Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Each week can bring surprising changes. A couple of weeks ago I wasn’t thinking I’d be leaving this house any time soon. Now there are floor plans and to do lists. Last week when I wrote my blog I didn’t know I’d be offered the chance to have …
Tag: Books
Update and random thoughts about story creation and execution
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Updates and talk about stories. Formatting is go. It wasn’t exactly in place last week, which was concerning me. Now the text will probably be in place well before the cover art. I am relieved because I wanted to have the old gang back together for this third …
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Updates and Lost Dreams (Literal lost dreams – there is nothing grandly melancholy in this blog at all, FYI.)
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! I managed not to go see Alien: Romulus a third time this weekend. I did look at the times though. It was still in an Imax near me, I was tempted. I am a massive fan of The Crow. Saw the 1994 movie four times at the cinema. …
The Dog Days of Summer Redux
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! The dog days of summer are again ended. I wrote about that last year, and what a sweet summer child I was, thinking I would be done with rewrites in 4-6 weeks with grammar checks and proofing to follow. Well, a mere year later, those stages are done. …
Done, in more ways than One
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! How many times can a book be finished? Many many times. Given that, I have finished making the final proofing corrections. So from my perspective the book is done. I will still read it again, because the last thing I did was a specific word check, and as …
The Distraction of Ideas and the Need for Careful Construction
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Final proofing progress now 63%. Getting there. This meant sadly that my self-directed learning has slowed considerably, but hey ho, progress on the book comes first. I did find time to flesh out some more ideas for the next book, writing down what has been percolating in my …
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Progress and Star Trek
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! 19% of the way through updating my manuscript for the last time. Not long now, and I’m extremely ready to be finished with it. Having said that, I’m very pleased with this last pass – final improvements have been made. This is why writers can tinker forever – …
Finding Voice in a Language Neglected: the Long Road Towards Mastery of Scots
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! I have recently experienced an epiphany. I’ve always written fantasy. Soon # 3 will be out, (my proof of a printed version is complete, and many benefits to the text have been obtained by that tactile appraisal of the text) and again, like the first two I have …
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The streak is broken… Long Live the Streak!
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Well, I let a Tuesday slip by me at last without a blog produced! It was as inevitable as rain. In Scotland. But I have to say it was a surprise to me. I mean I thought I was going to write one at least twice yesterday, and …
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Escape Velocity Achieved, New World Sighted.
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! I did not remain in editing hell, my friends, though I am grateful I visited, because I fixed two small issues that came out on the multiple repeated passes I made as I chased some words and phrases through the text. In short controlled bursts. One would have …
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Roderick T. Macdonald 