New Post Your Progress Thread

[JunkMonkey]

 

[John Howes]

After approximately 7 years of writing, my second novel has a title.
A high/epic fantasy possibly in four parts. The first two parts have been written back-to-back and the first part is almost ready to publish...

 

[Wendy Gamble]

I'm about 6 000 words into book three of my SF MedSci Missions "opening trilogy." As in, the main problem that got them into space is wrapped but other adventures open up.
Meanwhile, I've joined an interesting site, Bublish for promotion. They use cool formatting for author insights on excerpts. You can see my latest one on their site here.

 

[Andrew LH]

Hello forum. Just bumping this old thread to mention that, as you can see from the little flag beneath my avatar, I've volunteered to help out with some moderation activities (around the Writers subform specifically).

I'm not positioning myself as a discussion referee, though (so any thorny observations on my part do not represent the opinions of The Management). Just helping out with basic administrative things like stickying/unstickying threads and cleaning up contest polls at the end of every cycle, etc.

I usually check in on the writers forum every day, so if you need me just tag me in a comment.

 

[KatG]

Bwwaaaa, Andrew finally gave up waiting on me to do things and volunteered as tribute. Be nice to him.

 

[Matthew Hughes]

Somehow, this thread showed up in a Google search, reminding me that when I was writing a story about a necromancer that I thought might become a series, I posted about progress here.

Turns out I turned the story into a short novel, because Patreon patrons have made it possible for me to do more than pennies-per-word magazine pieces, though I still do them for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

A few days ago, I self-published the result: a novel entitled The Ghost-Wrangler, set in my continuing extrapolation of Jack Vance's seminal Dying Earth milieu.

Here's the blurb:

In a world of wizards and walled cities, Galabras Nachecko is a necromancer in the seaport metropolis of Golathreon, connecting the living with deceased relatives and associates to answer questions left unresolved at the time of death.

Then he is tasked by Duke Simisson’s conniving seneschal to capture the ghost of a notorious land pirate scheduled for execution. He snags the spirit but finds that the assignment has made him a man who knows too much.

Nachecko is propelled into a new career—secret agent segueing into diplomat—that leads him far from home, plunges him into perilous adventures, and brings him both true love and tragedy.

It's available as an ebook on Amazon, Kobo, and downstream platforms, as well as in POD paperback format on Amazon.

 

[Trishaxx]

Whyllbow Tavern

Not sure when I was last on this thread but I'm guessing it's some time ago. I've found this forum helps in the past to keep my writing going and, since I seem to be working on two stories at once, I thought I'd stop by here again for a bit of community and progress support.
The two projects in question are the fantasy/sci-fi quest 'Amulet of Tears: Book Two' (now just starting chapter three) and a new story, another fantasy quest but aimed at a younger audience called, for now, 'Whyllmoon'. (several chapters in)
I thought it might help to use World Anvil/Discord for Whyllmoon but I'm not sure it has! (too much software learning not enough time...) So, finding spaces to discuss the creative process and sci-fi writing generally with a good community spirit is really helpful and I hope to utilize this space properly for these two projects.

Friday is my science fiction day and so I've set an alarm to post an update here each week, approximately at midday. You are all welcome to join me for a virtual pint in what I am calling the Whyllbow Tavern to discuss page counts, character names, what you're having for lunch....

 

[Trishaxx]

Whyllbow Tavern

Well, this week has flown by and I've stopped by to post my weekly progress update, I appreciate I'm probably talking to myself at the moment but you never know, others might find this a useful exercise too.

So this week I have written a short story (1500 words approx.) for Halloween. I'll post it for free on my social media pages as a little seasonal treat. I find writing a short or flash fiction a good way to practise my writing technique and, if I've hit a bit of a blank spot with other projects, it can help to free up that creative process.

After a re-read, I've had to rejig a bit of Amulet 2, make chapter two longer and so am now working on chapter three (again!). Writing a sequel after a break of 2 years means quite a lot of referencing the previous book.... Word count stands approximately 5000 at moment.

Whyllmoon has not changed much from earlier post. I might not bother with too much world building, I think it might detract from the task in hand which is writing. Just the thought that I have to post up how much I've written this week has helped with my writing procrastination!

Lunch this week is chicken and sweetcorn soup. If I was eating a meal from Amulet 2 right now it would be panicle buns stuffed with pickled sollop and a panagereme salad. Which has got me thinking about meals in scifi and fantasy stories generally, is there a cookbook available?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Multiple cookbooks, but many ingredients are unavailable.

 

[Trishaxx]

Very true! I'll need a replicator...

I'm not going to be here this Friday but the Tavern will be if anyone wants to post up their progress.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Replicators and transporters are two of the silliest things in Star Trek. Most magic makes more sense. E=mc^2 and the sheer volume of information needed to accurately describe a biological thing. Some SF ideas are lazy or wishful thinking and inherently impossible.
An original version in SF of the "transporter" is in Clifford Simak's Way Station in 1963, ST-TOS was 1966. It's really a maguffin to support the plot, though explicitly the original entity dies and "soul"/"mind" is transferred to the replica (explicit in ST-TNG). There are other SF stories predating ST-TOS, but the "transporters" are actually portals, which while unlikely aren't inherently impossible. The idea of a portal is in Celtic (maybe 2000+ yo) and Norse myth (our copies are about 700 yo) as well as later fairy stories and modern fantasy. Niven's "Known Space" stories have stepping discs (some time after 1964), but he wisely isn't specific about if they are portals or transporters or what. No known material is strong enough for a Dyson sphere or ringworld. A Kevlar space elevator might work on Mars, but no known material for Earth. You have to start at the middle at geostationary height and extend both ways. Then issue of anchor bottom (on the Equator). Even if a material existed, the building launch cost makes the idea doubtful.

SF is mostly entertainment, not blueprints for the future.

The ST-TOS transporter was because they didn't have a budget for a shuttlecraft till later.

However there are very unlikely plants and animals here on earth that most people are unfamiliar with. Many seem more alien and unlikely than Star Trek. Apparently we don't know how sunflowers track the sun. See also life cycle of eel, kangaroo sex, sugar gliders, guinea pig digestive system. Marsupials with pouch opening at bottom, horse shoe crabs, octopus, how a cashew "nut" grows and that adult coconut crabs eat birds and drown if they fall in the sea, though they start life there.

James White maybe has the most alien aliens.

You can eat darkling beetle larvae. No need to be a bird or Klingon. Strangely they can eat expanded polystyrene foam. Discovered by accident.

 

[N. E. White]

SF is mostly entertainment, not blueprints for the future.

Absolutely true.

Strangely they can eat expanded polystyrene foam. Discovered by accident.

The beetle larvae? Which we can eat?

Wow.

Anyway, my progress this year:

1. Written 2.5 books, will hopefully be 3 by the end of the year
2. Hired an editor for book 1
3. Revived my blog (but haven't posted anything)

That's about it. Except I have a good writing habit in place, which is key.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

The beetle larvae? Which we can eat?

Yes. Someone stored them in an expanded polystyrene container...

Dead ones widely sold as bird food. Live ones sold in some pet shops. Allegedly woodlice are also edible and related to shrimps. People do eat bugs in some countries. I've seen chocolate coated locusts.

 

[Trishaxx]

Whyllbow Tavern

Woodlice excrete ammonia as their waste product, hence the colloquial name, 'stinky pigs', not so keen on woodlice for lunch!
I am hoping posting here each week will make me form a better writing habit which had definitely slipped this year! Well done on getting 2.5 books written. I'm aiming for at least 1000 words a week on the two books I'm working on! This morning has been back to world building for Whyllmoon. But I have managed a chapter on AofT2 this week. I've written quite a few short stories during the pandemic years and I think expanding that process back out to a novel length is taking a while!
I was thinking about 3D printers and their medical applications now. How quickly technology advances. I'm still hoping to see a 'replicator' in my lifetime... as for blueprints for the future, you're right, sci-fi is entertainment but I guess it can also be a way to explore theories and scenarios that we are unable to prove scientifically at the moment.
Portals, doors, gateways... as humans our life and death are bounded by portals.
Hoping you've seen the footage of the gorgeously alien-like once-extinct echidna in the news today!

 

[Ray McCarthy]

seen the footage of the gorgeously alien-like [thought to be extinct] once-extinct echidna

[My comment]
Saw photos of it and also the Hazel Dormouse. Wonderful creatures

If I ever document a bird unknown to science I want to call it "Thirkell's Mippit".

I'd don't recommend eating woodlice. But pig & chicken excrement is disgusting (I worked on a farm as a teenager) and loads of people like eating the meat (and eggs).

 

[Ray McCarthy]

3D printers and their medical applications now.

Short term. Longer term will be promoting re-growth, even missing limbs. Progress on teeth and nerves. Transplants and later regrowth more likely for eyes (recently done) than machine vision. Cyborgs as per the Six Million Dollar Man (based on Cyborg by Martin Caidin) are more fantasy than SF.

The 3D printers are mainly prototyping tools. Only the industrial ones that can do metal are useful for unavailable spare parts. The domestic ones are toys. Also they'll never replace mass produced parts. Too slow and too limited/weak materials. I've used a table top computer cad/cae controlled mill.

 

[Trishaxx]

Whyllbow Tavern

I've been working on Whyllmoon this morning so it feels a bit like I'm in the tavern there rather than here...
1790 words today. Nothing on AofT2 this week which is annoying and just down to bad organisation by me. I've been wondering about chapter lengths, mine tend to follow the natural breaks in the storyline but it leads to some very uneven chapter lengths, is this a problem? (I think I'm overthinking!)
A few years back I read a book about human cloning called 'Never Let Me Go' by Kazuo Ishiguro, the term re-growth reminded me of it! Would we re-grow in situ or in a lab...

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Chapters can be a fraction of a page to many pages, or not exist at all, or be artificially all the same length. There is no rule or law.

 

[Trishaxx]

Whyllbow Tavern

Thankyou! Good reminder about writing generally.
More progress on AofT2 this week and the fun tasking of naming some new spaceships as my characters head off on their various storylines. Chapter Five next!

 

[Trishaxx]

Whyllbow Tavern

I've managed to work on both books this week, quite a bit of research and story-mapping as well which feels very positive. The first part of AofT2 feels almost complete (the overall book is in three parts) which is a good place to be.
Whyllmoon is a much gentler book in comparison (aimed at a wider audience) and I'm enjoying the slower pace. Creating a currency, working out how to make and forge a metal telescope and making up a whole heap of food recipes for a banquet... world building always seems to be so much more than the few lines of description in the book!