Nick Kyme

Yeah, these were my first thoughts upon waking this morning as I beheld yet another snowy vista out of my window.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I like snow – I do – but this is just taking the p*!s now…

So, dodgy weather aside, what’s new on this crispy, albeit damp, day? Well, the emotional whirlwind of ‘09 (which I’ve now dubbed Hurricane Pain-in-my-Ass), rolls on, but with slightly less force than before. Clear skies beckon on the horizon, though, so it looks like it’ll blow itself out soon.

Got some synopsis bashing to get my teeth into soonish – I’ll use this as a way to prime myself for a serious, serious stint of writing on Firedrake. I actually find it useful to do that planning, ‘think time’ stuff before weighing in on the hardcore prose. It sort of galvanises my brain and creative synapses for action. I’m a runner as well as a writer. I always warm up before a run, and even then it takes about 10 minutes before my body realises it’s being energetic – it’s the same diff when it comes to writing. The brain is a muscle, it needs exercise and warming up before it’s ready to roll.

So, yeah, some synopsis work to stoke the fires (can’t say for what, but it’ll be something I’ve not done before in terms of subject matter – intriguing, non…). I’m also throwing around the notion of pitching something for Warhammer Heroes. Fans will know that before I embarked on my odyssey with the Fire-born, I wrote a couple of dwarf novels. Now, they may not have reached the heady heights of the Space Marines (they’re about three foot shorter for starters) in terms of their notoriety, but I am very proud of them none-the-less. Together with the work Gav and I did on Grudgelore (a dwarf background book, which I still use for reference to this day), I have a hankering to go back and tell some dwarf tales. I’m sort of pegged for something special with the vertically challenged ones in the future, but enough of that for now. I’m really looking to tell a one-off tale featuring one of my favourite dwarf heroes. Presently, I’m torn between Josef Bugman and King Kazador – who knows?

Anywho, back to Firedrake. Much like an old banger left out too long in this arduous weather, my progress on the novel has stalled a bit. It’s sputtering away but hasn’t really kicked in yet. I am totally happy with this as I’d rather wait, figure it out and write something bloody awesome than just what’s fit for purpose. That won’t do at all.

I had a spare 40 minutes or so during a rare lunchtime when I wasn’t in the gym or running (I was, and still am, suffering from an annoying cold). I used it to review my synopsis/breakdown for the novel and had a bit of a revelation. Moving a couple of bits around, I was able to come up with a much more pleasing running order for the story, which was kind of a bit treacle-like in its pacing. Admittedly, Salamander was quite a slow burner and this time I wanted to hit the ground running (with the exception of a slightly provocative prologue).

To get a bit more traction on the novel and make some serious progress (I’m thinking 20,000-30,000 words), I’ve taken a couple of days off work to get stuck in. Today might be a bit of a wash out due to errands related to Hurricane Pain-in-my-ass, and that even bleeds into this afternoon too. If I can get a bit done that’ll be good (can’t even retire to that coffee shop I mentioned as I need to be in the house, and the weather is sucking enough to keep me in, especially when I’m not on top physical form). Friday looks better, though, and I might put off heading up north this weekend to put the hours in over the weekend. I think I need to really go at this and do some late nights/long weekends, at least until I’m in better shape as far as word countage goes.

In other news, I saw the cover art to Fireborn the other day (that’s the Salamander audio book that ties in to the series). Very cool, indeed. I also had a sneaky butchers at the design for the BL Live chapbook that I share with the excellent Chris Wraight (a very fine gentleman if ever there was one). This, too, is looking very tasty indeed. Soon as I can show ‘em off, I will.

Okies, I reckon that’s about enough procrastination from me for now. Go, have fun you crazy kids…