Writing Update

On By Mick CanningIn A Dozen Dreams, books, photographs, Short story, writing

Monthly update, I called my post a couple of months ago. Monthly, indeed. Ho ho. I should know myself better than that.

Untitled-Grayscale-01a

So I’ll call this ‘Writing Update’ so as not to create any false expectations., especially as I have rather less time on my hands at the moment than I’ve been used to.

I aim to publish a book of short stories in the next few months – possibly around Christmas, although that’s more by accident than design. At present, I intend to call it A Dozen Destinies. My wife is currently beta reading each story, and I am editing based on her observations. Once that is done, I will look for one or two other beta readers to cast their eyes over them

I have made steady progress on my still untitled novel, set in a fictitious hill station in the Indian Himalaya, which is currently somewhere around 50,000 and 55,000 words long (I haven’t counted recently).

The Assassins Garden…sitting in a metaphorical drawer at the moment. I’ll come back to that in due course.

And the picture above? Well, most people who tinker around with photo manipulation programs aim to produce the perfect picture – colour and composition and this and that and the other. I’ve become interested in taking them down to a rather more stark, basic place.

Not to everyone’s taste, I guess.

29 thoughts on “Writing Update”

  2. I like the photo too – but something I have noticed, at least for paper books on a shelf, the art on the binding is more important than that on the cover. When I peruse the bookshelves, I often find myself drawn to only what I can see – and that is the edge of the book, the binding.

    Digital book? That is another matter. I always read the negative reviews first. I have bought books based on negative reviews. When someone hates a book for all the reasons that I love them, I couldn’t think of a higher recommendation.

    [Admittedly, I am a crank.]

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    1. Very true, Greg. It’s something that is unfortunately a little limited when you self-publish, although with a certain amount of time and effort it is possible to do something clever with the spine.

      And I like what you say about reviews. As long as it is more than a piece of vitriol, a negative review can indeed whet your interest.

      Thanks.

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  3. The picture is stark but full of atmosphere Mick.. I’d say you manipulated it just right. We’re used to seeing pictures like that in full glorious colour which might detract from a story. Good luck with your target of Christmas.
    Hugs

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  4. Great title Mick, I’d definitely pick up A Dozen Destinies on my travels. Short story collections are probably my favourites over novels as they’re easy to take anywhere. I envy you being able to get your stories down in print, I’d love to do that someday.

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  7. I can’t think of many writers who’ve been able to keep up blogging at a steady pace while making room for writing. It’s a balancing act, Mick, and taking time to write is a necessity. We all have to do it and understand completely. Congrats on the coming anthology. 🙂

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  8. I for one like the photo. While I do tend to edit my photos to remain reasonably true to nature (with maybe a little pop added), I’ve been learning more about the artistic expression side as of late. I think that might come more naturally to folks like you who can paint, draw, and invent things from scratch – why not expand that to photo editing?

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    1. Thanks, Dave. Yes, I agree with that. And these effects seem more natural to me as it is obvious to any viewer that they’ve edited in a way that is intentionally artistic, rather than perhaps in a way that some would consider – not sure of the best word – deceptive?

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