Well we did it again. We passed through the ether of the previous year to come out into a new beginning. The end was just the means to start again.
What are your new year goals?
Get fit… lose weight… eat healthy… quit drinking… write more… do more… make something… go somewhere… achieve something…
You have likely seen my post on my new years writing goals: to get my stories finished and published. Those are writing goals / author goals. Of course having deadlines is a writers worst nightmare. When it passes you kind of worry you’ve failed. Well I work for myself when it comes to deadlines… I tell you when I’m done. (might not work if you’ve been contracted to a deadline haha).
I released my new novella Battle of the Zombies just before Christmas with hints of more upcoming works. I hope to add more to my site and continue especially, with the medieval England history. I also want to add some posts to the Napoleonic history page relating to weapons and such of the time, clothes and housing.
It’s now the Year of the Rabbit. If you enjoy that sort of thing you might also be interested in looking at some of the signs for this year in terms of your birthday, star sign etc.
Might be worth scrapping the bunny theme and replacing it with something more reality based, such as the year of the struggle of the common man and woman.
What the hell! Wait a second! Did we just begin afresh? We did!
It’s always free on Kindle Unlimited. Priced at £1.99 for the Kindle ebook price. May make a print version at some point. Or just add it to a collection of short stories for print.
Support my site and my writing by Buying me a coffee. Nothing says appreciation like a tip.😁
The Owl can fly when it wants to
If it sees a prey worthy of the flight
When the rain has exposed its location
*
Yet a man cannot run away when he wants to
So, the owl observes
As the men they drown in pain
The owl knows who is to blame
Welcome to my post. I hope you are well and that you’ve been productive today – or are just great in general!
Given my recent stint over the last few weeks of being slightly less productive than normal, I am now back on track. I’m back writing my novella in the Survivors mini-series of Beach Town. By now you are all familiar with the town name and hopefully the first two novels, which you can find right here 👈 Let’s assume you are; which makes things a lot easier.
My first Survivors tale, part I was a very dark take on the group of survivors hiding out in the ‘rich’ estate where they rapidly succumbed to other people’s evil and the undead. I take you through that journey to now come to part II which is a continuation yet a self-contained story. Part II is different in the way it is played out, being seen from the perspective of different groups as opposed to one. It is also split into a familiar location within the town and a new, unseen location slightly outside of town. We meet familiar and new faces. We see the extent of the social structure of the groups. There is some political aspect I guess, but it isn’t that prominent yet. The vast majority of survivors are in dire straits but doing the best they can. Being in groups strengthens them. We have cases of survivors going insane. I also introduce some new concepts on the zombies, such as more evolved or somehow more attuned undead to this story.
The towns rats have come out as well with the lack of people and have caused issues of their own. This was an issue I wanted to explore in Beach Town: Hope, but ultimately decided against it as the novel already had its own storylines and it added nothing to the main plot. It wouldn’t have worked as a sub plot or even an interesting point. It does however make sense to add this detail to the novella as it is some time since the initial outbreak and apocalypse. The rats are a main source of disease in the new story. So, you’ve read the first part which was fairly settled compared to the second part.
In other words, a huge overhaul of characters, dynamics, plots, storylines and general arc are going to create a very fun, yet overwhelmed and busy world in a short amount of time. Fun in the sense that it is classic zombie horror stuff; back to plenty of zombie killing, plenty of character conflicts, silly tropes, devastating aftereffects, disease and illness (thanks rats), good old-fashioned fighting!
I hope it’s going to be quite the shock compared to the first part. That is the point, to take the idea of survivors and build on it. As it’s still in the first draft stage I might be telling you all this too early. I guess I just hope to bring you all into this world and make it a place you enjoy reading about. As a fictional town I created, it is quite the place to experience. I hope to bring to you a map at some point too. I know I should have done this for the first book so please forgive me. A map will bring things to life and make it easier to visualise the story.
One more point is that the setting of a once quaint town ravaged by the dead to me at least, is terrifying. The main reason being that it is isolated from another town or city, the island is literally home to one town and nothing more. There is no working dockland that the survivors can access, and even if they could, they probably couldn’t operate the ships.
The streets offer a dark, dreary chance of survival as people move between buildings. The nights bring harsh cold winds and storms. People cannot rely on the authorities who have since the apocalypse started, been killed or turned into rogue survivors themselves. There is no real power other than that the people give themselves. It’s brutal, yet it’s a normal way of life for these people now.
Politics is almost dead yet propaganda reigns supreme as the radio station broadcasts horrifying lies about the Resistance, intent on disassembling its structure.
Welcome to a very sudden and exhilarating post! For me at least. I’ve been slacking on editing Beach Town: Survivors and should have edited it last month in full. But no, still cracking on. Anyway I usually have more than 1 work in progress so I started writing another story. I tend to create a cover early now, as opposed to before when I paid for it.* I am enjoying writing this thrilling and somewhat terrifying tale, a novella. Apparently if I get scared writing it that means it is scary. I doubt it, it’s just a sub genre of horror that scares the hair off my back!
*I think I will design my own covers from now on and stick to eBooks. Sure, physical copies have there place but at the end of the day if I am not going to sell many it defeats the point in having it available in print. Not to mention huge savings and the ability to be a bit more free and creative with your cover.
So I hinted at a cover reveal the other day. Maybe I’m being stupid showing you all this cover, or perhaps too rushed. What it reflects is intended to be left up to you as the reader to figure out. You might see divide, you might unification or you might see absolutely nothing. Good, because I enjoyed putting it together.👇
It is a dark tale (literally, dark for the most part) and has vampis (vampires). I am not writing those soft, loveable or humorous kind… I am talking about real, frightening vampires which is exactly what they are and have always been. We’re talking stranded people being attacked viscously by these creatures.
Short quiz question: Do you know what ‘dead reckoning’ means? You might be able to figure out something about the story if you know.
Thanks for reading and please like, comment, reblog and share if you liked this post. *All comments, any, are appreciated and respected provided they don’t insult or degrade people.
Welcome to this post about my ambitious yet probably under researched future! Should I spill out my internal organs, hope and life goals to you all? No. Should I share some of my goals with you, and my recent works in the hope you will reciprocate this to me and we can then bask in our own solemn glory? Yes.
It’s always a no, yes game until you find out what you really wanted all along. Perhaps it is okay to be that person sat in the café alone, writing notes, reading and thinking about how you can better materialise your dreams of being a star writer. Cafe’s are public places akin to a pub (public house) so no shame in crafting a story here. Same with libraries, never be afraid of sitting in a library to write. We all have those thoughts that keep up back from performing at our best. When we finally face them we realise something, that they cannot harm us.
Waking at 6am to write for a couple hours or to crank out a couple thousand words a day is good. I talk about schedules and dedication but at the end of your day, you should feel satisfied with your work rather than feeling like you’ve not done enough. Taking breaks are good things, like sitting on your butt at midnight to work through a scene which made no sense until now.
Ambitious is my middle name, writing potential garbage is the game.
— Some loose tongued writer
May I take a moment to say this: if you write, you are a writer! Any style, and platform and any genre. Granted I do like to see dedication and quality in writers, like abiding by the rules and such. What I want to achieve is freedom of expression, not to say to everyone who writes; “hey you can be a writer, just write something, anything.” The reality here focuses on creative writing, fiction writing, those writing novellas, full length novel stories.
I also want to share a new story with you. Yeah yeah, you’ve heard about Beach Town: Survivors a bazillion times since the end of May, but I like the story and will be happy to see it available for people to read (free to read btw). But I managed to finally start a story I’ve been wanting to write for some time, sadly though – and I kindly ask you not to laugh at this – I was genuinely too terrified to begin to write it, for multiple reasons.
It’s horror with supernatural elements. It is a horror story and the bad creatures in it are vampires which I do not like because they scare me. Well, I decided to move onto this as the next novella since it needs writing sooner or later. I’ve already made a cover, which of course may change. No idea when it will be available or if I will release but pretty sure I can write it over the next month. It’s slightly more terrifying than my average horror story, the vamps have small wings, they can levitate and have dark robes. A part of me might not write this. I will definitely absorb you all into the process when I can be bothered, not quite ready to drop the cover yet.
Welcome to this short post about some tips to keep track and on track of your weekly goals. It will help I believe to keep you motivated if you have short term weekly goals instead of pushing for stressful, and unrealistic timelines. Here you can see my suggestion and you can also read my Medium post below on ‘keeping track of your goals.’
1) Try to set small achievable goals throughout the week;
2) Don’t push yourself beyond your current limit;
3) Engage with others to tell them what you want to achieve;
4) Be able to complete the goals and don’t dwell on any shortcomings or failures;
5) Try to reward yourself as little as possible as it isn’t that healthy in the first place, you are human not dog;
6) Don’t be tempted to change a goal because you can’t be bothered anymore.
As you can see this is merely 6 tips, and there exists a whole lot of literature on mental health, motivation and happiness which may or may not be of significant help to you. I am currently reading a book by Richard Wiseman which is fascinating and helpful. I also started reading a practical guide to mental health, or something like that. Both are assisting my writing journey and my life at the moment. In times of difficulty of course motivation can dwindle. With time and the right tools though you can heal and get back on track.
Many thanks for taking the time to read my post and have a wonderful day. Thomas.
I am awaiting an interview outcome, which I expect to hear back from next week. I am writing on here, Medium and want to add another part to the Wattpad story – Apocalypse on Easy Street. Along with trying to round off Fist Fighting the Undead which was a little bit of fun.
Not planning to go anywhere, last weekend at the cinema was as adventurous as it has gotten lately. I did go into town yesterday though and bought a tropical looking rug. It is only small and I’ve put in in my living room in front of the sofa. I wanted one for a while because it is wooden flooring and so when I sit bare foot I want to rest my feet on something that doesn’t slip.
MedlumNo pain or hurt or anger
searing shot in the eyes
you are going to reach the top of your mountain
where you sense the goatuntil it flies overwhisk of airyou were never there
My new title, or should I say, my official title. I am so damned blessed to have such a long name! That is all! You might find me by other, more boring names, but this was all for show anyway. How many of you are alive?
Feel free to read the shortest story snippet ever below. Some writing fun. Just another short story development which may never come to fruition like most things.
Good morning to all you wonderful souls out there reading this post. I hope the sunrise is as beautiful there are it is here. The sun is out, the birds are chirping and the day has a glow of elegant expression.
Today I will be writing, and focused on that in its entirety. My goal is get some work added to the Wattpad story Apocalypse on Easy Street, which so far has 5 parts. I’m listening to classical music on Classic FM which is a relaxing and mindful station for anyone looking for a radio to work to. For breakfast a wrap of chili kidney beans and full caffeinated coffee.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, why?”
“You never drink caffeinated coffee!”
That is true, but since I don’t have decaffeinated and I don’t want tea, I’ll drink as I please. Besides, life is too short. Maybe one day you’ll wake up and smell the coffee. Anyway back to the writing. Aside from the Wattpad zombie story, which is more of a fun thing on the side, I’ll also be adding to my work in progress zombie novel set in the English countryside. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t bore you with too many details. I’m not exactly famous so it is not like anyone really cares, you know?
I want to add a ‘grateful’ section to this post, listing what I am grateful for this morning. Here I go, be free to add your own in the comments:
1) The sunrise 2) the birdsong 3) the food I am about to receive 4) the computer I am using 5) my ability to work on the computer 6) the fresh air 7) My imagination 8) music 9) to be able to sit on my sofa without fear of being attacked 10) God
I hope you have enjoyed this morning post. Sorry to keep the poem till last. You know me by now.
Having the morning breakfast properloaded up for the dayto writeto have funmy life is going the right way... for once.
psychedelicwizard 