Sad writing magazine news

Some sad news in the world of writing and magazines.

It’s not like people found out from any kind of announcement, I hadn’t seen an official announcement on the internet. The latest issue came out and in the editor’s message he broke the news that this magazine was the last and the publisher had decided to close the magazine. There is something on their website now letting people know.

There are two writing magazines where I live in the UK. Writers Magazine and Witers Forum. I was reading Facebook not long ago and came across a post from a member of the FB page for the magazine. It mentioned that the magazine was stopping. There were posts from other people saying that when they had tried to contact the magazine about competitions or subscription renewals they were either not getting answers or were getting vague replies. This all made sense when the secret got out.

I wasn’t a current subscriber but had been in the past and although not subscribing I would buy the magazine each month. It’s a real shame that the decline of print media has now taken a really good writing magazine from us. I looked forward to reading the articles and news in this monthly magazine and its engaging format.

I can at least take solace in still having one magazine to buy, hopefully, this one will continue. Especially because it is now the only one in the UK dedicated to writing.

Image from https://pixabay.com/

I am quite a techy person but reading is one thing that I like to stick to paper for. especially magazine reading. I have a big library and love to read physical books. Although I do have a Kindle as sometimes it’s just handy to have books at my fingertips in a small package. I don’t however read from tablets or screens as it’s just not comfortable for me. Print media all the way.

I hope it’s like vinyl in that it just keeps going, even if it’s not as popular.

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Camp NaNo – Failure to launch

It’s that time of the year again and April’s NaNo is upon us. This is the version of NaNoWriMo where you can set your own goal and then work with fellow wrimos to achieve it.

I was wanting to complete the project I started in November in April and was going to try to get the momentum that I had in November. I haven’t really started this year. I think it comes from no0-one else in my writing group taking part. In November there were a couple of us spurring each other on.

The project is God’s Pawn and it’s currently sitting at about 52k I am guessing I will have another 20-30k left in it looking at the basic outline I have. So I need to get on. Would be nice to get this one completed so I can move on to the sci-fi story I would like to write as this one is now intruding regularly and I find myself making notes and wanting to move this one forward.

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General Update

Hi All, since winning Nano in November I bet you can guess how much writing I have done to maintain that awesome achievement…. yes, you are right, almost nothing :O

Gods Pawn

Since then I have done a few thousand words on the project and I am not going to hit my target of having it completed by the end of quarter 1.

So, the plan now is to use Camp Nano which runs several times a year, the first one being in April. On Camp nano, you can set your own goal and then team up with other writers for motivation. So I am going to look at what I have left to do for the Gods Pawn project and make completing that the goal of the month. This will mean planning writing time as I did for November and then sticking to it. But I would like to be able to get this done as I have other projects that are distracting me right now.

Hard Back Paper Back

As part of my plan to get more writing done and build on my love of reading I decided to set up a blog for reviewing books. I am not going to be doing in-depth reviews as such but I hope they will be useful to people. I have been populating the site with some reviews before I can get it out there.

All in all, I am making moves towards doing more writing which is the way I want to be going. Let’s see what the rest of the year brings. I hope I can keep up the momentum.

I have got my library mostly set up and I have been reading a lot more, I love having somewhere to go to read quietly.

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I have a problem…

I was sent this image from the amazing How I met your mother tv show recently in response to the number of books I am buying, I don’t blame anyone for thinking that I needed an intervention, even if it is a joke. I have loved reading most of my life and it is extremely rare for me to get rid of books as I am likely to read them again and again. But for the past few years, I have been buying books so fast that I don’t have time to read them… The collection keeps growing. The fact that I just moved into my own room for books as well doesn’t help as I now have plenty of shelf space…. buy more books I hear you say!

Below is my library, not quite complete but getting there. I now have my own room for my books. A nice comfy chair and a side table for my cuppa. I will put some better pictures up when the mold in the room has been sorted and I decorate it, but these will do for now.

I love it, there is nothing in there other than an Alexa Dot for music and a dehumidifier. So I sit in there and read in peace.

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What I’m Reading

https://pixabay.com/

I have started to prioritise reading again in a bid to actually try and get through the massive amount of books I have. Each year I seem to buy significantly more than I read. I need to do something about that, so I have started reading a lot more.

I was trying to finish what I was reading before the end of the year but with all of the family stuff I had on, I was not able to do that. I have finished some of them but I tend to read too many things at once and so I lose track of what is going on. So, one of my goals for this year is to concentrate more on what I am reading and not have too many books on the go at once.

  1. Audiobook – The Great Hunt – Robert Jordan
  2. Fiction Book – Prador Moon – Neal Asher
  3. Fiction Book – Prophesy – Elizabeth Haydon
  4. Fiction Book – Consider Phlebas – Ian M Banks (re-read)
  5. Fiction Book – Moving Target (Vattas War) – Elizabeth Moon (re-read)
  6. Book – How to write a book review – Sarah S Davis

For now I will be getting these finished as they are almost all on the last leg. The Vatta book that I am re-reading I am flying through, I read the first one in less than 2 days. I forgot how good they are. It’s getting me into the mood for writing my sci-fi stuff.

I am currently coming up with a list of books that I can work through in 2023 once I have finished the above. I will do another post for this list.

Back to work properly tomorrow after the holidays. Back into a routine!

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It’s the end….. of 2022

I am an easily led person when it comes to writing. If I am watching/reading fantasy I really want to write fantasy. If I am watching/reading science fiction then I want to write that too. I always think it is a good idea to have a project of each on the go for this reason, but it would be nice to finish a project.

NaNo 22

For the Nano project, I did fantasy and for once I was only halfway through the project when I reached the goal. So I need to continue with this once I get the meets for the writing group set back up. We are going to go for Monthly in-person meets, apart from during camp nano when we will meet more often. We are also going to have weekly online meet so get us to write more.

2023

I have made some moves to do more for writing this year. Planning more meets and I have booked and paid for a ticket to Fantasycon and accommodation. Looking forward to mixing with like-minded people and being in that environment. I have also signed up for the British Science Fiction Association so I can see where this leads.

All in all, I am planning to take writing more seriously this year and get myself on track. as I get older I just realise that if I do not put in the work for something like this then I won’t end up doing anything.

As part of my plan to write more, I am planning on launching a new blog, a book review one. I can pair this with my wish to read more this year. combining two of my favorite things.

So we can see where I go. I need to finalise some planning this weekend and then see what I can achieve.

Hope you all had a great Xmas and have a Happy New Year.

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NaNoWriMo 2022

I have been doing NaNo for 12 years and in that time I have managed to finish twice. this year I decided I needed some motivation after watching a video on how to incentivize yourself. I bought a £50 voucher for Amazon and then gave it to my wife. I told her if I finished I would get it back for books, if I didn’t she could keep it. This incentive along with help from a couple of my writer friends allowed me to succeed this year like I didn’t even when I finished before.

It was a good month and I actually enjoyed the writing, I didn’t feel like it was a grind and I finished on time. It was a really good feeling.

Since the win, I have had a break from writing, but I do think I should now capitalize on this momentum and see if I can finish the story I was writing. Once completed I can then use this as a good draft outline to flesh out the story.

So.. for a change instead of talking about how I didn’t finish because of this or that, I can say I am a Nano winner and proud of it.

Next, I can see about 2023 planning and if I can manage to stick to the goals I set for next year as I did for NaNo.

Wish me luck!

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Preptober

It’s 23:03 on a Sunday night, 2nd October. It was a writing meet day so I got quite a bit done this morning in Darlo. I didn’t get much done once home but I have a start now.

https://blog.reedsy.com/guide/nanowrimo/preptober/

Preptober is the name given for the month of October leading up to National Novel Writing Month. It’s time to get ready for that challenge. It’s also a month for me where I try and get ready and more often than not end up procrastinating and don’t get much done. I then start NaNo and fail miserably. I have tried many times in the past to Pants (write with no plan) and it isn’t the best way for me to work. On the other hand, I cannot seem to get on board with full planning either. I fall in the middle, I’m a plantser. I like to have a base outline of chapters, so I have an idea of where I am going then as I start writing I let the characters guide me through their journey.

The story this year will be on the world of Acomia and will follow the adventures of Melorin as he tries to stop the God of Chaos from destroying everyone. Intrigued… I hope so!

I really hope to be able to get my butt in gear this year and have a plan in place ready for November 1st.

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NaNo prep time

It’s that time of the year again. Time for me to say I am preparing while making procrastination an art…. I mean time to get planning my Acomia Fantasy project. I need to flesh out some of the world-building as I have changed a few things and then minimally plot out the story.

In the 10-12 years I have done NaNo I have only completed it twice and that was with Sci-Fi stories. I would really like to get something completed in Fantasy which if I had to choose would be Fantasy.

So I have 5 weeks, I have tomorrow off from work. One of the main goals tomorrow will be to sit down and make a plan. A prep plan for the 5 weeks and then a solid plan so I won’t fall behind and lose hope in November. I really would like to get into a good routine and get something completed.

Time will tell I suppose, I will either be shouting my success or end up with a large gap on the blog to hide my shame.

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At the Beach

Me and the wife like to go to the beach. Each time I go I signs like the one below, and each time there are people walking their dogs on the beach!

Now we are dog people but it annoys the hell out of me when I see this. The beaches are closed to dogs in the peak season so that we and our kids don’t play where a dog decided to… do some business.

Beach sign

The point of the rant though is the sign, I mean what’s the point? I am not aware of anyone getting fined for having their dog on there. If there was a chance I am sure people wouldn’t do it.

Anyway, just wanted to moan to no one in particular… 🙂

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