Not much painting happening here at the moment.
I have primed four shields ready to be painted for half my Dark Elf / Drow band. I don’t see them being ready for play this Saturday, but I expect to need Drow figures over the next couple of D&D sessions.
This brings us to why I’m not painting. I decided that since last weekend was a long weekend in Melbourne, that I would get focussed on my novel. I was thinking that six months would be long enough to finish it. If the last week is typical of how much typing I can do (when I’m working on one main project) then I was perhaps very optimistic!
Reason’s I’ve decided to focus on writing:
1. I got a message on my answering machine from the publishing agent a week ago. Unfortunately, 90% wasn’t understandable… so I still don’t have a company name or contact number. Hopefully, she will call back at a time when I’m home. Then I can compare the company to the list I have from the Australian Literary Agents Association. With more time to consider things, I’m rather sceptical that a legitimate agent would be chasing an unpublished author who hasn’t actually completed their novel yet.
2. Even when I’m not in my writing phase I still have ideas for the novel or character detail, etc and I’m much happier to type (and expand) detail than just jot notes on paper or store everything in my head.
3. The main story/plan/idea for this novel was put onto paper about thirty years ago. The bulk of what I have now was written (or re-written) in the last five years. I would like to finish this and then keep writing. I have details on agents, etc, and to achieve publication would be fantastic!
So to the Kal’sa.
One character in my story changes identity regularly, and while I have a name for him, that name may never appear in the book. The problem with this, is that if no-one knows who you are, how do you get hired or employed if you don’t have a reputation. I already have an organisation to which he belongs, so with a little research I came up with a “working” name (or title) for my character and slightly changed the organisation name. So now I have “A’dun of the Kal’sa” – Dark Blade of the Four Swords. That prompted ideas for a section that I was going to mostly leave out, but now I can rewrite and keep it.
Dinner, then onto the Council Meeting….
Dragons of Lancasm 