Samtsirhc Yrrem! Merry Christmas! I'm smarts cherry!

Who's up for palindromes, anagrams and the usual? I am! I like whenever I have to write a message such as Happy Birthday or Merry Christmas, and the other likes, to do some special twist to it. This time, as of course I'm a writer, I decided to try the message above. For something so short its surprising how much joy it gave me to write :P.

But Seriously, and it does constitute a capital S, Merry Christmas to you all! This year I've had more likes and reads on my blog than any other year, and it has been truly fantastic! I have a lot of goals for next year, one of which is to continue with this blog, hopefully using it a bit more than I did this year, and hopefully my dream will come true and I will receive a comment on here. I'm fairly certain the comment set up is working...

I hope everyone reading this has a fantastic Christmas Day, whether you're already on the 25th or you're waiting for the clock to tick over.

Huge Thanks!

The last time I checked the total copies of Of Lights and Shadows that had been downloaded was 96! I haven't checked back to see if the number has risen, but I just want to say thank you to everyone who downloaded a copy! I don't know whether people reading my book read this blog, or whether people reading this blog have read my book, but hopefully some of you do both! So thank you all. I know this blog post will show up on my Amazon.com page so people visiting it will see this.

It was a great pleasure to write the book, and I'm really pleased with it, so I hope you all enjoy it. And if it's not too much to ask, I would love it if you all left a review on the Amazon page. It would let others see what you thought and it would let me see what you thought. If there are problems with it I would love to hear them. And if it is just praise then I would love to read that too!

3rd Time Winner of NaNoWriMo (bow to me)

That's right folks, gather around to pat me on the back and congratulate me, I have completed NaNoWriMo for the third time. Wow, this year was an education, it was so completely different to the other years I entered.

Let me tell you a little bit of why.

As with previous years I had an idea for this NaNo, I had characters, a setting, a thin, vague plot of what I wanted the characters to do, and that was about it. Before starting I saw that the plot was thin, but it didn't worry me. I thought, I can do it anyway. But the moment I started writing on the 1st I noticed how extremely thin the plot really was. I mean, it was so thin I could see through to the other side. I had the idea, but I had no idea how to get to any of the points I had thought up.

This was because of a lack of planning on my part. I do not regret this, more than half of NaNoWriMo is made up of Pantsers anyway. If they can enter NaNo without a single idea of what to write about and come out the other side with a shiny novel then I can enter with a tiny plan and still come out the other end.

So throughout the first week there was a lot of brain storming, and writing random scenes, week two was a copy of week one with even more random scenes, and week three was writing random scenes and filling out previous ones in order to reach the word count.

This is the first novel I have ever begun to write where I didn't write everything in the order it happens in the book. In this story I wrote scenes that were interesting, leaving the ones that I found boring or too hard to work out where they were supposed to go, first. In my plan of order I will rewrite what I have, edit, then begin stitching the scenes together. It's a big job and that will begin on the 1st of December. Or some time in December. If I can rewrite it all before January then that gives me the whole of the new year for finishing the book.

Among the things that made this month interesting and different was that I worked two full days a weekend. That was, I think, 6 days where I couldn't write at all so I had to push myself to being ahead of the word count for at least three days so by the time the weekend was over I was still ahead.

Also, with my previous novels because I had a clear plan in mind I was ahead all the way through. With this story, however, some days I only just reached the count and went over it. This was a lot more fun because it was more stressful. I spent more hours on the computer really battling with myself to get words down that I had no idea I had.

Next year is too far away to think about, and by next year I mean next November, but I can't wait to go through another wild NaNoWriMo. Who knows how different it will end up being compared to the last three. Who knows what will change. Whatever happens, I'm already looking forward to it. We shall face it when it comes. I'll leave that story for another day.

Okay, it hasn't been a week...

In actual fact it's been 13 days? Well over a week anyway since my last update and when I said I would update. I have no excuse, I was perfectly aware that I said I would update and yet I didn't. It was just pure laze. But here we go...

• Day 5: Final word count for the day was 10,080
• Day 6: 12,419 (2,339 words written)
• Day 7: 14,661 (2,242 words written)
• Day 8: 15,115 (454 words written)
• Day 9: 15,550 (435 words written)
• Day 10: 20,183 (4,633 words written)
• Day 11: 22,335 (2,152 words written)
• Day 12: 25,076 (2,741 words written)
• Day 13: 25,076 (0 words written)
• Day 14: 28,373 (3,297 words written)
• Day 15: 28,373 (0 words written)
• Day 16: 28,373 (0 words written)
• Day 17: 31,365 (2,992 words written)
• Day 18: ?

As you can see I had some fun days of writing. 3 days where I didn't write a single word and 2 days where I didn't even reach 500 words.But I made up for each of those *failed* days by writing almost double what I should have been writing each day. I can explain the days were I hardly wrote anything, I was at work at for most of the day and didn't have time to write. Day 18 is fixed with a question mark because I haven't begun to write yet.

At the current moment my story is seeming kind of slow. I hit 30k yesterday and it kind of feels like I've spent the whole time making my characters raid a kitchen for a cake. I know that's not true, that only took one chapter to accomplish and there were a couple where I discussed the lay of the land, introduced multiple characters and started the main plot. I also began writing out of order. I normally write my stories in order of Point A to Point B and so on. But because of the way my story is turning out I'm writing Point A to Point B to Point D before cutting back to Point C for a couple of line and then Jumping to J, and so forth...

I'm still not sure about the characters. I don't like them as much as I do the ones in my previous books. I just haven't connected, and I don't think that's a good thing. If you are not connected to your characters, they are not connected to you. You don't share the same views on subjects, and instead of them offering their own personal input to where the story can go, they leave it up to you and it feels like you're forcing everything forwards.

I hate that feeling. But maybe it's just the month? This time last year I had hit 50k and was pushing onwards to 75k. Anyway. I still think the idea of the story is sound, but I'm not the best writer to tackle such an idea. I can't wait until the month if over so that I can look at the story in a new light and think about editing it.

So! I promised the Forward of my novel. In its very first rough draft, here it is:

Forward.

The first words are not the first words at all. When one asks what is the first word of a book, people begin to think and have already thunk for years that they mean the first word of the first sentence in the first chapter. For example *The*. *The* is the first word. In actual fact you are wrong. The first word is often the first word in a title, maybe the first in the copy write page. Maybe the book skips all of that to land you straight into the middle of the story. In this case, the first word is the first word in the chapter.

*Forward*. Leading us onwards. This is the first word. And, if I may say so myself, it is far more interesting than the word *The*. That word doesn't leave much to stand on or doesn't really catch attention at all. It is a boring, plain word, that is used so often in story telling or any sort of speech at all that one generally skips over it. Forward, however, grips you. It tells a story. Forward to where? Forward from where? What is wrong with where you are? What is better about where you will go?

All one can really do when one reads that word is to read onwards, which is a word very much like forwards. All your questions will be answered the further you read.

Forwards! To where the tales of many are told, the secrets of princes and commoners laid down in the dust bare to all to see. To each new day beginning with a rising sun no matter where you are and the weather overhead. To each new heartache, sorrow, and joy and gratitude.

Forwards, and one may find peace. Unity from destruction, life from ashes, love... love from the shackles that bind.

NaNoWriMo Day Five

Word count since the 1st:

• Day 1: 1871 (1871 words written on day one)
• 
  
• Day 2: 3359 (1488 words written on day two)
• 
  
• Day 3: 5047 (1688 words written on day three)
• 
  
• Day 4: 7271 (2224 words written on day four)
• 
  
• Day 5: (Currently) 9699 (2428 words written so far on day five)

So far I am on schedule, managing to write just over each daily word goal. I had a slow start to the month, I had a big family day so I wasn't able to write as many words as I wanted too having only a limited amount of time on the computer. I started at midnight on the 1st, which was a first for me and very exciting to be able to do so! I loved it, even though the sound of my keyboard in almost complete silence gave me the spooks and the feeling I was waking the whole household.

On Sunday I worked all day but was able to write a few hundred on my phone during a break and the rest I wrote when I got home. The rest of the week was all right, as you see above my word count for each day has increased quite a lot as I'm getting more into my story and starting to understand where things are heading.

Because of my slow start, which was slow because I realised that apart from the idea I didn't really have a plot for my story, I wasn't too sure if I actually liked my story. Almost 10,000 words later and I can say that yes, yes I do like my story. Maybe I'm almost close to saying I love it. Maybe. It's close. A few more words, perhaps. But I am enjoying it. I'm loving the idea even more, but sadly I can't tell you what the idea is. I can, however say that the story is a romance, it's set in a dystopian future, it involves a boarding school, maybe even two of them, and at the moment it's quite political.

I have done political before, in my Fantasy novel The Assignment, that book was set around the assassination of my fantasy world's supreme leader and the reason for the assassination was the way the world was run and how it behaved. My NaNoWriMo book is political along a different sort of line, I think.

In a few days, maybe next week when I'm in Week Two, I'll update again with how my story is going and what my word count is. And, if you're lucky, I may even share with you an excerpt of the Forward to my book. This will be the only piece of my book you will read quite possibly for a long time. My plan for this story is not to give it a few months of editing and then self-publish it like my last two novels. My plan is to take my time and try and give it my all to make sure that it actually comes out exactly as I want it to. So it may be years before it hits public eye.

Do not worry though and think that this is going to take up all my time and you won't ever see anything else by me again until I'm done. I tell you that this is not the case. I am very talented and can multitask.

The Deed is Done

Today, the 9th of October 2014, I have selected Expanded Distribution. If you read my second to last blog post you'll know what that means. The price for Of Lights and Shadows has gone up to $18.50. The effects of E.D. will take up to six weeks or something like that, and the price change will probably take a week or so to spread out to Amazon.

In the post where I explained everything I gave a discount code to be used. That code is still active and gives you $5 off the price of my book. That was back when the price of my book was $15 so that you could buy the book for $10. I have a new code which I'll post below and that gives you a discount of $8.50 off. So if you do the maths that means you can still buy the book for the same amount as the previous discount did for the old price.

Now just for your information, just in case you didn't know and were thinking of trying it, those two codes only work for Of Lights and Shadows. If you try to use them on buying a copy of The Story of Silence they won't work.

On another line that has nothing what-so-ever to do with the subject above, I am really really excited for November 1st!!

NaNoWriMo 'Round the Corner

National Novel Writing Month is just around the corner. Any minute now within the rest of the day people all over the world will be able to access the site to set up their books all ready for November. Some are busy preparing their stories, working out every little detail of what to write, while others are taking the Panters approach and are waiting until the day before thinking about what to write.

On the 1st of November millions of writers from all around the world, no matter of race, colour or creed, will join together to face the task of writing 50,000 words in one month. Our inner authors will unite us in ways other things have failed to join us with. Together for 31 days we will battle together, facing ginormous word counts that loom above us and make us feel as though we cannot go on. Perilous plot holes, looming ahead in the ground that sink to the very center of the earth. Characters that refuse to obey our orders and demand a 50% pay increase or no dice. Together we shall all face despair, frustration, and an overwhelming urge to quit when the going gets tough.

But! We shall not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to write on! We're going to survive!

We shall face that ginormous word count just like Edmund Hillary faced Mount Everest, we shall laugh in its face and climb to the top and triumph! We shall look down into those perilous plot holes and then swing over them like Indiana Jones. We shall face those treacherous characters and we shall proclaim 'No More!' and then see if we can't haggle down their pay increase.

The thing is that during the month of November we shall all face these things: despair, frustration, and an overwhelming urge to quit, but we can overcome them. I can't promise you that everyone who joins in with us band of merry writers will succeed to 50,000 words, some will fall away within the first week, maybe within the second and third week. It is all really up to you whether you succeed or fail. But remember this, NaNoWriMo is not about succeeding or failing. Don't worry about whether or not you'll really be able to write 50k or not, it's not about that, though some people might say so. What it is about is people from all over the world joining together to support each other in their works.

To me the goal isn't to write that many words, the goal is to just write, to create a new world in a story. If I manage to write 50k, or over, I'll be happy, but I'll also be happy if I only manage to write 20k. It's not about the number, it's about putting down differences to band together with friends, family, complete strangers and together delve into the magical world of writing.

So if you have ever wanted to write a story, ever felt that desire to get that story line that's been floating around in the back of your mind ever since you can remember down on paper, now is the time. Head over to NaNoWriMo and sign up. If you need a friend to help show you around the site, or if you just want a writing buddy for the event you can look me up as CaptainVonDelgo. I would be more than honoured to help you out, and I know others on the site will be more than happy to help you out as well. It's a great experience, and worth every day.

Price changes for my book

So I have been facing a choice for about a month now since publishing Of Lights and Shadows, of whether or not to go with the Expanded Distribution offer that Createspace gives you.

As of now my book, priced at $15.00, is only for sale on the Amazon and Kindle store and the Createspace eStore. However, if I select Expanded Distribution my book will be available for bookstores and other online retailers, libraries and academic institutions, and something called Createspace Direct which allows resellers to buy my book at wholesale prices. To me that offer is a wonderful thing and in an instant I would jump at selecting those channels to sell my book through. It's a brilliant way to make my book more open to the public, which at the moment it's only reaching a tiny bit of what it could be. It's open to the public, but only in a small area can you buy the book. Expanded Distribution opens that up for me and others and makes it more available.

The drawback to picking this option, which is the only thing so far that has prevented me from going with it, is that the list price on my book goes up about $6 which means that I cannot sell my book for under $18. I'm not sure about you, dear reader, but that price is a little too expensive for me. So the choice I have been facing is, keep my book relatively cheap, and only available in like three channels and hardly noticeable, or up the price a bit and have it open to almost everywhere.

The reason I'm explaining this all is because I have decided to go with the second option of selecting Expanded Distribution. To me it seems like the options of what I get outweigh the price change I will have to make. But just so you know, only the price of the paperback will be going up, the Kindle price is going to stay the same. Plus if you buy a paperback copy of the book on Amazon.com you receive a free Kindle edition.

I will select the options for Expanded Distribution on the 9th of next month, two weeks from now. On that day the price for Of Lights and Shadows will go up, unfortunately. Until that time the price will stay at $15.

However, a little something special for those of you interested in buying a copy of my book before the 9th, I have a discount code for $5 dollars off. 

7M9BS9A5

I believe it only works for the Createspace store (I'll give a link below), so be sure to head there rather than Amazon to use the code. If there are any problems with the code please let me know, you shoudl just be able to leave a message in the comments.

https://www.createspace.com/4486696

A Poem About Tea.

I wrote a poem about tea. It's very strange. I haven't drunk tea since I was a little boy, I switched to drinking coffee which is far more addictive. I still enjoy tea but I can't stop drinking coffee.

'Another broken day,
Like a tea cup on a tray,
Shattered along the way.

Tea cup upon a hill,
Tea cup buried in sand,
Away from life,
Detained from truth.
Inanimate,
Lifeless object,
Tea cup be thou mine.
Fill to brim with liquid drink,
A warming for my soul.'

I also wrote something else, a special little thing I like to call 1842.

'Sets a smile to my face,
And my heart to a race,
Still months after we said okay.

I look back at the date,
See that it’s pretty late,
But still see that it’s all okay.

The time passed on through,
Since we said, ‘how’d you do?’
Yet everything is still okay.

I’ve come to accept,
What I used to regret,
And know that things come to end.

But to look back and grin,
At the times thick and thin,
Is a sign that we’re where we should be.'

Who saw that coming?

Things change. Boy do I know they change. In the blink of an eye, and sometimes even faster than that. One day they are something, it's completely normal, you know the routine backwards and forwards and can following it through with your eyes closed, and then the next it flips upside down and you don't know where you are.

For me, I'm talking about the fact that a few weeks back I got my first ever job. I work weekends. Just working those two days a week have shifted things suddenly. I still have nothing to do during the week like I did before, but I've realised just how much I did during the weekend and the difference it makes not having those two days.

I decided last week that I would post a regular chapter of my play Requiem For A Dead Thing on Wattpad once a week, and so I shall have to focus on writing regular chapters to upload. I also am in the middle of editing my fantasy novel The Assignment which I am also uploading chapters of as soon as I'm done. The chapters uploaded at the moment still need a bit of work, but they are being uploaded for the feedback of the community. If they ever decide to leave me a comment which so far they haven't.

So I am having to rearrange my schedule a bit to fit in all that. I know you must be all thinking that, seriously, two days a week of work and you're finding it hard? Well, to be honest, I'm not really find it hard. I can make the changes easily, but it was just the point of how quickly things changed.



Link for Requiem For A Dead Thing if you want to check it out and let me know what you think: http://www.wattpad.com/29937096-requiem-for-a-dead-thing-scene-i


Link for The Assignment if you feel like checking out an exciting fantasy novel. I'm looking for feedback: http://www.wattpad.com/47445942-the-assignment-chapter-one

The Arrival Hath Come

Today welcomes the arrival of insane, genius detective Dastardious Hollow in Of Lights and Shadows, a tale of murders old and new, secrets lost but never forgotten, destruction, and lies. It's a journey into the life of Dastardious Hollow, into who he truly is, as he is released from his life sentence in order to find the mysterious Shadow, a serial killer with a penchant for kidnapping children under 13 years of age and killing them in exotic ways. A killer who never leaves clues.

Along the way Detective Hollow meets up with Silence Mourner, a mute man he once met on a murder case, and the closest thing he has ever considered to be a friend. Benjamin Dutch, a criminal from Australia, sentenced for life for six cases of murder and one of kidnapping before the age of 21. And fellow detective, Theodore Mulligan, a man who holds quite a link to Dastardious Hollow and is on a quest to rid the world of Hollow and would do anything to succeed.

The book is available on the Createspace store here: https://www.createspace.com/4486696
Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MLNJXHA
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Lights-Shadows-Peter-Van-Werkhoven/dp/1500757683?tag=wattpad-20

In which I make a joke. See if you can spot it...

August 1st, 2014. 213 days since the beginning, 152 days until the end. We have five more months of the year to go, how about that? Haven't these months sneaked by real fast? I mean the last I remember it was May, and then all of a sudden it's the first of August and I'm like, '...What? How did this happen?'

I'm not actually sure what I've got planned to write in this post. I had it in mind that seeing as it was the first I'd go all spy like and say something like, 'August 1st, 213 days since infiltration, enemy still unaware that I am Special Agent 042.' Nah, that sounds silly. What else am I supposed to say after that?

Anyway, happy 1st of August everybody! Let the weekend roll on and let's party! I don't know about you, but I'll be partaying this weekend, and it shall be awesome.

The Trouble With Computers and Not Backing up Files

Well, thanks to mum's computer suddenly committing suicide on us, (though frankly I suspect attempted murder as there is no sign of a note) we have lost almost everything. I should say at this point that our computer is still alive. It attempted to die. The paramedics got to it in time to save it's life, but it suffered partial amnesia. It can't remember everything that was on it, and it is presumed lost forever.

A little bit was backed up, though not most of the newer stuff. However, thanks to my semi smart thinking a few months back I still have all of my writing. Thank you Wattpad! For once you turned out to be useful and not a total waste of time like I think you have been.

But, while I have all my writing saved on Wattpad the formatted files for 'The Story of Silence' are lost. That means if I want to update the book I'm going to have to take it from Wattpad and re-format it. Unless of course I can somehow get it off Createspace. As for the formatted files for my latest book 'Of Lights and Shadows', I still have it but it's not the latest edit. I also don't have the original copies of either of them. Which is a very big shame, they were horribly written and a lot of what was in them was taken out in the last edit, but they were the original so they were important in a sentimental kind of way. Also all the parts which I cut from the books I could have used for other books and was planning to, so that's a shame as well. Thankfully, I'm young and so I remember what the cut scenes were about. I just have to re-write, which I hate. Though maybe if I re-write them I'll be able to get them exactly as I wanted them to be in the first place.

While I still have all my writing works, everyone else lost things of their own. We had hundreds of pictures of ourselves which are sadly gone. The only copies of some of those pictures are on other families profiles on Facebook, and on their own computers at home. This does mean that we will be able to get some of them back, but we'll still be missing heaps.

I made a few videos, those have been wiped. They were horrible so they don't matter too much. Other videos we made with friends were on the computer, and unless my sister never bothered to clear them off her camera we may have lost a few days worth of filming. I can't remember, but I'm hoping that one of our friends has copies. I think she might have.

In a few days, or the next time mum goes on the computer, we shall find out exactly how much we still have.

Sorry for the delay!

Once upon a time I said I would publish Of Lights and Shadows in June. If you've seen your calender recently you will see that it is July. If you're been waiting for the book to come out, I am very sorry to say that it is not yet ready. I took longer editing it than I thought I would because the book is almost double the length of The Story of Silence and I started editing it later than planned because I didn't finish the book until I think it was the beginning of March. I have a whole bunch of excuses for being late in publishing but I won't go through them all.

In news with how the book is going, a grammar edit is being made of it at the moment. After that is complete I will go through it again and correct any mistakes to the story and characters that I missed, then hopefully I will be able to find a couple of people to read it and let me know what they think. If they find mistakes or problems I will edit those and then it should be all ready for publication. So we are looking at either the end of this month, or the end of next month.

Writing is Easy

'Love is all you need,' said John Lennon. However, I don't think writing is the love he was speaking of at the time. But to write a novel you do need love. A love of words, a love of story telling, and, not quite connected to love, a determination to crack down and write.

Writing is easy. We do it all the time, for shopping lists, birthday lists, letters to friends, speeches. We were taught how to write at a young age. And yet, many people shiver at the thought of being asked to write a novel, or an essay. Why?

If writing is so natural, and we do it all the time, why is it that when we have to crack down and write do we find it so difficult? I tell you that it is not the writing that is difficult, it is the thinking up of what to say that we have trouble with and prevents us from making a start.

I had to write this speech first in order to deliver it. I write words all the time and yet when faced with having to write this I was stumped at what to say. To help me begin I had to find a topic. I was told it could be about anything, that didn't necessarily making it any easier though because then I was faced with what topic should I pick?

All stories start with a topic, or an idea. Once you have that then you are able to begin. But why is it still hard to start even though you have your topic? You have your topic but you don't know where to begin with writing the novel. Once thing I say for you not to do is wait for inspiration. If you decide to wait for that then you may never stop waiting. Very rarely will it show up when you want it to. Instead, you just have to start. Ignore the fact that you don't want to write, and the fact that you don't know what to say. Once you start, the words will flow.

For starters, write the title of your novel down. Next, follow with your topic and what your story is going to be about. Write what the story means to you, why you want to write it, and maybe even who you are writing it for. If you stop and look back now you will see a page full of words. But if you don't stop to look back, your mind will keep churning, your pen will keeping moving and you will soon find that you have the beginning of your novel. That wasn't really that hard now, was it?

To help you write, picking the perfect environment is high on the list of things to do. There are many different places to write a novel, you can do it in your bed, while watching the TV, or even outside in the sun. The perfect place to write is where you are comfortable, and everything you need is within reach so you don't have to keep interrupting your writing to get up and grab it. But be careful that everything isn't too close so that you end up being distracted by it. If you are distracted you will find it impossible to write.

When people find it hard to get started on a novel they often quit because they find it too hard. I have answered why they do. It's difficult, and they can't handle it. But perseverance is rewarding. The end product, whatever it may be, once polished and shined to perfection is perfection itself. You receive such a sense of achievement to hold your novel in your hand, to flip through the pages and see the many words you dripped sweat and blood to produce. It is its own reward, you don't need to receive one from someone else for your hard work.

It is enough cause to hold your finished product in your hand to force you to buckle down and write to create your masterpiece. Once you have the determination to complete the work you have started, the plot of what to write, the title, the characters, the perfect environment to write it, and the words in your mind that you are just itching to get down on paper, you will soon find that they are indeed making their way down onto the paper.

See how easy it all is? It's not the writing that's hard, that's easy, it's everything else that goes along with it.

Party Time!

Actually, it's no longer party time. Simmer down, people, simmer down. It's really nothing to get excited about, the party is over. You can either pack up and leave, or you can stay and read on to find out what I'm talking about.

What I'm talking about: this will be a blog post about a 21st party I went to on Friday.

Okay, I went to a joint 21st birthday party last Friday, the 13th. Joint between one of my sisters and a friend. It was Tim Burton themed, costume dress up. You had to dress up as someone from a Tim Burton movie -if you hadn't guessed that already. You may be wondering who I dressed up as, well I'll tell you. I went as Ichabod Crane from Sleepy Hollow. And let me tell you, I look dashing in a black waistcoat and boots with my hair swept back.

We spent like three months preparing for this party. It took so long because the birthday girls decided that not only did they want a dress up party, but they also wanted to decorate the house Tim Burton styled. There were three main rooms on the downstairs floor, which were set for different themes. The first, the living room, was a Dark Shadows theme. It had a coffin, 70s disco ball on the ceiling, and a portrait of Barnabas Collins staring out over those that decided to brave the dance floor. There was also a fog machine to add to the effect.

The second room, the dining room, was an Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter's tea party set. They'd set up a bunch of tables in a row, covered it in different coloured table clothes, spread utensils, cups, bowls, and tea pots around the place. It looked quite nice. In the spot of honour in the middle of the table was the birthday cake made by a professional cake maker, Flower and Fondant. It was a cake, two tiered, a chocolate, cherry ripe cake on the first layer and a Bailey's white chocolate cake for the second. Covered in purple fondant on a black and white checked board, with black vines and a black rose swirling it's way up the side. Sitting on top were about four or five, purple/blue, seeming to glow, toadstools. It was quite impressive.

The third room, lounge room #2, was made up for Sweeny Todd. There was a sign with Mrs Lovett's pies, with blood streaks across it, and instruments of pie making were spread around the room. Including an old, metal meat grinder we found all ready to grind human flesh.

Outside the front door was Corpse Bride land. We had candles along the path, a great deal of fake cobwebs with spiders, snow, a hand reaching out from the snow with a ring on its finger, and a mound of snow with the green maggot -whatever its name is- peeping out from it watching you as you bang on the door requesting to be allowed entrance.

Around the back of the house was The Nightmare Before Christmas. We had pumpkins, carved of course, the dog -whose name I also cannot remember- hanging from the ceiling. It was fake, it was a ghost so don't be alarmed. And a board, 3D pop out, of the purple tongue with Jack Skellington striding majestically across it on the wall. All props, all over the house, were made by us. It was a fantastic display.

Upstairs, the final decoration, was the scarecrow from The Nightmare Before Christmas, pointing the way to the toilets. A degrading job for a majestic, gentlemanly scarecrow such as him, but there you go. He wasn't allowed outside in case he got rained on.

As for costumes for the night. They were quite good. My family is a bunch of Cosplayers, so we know how to make good costumes. I'd name all that were there but too many to count. I can't remember how many people were there either. It was a grand affair.

For sake of decency, and respect for certain friends, though they really deserve none, I won't mention the foul ruffians who desecrated the party with their obnoxious foul language, drinking habits, and smoking of certain substances, and slutty performance from the girls. Or the music we were forced to endure.

Besides all them, everyone else at the party were fantastic. I had a great deal of fun talking to friends, and making new ones, stuffing my face, and just looking plain dashing in black. I look dashing in all colours, but the black certainly suited me more than anything else. It brought out the colour of my eyes, you know.

-Peter.

A Pleasant Surprise

The middle of last year I self-published my first book The Story of Silence, I did it mainly to get the five free copies CreateSpace were offering if you won NaNoWriMo. I spent six months editing it, rewriting chapters, changing characters, etc, before publishing. It was a long road. But never once did I think people would buy it and read it, I thought the only people to read it were my friends who I lent my copies to. Two weeks ago I was proved wrong. Random people I have never met before are buying and reading it.

I had been looking at the paperback sales, which were zero. Then for some reason I decided to look at the Kindle sales. That's where I discovered over 40 people had bought copies of my book.

My reaction to see the sales was 1. my jaw dropped, 2. my breath stopped, 3. my heart seemed to stop 4. everything seemed to stop while I digested this news. Gradually life returned to my limbs enough for me to search further into it to see whether what I was reading was correct. It was correct but it's taken me these two weeks to actually believe it to be true. I never really believed that people were buying it even after I saw the sales because there were no reviews on the Amazon.com page. My thought was that if over 40 people had bought the book, like the sales said, then surely one of them would have posted a review of what they thought. Then last night I had another look and I noticed that I was viewing the Amazon.com.us page, but people had bought my book from the Australian page. So, I found that Amazon page and looked at my book and low and behold there were 3 reviews! That made me believe it was all true.

It's really an amazing feeling to know that something you worked really hard on, but never believed it would sell, sells. I don't know if the people who bought copies of my book on Kindle found out about it from my blog, or if they even read this, but I want to thank them all so much. It means a lot to me. And to those three people who posted their thoughts of The Story of Silence I want to thank them too. They were all great to read, two were positive while the third wasn't quite so much. However, the non-positive one is the one I hold dearest. As a writer, I cannot improve if no one ever points out the problems. This person did and because of it I can improve, and that's what I want to do. So, once again, thank you all so much.

April Camp NaNo complete!

April Camp NaNo 2014 is done. It is the 1st of May today, the first of a lot of things, I think for American's today is the first of spring? If I'm totally wrong then please excuse me, I'm just thinking of the May Dance. Or is that English? Just ignore me here. Moving on.

My goal for this camp, my first ever camp, was to write 20,000 words, and complete two of my stories. One turned out to be a novella instead of a short story and the other is still incomplete. So out of my goals, I hit my word count with a shining 20,008 words, completed my novella, wrote a poem, and also wrote a whole new short story. My play is still incomplete and I will focus on finishing that later sometime. On all, what I managed to do in April, I'm happy with everything.

Camp was an interesting experience, totally unlike November NaNoWriMo in every way and feel. It had a completely different air about it. The air wasn't good, it weighed all of us in my cabin down and out of the twelve I was the only one to hit my goal.

I will not be returning next year, I've decided virtual camping is not for me. My cabin was a big disappointment, I am sorry to say, but that was all due to the fact that people underestimated how busy life is. My fellow campers were all upset about not being able to finish, but it just wasn't possible for them to finish. There is an option to leave your cabin and they will put you in a new one, but just as I decided to leave the chat slightly became active and I felt it rude to leave. And then it stopped being active and by then there was no point leaving because camp was almost at a close.

It may have been a disappointing camp, but I'm still glad I participated in it. It was a new experience and I'm mostly all for new experiences.

I am hoping that I will see my fellow campers this November, of which I will be participating, I have a very interesting story idea in mind that I want to write, unless things change and I can't write it, and I hope that they will all be able to complete their goals. 

I don't know

I don't know, sometimes I'm fine and then things happen and the next minute I'm not. It's interesting, and I only use that word because I like it. Like today for instance, this morning I was fine, I was happy, looking forward to a fun Easter Monday with friends and family, and then the family arrived and everything sort of fell apart as they sort of, not quite, ignored me and just went straight to their friends in the family who did things with them. I'm not the most social person, in fact I'm very unsocial. Not because I don't want to be but because there is an invisible wall that prevents me from interacting with other people. I've tried, but it seems impossible to cross. But just because I'm unsocial isn't a reason to ignore me. The sad thing is, and the hard thing, they probably don't actually realise what it's doing to me and I can't tell them because I cannot cross my wall. We're both hanging off the deep end and not really much we can do.

At least, I don't see what I can do. If people talk to me, I will happily talk back and hold a conversation for as long as it will go because there is nothing I like more than talking to friends. I just can't really start conversations. So when they arrived and just went into their select group of friends who all are friends because they play the same damned Elder Scrolls Online game, I am pretty much excluded because I know nothing about it and therefore can't enter the conversation. I'm not stupid, I'm actually quite smart, but they never talk about anything I know about so I'm never included. That gets me down.

I only have two friends I can seriously talk with, and that sucks. So this being my blog I figured it would be okay to post this here, just to let it out. I need to let it out sometime other wise it will continue to build on top of other issues I keep inside and if they are not let out I am certain I will go mad from it.

Another thing that gets me down is family getting upset. Now I don't want to really go into too much detail on the people involved because I think it's kind of private. I mean, I'd tell you absolutely everything but I don't think other people would like that. This person, right, has a job and there aren't really set times for the shifts. I mean they will ring you up just before a shift is about to begin and ask you to work. Now this person has the opportunity if they want to say no. We had things happening today, the person had to work and they weren't happy. They got back tonight expecting certain people to be home but other people have lives and can only stay a certain time out. The person was unhappy, of course, that's understandable, but constantly getting upset every time you miss out on something sort of is starting to annoy me and get me down. I don't really have a right to get annoyed at this person, but I do.

I have no idea the whole point of this blog post, it probably doesn't make sense to anyone reading this but I felt I had to let it all out. The main point of it is I think I would hurt myself if I didn't fear hurting myself. And the one person I'd tell how I've been feeling to have help I don't want to tell because I don't want to complain or make them worry. But this has been building for a while and it's a joint effort of everything which is made out of nothing. That makes it even worse, but I don't know what to do.

Camp NaNoWriMo

Camp NaNoWriMo, basically normal NaNoWriMo but you're on a virtual camp. And it's in April, and you get to set your own writing goals. Just very similar. All fun. I'm doing it this year for the first time, and it is day two. I'm pretty excited for it. My word goal is only 20,000 but that's because I'm using Camp NaNo to finish two of my short stories. The main reason I'm excited is because of the stories, which is always the reason isn't it? I'll get to telling you about those in a minute, first, a little about the camp.

In normal NaNo you get to write with everybody. You're all connected and you can message whoever you want and find out about whoever you want. In Camp NaNo, however, you are placed into Cabins. Cabins are groups of twelve people, yourself included I think, I haven't actually counted to see if I'm included, and those are the only people you get to see. You can message those people in a big chat they have set up where you can see what everyone else posts, and I think you can also privately send people messages if you want. It's really a great idea because this way you can develop a better relationship with your fellow writers if those are the only ones there instead of having a selection of almost a million writers to talk to.

For the Cabins, you can pick to have complete strangers, or you can have a Cabin full of your friends, or a Cabin with some friends and some complete strangers. For this year, seeing as I don't actually know many people on the NaNoWriMo site, I've only got one friend in the Cabin and the other 10 (11?) are total strangers. That is actually cool, in the sense that I'm fine with it, as I like meeting new people. Only online though is it fine as I'm a shy person in real life. And I look forward to getting to know them a lot better in the coming month.

Now, my stories. You can write as many stories as you want and write as many words as you want for NaNoWriMo, so I'm doing two stories. The first story is called 'The World of Mr Green' and it's a fantasy sort of thing set in a little outback town in Western Australia that is run by this mysterious man that has the whole town hypnotised. A girl, Walter Saint-Jean, is a travelling magician who stops by the town to do a show before moving on. That was the plan, somehow for some reason the mysterious man, Mr Green, takes an interest in her and won't let her escape. She takes it upon herself to answer some valuable questions about him, namely, Who is he? What is he? and How is he?

This story is probably the weirdest I've ever written, not just in the setting and characters, but in the way I'm writing it. The sentence structures are off the roof and off this world. You'll either enjoy reading it, or will cringe dreadfully and drop the book. We shall see.

The second story is called 'Requiem for a Dead Thing' which I'm writing as a play. It's my first play, and it's interesting writing it. It's about this Lord whose son has suddenly died, and so he hires a travelling composer to write a requiem. His two other children, another son and a daughter, think it's a waste of time and try to scare the composer off.

It will probably be a lot more interesting to read than what I just wrote about it, don't worry.

And that's it, I think. I'm still editing 'Of Lights and Shadows' which is going slowly. Too Many Words!!! I don't know when I'll be finished that, or if it will still be published in June. We shall also see about that. There isn't really a problem if I don't publish it this year, it will be published eventually. Either as a normal book or as an e-book.

And that's it. Thanks for reading.
Cheers,
Peter.

Of Lights and Shadows: An Update on my Novel

Since my last blog post I've written another five chapters, five chapters which have drawn me closer and closer toward the end. When I finished the 17th chapter a couple of days ago my book was up to 97,000 words, the most amount of words I've ever written for one story, passing my fantasy novel The Assignment which was only 75,000 words long. Oh how meager that number is faced with the might 97k! It was quite an achievement for me and I'm quite happy with it, and the thing that makes me really happy is that my story isn't finished it. To finish it will take me over 100k, something I'm really looking forward to and just can't wait to accomplish.

I'm not really sure how many chapters I've got left to write in my book, or exactly how many words, but I feel I'm close to the end. It's quite possible that I could wrap it up in another two chapters, three at the most, and with the amount of words I've been trying to write per chapter that will be another 18,000 words. To a person that doesn't write that is an awful lot of words, but after looking at how many I've written already I think it will be a piece of cake.

And just for fun, because I wanted to, I wrote the final line to the story. I'm aware that when I finally reach the end that the line might not fit, or make sense, but I think it's a great line and will be a great finish to the story. If it fits. It's also good to sort of have an outline of the things that will happen in your book when you write one, and having that line writ I know exactly where to work towards.

It's all very exciting stuff, and I've challenged myself to finish the story before the 1st of March. That is, basically, only like one day for me because I have schoolwork to do in the morning which takes up all my morning. I only have two afternoons to write 18,000 words in. The most amount of words I've ever been able to write in a day was 6,000 words, I think. If I write that many a day then I'll have hit 12k, which, if you think about it, and I am thinking about it, might be enough to finish the story. It might even be too many words. I might finish it in less.

If you're not aware, I'm procrastinating by writing this blog post. Procrastination is the bane of all writers. I think I would put it as being worse than writer's block, for the simple reason that with writer's block you have a good excuse at not writing because you are unable to see how the story is to go forward. With procrastination the only thing keeping you from being able to move forward is yourself. And I hate myself for it.

That about wraps up my update on my book, just one more thing before I go. Clicking on the link below will take you to a preview of the first chapter of my novel. If you've been reading this blog then I hope I will have aroused your interest enough in my new book for you to want to check it out. If you do you'll be doing me a huge favour!

https://www.createspace.com/pub/community/demo.review.do?id=1143738

Writing Titles

Titles, depending on who you are and your thoughts on titles, can be very hard things to come up with. Even harder to come up with than the actual chapter, page, or whatever it is that you are writing that needs one. The reason they are harder to come up with is because you need to sum up basically the entire, for me at this moment in writing my story, chapter in something short. You don't want the chapter to be too long, otherwise it just looks funny and you end up giving too much away, but it can be just one word, if the one word fits.

I love titles, it gives you a sense of what is ahead of you in the story. Inviting little tidbits that get you reading ahead to find out what happens in chapters called 'The Jaws of Death', 'Skirmish in India' and 'The Body in the Ice Float'*.

My story, Of Lights and Shadows, is my second one to include chapter titles. I decided I was getting tired of just labeling them as Chapter One, Chapter Two, and so on, so I started naming them. And it has been most fun. I just love coming up with them, it is a challenge sometimes, I will admit, when there just doesn't seem to be anything in the chapter worth mentioning in the title or when you can't come up with a title that has anything to do with the chapter and so on. But in the end it is just so worth it, and, I hope, it adds to the story as well.

So just to get you interested in my story I thought I would post the chapter titles that I have come up with so far for my novel for you all to read. There are 12 chapters so far and I'm still writing the story so more will come, but here is what I have:

While My Baby Silently Sleeps

The Devil in the Deep Blue Suit

Home is Where the Drugs Are

The House of Silence Mourner

Their Kidnapping Consultant

Back in New York City

A Shot in the Night Time

Interviewing the Witnesses

They Shot Him Twice

A Little Touch of Black Mail

Another Clue to Follow On

The Eyes of a Snake

I hope they make you want to read the story just like they make me want to.

-Peter.





*None of those are actual title headings that I am aware of, they were made up on the spot by me.

Of Lights and Shadows' Summary

Children under the age of 13 are slowly being kidnapped with no warning, threats, or demands, and then showing up dead in seemingly random places around the City of New York. The police are so desperate they turn to the only man they know of who might have a chance of finding the Shadow, ex-cop Dastardious Hollow. A man currently serving time for murder.

With really no interest what-so-ever in the case, Hollow accepts just so he can have the please of finding the Shadow before his rival, Mulligan, does, and for the chance of turning down the promotion Mulligan has so eagerly sought for six long years. The one he sought when he arrested Dastardious for murder.

With the clock ticking before the Police Commissioner gets tired of him and sends him back to prison, will Dastardious find the Shadow before Mulligan? Even with help how can you find someone who never leaves a clue?

The above is a summery I wrote for my latest book, Of Lights and Shadows, to be published in June. It's still a bit of a work in progress, I'm not too sure about the content of it. Not sure if it's right, enough, too much, or what. I've had some advice but I'm still not sure.

The book I'm still writing. I've got the end to work on, but to get to the end I have to edit the beginning because the beginning leaves no room for an ending. It will just continue to go on and on until it fizzles with nothing. So I'm working on that. Not working really really hard at it, I'm a bit lazy and also have other stuff on my plate. Though that's no excuse considering the amount of time I spend on the computer should be enough to finish the rest of the edit in a day. But let's move on from there, I'm making myself feel guilty and I don't want to do that.

Um, what else? I think I should really start advertising this blog to people who are interested in what I have to say rather than just leaving it to chance that someone will come along who'll like it. Unfortunately I don't really know where to advertise my blog, and it's also doing something I don't like doing: going out there. It's terrifying. I prefer to stay inside away from having to do anything like that. But it's my own fault for starting to publish, I have to take that what comes with it.

Any suggestions of where I could advertise this blog and my story and whatnot would be greatly appreciated. I worked on the comments and now people can post them, I did that a little while ago but didn't end up saying, I don't think. 

-Peter

New Years Day

Happy New Year! That's what everyone's saying, you walk outside into the heat of a hot, muggy, Australian summer day and you're bombarded by the sounds of a million cicadas wishing you a happy new year.

A year has come and gone and I'm just amazed, I just can't seem to wrap my head around it all. It seems really short but sometimes looking at it you realise that it wasn't short at all. The thing I have trouble getting my head around is the fact that it's only been one year that has just past. So much happened last year that I kept thinking at least 2 or 3 years past. It's just... really weird.

All and all it wasn't too bad of a year. I turned 16, got an amazing girlfriend, lost my amazing girlfriend but still remain best friends with her so that's not bad at all. Got my learners, became better friends with my friends, got to know my God better, which is totally true. Finished year 11, self-published my very first book, wrote another one that I plan on self-publishing this year. Went to my first concert (Bon Jovi you rock!), and made some great new friends. (This is not in the order that it happened, I couldn't be bothered writing it in chronological order.)

And it's day one of a brand new year and already I see it as being a busy year. I have year 12 to complete, 6 months to finish writing my new book and edit it until gleams with correct SPaG, about 70 or so hours to clock up in driving, and I'm quite sure that a great many unforeseen things will happen before this year is out. Some of it will be great and some of it will be sad I'm sure, there is not much way of knowing. But I enter this year gladly.

I wish you all out there a great year!

-Peter.