Mongrel, 1

This is it! I’ve just let Draft 2 Digital (the publisher I’ve been with for about six years) know I’ll be serializing it here on my blog. Mind you, it’s not nearly Monday yet in the northern western hemisphere, so I am jumping the starter gun a bit.

And in addition, I said I’d write a post with Ushen’s letter. That’s not happening. It isn’t hard to read her story between the lines, and the details will keep till we meet her again as a grown up woman down the track.

Giving the manuscript another edit while turning it from a print format into an online reading format, I’m laughing about the bits that are already dated. I’ll be interested to hear about you tripping over them.

Earth Fall, 21

Connecting A to B

Connecting Earth Fall to Meld is not happening. The amount of time between them is out of wack. I think now that the events in Earth Fall took place before anything in Mongrel happened.

Lol, does it seem like I’m talking as though these events are coming into being without a writer’s input? Put like that? Yes, it does. A broad band of muscular storying is growing between Earth Fall and events in Mongrel and it’s not like I planned anything much.

Mongrel was to be part one of a trilogy that in my mind I’ve already scaled back to a twosome. Time will tell. Mongrel resides in the long long tail of indie published novels marketed by Draft to Digital.com.

I had a quick read of Mongrel’s Chapter 26 the other day and thought I wouldn’t mind running my eagle editing eye over it once more. And maybe turn it into an audio file by reading it chapter by chapter into some software and publishing that chapter by chapter.

Which will necessitate taking it off Amazon if I don’t want to get a shirty email, saying I’ve been cancelled, as the biggie doesn’t allow any part of a production it’s selling to exist outside the virtual covers of the item being sold.

Making some friends over on Substack, I got a bunch of links on how to find my voice. Thank you, Aurelian Ashmore. So yeah, I’m looking into it.

Earth Fall, 19

The action from here to the end of Earth Fall is from Ushen’s point of view. Her very early memories and experiences are glossed over somewhat, since realistic communications would’ve ranged from inchoate to difficult as she is only two years old at the beginning of the chapter.

Rather than posting up the whole lot at once, I decided on short chapters relating to the distinct phases of Ushen’s life. Plus, my thinking was that starting with very short chapters would allow me to expand where needed while editing, and that has been the case so far. Section 1 started with a bunch of notes of about 500 words, that became approx 1800.

As seems to be becoming usual these days, I’m behind on sourcing/painting imagery. The image pertaining to this installment may be added later.

Lego: The Supply Lama

Nothing to do with the new project, this set has been sitting around unopened for a couple of months.

I bought it originally because it looks like how I imagine the tiffanies in Earth Fall, thought i could maybe use it to illustrate various chapters.

Then opened the box and discovered the intricacy of the build. This will be one of those sets I’ll never take apart.

So last week had a surprise visit of the grandkids. The five year old went to the shelf and got down transparent bricks set she has been working her way through.

Leaving the almost eight year old a bit affronted, not being part of that far too easy a set for him. I said what about this one then? The supply lama that was.

He and his father built mightily and got to the end of bag three with the lama still just a forebody—very sturdy—and a box with open sides. Forgot to get that image.

After about a week of it sitting around, I thought I better start on it. Most of Bags 4 and 5 were the cladding. Struck me that I really had to trust the instruction booklet because most of the time I had no idea what I was putting together.

This for example …

Then the booklet gave me what the finished article should look like, and then where on the lama it should be installed.

A side neck piece, in case you’re wondering.

It wall be how to do the legs that I will be taking away with me, as they are quite elegant and I can see them on several other animals.

Constructing the head was fun, when you put the eyes on it suddenly has a character.

Moggy is a bit iffy about it. Like she’s saying, Do not come any nearer!

I haven’t put the Fortnite stickers on the hatches yet as I may still use the animal in a different story.