It’s starting to come in for the first draft of Upgrade. By and large, it’s all very positive — not that people think it’s flawless by any means, but because the feedback is stuff I can work with.  I know what it means, and have an idea of how I can use it to improve the story. I thought I’d share one of those pieces with you today.  Some of the characters in the story come from another planet — no huge spoiler there.  The trick here is that doing world building for two planets, not just one, can be a bit hard on your reader — yet my beta humans are interested in more of the motivations behind some of the characters from that other world, and want to hear more about the other world.  Thus: an idea I’m playing Read More …

One of the things that gets people excited is vampires. This is not a lie — it is a zeitgeist.  And, I guess, if making a lot of money is your thing then you should hop right on that bandwagon and write about the most popular things.  As it turns out, vampires are still supreme – what’s more, they’re a growth industry: You can infer all kinds of things from this – for example, cunts are more popular than zombies (but it’s closer than your average presidential election): I can’t make this stuff up.  Unfortunately, I can’t really prostitute myself either, so I write about stuff that’s fun to me.  Me and the werewolf cyberpunk monsters from hell will be keeping it real.

…has been accurately captured by Poorly Drawn Lines.

Turns out, once you come out from under your writer’s rock, you find there’s shit outside like daylight. But what to do with it all? Today marked the day: a bunch of beta copies of Upgrade were shipped out to eager readers.  And by “eager” I mean, people who love me more than they love themselves, because those first drafts are nasty.  I’ve got a few weeks before they’ll start coming back in with comments, so what do I fill my days with? Spacies. Ok, and probably, planning my next work.  I get a bit of head space back now to think about Boundless, which is important: it’ll take time to spin that sucker up to speed, and get my head out of Upgrade.  I’ve been thinking about writing a small palette-cleanser, but time’s the thing. Despite that, I’m enjoying Read More …

A hundred and sixty.  Thousand. That’s how many words Upgrade’s first releasable draft has.  Printed out in proof form, it’s about the size of a phone book for a mid-sized city. Going through the edits for this one, I learned a bunch of things about myself.  For example, it’s possible to know how to use an apostrophe correctly at the start, but by the end, you’re not even sure if apostrophes should still be included in the English language anymore.  All time records of self-doubt, you know? It’s beer o’clock.  But… I’m really pleased with the manuscript.

Upgrade’s first draft is done. When I started writing the book, I figured it’d be longer than Night’s Favour.  I guessed I’d land it somewhere between 150,000 and 160,000 words as a first draft.  Give or take, bang on: it’s landed in at a whopping 154,459 words. That’s still a lot of edits from being done, but the first draft is there.  I’m…  I’m really happy with it.  I can’t wait to share it with you.

Upgrade is almost done. It’s been quiet around here: I’ve been cranking the handle on the manuscript instead of blog posts.  That feels like the right use of my time, yeah?  Yeah. By “done” I mean “first draft of a potential thousand drafts” so don’t go getting too excited.  But just between you and me and the rest of the Internet, I’m going to admit to being very excited anyway.  I like the first draft as it sits right now, and I can’t wait to get it out there to y’all. I’ll be looking for beta readers for it soon.  If you want to read horrible first or second drafts, I’m your man — drop me a line. On other news, I didn’t get the “top job” at my G Man place, which has left me feeling pretty good — there’s Read More …

At some stage, the Internet is going to get sick of me.  Until then: forward unto dawn, I say. On that note, there’s an interview up with yours truly at My Life In Books.  You can see my witter on about my life, my family, and other such mundane shit. Richard Parry on Writing, Friends & Night's Favour @TactualRain #BookClub #Thriller #MustRead http://t.co/kUdi1q8aOI — Rose Myers (@MyLifeBooks) May 2, 2014  

One of my great frustrations is characters in stories that don’t do things for believable reasons. That’s why I wrote this guest post for Reading The Dream Life on Good vs. Evil and Believable Characters.  It’s gold, people.  Gold. Richard Parry on Good vs. Evil & Believable Characters @TactualRain #AmWriting #Thriller http://t.co/2ZTa2iaTDR — Mike Grey (@ReadDreamLife) May 1, 2014 You ever seen one of those villains in a movie that cackles with glee, rubbing their hands together at the downfall of the heroes? Just being a bit of a dick? The thing is, people are dicks all the time, but only super rarely do they wake up in the morning and say to themselves, “You know, it’s Tuesday: I’m going to be a dick today.” If we start from there, it gives us our first hint on how to make Read More …

Someone at the work cafeteria today was complaining that the faucet was broken. “It doesn’t work,” she said. Turns out, there’s a subtle shift in some obscure, alien-originated technology we’ve adopted for Earth use.  I think the key is this: if it doesn’t work with a twist, try a pull.  The scary thing is, she’s been working here longer than I have, so I really want to know: how has she survived more than six months without a drink of water?  Does she usually lap it from the toilet? I’d love to include things like this in my writing — but no one would believe me.