Greenwich Meantime

So today I scanned the rest of my plan in on the scanner at the central York library. There are over 40 pages of plans and notes. It means I have a spare copy in case I lose the original. Have looked at the NanoWriMo site and am itching to get something done as quickly as possible. I would like to do some before I go to bed, get about 1,000 words done, but at this juncture in time I do not know if 'the 1st of November' starts at 12.00 am Greenwich Meantime.

Greenwich Meantime, I wonder if there's a Greenwich Nicetime?

Victorian Policemen

I did about 4 pages of planning for TVC. The trouble is though I also scrubbed about a page from yesterday. I have decided that Simpkins will be a special police officer doing away with Paul Phoenix and the Sergeant I had created. I also liked the idea of them getting into the hideout by pretending to be gas men. Tried researching about Victorian gas men; any search with Victorian invariably brings up something to do with the Australian district of Victoria. So I will have to guess that they dressed quite normally. I also searched for warrant cards but couldn't find out if Victorian policemen needed them (obviously not the policemen currently residing in Victoria...)

Final Book

Wrote about two pages of planning for TVC. I am pushing ahead with it even though I don't think it will exist in the final book in the same way.

Today's joke is:

What do you get if you cross a bell with a bat?

A Dingbat!

We'll see

I did think about TVC today as I was doing my round. When I got home I did a couple of lines of planning. I can't tell how convoluted it's going to be until it's written. I might have them go to the Post Office instead of the telephone company to find out what they need. I might also change the policeman character to Paul Phoenix the soldier. I also thought about scrubbing the bit where Lizzie breaks into a house and go straight to the gang hideout instead. We'll see.

Today's joke is:

What happens if a duck flies upside down?

It quacks up!

Comedy Writing

I didn't do much of what I wanted today. Was a little ill.

A little ill sounds a bit like the baby of the Ill family.

I should really look at the Comedy Writing book I bought the other day.

It mentions typos as a good source of humour. I think they're right, that's how Sid the dwarf appeared.

Beetle

Typed in about 100 words of SAASA, but also found that I had re-written a bit at the beginning of chapter 3 so I put it in afterwards. Put another 3 roof panels on the greenhouse with the aid of my wife and son. The bolts are really difficult to get in without help.

My wife and brother-in-law played a trick on my son (for his birthday.) He really wanted a Wolkswagon WV Beetle to do up. My wife and her brother asked my son to help pick one up 'For your Uncle.' Once my brother-in-law had put it on his truck then all was revealed. My son still can't believe he has a beetle.

Bjorn Agen

Typed in about 230 words of SAASA chapter 3. Part one got to number 4 in Steampunk scifi on Amazon. I scanned in The Bjorn Agen comic I did 20 years ago, and a little of the planning for TVC.

Today's joke is:

Why do elephants hide in strawberry patches?

So they can jump out and frighten people!

I solved some problems

I wrote 7 pages of planning for TVC today. Fine, so I solved some problems. My head was going a little funny because I was stuck on the same bit over the weekend. However, now I have got there is it exciting enough? We will have to see once it's actually written. I have also found out that I am not here for the start of the NanoWriMo, let's hope I can catch up.

Today's joke is:

Why do elephants paint their toenails red?

So they can hide in strawberry patches!

RTD, TVC, SAASA

Yesterday I typed in 390 words of SAASA and put most of it on Wattpad. I also wrote nearly 200 words of chapter 4. Then I proof read it, collated it with a sample of Romancing the Drone and put it on Amazon. It should be free tomorrow for five days.

Today I wrote about 100 words of planning for TVC at Relish in town on my coffee break. I also put up one panel of the greenhouse roof with the help of my son.

I also read a joke in the charity shop today, I'll see if I can remember it:

A father walks in with a chocolate bar and his three children see it and start to say, "Me, me, me!"
The father then tells them, "Whoever does not answer mother back and does whatever she asks will have this chocolate bar."
Then three little voices said, "OK Dad, it's yours."

Yorkshire Marathon

I don't blog on a Sunday.

This Sunday I went on the Yorkshire marathon. NOT by choice.

I had decided to go to the car boot sale to buy a couple of screwdrivers and an awl. Because they seemed to be closing our street off I decided to go the back way to Murton. Just near Tranby Avenue they also started closing all of the roads off. So I had to go back down to Tang Hall Lane and then down the main road to Murton. I could not park where I usually did because the road was closed off. The car boot sale was dead but I did manage to get a slightly bigger better posidrive.

Then, the journey back. By the time I got back to Tang Hall Lane they had also blocked it off. I decided to get a bit closer by going back down Hull Road and trying to get down Heslington Road. Na na! Bad idea, that was where the finish of the Yorkshire Marathon was. So, I parked my car in Heslington village and walked towards the University. Na na. Another problem, they were re-directing people away from the main road where the marathon was ending. I had to walk around on the university pathways. Every time I tried to join the main road I was blocked.

So I got home. The marathon went on for hours and when I did go back for the car I still had to go through a checkpoint at 7.30. The guard said that the cones would be blocking the road off until 10.00 pm.

So, it seems as though I did the Yorkshire Maraton yesterday. Some in the car and some by foot.

The Wrong way Round

I managed to type in 390 words of SAASA and put it on Wattpad. Then, at Starbucks Monk's Cross, I did about half a page of planning for TVC. Now I did try to put a bit more of the greenhouse up but found out I had assembled a piece the wrong way round and had to do it again.

Work In Progress

Today I visited my friend at the Novotel hotel, York. He had come up with his parents from Grimsby. He has written some books but not delved into self publishing with Amazon yet. I was giving him some advice based on what I have picked up in the last couple of years because he is coming towards the end of his WIP.

1) Get professional editing (even though I have not for myself, this is the currently accepted wisdom.)

2) Get a Twitter account and garner a following. ReTweet authors so that they will reTweet you.

3) Plan your book, or at least the pieces you want to write before you write them.

4) When you are planning, what makes you want to write it or at least read it? If you do not want to read it or write it then what makes you think somebody else will want to read it?

5) Get a Wattpad account and serialise your current book on it. Make sure you Tweet it on Twitter.

6) Get a Goodreads account and add friends and authors.

7) Increase you Facebook friends by adding authors. Also, share their stuff so, hopefully, they will share yours.

8) Look at reading and writing articles on other peoples blogs. Or, at least buy a 'How to...' book from Amazon to figure out how this indie publishing thing should work.

9) Blog tours. Authors invite you to do an interview on their blog and then you do the same.

Even after all this, even if you have a perfect book you will still need a break to make it in the indie self publishing world. (You could have a name that is the same as somebody famous, be a taxi driver and hope a publisher/film producer gets in your cab or get people to read your serialised Twilight fanfic then change the character's names and disposition so that they are sadists instead of vampires.)

Screws in the ground

I typed in about 250 words of SAASA and put it on Wattpad really early. Also did about two and a half pages of planning for TVC. Also put most of the screws in the ground and in the top near the wall of the greenhouse. :) (That does not mean I am hoping that some screw trees will appear in the ground next spring.)

What's brown and sticky?

A stick!

192

I typed in 192 words of SAASA and put it on Wattpad. I was doing some more research on Victorian telephones, and was going to do some more planning for TVC, however my wife was so late for her lesson that she couldn't take me with her.

Today's joke is:

Why do chickens love to chat so much?

Because talk is cheep!

Tea

So today I really haven't had chance to do any writing. I did a tour, spoke to a tourist over lunch, saw a friend for a cup of tea, picked up my son, then went to pick up my daughter and grand kids. Dropped daughter off at night school, went home, picked up wife, looked after grand kids.

OWIA 13

Yesterday I set up the OWIA 13 FREE promotion ads on my blog and via my Twitter header. I did a little planning yesterday in Cafe Concerto in the middle of town. Today I also did a little planning for TVC. With the research I have done so far I have found out that the Postmaster General was blind and that children climbed ladders to connect telephone calls. Also, the Post Office didn't own the telephone companies but received a sort of rent from them and also had an option to buy them after a couple of years. This is 1884 we are talking about by the way.

Relish

On my break today I drank a cup of coffee in Relish (Monk Bar) and wrote half a page of notes for TVC. It does also mean that I have to do some research about the Post Office telecommunications system in Victorian times.

Today's joke is:

Why did the snake have a sore mouth?

There was a fork in his tongue!

TVC if you know what I mea...

I wrote one page of planning for TVC. When I say planning I mean something like 'If she does A then B, but if she does C then D'. I like the E idea better. (I sound like a Yorkshireman don't I!)

I did have two of the characters follow a bad guy and another two characters follow a different bad guy. But then I decided that one gets killed, the other vanishes, so the characters realise that someone is listening in on their telephone conversations.

150

I managed to type in about 150 words of SAASA today and added that to another 100 I did the other day then put it on Wattpad.

Today's joke is:

What goes peck peck bang!

A chicken in a minefield!

Blunted it.

Managed to drill some holes in the concrete paving stones to attach the greenhouse to. The drill bit wore out about a quarter of the way through, I probably need three more drill bits but I'll buy two for now. It was probably the solid stone that blunted it. Blunted it, that sounds a little like a James Blunt song after he has sung it.

Hope

Today I was on my feet too long to do any writing. Did mention to the people on my tour that I would be writing for the NanoWriMo at the fourth tea shop along the Shambles. Let's hope I get to do it!

Today's joke is:

What do you get from a pampered cow?

Spoiled milk!

The Amazing Avengers Rise

I typed in about 300 words of SAASA today and put it on Wattpad. I had been planning to put up the rest of the greenhouse today, I didn't want to do it, felt ill and it rained, so all I did was busy around doing nothing. Hopefully it won't rain tomorrow and I can put it up then.

Have managed to catch up on some of the super hero movies we missed in the past year. Have seen Batman Rises, The Amazing Spiderman, Thor and The Avengers in the past week.

When I went into the charity shop last week I saw a little stuffed figure of Thor. I took it over to the desk to complain about the red on his fingers. "Look at that red," I said, "he's got a Thor thumb!" (Yes they did laugh.)

On a bicycle!

So I didn't post yesterday or do any Tweeting!!!! (I was playing my new game that my wife had bought for me last week and haven't had a chance to play.) Yesterday I wrote about 8 pages of planning and today 4.

Now, one of the characters is a lecturer at Cambridge. So I researched where the Chemistry department was at Cambridge in Victorian times. Then I realised that Cambridge is about 75 miles from London! So today I have researched the London University. For now he will be helping a friend out there. I couldn't have the characters riding on a train for 75 miles being followed by a bad guy on a bicycle! (they REALLY need to be in London.)

Attack on Thera

Today I managed to plan out about 8 pages of TVC and also 2 pages of the third in the series which is called for now 'Attack on Thera'. Also typed in 350 words of SAASA and put it on Wattpad.

Today's joke is:

Why do elephants have trunks?

They can't carry suitcases!