The Long Watch

Index cards + coloured pens = one evening of work

2009-05-06T23:15:00.002+01:00

This evening I stood in front of a blank wall in my house, writing out major and minor plot points on index cards and sticking them to the wall, moving them around, scribbling notes and revisions on them.

When I first came up with the idea for this book, the Legion entity was one of the main villains. Then, as the idea progressed, its importance was downplayed. Now, thanks to the ideas I've had for the second, I need to restate the importance of it, and in doing so completely revise and in remove some other plot points.

For those who remember the posts that used to be here, there will be changes. The book found in San Francisco is no longer as mysterious and important as originally planned. The Golems are now marginal characters. Maria's past, mentioned as mere background detail before, is now a fairly key issue. Raguel is important to the trilogy, but not the major threat of the first story.

I'm hoping this makes it a stronger story that feeds into the next one easily. And ties the whole thing explicitly to the Lovecraftian Mythos.

Here's hoping people like the final product...

Little birds told me...

2009-04-29T12:00:00.001+01:00

... tweet tweet tweet. Three tweets specifically (more below)...

Until the rewrites are finished I'm going to use the blog mainly for administrative details, updates and the like. I'll try to keep it updated, just to keep interest going.

If you are a regular reader/subscriber to the blog (or even a first time visitor) and you happen to use Twitter, then maybe you'll say hi to a few new Tweeple...

@gstrangechild | @mariadelancet | @malapax

"Do you ever get tired of the lies?"

2009-04-28T12:39:00.003+01:00

The Watch serves a greater purpose than religion Gideon, and stands against a far greater evil than mere sin. We don't lie, we guard the masses against an unpalatable truth, one they will never be able to cope with.

"And what truth would that be?"

That there is a far older evil that lies at the edges of reality, and waits. That it can afford to bide its time, because it is beyond time. And when it chooses to act, your God won't intervene. Your God doesn't care about humanity, and never has.

"If that's true, then how can we hope to defeat it?"

Defeat it? Don't tell me you actually thought we hoped for any kind of victory, oh dear no. The Watch exists purely to delay the inevitable. The only victory we can win, is one more day...

Reboot

2009-04-28T12:00:00.002+01:00

As you can tell, there is a slight reboot going on. I've removed all the previous posts for the time being.

The story has changed, and substantially so from what appeared before. The good news is though, there's more to come. A lot more.

All being well, the schedule is as follows:

1 - 8 May: finish rework of original plot.
11 May - 28 June: finish draft of Book 1.
6 - 31 July: finish edits to Book 1.
3 August - 25 October: finish draft Book 2.
1 - 30 November: NaNoWriMo (Book 3).
7 - 31 December: finish edits to Book 2.

January 2010: begin submitting Books 1 and 2 to publishers, and finish Book 3.

Let's do it...