Phill's Phollies

1:43pm: Twice in the same month ...
That's my LiveJournal entries that I'm talking about. Yes, I'm here daily to read, but don't seem to get the urge to write much. Today I've just popped in to spruik my latest Reality Bit(e)s article over at the 'A Writer Goes On A Journey' website. I'm starting a new series of articles about the reality of Artificial Intelligence.

In a previous life I was an Information Scientist, so this is something I know a little bit about from first hand experience. The first article is relating some of the history of the discipline. You can find it here if you're interested.

I'm also nearing the end of the episodic telling of my 'The Changeling Detective' novella. Chapter nineteen and the reality of Devils (or is that Deyvills) is being related to an unbelieving protagonist (who is one of these beasties himself). For those interested all the currently released chapters can be found here.

Comments and suggestions as always gratefully received.

8:52pm: Silver, the Esoteric
My latest Reality Bit(e)s article 'Silver, the Esoteric' has recently gone up on the 'A Writer Goes On A Journey' website. You can find it at the URL below.

Silver, the Esoteric

Ghastly images of the real disease/syndrome called 'Argyria' caused by ingesting too much Silver.

And, for those interested in a bit of fiction I have just posted chapter fifteen of my episodic urban fantasy(?) 'The Changeling Detective' on my personal website, which now features an RSS feed for the story. You can find that here.

And, as I've recently consumed most of a bottle of Shiraz I shall be very surprised if this post is coherent, let alone works.

Cheers everyone.

Phill.

P.S. Did you know that it you cut your finger with a knife and suck on the wound and drink lots of wine you don't need a bandaid ... it's been an interesting day.

10:34pm: What has children's homework come to?
In my day, limericks were written on the school toilet walls.

Nowadays, they are being used as examples of poetry and my youngest daughter had to make some up for homework. This morning, she, the wife and I mucked around with a few lines this morning.

Here's my best effort.

There once was a child quite sensible
whose limericks were incomprehensible
Her Irish father was sad,
her English teacher got mad.
Her position was quite indefensible.

Anybody else got any other offerings?

3:48pm: What have I been doing?
Saw Wolverine and Star Trek on the weekend. Liked the latter but not the former, which was a bit of a surprise for me as I expected it to be the other way round.

My latest Reality Bit(e)s article on the basics of Silver is up on the Writer Goes On A Journey website and can be found here if any of my flist is interested in reading it.

I'm also up to chapter 12 of 'The Changeling Detective' which I'm releasing on my own website. That and the earlier chapters can be found here. Chapter 13 should be available in the next day or so.

I've been generating my own potential market for this on FaceBook through playing games and inviting other players of those games to join my alliance. Some of the cynical amongst you might think this is just me goofing off, but as well as helping me succeed at the games, I am also building a huge list of FaceBook friends (almost 400 now) who get to see my notes. And, they aren't just my usual suspects. These are people from all over the world ... who not only gain an ally, but also get to see my promotional material when I announce it on FB.

I wonder if it will work.

11:51am: Iron the Esoteric
After a too long hiatus the second Reality Bit(e)s article on Iron has recently gone up on the 'A Writer Goes On A Journey' site. This article delves into the more esoteric uses of both 'Cold Iron' and 'Meteoric Iron' in both fact and fiction. You can find it at the following URL:

Iron, the Esoteric

I'm also up to episode (i.e. chapter) ten of the self-publishing of 'The Changeling Detective'

The Changeling Detective

Comments and suggestions always welcome.

Keep writing.

Phill.

11:30am: My first love short story.
Put in a short for a competition earlier this week. It's for a woman's magazine and the main character had to be a woman. Not normally my thing, but the prize is good and includes a chance at novel publication and, my better half thought I would be crazy not to.

This is two first for me. First the MC is definitely female (unlike Transgressions where he is becoming a she) and its a love story. Call me traditional for that I supposed, but the story was a fantasy and part of the back story for Transgressions, so it covered all bases.

Speaking of stories, yesterday I published Chapter 7 of 'The Changeling Detective' on my web site. For those interested you can find it here.

I have also decided to let my subscription to the Online Writers Workshop lapse. Not that I think it is a bad site, but I now get there so rarely that there is no real value in the money it costs. Maybe when I have more time I'll go back to it, but I'm hoping that the contacts I made there can be coaxed into following me to the other sites I frequent.

Keep writing everyone.

10:34am: The Changeling Detective
My Masques Anthology short story ended up being called 'The Changeling Detective'. It was originally 'The AAA Detective Agency, RIP'. I was not completely happy with either name for the short.

However, 'The Changeling Detective' is a great name for the novella that it turned into last NaNoWriMo and the novella is a great place to start a foray into electronic publishing. I am publishing chapters of the story weekly both on Authonomy and my own private website. For those interested you can find them here.

Authonomy Version

and here

Phill's Phollies Fiction

Comments and suggestions on the story and the process are very welcome as usual.

Enjoy your Easter break.

11:36pm: I opened the book and there I was.
After the Masques launch last Friday some of the contributors went out to dinner - Indian food - very nice.

I was seated next to Kathleen Jennings who did some of the graphics for the anthology and at one point she pulled out her sketchbook. A tiny thing, more like a visual diary than a sketchbook as I know them. I asked if I could have a look at her work and when I opened it up there I was.

Phill Berrie and Liz Gorinsky at Conflux

This is picture of Liz Gorinsky (one of our overseas guests) and I that Kathleen did during a panel we were both on. The main difference between the drawing an the picture above is the glasses; back then I didn't wear them.

Have a look at the rest of Kathleen's sketches. She's a mighty fine artist. You won't regret it.

12:04pm: First Book Signing
It has been far too long since I have been here, but yesterday was a special day, so I thought I should record something here.

Yesterday was the launch of the CSFG's Masques anthology. This was a real milestone for me: first piece of non-self published fiction, first book launch in which I was one of the authors and, first time I've signed a piece of my own fiction for somebody else.

The launch went very well and the CSFG, the editors and helpers should all be congratulated for a job very well done.

The Guest of Honour was Gary Hampson, a local author and entrepreneur who spoke about the changes occurring in the publishing industry and how he, like many others I have been listening to recently, see that electronic publishing is the way of the future with a greater cut to the authors because of the lower overheads involved in production.

Preaching to the converted here, but it was interesting to see just how far the ground swell has travelled.

Speaking of electronic publication ... my latest Reality Bit(e)s article has just gone up on the 'A Writer Goes On A Journey' website. Following on from my article on the real and speculative properties of Gold I have been asked by nyssa_p (the 'A Writer' web mistress) to talk about some of the other common metals referenced in speculative fiction. This new article is on the basics of Iron.

Those interested can read this and other Reality Bit(e)s here.

Havagoodweegend.

5:21pm: Facebook and new Reality Bit(e)s article.
I am now on Facebook with a growing circle of friends that now numbers 23 including family and friends that aren't LJers. In fact, I've corresponded more with one of my brothers since joining Facebook than I have in the entire previous year. That must be a good thing.

So if anyone reading this wants to find me there, I am the only 'Phillip Berrie' on Facebook. Friend me.

And, after a brief hiatus I have put up another Reality Bit(e)s article on the 'A Boy' site. This one is about the poor treatment of gravitation technology I read of in a scifi book I'm reading.

The Gravity of the Situation

As always comments welcome.

Now where was I?

6:23pm: Article on Authonomy
It's been a while, but for those who are interested in such things I recently published the last installment of a four part article on HarperCollins UK's Authonomy website on the 'A Boy Goes On A Journey' website. You can find the articles here, but be aware that the site stores them in reverse order, so you'll need to go back to find the first article.

Authonomy Article

It's a writer's community website where they can get critiquing done by the community and the top highest ranked books each month get to go on the HC editor's desk. An interesting idea which I think is useful but not sure lives up to its own defined goals with the system it uses.

8:45am: My first piece of published fiction
This week the list of authors for the latest Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild (CSFG) anthology was announced and your's truly was in the list. The anthology has the theme of 'Masques' and my short is titled 'The Changeling Detective'. I for one am looking forward to seeing it in print.

This was also the basis for my NaNo project and I'm now working on expanding it to proper novel size and then looking for a publisher. It's an urban fantasy with a twist and there's enough material here for a series ala the Harry Dresden books.

My main fantasy WIP is still underway as well, but I think I'm going to have to at least finish the whole first draft of the story arc with that one before I go looking to sell it, as the connections between the books are very important.

Funnily enough, I think having two major projects to swap between is helping me write both.

2:21pm: Authonomy, a new speculative fiction writing community
I heard of this HarperCollins site today and went and had a look and am really excited about the concepts behind it.

Authonomy

I am already in Critmonsters, the CSFG crit group and the Online Writers Workshop. The first two of these are only really useful for short fiction and the OWW has significant overheads in terms of time and money.

I was wondering if anybody else on my flist has looked at this site and heard anything, either good or bad, about it.

To me it seems like a win win situation for all concerned and a resource that many different people from all areas of the writing/publishing industry could make use of.

Or am I just being naive?

Oh, and yes, I have put up some of my own work, and will be providing feedback for other authors. If you're interesting in reading the prologue and first two chapters of my own main work in progress click on the following link.

Engelian Adventures: Transgressions

Any comments and feedback gratefully accepted.

Addendum: If you got here through the Australian Speculative Fiction Blog Carnival, I am currently writing a series of articles on my experience on Authonomy on the 'A Boy Goes On A Journey' website. If you're interested, you can follow this up here

11:21pm: NaNo Update


Well I finished and submitted tonight at 50,150 words after going through and elaborating on the existing story.

Fortunately, I have also identified a new subplot and characters I can add to the story and know where to slot them in, but that's a project for another time. A couple of weeks so I can come back to it with fresh eyes.

Not sure if I mentioned this here before, but the short story that spawned this NaNo novel has been long listed for the CSFG's 'Masque' anthology. Hopefully it will be good enough to make it into the book, as that can only help me when I've finished the full novel and go looking for a publisher.

And lastly, my domain name (i.e. www.phillberrie.com.au) finally seems to be working properly. Yaah.

Nice ways to finish the working week, eh?

9:38pm: NaNo Update
Current Word Count: 48,653 (Expected Count: 45,009)

NaNo Thought: Explore all your characters fully. It not only makes the more real, it also clocks up the words.

Still doing the light edit elaborating as I go. It's looking fairly certain that I'll make the 50,000, but doubling its size? I don't know.

10:00pm: NaNo Update
Current Word Count: 46,827 (Expected word count: 43,342)

I'm now doing a light edit looking for parts of the story I can elaborate on.

NaNo Thought: First drafts are where you tell the story to yourself. I've learnt lots about my original idea that I didn't know existed before I started. Now I need to add colour and characterisation and elaborate on some subplots to turn it into a proper length novel.

5:39pm: NaNo Update
Current Count: 45,183 words (Expected Count: 41,675)

However, I've run out of story.

Eeek!

Looks like I'm going to have to look at the structure and add some more events partway through the story ... five thousand words worth of new events.

Eeek. Time to do some thinking.

NaNo Thought: Having a grand idea which you only want to explore part of in NaNo is a limitation.

11:21pm: NaNo Update
Current Progress: 42,787 words (Expected Word Count: 40,008)

NaNo Thought: Killed the main antagonist today. Perhaps a rash act with 7,000+ words still to go. Still there are some mysteries to deepen and some secondary antagonists to deal with. Hope I can stretch that out to 50,000 words.

8:33pm: NaNo Update
Current count: 40,192 word (expected count: 38,341)

NaNo Thought: I fear I'm running out of story and I still have about twenty percent of the word count to go. Gulp.

11:03pm: NaNo Update
Current Word Count: 37,905 (Expected word count at day 22 = 36,652 words)

Actually I'm surprised at just how much I got done today. I had several hours writing this afternoon with a distinct scene in my mind before I started, so the muse was definitely with me.

NaNo Thought: Don't be afraid to take a break if the words aren't coming easily. Do something else and only think about the story if the thoughts come unbidden. If the thoughts do start to come, don't be too quick to go back to the writing. The more you think about the story, the more ideas you have, the easier the words will come when you do start writing again.

Works for me.

6:24pm: NaNo Update
Well, I'm back from my trip away, which went from being a trip to visit a sick relative to a funeral visit. Alas, we did not make it in time and the end came much sooner than expected.

Vale, Phyllis Irene Loney, not a blood relative of mine, but a classy lady anyway, who was taken from us by the dreaded C.

I have fallen behind with NaNoWriMo, but only just, so my earlier efforts were in good stead.

Current Word Count: 34,977 (Expected Word Count for day 21: 34,986 words).

NaNo Thought: I am running out of story, at least plotted story. I'm sure I could go back and add lots of background and character development and I have several thousand words to go with the current storyline, but this could be a problem. I wonder if other NaNoers have this problem?

10:27pm: NaNo Update
Current Word Count: 31,019 (26,666 expected)

Didn't do quite do 1,666 words today, but I seem to have painted myself into a corner a little bit and so need to do some thinking as to what to do next. I head off tomorrow for five days. I hope to take my computer with me and do some work, but I don't like my chances. Still hopefully I will be able to solve my little impasse.

NaNo Thought: Getting ahead and losing a couple of days is much better than losing a few days when you're not ahead.

Duh! I hear you say, but it does mean I still feel confident that I can reach 50,000 words by the end of the month.

11:50pm: NaNo Update
Very social day today, but I did get a chance to write tonight and the words flowed well.

Current word count: 29,494 (expected word count at the end of day 15: 25,000)

NaNo Thought: Tonight I was trying to be subtle. I don't think subtle works for NaNoWriMo and expect to do a lot of editing for this section after its all over.

11:38pm: NaNo Update
Current word count: 27,625 (23,324 to be on track).

Feeling extra specially pleased with myself regarding this. No doubt I will fall behind over the weekend and while I'm away next week, but at least I've given myself a fighting chance to reach 50,000 words by the end of the month.

No NaNo thought today, but a big thank you to ph8 for helping me get my own internet domain name.

Yes, 'www.phillberrie.com.au' now officially exists and points to my website.

Yeah!!!

8:33pm: NaNo Update
Reached the halfway point today.

Current word count: 25,170 words (expected word count for day 13 = 21,658)

NaNo Thought for today: It's very nice to have reached this far and to be so far ahead of schedule. Woot.