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Post by David A. Riley on May 25, 2010 8:50:13 GMT
Too large to post here, if anyone is interested in taking a look at it, I have posted the full novel on my blog: davidandrewriley.blogspot.com/p/novel-sendings.htmlIt's an old, unpublished novel that I recently revised, reducing it from 81,000 words to 76,000. It's a bit of a mad thing, a mixture of two influences at the time it was originally written, H. P. Lovecraft and Dennis Wheatley! Which might say it all. Anyway, I'd be interested in any comments. Cheers David
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Post by Calenture on May 25, 2010 12:18:26 GMT
...a mixture of two influences at the time it was originally written, H. P. Lovecraft and Dennis Wheatley! Which might say it all. This one's highly readable, David, and the promise of a colony of arty types inhabiting an ancient, rambling mansion, which hides a horrid baby-sacrificing past, will keep me reading. When I was a kid, obliged to attend my mother's Fundamentalist Christian church three times on Sundays, once on Wednesdays, I used to take a secret delight in the knowledge that, unknown to the Apostolic Church elders, H P Lovecraft and the Old Testament met in the books of Judges and Samuel, where Dagon-worship proved categorically that Lovecraft knew what he was writing about, and there really were elder gods still walking the Earth. Edit: I should add that Dagon isn't the god mentioned here, but the severed feet reminded me of what happened to the idol of Dagon in the Bible.
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Post by David A. Riley on May 30, 2010 8:02:21 GMT
Thanks, Rog, for those comments. They're much appreciated!
I have added another entry on my blog: the opening chapers to a novel I am working on at the moment, Lucilla. It is a bit of a departure for me, though it is, I would add, still a horror novel with supernatural elements.
David
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Post by Calenture on May 30, 2010 11:34:50 GMT
I have added another entry on my blog: the opening chapers to a novel I am working on at the moment, Lucilla. It is a bit of a departure for me, though it is, I would add, still a horror novel with supernatural elements. David I'm about 40 pages through reading this work-in-progress, David. I see what you mean by 'a bit of a departure'. My first thought was to wonder which novel you'd prefer to see serialised in FC, the earlier Sendings or this new work. Sendings looks to be 'old school' horror, while Lucilla has a much more contemporary feel, more character-driven with its Women's Shelter setting and an intriguing storyline involving a social worker who might be technically abusing her position and client, and a series of deaths possibly caused by some supernatural agency. Possibly (re. serialising) it needs mentioning that Craig Herbertson's Death Tableaux, planned for serialising, begins with a social worker/psychologist interviewing a homeless girl.
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Post by David A. Riley on Jun 1, 2010 7:49:06 GMT
Lucilla is still very much a work in progress. How fast I will complete it is anyone's guess, as I am not hurrying it. And I am being particular in which direction it goes. For example, I recently discarded the last 5000 words, and two new characters, I wrote because I didn't feel it was right for the story.
So I would still very much prefer Sendings to be considered for serialisation.
The social worker aspect of my story very soon becomes second feature to the developing relationship between the main character and Lucilla, and the oddities about her - of which there are quite a few!
David
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Post by Calenture on Jun 1, 2010 12:10:41 GMT
So I would still very much prefer Sendings to be considered for serialisation. That's fine, David. I just like to make sure writers are happy about what's being done. And in the case of a serialisation, it can obviously be quite a long-term commitment. Some other negotiations are continuing, which might or might not affect the last entries for FC 6, but I won't go into those and basically, I know who's in the mag, so no problems about any outcomes. After those initial shakes as I wondered about running two serials, I'm very happy how things are going.
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Post by David A. Riley on Jun 4, 2010 6:09:45 GMT
Sendings is now available as an e-book on Fifobooks. www.fifobooks.com/Catalog?bkid=184ed261-9a77-4355-b648-53f39b171b7eI have tried the e-book approach very much as an experiment, which I am covering in my blog as an ongoing experience, to see how it works out. This is why I chose an older novel of mine. Whether we like them or not, e-books are obviously here to stay and are gradually claiming a larger and larger share of the book market, therefore the issue can't be ignored. David
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Post by Calenture on Jun 4, 2010 10:11:12 GMT
Naturally I wish you luck with it, David. But I have to ask would I now be infringing copyright by serialising Sendings in FC? Should I drop the project? Or should FC continue with the serialisation as a promotion of the ebook? While concentrating on how much space to allocate to both Sendings and Craig Herbertson's The Death Tableau in the magazine, and checking both MSS - it's just occurred to me that you might not have realised I'd downloaded a large part of Sendings from your blog and been working with that (it's become a routine way of working when the MS has been online and an understanding had been reached with the author). It's certainly an interesting situation; possibly the most interesting since FC began.
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Post by David A. Riley on Jun 4, 2010 10:20:47 GMT
The deal with FifiBooks is non-inclusive. It doesn't affect its appearance anywhere else, including print form or, for that matter, as an ebook.
To me the FifoBooks version is just an experiment. I learned a few more skills (which I'll probably forget in the coming weeks!) and had a bit of fun messing about with the conversion software and making the cover.
As for downloading a copy from my blog, I assumed that's what you would be doing. I am not precious about this novel at all. Hell, I'd even be pleased if someone plagiarized it!
David
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Post by Calenture on Jun 4, 2010 10:41:23 GMT
The deal with FifiBooks is non-inclusive. It doesn't affect its appearance anywhere else, including print form or, for that matter, as an ebook. That's fine, David. The serialisations will continue. I'll be interested to see how this experiment works out. The eBooks obviously have some significant advantages for writers and publishers: speed of production (once the author's done the real work of writing) and cheapness. Actually I'm now more than 'interested' - I'm now fascinated and hoping this experiment will produce positive results.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 4, 2010 12:39:23 GMT
I've got a novel on Smashwords through Immanion Press. I must confess I will never be sucked into this method of reading a book because I just like books. Too old, too dull. I think an author would be silly to ignore the trend of course.
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Post by David A. Riley on Jun 4, 2010 13:21:20 GMT
I'm the same, Craig. But, if it will get a few people reading it, whether it makes me any money or not, I'm interested to see if there's anything in this e-book business. As you say, an author would be silly to ignore trends.
All I've got to do now is somehow or other get my head round twittering and facebook, Gawd help us!
David
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Post by David A. Riley on Jun 4, 2010 23:26:28 GMT
This is an alternative cover I've been working on for Sendings. Unfortunately, it doesn't look as if I can change the one on FifoBooks for it.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 5, 2010 0:46:18 GMT
Vastly prefer the second cover David.
Facebook is easy after a bit - even I managed it... I signed on for twitter I think but I really asked myself what I was doing with that. Even the name 'twitter' makes me think 'pointless'
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Post by David A. Riley on Jun 5, 2010 6:50:36 GMT
Thanks for those comments about the cover, Craig. I'll make more efforts to change it. (The drawing is one I did in 1969 - argh!)
I know what you mean about twitter. Short messages like the tweets I've seen seem pointless. Twittering is so apt a description.
David
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