal at the weekend and finances are tight enough that keeping an unused domain just isn’t the way forward.

So, what to do?  I had a range of ideas for the site, from only sightly vague to actually incredibly vague, but the first one that had me reaching for the bank card was that it was to be a home for my fiction (and eventually of the writing buddies if they wanted), independant of the Desert Of Zin site, selling some pieces and giving others away.  The Bandstand already saw two chapters available through CHP and I had a notion of collecting the Railman scenes in a prettier format.

Of course, the eternal enemy of all these ideas is time.

So it looks like, unless I have sudden insight or a spark of inspiration, the domain will have to go the way of the dodo.

But I do have a few days still to come up with some kind of plan.  Time will tell, eh?

- Alistair

Whenever I have time (and haven’t I already said I have free evenings next week?) I should knuckle down and dedicate this precious time to the stack of unfinished work which continues to grow.

In saying that, while looking through the archive, I found the first story I attempted for the story-a-day project way back.  It had the working title of ‘Thor’.  It’s only a few hundred words, no more than two scenes, but it was fun to write and given a spruce up it might be worth throwing up on the site.

I’ve been thinking of doing something similar with a few of the shorter standalone pieces.  (but it won’t become another ‘Railman’ or ‘The Bandstand’.  These are on the to-do list to be finished, hopefully, at some point before I shuffle from this mortal coil.)

But as with so many things, we’ll see.

- Alistair

I think it’s partly because I have no strict plan for the story and it’s direction.  I have the vaguest idea what one of the end scenes might be but beyond that it’s anyone’s guess how I get there.

And that’s a good thing, i think.

I have to say that I’m enjoying the third part much more then the second.  Perhaps I was putting myself under too much pressure to finish the second while I’m suitably relaxed about the third.

Meh, who knows.

Hopefully this is going to be more exciting than the second part, or at least hinting at more exciting things to come.  And with ideas for parts four and five, I’d better crack on.

It’d be a shame to lose steam now.

- Alistair

I’ve finally finished the final version of the long awaited (heh, yeah) part two of The Bandstand!

You can find it over at Cold Head Press.

- Alistair

Just so you know I’m not spending ALL my time watching Battlestar Galactica…

- Alistair

Yesterday concerned about the struggle, didn’t get to see The Edgemeister last night, spent some quiet time while Ruthy was out at her art class and had the sudden and exciting idea of what happens next in The Bandstand.

I love it when that happens.

However, the bummer is that I’m at work and itching to get the writing underway.  Gah!

We’ll be having dinner with mrBen and mrsHevs so I’ll have to decide whether to pull a late night or get up super early.  Ah, the agony of choice.

(Of course, it doesn’t matter if I pull a late night or not, there’s no chance of me getting up reasonably early on a Saturday…)

- Alistair

No, it’s the all important second chapter of The Bandstand.

There are three scenes, each in the first draft, as they have been for a few weeks now.  So, what’s the delay?

I’ll be buggered if i know.  A few weeks ago I received some news, good news mind, that has thrown hy head off balance and I’m struggling to keep thoughts straight.  The news?  That’ll have to keep, I’m afraid.  The lips are sealed until things are more certain.  Until then can I get my important work done?

Oh god, I hope so.

I don’t want this to become another of a half-dozen projects that are scattered about the desktop, eventually relegated to the ‘will it ever get done?’ pile.

The problem at the moment, other than keeping my mind on the task at hand, is dialogue.

I’ve never had a problem with dialogue in the past, usually that was my strongest work, but right now?  Nothing.

I know what I should do.  Crack on with later chapters leaving quick notes where dialogue falters and keep the pace of the story while it’s fresh in the noggin.  Lord knows that coming back to it at a later stage once the groundwork is finished would be better.

ha, now I’ve had my epiphany after weeks of hunching over words that characters aren’t saying I don’t have time to get the groundwork laid!  I’ll be out the door to the doc’s in a mo and I might have a sly hour before The Edgemeister arrives.

Ach, I’ll head out and see that the evening brings.

- Alistair

Well, the first draft was passed by Ruthy and the layout is complete but while I work on the second part I’ve sent part one out to my Writng Buddies.  There’s nothing like a bit of a peer review before the actual release.

If, and when, they give it the thumbs up it’ll go live on the site.