Not managed any writing this week yet. Been reading Calendark though - it's excellent! Should finish it tomorrow and aim to get a review on to Amazon and/or Goodreads during the week ahead. In the meantime I've been reading Sal's chosen sentences from each story on Twitter. These extra 140 characters are giving her more options aren't they!

The week at work has been a mixture of fences and ditches. Well, cold weather and breakdowns. Was fearful of the snow and ice in Snowdonia today when I was handed that route, but it didn't turn out to be the hospital pass I thought it would be. Ye haw! Just a wee bit of snow and no slip-sliding away into ditches or trees - always a bonus!





Last night the forecast for tomorrow was heavy, heavy snow across Liverpool and the north west, and whilst I am off for the day I had two concerns 1) it better not bloody mean the Liverpool v Everton derby gets called off and 2) better charge my camera so I can get some nice pics of Liverpool in the snow.

That said, Snowmageddon has now been un-forecast and Liverpool is forecast to be a bit nippy but not under feet of snow. At least that means the game will defo be on, but the chance of getting some nice snowy photos looks to be postponed.

Really looking forward to the match, will get a few choice beers in Liverpool too - and finish off Calendark. At some point I need to do this week's FlashFeed; haven't even checked out the photo prompt yet.

Yes, the day is here, it's come around very quickly. 'Calendark: The Infernal Almanac' is Out Now!

Get yourself on over to Amazon and get the lovely Paperback or download it on to your clever Kindle device thingy and start reading it now.



I've only read two stories (and one of them was mine) so I'm looking forward to getting stuck into it myself.

There's all these lovely authors in it, including two of us from The Poised Pen writing group:

• David Shakes
• Stephanie Ellis
• Craig Anderson
• Sian Brighal
• F. E. Clark
• Catherine Connolly
• Christina Dalcher
• Mark A. King
• Marie McKay
• Chris Milam
• Sal Page
• Ewan Smith
• Chris Stanley
• Clive Tern
• AJ Walker

I'm gonna read the stories in the order they come, it is based around the calendar after all; Tick-tock that Infernal Clock.

Once again many thanks go to the Editor-in-Chief - Stephanie Ellis, the Concept Man - David Shakes and the artist - Tim Youster. Well done guys.

Really looking forward to Calendark - the second of the time-based horror trilogy curated by Steph Ellis & David Shakes. The first was the Infernal Clock, which featured 24 stories each centred on an hour of the day. My story was predictably set at closing time - Last Orders folks!

Calendark is to feature sixteen stories each based around a specific day on the year. There are fourteen great writers in it (and I'm going to be in it too). I'm sure it's going to be a cracker and I can't wait to get it in my hands in paperback (and probably on my Kindle).

The authors featuring in Calendark:

• David Shakes
• Stephanie Ellis
• Craig Anderson
• Sian Brighal
• F. E. Clark
• Catherine Connolly
• Christina Dalcher
• Mark A. King
• Marie McKay
• Chris Milam
• Sal Page
• Ewan Smith
• Chris Stanley
• Clive Tern
• AJ Walker

A few familiar names in there, with a strong showing from the FlashDogs which is great to see. Special mention must go to Steph Ellis and David Shakes for their work in bringing the idea to fruition. It is not exactly a thankless task, for there have been many thanks. And so there should be! One more ... thanks!

Keep an eye on the Infernal Clock blogspot to see how it's going. Or then again you can just keep an eye on here. Let's face it I may mention it.

If you haven't seen the Infernal Clock you can find it on Amazon (just click here).

I did finish the Calendark piece on Saturday and got it sent off - some 5550 words of it. Why I always leave it up to the deadline heaven only knows. Not sure about it and the day I've submitted it for already had a piece written for it, so who know? Anyway whatever, so be it.

The main thing is I got a piece finished. Woo-flippin-hoo!




Now then, what next? Well, I've still got all those bloody Projects to do... so maybe one of those. I will take a moment (or day) or two to think about that, but one way or another I'll be doing something on one of them this time next week. I'm sure.

#ProjectX

After sorting the printer out I wrote 1600 words for Calendark this morning in around 90 minutes. Not bad at all. Now I'm not saying they are good words but they're words I didn't have yesterday. So now I have over 5800 words for the story down on paper (well Hard Drive). Well okay, paper now, as I've printed it out (I did fix the printer after all). Now I have reading to do and some very serious editing.

There's a lot to do.

There will be blood, bread and tears.

And a lot of editing.

#AmWriting

Today's game involved writing, sausage butties and fixing the printer. First up was the sausage. There were no problems there at all. Then came the Printer...

It may save you £20 and a day or two waiting for a fix to read this:

The printer is an Epson WP: 4535 and the error message read 'Maintenance Box is not recognised'. The maintenance box collects the waste ink produced during the cleaning of the printer heads etc and once full the box needs replacing. Looked it up on the net and most the searches came up with how to replace a maintenance box and nothing to do with the message. Saw a couple of references which all were 'solved' by online questioning with the answer 'replace maintenance box'. Cheap boxes (including shipping) are around £20 (and obviously include a wait of a day or two to arrive). Frustrating in view of the writing I want to do today. Got to the point of ordering but thought I'd quickly check out the box a few more times.



I turned off the printer and switched it on a few times. Same result. Switched off and took out the box and put it in again. Same results. Not looking good.



Took out box, wiped finger over the chip on the box and put it in... and hey presto! Problem solved. Err, so dust or dirt on the chip? FFS. Anyway, sorted. I can print again. And edit/write.

Now for the writing. Dang, I've got no excuses for attempting Calendark now.

#amprinting

Off tomorrow and first thing I need to do is see if I can fix the printer. Really hope I can as I find it so hard to edit straight on the computer screen.

Then I need to get on with my Calendark story. Hoping to get toward the end with it tomorrow if I can. To be honest it needs to be, doesn't it? Maybe no Twitter tomorrow (in the morning at least), I will need to be strong, so strong! If I can do it then I will be well chuffed and will celebrate like it's September 26th. Or something like that.



Basic Plan: first off, a decent sleep tonight. Then sausage butty and printer fixing. Then writing writing writing with coffee coffee coffee.




If I can do it then I may celebrate with a visit to 3 pubs I haven't been to in Liverpool (yes, they exist) and then there is the Liverpool Champion's League match to consider too. Umm...

Beside writing and the printer issue this week I could consider upgrading my MacBook Pro to the new High Sierra OS. But that is a scary process to undertake and defo needs to wait until Calendark is done and dusted...



#AmWriting (or planning to)

Been a bit of slowed going since last Friday in terms of writing for Calendark when I was already up at 3500 words - with an ultimate aim to get to between 5 and 6000 words for the full story. I've managed another 550 words tonight but I'm conscious time is a ticking and I am worrying a bit about finishing the story even with a whole TEN days till the deadline day. Mad really. I mean it's not many words, but getting the story to work is a worry (in fact currently more scary than the story is).

I did update my Buffer for the songs for the next ten days (some quite old classics coming up and many shy of 3 minutes long to keep with Sal's attention span (Pink Floyd? Tush)) so I don't need to spend any time doing that (or using it to procrastinate with) over this last week.

Let's face it I should get there - I seriously need to. Just need to schedule a few hours over two or three nights then have one serious editing day. Surely while the Sword of Damocles swings above my head I'll focus enough to get there. Surely?

Erm... that said my printer is currently out of action. Procrastination, moi?

It's hard to believe it's September already. Where has this effing year gone? It's almost harder to believe that this time last year it was the hottest part of 2016. Thirty odd degrees centigrade?! This month is bucking the trend for September to be a really nice month; I'm thinking it may be time to upgrade from the shorts and T-shirt and get to trousers and hoodie a month early for work, but for now I'm persevering with the shorts. Can we please have a nice day or two, pretty please?



Forgetting months this week has sped faster than Cassini through Saturn's rings and so far I've not written my next 2000 words for the Calendark story. I said I'd do it by the end of the week so I've still a few days to do it, but with birthday drinks and birthday recovery there are no guarantees. We'll see.

Might write; a quick 500 or so this afternoon.

Might write, right?

But first a pint then maybe another five and a half... season change, but my check shirts don't.

Cheers!!

Woo Hoo! I set myself a target to get to 3000 words by Sunday for my attempt to get a piece into Calendark and (drum roll please) in fact I've got to >3500 already - yes, it's Friday (the one before, not after). So big clappy hands all around.

So far it's a few scenes and It'll defo need a lot of editing but I'm happy there's a story here.

The first hard thing before the editing though is to write the real horror bit (the last third of the story). Tension building will be key but how I work out how to do the bloody end is bloody difficult.

Got delayed coming back from North Wales tonight due to a big crash on the A494 by Queensferry. Unfortunately that made me get back too late to get to the Poised Pen meeting. But when two people die in a car crash such delays, whilst annoying, should be put in perspective. I'm late but not late of this parish, as it were.

Anyway, not making it to the meeting at least gave me some reading and writing time. I'm still getting on with Titus Groan from the Gormenghast trilogy. I'm about a third in and it's a great read so far.

Then there is the writing and like I said on Sunday I want to write at least 1800 words this week to get the total up to around 3000 words by Sunday. I've managed in my free time tonight then to get 800 words into this with (worryingly, just a part of) one of the scenes of my story. I'm worried it may be a bit complex and it is definitely initially going to be over long. But getting the words down for the scenes as I see them now is the main thing and then I can look at culling and sharpening it up in the second half of the month (assuming I finish the first draft by say 17th September).

So far so good.

With the difference in scenes and the spread of time involved the editing process is going to be key (or a total nightmare) but it is a decent challenge. So thank you Shakes for the chance to write something more substantial than a flash. Once I get this out of the way then I'll drop back on to one of my projects for sure. Honest.

A week ago I said I'd start Calendark and aim to get two thousand words done in the week - and that I'd report back.

Well, here's the report: I've only managed just over 1250 words, but hey it's a start. I've got as far as the pub (yep, there has to be a pub in it) and it's a nice pub. The dark stuff is yet to happen (and that is not a Guinness by the way). In fact all the bit I've done so far is all nice and normal. Too normal. Something must be wrong. Very wrong.

Err, well it will be when I get to that. There another 4-5000 words to get the weird shit in. Will keep you posted. Want to have done at least 3000 words by this time next week (i.e. be half finished). Anyway main thing is I am actually writing.

Cheers!

#AMWRITING

I said I'd try and do a couple of thousands words towards a CalendarK piece by Sunday and I can report that I have at least started it. So far just 500 words or so into it, but I could well get to the 2000 word mark by close of play on Sunday me thinks. It's starting off all nice and normal... but I can foresee it heading into Wickerman territory...



or maybe more Stepford Wives...



or perhaps a bit Rosemary's Baby...



Well dang! Let's see where it goes.

It's just the beginning.

Last week I picked my Day to attempt to write a story for, for Shakes' CalenDark and then came up with a germ of an idea - I even wrote some words (really, I did). Today I've changed my mind and chosen another day. As soon as I picked it an idea formed more completely in my mind and it should be easier to write it with the story arc pretty well defined. Of course now I have 'just ' to write the fucker. A month to go: No problem. Err... anyway the aim is to get a couple of thousand words done over the next week - as a minimum. Will report back by this time next week.



Of course this weekend it's a Bank Holiday and that means more time for writing with a three day weekend, right? Wrong. Worked Saturday and working Monday. So only off today. May get a few words down, but main thing was getting this idea sketched out - an achievement in itself. Liverpool being Liverpool there is loads on at the moment. Disappointed to miss the Mad Hatter Brewery Yard Party yesterday, but today I think I'll go and check out the folk festival at the Albert Dock and/or the shanty groups down at the Baltic Fleet for a bit this afternoon.



Then of course there will be a few choice ales watching the Liverpool v Arsenal match. Come on you mighty reds!