Blurb

I'm writing the blurb to go on the amazon page. A description that will sell Outcast to the millions that didn't read Echo. These are the two versions I've got so far


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The transition back into normal space was the most hazardous part of space travel; the drives were offline and the sensor suit was blinded by the electromagnetic turbulence for several minutes. York had destroyed three enemy battleships by being in the right place whilst they were helpless.

The mission was long and dangerous. Any early damage could see the ship limping home, so York had decided to cross the border into hostile space in a remote and unpopulated system.

The disturbance faded and the sensor returns cleared.

“Three contacts on intercept course.” called Pearce. “Probable missile attack.”



-------or

Before the war York had identified with the Sleeper Empire, the Imperial Navy, House York, the citizens of Asimov, probably in that order. Since assassinating the Emperor and seeing the power plays of the Judges, hidden behind the throne, his universe had steadily shrunk. He still wore the Iron ring, but it meant nothing. Now he cared about his ship, his crew and, in particular, his lover.

Echo had burned her bridges when she disobeyed orders and refused to kill York. The Imperial Commission had created and used her for its own purpose, without a thought for her as an individual. She felt no ties or obligation and had decided her destiny lay with York and his crew.

Now York is risking the lives of Echo and his crew in a search for a ship that was lost five thousand years ago. A ship that may hold the secrets to the origins of humanity.

Thunderbirds are nearly go

Having announced on Facebook that I was going to publish Outcast on the 26th, I have to make that happen. I've got the annotated manuscripts back from all three of my First Readers and I've nearly finished working through all the mistakes and some of the changes.

I say Some of the changes. FR2 thought the opening battle scene was too long and technical, but FR3 liked it. FR1 had some fantastic ideas for the plot - she's seriously twisted - but I couldn't think how to get them in without a complete rewrite. Many of them will be appearing in Echo 3' though.

I've been very lucky to have three people who will give their time to read through my stuff and come up with three very different views. FR2 is well widely read in all sorts of genres and can see what doesn't work. FR1 sees lots of things that could be done differently and often better. And FR3 reads for pleasure and can suspend belief and ignore the clunks if she's enjoying it.

Some of these views clash and, ultimately, I'm writing to please myself. I'm thrilled if other people like what I've written and even more thrilled if I recoup my costs (the inner Yorkshireman is never that far away). I wasn't too sure about the first twelve chapters of Outcast (over a third of the entire book) but the feedback has been positive, so I've got away with it.

Two weeks to go before I foist it on the people who are kind enough to be waiting for it. The fourth edit (bits I don't like) is underway and should be finished in the next couple of days. I'm then going to work through some of the dialogue and try and separate out some of the voices (several of them sound too much like me). Then I have to try and remember how to format and upload to Kindle. It's been a long time since I did that for Echo.

Later this week I will be trying out some of the sales pitch for the Amazon page. If you're around, I'd love your feedback. Hope to see you then.

Shake it like a Polaroid picture

Two of the three First Readers have finished E2 and the reports are positive. I've got some really good feedback about parts that need to be expanded and parts that need to be cut down.

Slash and burn is really difficult. When I look back at what I've written, I can't really see what is wrong with it, which is the whole point of having First Readers who aren't emotionally entwined with the work. I started off well, taking out whole paragraphs with a sweep of the biro. And then I got to the end of chapter 1 and fell in to the trap of reading and liking the story.

That's why people have editors. Ruthless and dispassionate. All authors should have one.

No, you're right, I'm not going to.

The main reason is economic. I made a profit on Echo but, after tax, probably enough for a decent night out rather than a career change. I've just paid Cathy Helms for the cover - I'll post that shortly - so I'm afraid that I need to start earning. Most of my readers have been incredibly forgiving of the typos and grammatical errors in Echo, although editing is so much more than proof reading. It's about pointing out where the story doesn't work, or where an opportunity has been missed, or where a line, a paragraph, a chapter (hopefully no more) doesn't make sense.

The flip side is that what you get (when I say you, I'm presuming you buy my stuff) is Echo by Pete Johnstone, not Echo by me and some dispassionate serial word killers. This was never meant to be anything other than an interesting hobby and I'm hugely grateful to the First Readers for their input but what you're getting, errors and omissions included, is the story what I wrote.

I hope you liked Echo and I hope you buy, enjoy, tell others about and leave positive feedback on Amazon (please) OUTCAST

Launch date - 26th of August

FINISHED!!!!

Of course it's not really finished.

I've completed the first draft. 31 chapters, 110,000 words (slightly longer than Echo)

So now:
Correct all the continuity errors - I've spelt one of the characters' names in two different ways
Change all the points where I put XXX because I couldn't be bothered to go and look up the name of a place I'd mentioned previously, or to make up the name of something

Making up names is really difficult. All the starships have to have names, all the planets and systems and races. And they all look really naff on the page.

To continue:
Proof read for glaring errors - didn't make a particularly good job of that last time. It was only when I got hold of the actual book and went through it with a pencil did I realise how may errors and typos were left in. At some point I'll go through Echo, make the changes and then upload the new version to Amazon for free, for anybody who cares enough about it.
Hand over the book to the alpha readers. This is the really frightening part. This is where I'll find out if it's any good, or if it's just me that likes it.
Rewrite chapter 16 - I must have accidentally deleted it when transferring the individual chapters to a single document. I still had a version on the iPod and I turned off the wireless and renamed it but, when I turned everything back on again, it disappeared too. Slightly miffed. A least chapter 16 is quite short. It's Echo's dreams when she's in a coma with three bullets in her.
Rewrite the bits the alpha readers didn't like
Proof read and last edit
Get the cover art done
Decide on the title (the working title is Clarke, although that's not particularly interesting). This bit should come before the cover art,minutes I can't be bothered to cut and paste the two sentences
Format for Amazon and feed areas
Upload

So, I haven't really finished. The beginning of the end? The end of the beginning?

In space, no one can hear the music

I've written before about how I'm just writing down the film playing in my head.

Every morning I know I have to drag myself out of bed because Chris Evans is playing the Big Screen Belter; a song from a movie. Today's was some generic 80s crap that wanted to be in Top Gun, but wasn't. And then, later, he played Matt Monroe's song that will forever be linked to a Lamborghini Miura driving through the alps (until it crashes).

So, real film has a massive advantage over a book in that, for the foreseeable future, books come without a sound track. Often we don't notice the music in a film, but it sets the landscape and the tone. I particularly love In the House, In a Heartbeat, used in 28 Weeks Later, building up into an almost unbearably long crescendo. Often you can predict what's coming, especially scary bits, from the music. Danny Boyle (must have a film out as he's on everything at the moment) said the other day that, in his new film (I was right), he leads up to a particularly shocking moment by making the music much quieter so that the jump is much greater.

If Echo was a film, what would the opening theme be like? The themes to the films I like seem to fit perfectly - the growling menace of Alien, the opening fanfare in Star Wars. I think I might go for a counter tenor piece, something off the beaten track rather than being upbeat and uptempo. Echo isn't really an upbeat book.

Bill, write me something will you?

Nobody wanted to travel on the Philip K

In Echo, I introduced the concept of the Visionary Ship - colony ships that carried hundreds of thousands of people in suspended animation across the galaxy to found a new civilisation. The Ships were the Bradbury, the Wells, the Heinlein and the Asimov. All named after authors who could, arguably, be called visionaries. Book two revolves around the search for the lost Visionary ship, the Clarke.

There wasn't a ship named after George Lucas. Although he was the saviour of science fiction, there are not many people who would think of him as a visionary. However, there appears to be a fine line between making stuff up in a subject that you clearly know nothing about - the Kessel run in 12 parsecs makes plenty of people shout "No!" - and being a visionary.

Something that's mentioned in passing in the films (although it's developed more in the written cannon), is moisture farming. On a planet with two suns, water is obviously going to be critical. Most rational people would dig boreholes, but no. Lucas decided it's extracted from the air. Yeah, right.

There's a place in Peru where it hardly rains and water is a real issue. They've built an advertising billboard and installed equipment that will condense water vapour from the air. It produces 96 litres of pure water a day.

Perhaps we could forgive the Kessel run. But we can never forgive the other crappy changes. Don't forget. Han shot first

Too much information

Looking at a few of the blogs I follow, the last couple of months seems to have been a bit of a desert, so I don't feel so bad that I haven't written anything online for quite some time either.

The excuses are mostly around work - the current NHS reorganisation is coming to an end and, this time, the blood on the carpet isn't mine but there are less people and more work. And then there's the fact we weren't able to do anything to the house last year so we've started at the top and we're working our way down.

But you don't want to hear about any of that, so I'll talk about the real reason I've not been blogging. I've been writing! E2 didn't get finished while we were in Lanzarote but it moved on a long way and the end is very much in sight. I've struggled a lot with how E2 is going to end and how it would lead into E3. And then, today, it came to me, in a flash (actually in the shower, but that's probably too much information). I know the rest of E2 and what E3 is about.

I'm not far from needing Cathy Helms at Avalon Graphic to do me a cover, which is very exciting, and from handing over the draft to my first readers, which is less so. Echo was very well received and I'm a bit nervous that E2 will be a disappointment. I don't really know what it was in Echo that people liked and whether I've managed to keep it. No pressure.

On a completely unrelated note, Ashley McCook suggested a book to me. If you liked Echo, you'll like Shadow of the Wraith by Ross Harrison. Check it out.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Wraith-Ross-Harrison/dp/B009AOS252/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1362781213&sr=1-1