Say hello to my little friend

My sister has just finished uni and is staying here until she leaves for a job in Hong Kong. Whilst she's here her little rabbit Rodney will be living in the garage. Sadly I'm too alergic to hold him (runny nose and a nasty rash) but that doesn't mean I don't think he's adorable. There's a story about him I've been writing for a while. If things ever calm down a little I might finish it.

Ian xxx

Ps. The butternut squash plant is now two inches high.

Update: I just gave this a read through and found five spelling mistakes! I've changed them now but it's really embarassing!

Proof/Evidence

Hey! Yesterday I recieved the first proof from the printers! All I've got to do is read though it and the Whispering Sand will be printed!!

Ian xxx

Ps The Butternut squash is coming along nicely!

Watching/ Reading about paint dry

I posted about this only yesterday but I recieved an amended version of the Whispering Sand cover today. The only difference is that Grandpa is now wearing a dressing gown (I can live with the jumper Annabeth is wearing as it gives the picture a bit of colour). It's off to be finsihed now so I'll keep you posted!

Oh and my carrot seedlings finally broke the surface so I have a handful of little green shoots. Growing plants is really rather rewarding - it's just a shame reading about someone else's is like reading about someone watching paint dry.

Thanks

Ian xx

Wondering/ Wonderful

Seeing the cover of the Whispering Sand for the first time has got me thinking. I write a lot, about all sorts of things, but what I'm wondering is if I can write anything as 'magical' as the Whispering Sand again. As far as stories go it was by far the easiest and most fun thing I've ever written and seeing an illustration drawn from my ideas was just the most wonderful experience but have I written anything else that is worthy? Of course I think yes but still...

Futhering the story:
The sequels I have written to the Whsipering Sand are very different books because to continue a story you have to expand but in doing so you take away the small scale ideas. I suppose though there are ways to anchor the story. Look at Harry Potter, at the start of every book (except the last) he returns to the Durdsley's house and then goes to school. The adventures get bigger and so does the scope but they still have that 'magical (sorry for the pun)' homely quality. What I'm worried about with my sequels is whether the increased scope is killing the magic. I've tried as hard as I could to maintain it but for the events to happen the characters have to grow - leaving the naivety that made them so endearing in the first place. I'm also aware that by anchoring the characters at home you make it a little repetative so be prepared for something different in the fourth one :-)

Is this a good thing? Should I have just written something else?
Again my answer is no, I wrote these stories because I could see them happening at Gull Cove Cottage. Perhaps that is not how you envisaged Annabeth's life to progress but it's how I thought it might happen. I don't know if anyone else will ever read the sequels but they have brought me so much enjoyment I just hope one day someone gets a chance to share that excitement!

This post was intended as a sort of discussion with myself so I hope you enjoyed it.

Ian xxx

Whispering Sand Cover

Just when I was wondering what I could write about today I recieved the sketch draft for the Whispering Sand cover. I have to say I'm absolutely thrilled. There seem to be so many elements of the book woven into what seems to be a simple, bold picture. The expressions on the characters are just wonderful and their design, whilst not quite how I imagined are verymuch along the right lines. Glob looks great on it, just brilliant- especailly as he's pinching something from Grandpa's pocket. It's such a shame that I can't upload a picture (it's probably copywrite) but soon you shall see it in all its glory!!

Ian xxx

Ps.The butternut squash is growing disappointingly slowly. Gardening is very much like watching paint dry.

Bye, bye Mr Si

As of next week one of my closest friends is jetting off to New York, California, Toronto, Fiji, New Zealand before working in Australia for at least 6 months. To say I'm a little jealous would be an understatement as I've always wanted to go to those places. I'm also going to miss Simon rather a lot so I made him a little book of photos and anecdotes for all his friends to sign before he goes. Why am I writing this? Well as this blog catalogues my creative endeavours I thought you might be interested, or perhaps inspired to do something should your friends disappear on an amazing once in a lifetime adventure. So here are a few photos of it.

Ian xx

Ps the butternut squash is doing well (although as yet there is no sign of life above ground but I live in hope).

Collecting Eyeballs

No, no it's not another new hobby, but having just finished the Fellowship of the Ring (again) I'm now reading The Eyeball Collector by F.E. Higgins. I am enjoying it immensely.

I think you should check it out. Why was I attracted to it? I saw it in a shop and picked it up, it only took a quick read to fall in love with the style it is written in.

Oh! There are also free stickers for those fickle types :-)

Ian x x

Ps. Still no growth from the Butternut Squash (or the carrots I planted in a moment of over excitement)

Carnivorous plants

Hello
So Terry Pratchett had his carnivoros plants (you know, the ones that took over the greenhouse?- well he did) and now I've got my Butternut Squash! I visited some close friends for a bbq and they have quite an impressive vegetable garden. Feeling inspired I've purchased and planted some butternut squash seeds. It's probably a little late in the year but they're going to have to grow in the greenhouse anyway. There's a little white rabbit that lives on the wasteland near us and I bet he'd much anything that actually grew. So now I can not only bore you with my literary adventures but now there's butternut squash stories too! Hooray!


The Butternut squash is doing well.
Ian xx

Shadows on the Sun

Well, hello again
It has been a productive few days, I've written God knows how many thousand words of the latest Annabeth Wish story and the planning of my next literary adventure is coming along quite nicely. I've got a handful of short stories to finish too, which hopefully I'll get chance to do soon.

With the weather being good I've managed a hefty amount of mountain biking and not much sleeping, the main perils of having two jobs. Anyway I don't want to try and bias your opinions about my writing by telling you boring stories about my life so I'll leave it at that for now. Oh and I just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying reading Lord of the Rings, again :-)

Blog Genesis

Hello and welcome to the first entry in my blog. With the Whispering Sand's publishing date on the horizon I thought I'd start telling you about my current activities.
So blog 1: A bit about me and what I'm doing.
By the end of this month I will have checked and sent off the final hard copy of The Whispering Sand to be printed!! Excited? Oh yes.
The hope is that I sell enough copies to get the sequel published. I'm keeping details scant on that for the time being but it's written and just needs a little polish.
I've written another book and two halves this year and at the moment I'm currently working on the second sequel to the Whispering Sand. That's all I'm going to tell you about for the moment. Basically I'm ridicuously excited by it! And yes doing that much writing is extremely time consuming.
Oh and in case you're wondering, I have two jobs (day and evening), I ride a bike or run every night, I've got an audition to join a band on Wednesday and I'm rereading Lord of the Rings for the third time. So yes I'm really rather busy.

Ian x