Author Topic: What books are we writing at the moment?  (Read 18851 times)

What books are we writing at the moment?
« on: 04 August, 2016, 01:53:26 pm »
Mine is a female version of Kes set in 2016.

Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #1 on: 04 August, 2016, 02:22:26 pm »
An abridged modern take on War and Peace but without any Russians.  Well, hardly any Russians; IIRC there's about one.  And not much writing, really.
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Wascally Weasel

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Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #2 on: 04 August, 2016, 04:36:38 pm »
I think the thread title would be "Which books are you currently not writing?" in my case.

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Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #3 on: 04 August, 2016, 09:57:07 pm »
Gins wot I have drunk
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Steph

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Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #4 on: 05 August, 2016, 06:34:10 pm »
Er.... serious answer. "A Longer War", a development of my short story "Dark Night of the Soul", starting in 1944, and "Sisters", another volume of the Sussex Border Stories which has its focus on Elaine Powell and her wife. About 60K and 80K words respectively so far.
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Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #5 on: 06 August, 2016, 11:19:02 am »
Published?

Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #6 on: 06 August, 2016, 11:50:58 am »
FCVO writing:* a history of gas turbine and jet engine research at Metropolitan-Vickers in Manchester.


*As in I've all the research material and and have finished various sections, but haven't looked at it for the best part of a year after the publishers went belly-up... Should probably see what the current situation there is.

Steph

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Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #7 on: 06 August, 2016, 05:51:16 pm »
Published?
Mine? Ten so far. These two are nearly finished.
Mae angen arnaf i byw, a fe fydda'i

ian

Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #8 on: 09 August, 2016, 07:57:27 pm »
Final draft of my frankly awfully overlong SF magnum opus space opera thing that I wrote as a pub dare after a long gripe about multi-volume SF series. Really, just don't bet me stuff. No I mean it, it's like 900,000 words and two years of my life. For £10. And they changed the rules. Apparently I don't just have to write the thing, it has to be published (properly, not vanity or self-publishing), and only then I get my £10.

On the plus side, that's probably twice as much as most authors earn for a book.

I'm reading it now on my kindle and it's not that bad, but could stand to go on a substantial wordage diet. But hey, it's SF. I should probably try to do something with it (tbh, writing is a labour of love rather than a plan to make a living). If anyone knows a literary agent with a masochistic bent (OK, that's possibly all of them), let me know.

That out of the way, I'm working on on my far more enjoyable vampire book. Oh, I know it's hackneyed cliché pile up of a genre, but really, if you like undead sarcastic librarians, murderous angels, serial killers, the anti-christ, and, erm, the apocalypse coming to Croydon, you might like it. If you like Twilight, really you won't. Like I say, I write for fun rather than to expose my talents or make a living. Which is probably for the best. Plus it diverts me from writing crap on the internet.

Andrij

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Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #9 on: 09 August, 2016, 08:42:55 pm »
I was under the impression Mr Larrington had literary aspirations...
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Torslanda

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Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #10 on: 14 August, 2016, 07:46:24 pm »
I was under the impression Mr Larrington had literary aspirations...

We keep feeding him plot lines, too . . .
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Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #11 on: 14 August, 2016, 08:01:46 pm »
Final draft of my frankly awfully overlong SF magnum opus space opera thing that I wrote as a pub dare after a long gripe about multi-volume SF series. Really, just don't bet me stuff. No I mean it, it's like 900,000 words and two years of my life. For £10. And they changed the rules. Apparently I don't just have to write the thing, it has to be published (properly, not vanity or self-publishing), and only then I get my £10.

On the plus side, that's probably twice as much as most authors earn for a book.

I'm reading it now on my kindle and it's not that bad, but could stand to go on a substantial wordage diet. But hey, it's SF. I should probably try to do something with it (tbh, writing is a labour of love rather than a plan to make a living). If anyone knows a literary agent with a masochistic bent (OK, that's possibly all of them), let me know.

That out of the way, I'm working on on my far more enjoyable vampire book. Oh, I know it's hackneyed cliché pile up of a genre, but really, if you like undead sarcastic librarians, murderous angels, serial killers, the anti-christ, and, erm, the apocalypse coming to Croydon, you might like it. If you like Twilight, really you won't. Like I say, I write for fun rather than to expose my talents or make a living. Which is probably for the best. Plus it diverts me from writing crap on the internet.

Where can we download these tomes of wonder?
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

ian

Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #12 on: 15 August, 2016, 02:36:28 pm »
Final draft of my frankly awfully overlong SF magnum opus space opera thing that I wrote as a pub dare after a long gripe about multi-volume SF series. Really, just don't bet me stuff. No I mean it, it's like 900,000 words and two years of my life. For £10. And they changed the rules. Apparently I don't just have to write the thing, it has to be published (properly, not vanity or self-publishing), and only then I get my £10.

On the plus side, that's probably twice as much as most authors earn for a book.

I'm reading it now on my kindle and it's not that bad, but could stand to go on a substantial wordage diet. But hey, it's SF. I should probably try to do something with it (tbh, writing is a labour of love rather than a plan to make a living). If anyone knows a literary agent with a masochistic bent (OK, that's possibly all of them), let me know.

That out of the way, I'm working on on my far more enjoyable vampire book. Oh, I know it's hackneyed cliché pile up of a genre, but really, if you like undead sarcastic librarians, murderous angels, serial killers, the anti-christ, and, erm, the apocalypse coming to Croydon, you might like it. If you like Twilight, really you won't. Like I say, I write for fun rather than to expose my talents or make a living. Which is probably for the best. Plus it diverts me from writing crap on the internet.

Where can we download these tomes of wonder?

Nowhere at the moment because I've not decided what I want to do with it*. It genuinely needs the skills of a proper editor.

My vampire book is about to go through the final revision, admittedly mostly so I can moon over the heroine, the immortally sarcastic, and splendidly freckled Jess. My wife thinks it's unnatural that I spend my late evenings in front of a computer doing this rather than 'downloading porn like a normal bloke.'

*If anyone is that keen to read nearly a million words of pre-release SF claptrap you can have it provided you heartily promise to buy the vastly overpriced published version should it ever become available and also promise not to sue me for any mental distress reading it may cause.

Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #13 on: 14 December, 2016, 10:23:44 am »
Well, I now have a contract for a kids' illustrated history of aviation, so I should probably get on with the writing, especially as they want the manuscript by late February...

Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #14 on: 14 December, 2016, 11:15:16 am »
Final draft of my frankly awfully overlong SF magnum opus space opera thing that I wrote as a pub dare after a long gripe about multi-volume SF series. Really, just don't bet me stuff. No I mean it, it's like 900,000 words and two years of my life. For £10. And they changed the rules. Apparently I don't just have to write the thing, it has to be published (properly, not vanity or self-publishing), and only then I get my £10.

On the plus side, that's probably twice as much as most authors earn for a book.

I'm reading it now on my kindle and it's not that bad, but could stand to go on a substantial wordage diet. But hey, it's SF. I should probably try to do something with it (tbh, writing is a labour of love rather than a plan to make a living). If anyone knows a literary agent with a masochistic bent (OK, that's possibly all of them), let me know.

That out of the way, I'm working on on my far more enjoyable vampire book. Oh, I know it's hackneyed cliché pile up of a genre, but really, if you like undead sarcastic librarians, murderous angels, serial killers, the anti-christ, and, erm, the apocalypse coming to Croydon, you might like it. If you like Twilight, really you won't. Like I say, I write for fun rather than to expose my talents or make a living. Which is probably for the best. Plus it diverts me from writing crap on the internet.

Where can we download these tomes of wonder?

Nowhere at the moment because I've not decided what I want to do with it*. It genuinely needs the skills of a proper editor.

My vampire book is about to go through the final revision, admittedly mostly so I can moon over the heroine, the immortally sarcastic, and splendidly freckled Jess. My wife thinks it's unnatural that I spend my late evenings in front of a computer doing this rather than 'downloading porn like a normal bloke.'

*If anyone is that keen to read nearly a million words of pre-release SF claptrap you can have it provided you heartily promise to buy the vastly overpriced published version should it ever become available and also promise not to sue me for any mental distress reading it may cause.

You are Peter F Hamilton AICMFP.  I can wait until you get your tenner though.

I'm still angry about how stupid the ending of one of his ridiculously lengthy trilogies was.

Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #15 on: 14 December, 2016, 11:55:47 am »
You are Peter F Hamilton AICMFP.  I can wait until you get your tenner though.

I'm still angry about how stupid the ending of one of his ridiculously lengthy trilogies was.

Oh, let me guess, was that the one where the (devilishly handsome) young hero flies off and finds the mysterious shiny (definitely not a McGuffin) neo-god and talks it into saving the universe?
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Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #16 on: 14 December, 2016, 12:08:38 pm »
TBH I've just checked out the synopses of a few PFH books and they do sound like utter dross - what were you expecting?  But then I've got quite a low sci-fi threshold...

Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #17 on: 14 December, 2016, 01:13:31 pm »
You are Peter F Hamilton AICMFP.  I can wait until you get your tenner though.

I'm still angry about how stupid the ending of one of his ridiculously lengthy trilogies was.

Oh, let me guess, was that the one where the (devilishly handsome) young hero flies off and finds the mysterious shiny (definitely not a McGuffin) neo-god and talks it into saving the universe?

Yeah that, about 5,000 pages later.

Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #18 on: 14 December, 2016, 01:45:00 pm »
The Greg Mendel books were pretty good, as was _Reality Dysfunction _*; I think it was just that the latter was so successful PFH decided massive potboilers were the way o go, and of course he became too big to edit...

*or at least some cracking set-pieces IIRC; it has been 15 years or more since I read it.

ian

Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #19 on: 14 December, 2016, 06:52:46 pm »
I pick up PFH books in a knowledge that I'm effectively planning to circumnavigate the world on a pogo stick and end my epic journal in Slough with a celebratory pint of Fosters. But I do it. There was some godawful crime one which comprised a million pages of some boring copper-of-the-future simulating a crime scene. A bit more each time. One million pages. The sci-fi stuff isn't quite that painful. But yes, this was my muse for writing a sci-fi epic, though I topped out at the 750k word mark. Credit to the man, it's harder than it looks. Anyway, I managed to squeeze inscrutable aliens, redheads (always), more aliens, and a lot of shit blowing up, some completely made-up physics (the best kind), robots, sex robots, redheads (robot and non-robot), and a suitably vague ending that suggests either that there's more to come, or that it was supposed to be that way because I'm annoyingly cryptic. I write the endings first. Everything else is figuring out how to get there.

tiermat

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Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #20 on: 14 December, 2016, 07:26:49 pm »
Most deffo not writing but (at the moment), in homage to Mark Radcliffe, "Diary of an IT Nobody"
I feel like Captain Kirk, on a brand new planet every day, a little like King Kong on top of the Empire State

Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #21 on: 16 December, 2016, 10:40:59 am »
I've given up on a female version of Kes. Decided to write a gothic 19 century tale of a suave drunken psychotic Scottish gamekeeper/laird who makes the local poor beauty pregnant. It all ends in murder, a skewered love triangle, and gritty sadness for all concerned.

No humour, just black irony.

Depending on the quality of the writing to lift it above being a cliche.

Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #22 on: 16 December, 2016, 10:43:13 am »
Published?
Mine? Ten so far. These two are nearly finished.

Blimey. That's cool.

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Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #23 on: 16 December, 2016, 09:54:30 pm »
I'm writing tonight as I have been off and on since 1997 when I started with what I thought would be a light-hearted antidote to writing an epic fantasy novel.  I still haven't written that epic fantasy novel but i have written a lot around it, and I'm running out of excuses to get going on the centrepiece.  Then, when I eventually retire I might get round to the hard task of editing them (when I no longer have to wordsmith professional reports and proposals) and see if I can get them published.  If not, will still enjoy reading them, as the stories have been so long in gestation that they have been bound up with my life.

Unfortunately I put that DVD of Ritchie Blackmore's return to rock on and I've been mostly watching that, so very few words have actually been etched onto the flash drive.  But as I have returned to the gambler and the spy from the first tale back in 97 the words will soon start to flow.  And there will be plenty of time over Christmas to get going.
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Steph

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Re: What books are we writing at the moment?
« Reply #24 on: 27 February, 2017, 10:27:37 pm »
Well, Kindle have now delivered a workable but slightly clunky dead tree format, and I spent a couple of hours formatting one of my books, 'Cider Without Roses', which was interesting to write as the narrator is a Norman woman who speaks very good English but delivers it in a notably French way. One thing I enjoyed was translating the swearing literally from the original French.

It has an additional short SF/horror tale which opens "There was a group of children on the street, playing with a dog. As I watched, one of them started to eat it from the tail end."

https://www.amazon.co.uk/S.-A.-A.-Calvert/e/B00E9GBM6C/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1488224734&sr=8-1
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