Tag Archive: parallels


5…4….3….2…1….

Filed under: Conventions, eBooks & Publishing, Loncon3, New releases by J. A. Clement — 1 Comment
May 18, 2014

Hey peeps!

Progress continues! Song of the Ice Lord edited, re-edited, re-written a bit and now undergoing one last read-through for typos before it goes off for formatting. WOOOOOO!

Cover has been queried – still waiting for an answer from the cover designer but specifics have been sent, so just waiting for a time-frame on that one.

At the moment and dependent on formatting / cover-making / proof-delivering deadlines, the release date is set for Midsummer’s day – 21st June.

Updates will follow, and I’m hoping that if it’s ready beforehand, pre-orders may be possible, but this is all subject to change.

More when I’ve heard back from the cover lady.

In other news, I have now officially bought my membership for Loncon  – the Science Fiction Convention in London in August. Negotiations are ongoing but I may be doing some programme stuff – more on this when I hear back from them – so if anyone’s going, do let me know and we shall cross paths in person, not just in cyberspace!

Rah!

Take care and keep an eye out for further developments, as I hope they’ll be forthcoming very soon…

JAC

 

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Are we nearly there yet?!

Filed under: New releases, On Dark Shores, Weasel Green Press, Writing by J. A. Clement — 3 Comments
April 25, 2014

Dear all:

Developments, and it’s getting exciting.

Flight from Shantar and book 3 set aside for the moment while I’m working to release Song of the Ice Lord. Clocking in at somewhere around 95k words, I’ve had it back from both editors and there is only one small rewrite still to finish, which should be done in the next few days I hope, after which it will be off to Trish for formatting.

I’m currently in discussion about the cover – it will feature the bird Tiris, and possibly the stone circle which plays an important part in the proceedings. I would quite like to have the protagonist, Lodden, on the cover, but many stock photos look really modern, even the ones in old-fashioned clothes, and that would spoil it entirely. I shall investigate but probably going with the simplest image possible, and then maybe something a bit more ornate in terms of the font. Getting there though(rah! I love that bit!)

So, it will be three or four weeks before I get my slot for the cover, and I should imagine something similar for queuing for formatting, but if all goes well I might be set for a July release… If I can push it forward I’ll try for midsummer though. That would be pleasing, but it doesn’t usually slide earlier so much as later!

We’ll see. Depends on the queues and how well the paperback file works though, (not to mention posting times for the proof. I WISH they’d do that from the UK – it adds a week on quite unnecessarily, and that’s when you pay three times for the postage what you pay for the proof itself!)

And then… well, then onto Flight and Book 3, but it will be good all the same!
More as I know it:
JAC

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Status Report

Filed under: Creative Review Members, eBooks & Publishing, On Dark Shores, Weasel Green Press by J. A. Clement — 4 Comments
October 31, 2013

Happy Hallowe’en, all!

I won’t write a great Hallowe’en spiel now as this is just a quickie while I have a moment.

Firstly, tomorrow being November, we are getting a little nearer to the release date for this year’s Christmas Lites, the charity anthology which features short stories from major indies such as Lizzy Ford, Addison Moore and others including me. (Shhh, if I keep very quiet in the corner they might let me stay!) The “Christmas Lites” anthologies are a really special undertaking. A group of authors, editors, formatters and artists donate their work freely to put together this anthology and all monies earned go straight into the bank account of NCADV, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. This year’s edition is particularly poignant as it commemorates the wonderful writer and friend C.S. Splitter, who died earlier this year, and who was one of the founding culprits of the anthology. We’d like to give it a really big send-off in his memory, so as soon as I have release and cover reveal dates for you, I’ll be posting them here. (I can tell you, I’ve seen a mock-up of the cover and it’s going to be FABULOUS!)

Secondly, an update.
“Mother of the Shantar” (aka Book 3) has been playing up in a major fashion, and earlier in the year I realised that of the 85k words I then had, fully 75k were backstory and should be cut out. (OUCH!) It was quite a good bit though, and as Book 3 is still resolutely refusing to fit together, I set that aside for a bit to polish up the backstory. The result of that is “Flight from Shantar”, which chronologically speaking, is the preamble to Vansel and Jack’s arrival in Scarlock, and tells of Alaric’s efforts to bring the Mother over the Shantar border. This is nearing completion.

The second bit of backstory that has been cut and expanded is “Song of the Ice Lord” which tells of the events nearly three thousand years before ODS, when the Ice Lord first came into Nereia’s world, and the terrible war he unleashed. I have just finished writing it into a more rounded tale, and have started on the edits. I will be surprised if we manage to get it on the shelves before Christmas, and I shan’t hurry it in order to make that deadline, but it shouldn’t be so very many months before it is available, so watch this space.

In the meantime, November is dedicated to shaking Book 3 into submission, as you’ve all been waiting far too long for it, and frankly, so have I! This year has been madness, but I am hoping, just faintly, that next year there might be a little more free time. If there is, watch out – I can tell you that for Nereia, the chase has only just begun, and as Dr Seuss would say, “Oh, the places she’ll go!” It’s going to take about six more books to get there, at this rate, so I hope you like long, intricate tales as much as I do….

But enough chattering, more writing, I hear you say – this book isn’t going to write itself! And of course you’re quite correct, so it’s back to the batcave for me.

In the meantime, enjoy your Hallowe’en / Bonfire Night / Thanksgiving / Samhain / other!
Back soon, I hope, with all sorts to report!
JAC

PS: While you’re waiting, if you’ve ever wondered what Nereia’s childhood was like, have a look in “Christmas Lites 2” – least year I contributed a tale from when she was six years old, and the wonderful Yule party at which she first met her Godmother. Besides, the rest of the book is so entertaining, I challenge you not to laugh / cry / love it!

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Well that’s a bit odd….

Filed under: eBooks & Publishing, General musings...., On Dark Shores, Weasel Green Press, Writing by J. A. Clement — 2 Comments
March 30, 2013

Oi, WordPress, what’s going on?! I just wrote a long post with the latest updates and  WordPress just ate it – it’s not even in Drafts! Grrr….

Okay, run out of time now. Potted version:

a) Happy Easter.

b) Snow. Oooh, cold! Big drifts in this neck of the world, most spectacular.

c) Busy! Lots of moving house and changing jobs of late but hopefully a quiet spell is due so a bit of editing is happening in spare moments.

What editing? Initial corrections on the bit cut from Book 3, which will be released as a separate in the Parallels series (current working title Flight from Shantar, but that’s a bit clunky I think. Thoughts, anyone?). When this is sent off to my excellent word-surgeon, last lot of corrections and inputs to be done for another short in the Parallels series, a bit of back story called Song of the Ice Lord at the current time. This is nearly done, and will then go to the formatter and (if enough remains for a paperback) to Regina for a cover as well.

Then I should be thoroughly back in the swing of writing and back up to speed for picking up Book 3 and seeing what happens next. I know, I know, it’s not put on a back-burner – only it will take a bit longer to finish, so I might as well get these ones out so you have something to read in the meantime.  Besides, then when you pick up Book 3, you’ll know how the Mother got there and who all the other characters are. Are there a lot of them? Of course there are. But I hope you’ll like spending time with them too…

d) Book 3 – still at 15k but ongoing plotting and planning means that soon as I’ve finished with the others, it should go quite quickly if nothing else happens to eat up my writing time. Watch this space.

Anyhow, going to sulk now as my first version was MUCH better and more eloquently written than this one. Not impressed, WordPress!

Have a lovely Easter, all;

JAC

 

 

 

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WIP update, and a bit of gossip

Filed under: eBooks & Publishing, General musings...., Guest Blogs, New releases, On Dark Shores by J. A. Clement — 2 Comments
September 5, 2012

Hey all:

It’s been a bit quiet around here of late, so just a quick update for you . Partly it’s been a bit quiet because my job has just gone mental as well as the fact that it’s house-moving season again, so all the usual time-consuming housey stuff is going on.  However, I haven’t stopped my writing (I am constitutionally incapable of doing so for more than a couple of weeks at a stretch) so I thought I’d give you all a little taste of what’s coming up in the second half of the year.

So: of my own stuff, there are a few main bits that have been keeping me busy:

a)       Inputting the last corrections to the proof copy of the paperback so I can finally, finally hit that “Publish” button. Currently about halfway through it – I’ll need to get another proof to check I haven’t missed anything but only a few steps away now! Exciting!

b)      Writing a short story for a Christmas anthology, currently titled The Locket. If you ever wondered what Nereia was like as a little girl, or wanted to know a bit more about her parents, you should enjoy this.

c)       Adding to the Parallels series of related shorts. You know when you get an idea and you think it’s going to be maybe five thousand words and then you hit twenty five thousand and wonder how that happened? This was one of those. Twenty seven centuries before Nereia and Mary’s time, there was a terrible war that raged across the world. Great armies swept across one country after the next, killing and burning everything in their path. Who was the uncanny leader who did not lust so much for world domination as absolute destruction? The Making of the Circle will explain.

d)      Expanding and editing a short from last year’s Christmas Lites anthology to release as a separate. My current intention is that the royalties from the separate will also go to the charity NCADV but the story will be available on Amazon.co.uk and the rest (which the anthology isn’t) and I’ll put a link in the back to the anthology’s Createspace page, which hopefully might spark a few more sales from this side of the water.

So that’s what’s lined up for my lunchtimes and commutes for the foreseeable. After that, there may well be a few guest blogs on the way. I’m currently working with a few other first-time authors so that they don’t have to make the mistakes that I already did!

Watch this space for more about:

–         J. Lee Dean, with historical fiction novels “The Turncoat” and “The Way Home”.

–         Jo Edwards, author of “Work-Wife Balance” which tells of the mishaps of a woman trying to hold down a job and family

–         Dulcie Feenan, whose stories describe the ups and downs of life in a small village in England

and none other than my own Mum, whose short story has just come out of editing and is due for release as soon as I can format it!

Busy busy! But it’s all good. And once my various bits of writing are out I’ll be getting on with the last part of Book 3, which is currently at 90k words and has a while more to go. (You see, you lot said you wanted longer texts and that’s just what you’ll get – no idea how long it will be at the current time but I’m aiming at somewhere between 100k-150k, depending on when I get to a sensible stopping place).

So that’s this year and probably at least a part of next year sorted… Have I mention how much I love this publishing lark??

< pipedream >

Now all I need to do is earn enough to go part-time and I’ll be firing books out so fast my editors will beg for mercy!

< / pipedream >

Probably the readers too, alas….

Anyhow, enough listing of stuff and more doing of work, methinks! I’ll finish for now but do watch this space – soon as I have the last proof sorted and checked through I’ll be talking launch dates, and unless we’re moving house at that time there will be online contrafibularities involved (and possibly a crafty pint for anyone local enough to get to London and interested enough to partake)!

Have a good one, peeps, and will catch up with you later;

JAC

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