Fresh in today...

New material for the Obedience of Fools, this year's NaNoWriMo entry, updated and free to download. Very much a work in progress and a happening event, I think the plot took a twist I wasn't expecting, now we'll have to see what happens next...

Check out the links and the stats via cheekyseagull,co,uk, on the page for The Obedience of Fools.

Obedience of Fools - NaNoWriMo 2013

Alfred Burke was part of an Urban legend, engines retired from service and put into cold war storage, back up for when the worst case scenario became a reality. Others had their own agenda and the legacy of their work creates a threat as real today as when the Black Fives disappeared. A mystery that has lingered like the last wisps of the steam engines he worked with, and just as difficult to grasp, but he knows what happened and that makes him useful and valuable.

He has hidden the secret where it may be found if you know what you are looking for, to see it you must believe, and if you believe you will see it.

Less scrupulous parties want the information and don't care how they get it. Steel and Josie in the thick of it again iAlfred Burke was part of an Urban legend, engines retired from service and put into cold war storage, back up for when the worst case scenario became a reality. Others had their own agenda and the legacy of their work creates a threat as real today as when the Black Fives disappeared. A mystery that has lingered like the last wisps of the steam engines he worked with, and just as difficult to grasp, but he knows what happened and that makes him useful and valuable.

He has hidden the secret where it may be found if you know what you are looking for, to see it you must believe, and if you believe you will see it.

Less scrupulous parties want the information and don't care how they get it. Steel and Josie in the thick of it again in a race to uncover the secret.n a race to uncover the secret.

Click on the link and keep up with the action

Just published - Obedience of Fools

This years NaNoWriMo entrant, The Obedience of Fools has just been published at smashwords.com here, a work in progress and free to download during November. Follow the link and grab yourself a piece of the action

Ten minutes to start...

The Obedience Of Fools...and the guidance of wise men, taken from a quote attributed to the fighter ace Douglas Bader, and this years entrant in National Novel Writing Month.

With what appears to be the right paperwork, what could you get away with?

Let's find out...

Follow the story as it unfolds via Smashwords and keep up with the latest word count here and at Nanowrimo.

Kobo - back on its feet

The lost links between my website at cheekyseagull.co.uk and Kobo appear to have been reinstated, the books are once more available for your Kobo device. Iceline is here and here is Control: Escape.

Pop along and have a look, grab yourself a slice of the action!

Imagination to the power of...

Do you think NaNoWriMo is craziness squared, 50,000 words in 30 days, OK, shift the perspective and walk another path. Imagine this; you are the guide at a historic building somewhere. A place where history and the personal stories of people ooze from the walls.
The mission, should you accept it, is to tell those stories and unfold that history in a lively entertaining way, to draw the visitors in and hold their imagination with your words. There is no rehearsal, you go live with one chance, this will be your first and only draft. It is a different group of people every time you open the door.
Your talk will last at least an hour, perhaps an hour and a half, at between ninety and a hundred and ten words a minute.
No notes, just the prompts from the things around you. You are passionate about it and once you start the words flow freely. Work an average, 100 words a minute for 75 minutes, 7500 words. That's a little less than one seventh of NaNoWriMo in an hour and fifteen minutes.
The challenge is fifty thousand words in thirty days.
Now tell me that my first draft should be anything less than my best.
Write your first draft as though it was your last.

Caught on the horns

Definitely didn't expect this. A month ago I was struggling to pull together an idea for NaNoWriMo, then The Duck Test began to formulate and for want of any other choices I decided to go with it,  until yesterday morning when a story I had been thinking about over a year ago suddenly clicked and The Obedience of Fools took over from the Duck Test. I'm not giving up on the Duck Test, but at the moment Obedience of Fools has the edge.

The title is a quote attributed to the British WW2 fighter ace, Douglas Bader, commander of the Duxford wing in the Battle Of Britain. A double amputee who challenged authority to get back in the air when war broke out in 1939 and said that  "rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men."

Come 0001 on the 1st of November, I may just toss a coin in the air and see how it lands. Heads for foolishness and tails for ducks should settle the question.

A ridiculous way to start a novel or in the spirit of NaNoWriMo? Instead of No Plot, No Problem, two to choose from, disobeying the rules of novelliing - they're really guidelines - and flying by the seat my pants, Nano style.

Follow the story as it unfolds through the month at Smashwords NaNoWriMo page, keep up with stats at NaNoWriMo

Stick around and be part of the action.