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Introducing “Rubbing Pennies”

Nov03
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Mick

NaNoWriMo LogoDay 2 of NaNoWriMo and I have as many chapters of my story complete. The work-in-progress title I have given it is “Rubbing Pennies”, being the tale of a billionaire who is reduced to poverty and has a journey to make back to prosperity. The outline is still pretty vague around some of the details about what exactly is going to happen to whom and when, but I have written a chapter for each of my two main characters and am reasonably pleased with where they are heading.

  • He is something of a stereotypical big-business type, very much old school, somewhere between Simon Cowell, Victor Meldrew and Gordon Gecko, with an insatiable appetite for money and young flesh and very little else.
  • She is an experimental clarinettist, making a comfortable living by giving her music away online for free and performing around the world to a growing and loyal following. She’s still young, but has been around for long enough to know what works, what doesn’t and how to jump over some of the common pitfalls of the music biz.

Click here to see my NaNo profile, where you can read an excerpt from the start of the story.

Posted in NaNoWriMo - Tagged ,

NaNo Begins

Nov01
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Mick

NaNo LogoNaNoWriMo has started and, at just twenty minutes in, I have 213 words written. It’s a long way to go, but it is a start.

I have two main characters worked out and a pretty good idea of the first three or four scenes. Beyond that is where there be dragons: uncharted and unplanned territory. Now that I’ve made this small start, I’ll go back to the planning and fill out a bit more, in preparation for further writing after sleep and work. Until then it feels good to have got this off the ground and I’m looking forward to drinking far too much coffee, suffering finger cramps and doubtless the odd time or two questioning my sanity for starting this endeavour. It was worth it by the end of NaNo 2008; I have no doubt the same will apply this time around to.

I have stuck my word count and progress meter on the site – it’s over on the right hand side above the NaNo logo. With luck and grim determination, each one of those little boxes will be green by the end of the month and I will have a new novel of at least 50,000 words.

Back to the story!

Posted in NaNoWriMo - Tagged

NaNo Prep

Oct10
2010 1 Comment Written by Mick

NaNoWriMo 2010Next month is going to be pretty crazy, with 50,000 words to get down in only 30 days, so a little preparation is required.

The first thing to do is to clear the boards to make room for the novel. That means I can’t afford the time to be writing other things. No Some Other Scotland and no Every Photo Tells…, but don’t worry. The second part of the plan is to make October an almost-equally busy month by preparing those things in advance. By tonight I will have another episode of SOS and a short story ready for EPT ready to go. Before the end of the month I will have yet another SOS episode and another EPT story, so that I can release those in November and keep the podcasts ticking over whilst NaNoWriMo is in full swing.

The next thing to do is to start planning my novel for NaNo. I have made the decision what it will be and have a very sketchy outline drawn up in Scrivener (my writing software of choice), as well as starting to work out the background to the world in which the novel will be set, some 60 or so years in the future.

I’m planning on attending a few NaNo events too, mainly the regular “write-ins”, but possibly also a planning meeting if there is one held locally. It will be good, I hope, to get to meet some fellow writers and see what comes of these events.

I will be blogging about the whole experience on this site (just select the ‘NaNoWriMo‘ category on the left of this page to see all posts made to date about the topic) and probably doing daily wordcounts on twitter. Do stop by for updates, to leave comments or just to ask “Have you met your target today?”

Posted in NaNoWriMo - Tagged

NaNoWriMo 2010

Oct03
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Mick

NaNo GraphTwo years ago I took part in National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo as it is known to its friends). The result, though still in need of some editing and fine-tuning, inspired me to move on to start Some Other Scotland and onwards to short stories and more. This year, I’m going to go for it again, writing 50,000 words in the space of a single month. It won’t be a breeze, but it will be fun, I’m fairly certain.

As I write this, I have two rough ideas for what to write this November. One is the follow-up to the first book I wrote in 2008, set in the past and probably includes murders and time-travel. The second option is a riches-to-rags-to-riches tale set in a not too distant utopian future. Since my ideas for both are no more than basic sketches, I probably won’t decide on which one to go for until mid-October, at which point I will start the planning process.

So that I don’t slack off, for the following two months there will be a little graph of my progress on display here. Feel free to kick my virtual arse if you find me falling behind!

Fellow NaNos, if you’d like to add me as a buddy, my username is SOScotland (Click to view my profile).

Posted in NaNoWriMo - Tagged

Question Time

Apr15
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Mick

If you are interested in what goes on behind the scenes to put together an episode of ‘Some Other Scotland‘, you may like to visit two blogs that have been running interviews with podcasters over the last few months.

First of all, Rich at Random Pimpage has a series called “8 Questions”, where he asks 8 simple, if sometimes a little bizarre, questions to a number of people from the world of podcasting. Since this tied-in with the launch of Every Photo Tells…, you’ll find Katharina’s and my answers together at the site.

On the subject of Every Photo Tells…, we’re now into our third month of photo-inspired stories and already up to episode 8. So far there have been tales of love, assassins, pirates, monsters and even a classic whodunnit. There is plenty more to come!

More recently, a more detailed set of questions were put to me about writing and podcasting by Odin at his View From Valhalla blog. His questions go into depth about writing podcast fiction, techniques and equipment for recording and the goals of podcasting. Since he has had a number of people answering his questions in this “How I Do It” series, I would recommend it as a great introduction for new podcasters to pick up tips from those of us who have been through the learning experience already. My answers can be found right here. Incidentally, Odin also runs a regular review of podiobooks, so if you are enjoying ‘Some Other Scotland’ and would like to delve into other podcast fiction, he has some good recommendations for you to try out.

Posted in Every Photo Tells..., Podcast, Some Other Scotland - Tagged , , ,

Every Photo Tells…

Feb14
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Mick

I am very pleased to announce the launch of a new joint venture into podcasting fiction: Every Photo Tells…

Every month a photograph is posted on the website and the hosts, Katharina from the Luscious Leftovers podcast and myself, take it in turn to write and record a short story that is inspired in some way by the photograph. The stories will be podcast twice a month, then a new photo will be posted and the whole process repeats.

In the first month, we have a photograph taken from Edinburgh by Katharina, looking across the river Forth. We’re also pleased that Odin from View From Valhalla has been inspired by the photograph to write a story too, so this month there will be three stories to listen to. If you would like to submit a story based on the picture, full details of how to submit can be found on the ‘About‘ page of the website.

Katharina’s story for this month has just been posted on the site and mine will follow within a week.

Posted in Every Photo Tells..., Podcast, Short Stories - Tagged , ,

I Should Be Writing

Dec10
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Mick

I Should Be Writing

Mur Lafferty, author of “Playing for Keeps” and the “Heaven” podcast series amongst other things, has recently posted an article written by me on her “I Should Be Writing” blog.

The blog is the companion to her regular podcast aimed at new and aspiring writers, one that has provided a great deal of help and inspiration to guide me on my way. The article deals with the particular challenges of writing an ongoing piece of interactive fiction like “Some Other Scotland” and how I keep track of where it is going and ensuring it stays on course.

It is aimed at fellow writers, but if you are interested in a behind-the-scenes look at the SOS podcast, you might well find it interesting even if you’re not a writer. Do take the time to check out Mur’s own podcasts at the site; they are quite different to SOS, but you’re sure to find something of interest.

Posted in Podcast, Some Other Scotland - Tagged

Great Hites Catch-up

Dec10
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Mick

Somehow I have managed not to mention a whole truckload of things in the last month. Rather than off-load them all at once, I’ll stick up a series of short posts to get back on course.

First of all, since I last posted, there have been another two stories posted to Great Hites, both ‘Some Other Scotland‘ spin-off tales.

GH Week 66 “Wearing sunglasses in the early morning.”
Breakfast Hat [sos]
Sometimes people just don’t want to be found. This is a short tale about what happens to Razer between wiping out the Empire State Building and finding himself in deep water.
GH Week 67 “A man with a duck-headed cane is at the door.”
Hide and Seek [sos]
A detective is sent on a chase that can’t end well. It is a longer tale set during the Second World War, giving the full story of the detective mentioned by Erica in Episode 16 of SOS and the previous attack on the ‘Merk’.

Since these are spin-off, they will both appear in the main SOS podcast feed in the future.

In addition to those, I recently included a 100-word story in the SOS feed that was to have been submitted to the 100 Word Stories podcast. It also gives more information about the first attack on the ‘Merk’ in a highly-condensed form.

There was also a bonus prompt for Great Hites recently for a 100-word story, written with a tight deadline, on the subject of “Spicy Mustard”. Like “Kelvin’s Last Message”, this is set in the future of SOS and may never come to pass. I will post the link to this when it becomes available.

Finally, just a reminder that there is a link on the right of this page that will take you to all my short stories, headed “Mick’s Short Stories“.

Posted in 100 Word Stories, Great Hites, Short Stories - Tagged ,

Waltzing With Werewolves

Jul29
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Mick

Wolf

This week’s Great Hites episode includes the biggest number of stories to date, with a number of new authors joining in and existing authors pulling out all the stops to make this a really good stepping-on point if you’ve never visited the site before.

The prompt for the stories was “Silver Bullets; the real reason that some cowboys carried them” and as you can imagine this has resulted in a number of werewolf-westerns as well as a few more unusual approaches. There are 12 stories in total, so Jeff has split it into 4 chunks, but it is all well worth a listen or two.

Two of the stories are mine: “Waltzing with Werewolves” is a 100 word love story set to music in a sort of spoken-song format, whilst “Silver Solves The Dilemma” is a fairly traditional western tale, but with werewolves and a somewhat skewed moral code.

Incidentally, the introduction music for each part that Jeff talks over is the theremin solo from The Ballad of Rufus Amos Adams – the country song I wrote some time ago for the Masters of Song Fu. Follow the link for the whole song.

Over on ‘Some Other Scotland‘ this week, the action heads over the Atlantic to New York where the final scene shows how the influence of the story is reaching far beyond the shores of Scotland, with some devastating consequences. I was delighted to have Philip ‘NorvalJoe‘ Carroll join me as the guest voice for Razer’s American friend Kyle, who provides him with a place to lay low for a while. The two of us also concocted the creepy promo for Great Hites that you’ll hear in the same episode, which was fun to put together.

Live Interview and Chat

Finally, I have been invited to do a live interview and call-in chat with Podioracket.com on BlogTalkRadio on the 10th of August. I will have more information about this shortly, but in the meantime, visit this link to set an email reminder of when the show will be broadcast.

Posted in 100 Word Stories, Great Hites, Short Stories - Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Take It Away!

Jul27
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Mick

Piano Keys

Over at Great Hites, my story “Take It Away” has proved reasonably popular amongst the people who take the time to vote. It tells of a great pianist who returns to his old school, whereupon he sits down at the old wreck of a piano he last played in his youth. The music teacher who stands watching him is surprised by the result.

This coming week is going to see a bumper Great Hites episode, with 12 stories being included, no doubt due to the prompt being related to cowboys and werewolves. More details when the episode is posted online, but I wrote two stories for the prompt, one of which just so happened to also fit the prompt for 100 Word Stories this week, which was “The games we play”. That means you’ll be able to read and/or listen to one of my stories from next week’s Great Hites in advance. It is called “Waltzing with Werewolves” and is in a spoken-song format with musical accompaniment.

Some major changes are afoot in the world of ‘Some Other Scotland‘ later this week, with something that will force the plot out into the public view in a rather impressive fashion. I’m keen to get another interlude episode out this week as well, so keep an eye on the website.

Finally, I have had some great support from Seth Harwood, author of “Jack Wakes Up”, following his appearance on the live Podioracket talk show. He has very kindly played the promo for SOS on the latest episode of his “Hot Tub” podcast, side-by-side with one for Arlene Radasky’s book “The Fox“. Arlene has been a strong supporter of SOS from early in the life of the podcast and I’ll be talking a little about her book in the next Interlude episode.

Posted in Great Hites - Tagged , , , , ,
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