Tuesday Tunes vs CSFF Blog Tour: Cyndere's Top Ten Midnight Songs

If I had a little more time, I'd have found the Top Ten Cyndere Songs, but there are surprisingly few in my CD collection, so you'll have to make do with the hastily compiled Top Ten Midnight Songs:

10. Amy Winehouse - Round Midnight
I could quite happily live without the Winehouse, but I was stretching for ten as it was...

9. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come on Eileen
A wedding disco staple for over 25 years.... but you could have any of their other songs. If you know any.

8. Abba - Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
You've probably heard of Abba. There was a film about them, or something...

7. Billy Joel - River of Dreams

That's the one that goes 'In the middle of the night / I go walking in my sleep...' I told you I was stretching...

6. Marc Bolan & T-Rex - Midnight
Hooray! A welcome return to Tuesday Tunes for Marc and the boys!

5. Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Midnight
Off the By The Way album. I liked them around that period.

4. Linkin park – Minutes to Midnight
While we're in the alt-rock ball park (or should that be skate park? I don't know, I'm not even going to pretend to be down with the kids...)

3. Brand New Heavies - Midnight at the Oasis
A song about an all-night party at a leisure centre in Swindon. True.

2. The Psychedelic Furs – Midnight to Midnight
Who doesn't love a bit of post-punk Brit rock, eh? On the subject of which:

1. The Jam - Down in the Tube Station at Midnight
I've been in a tube station at midnight. It's only marginally less scary than a Swindon leisure centre.

This week's Top Ten was brought to you by Cyndere's Midnight by Jeffrey Overstreet. To find out more about the book, follow the CSFF Blog Tour, participants listed on yesterday's post.

CSFF Blog Tour: Cyndere's Midnight

I guess posting here has been a little lacking so far this year, but I guess a blog tour is as good a time as any to put that straight.

This week, my tourmates and I will be taking a look at Cyndere's Midnight by Jeffrey Overstreet. This is the second novel in the Auralia Thread, the first of which, Auralia's Colours, was toured in January 2008.

It's got a bloodthirsty beastman, a grieving heiress, and a mysterious well. It sounds, from a quick look at the reviews and publishers blurbs, a bit like Beauty and the Beast on steroids. And I can say that because, although I haven't read the book myself - it being fantasy and all - the author admits to 'hearing echoes from Beauty and the Beast' while he was writing it.

I'm not sure exactly where this fits on the spectrum of Christian fiction, so I'll be browsing a few of these blogs over the next couple of days to (possibly) find out:

Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Shane Deal
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Magma
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
Wade Ogletree
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Alice M. Roelke
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Fred Warren
Jill Williamson

On Demons...

Take a teenager who unexpectedly turns out to be the last in a long line of vampire hunters. Give them an eccentric foreign mentor called Rupert, who has access to a vast library of occult reference material, a vampire-turned-demon-hunter who the hero might take a fancy to, and a best friend who apparently has nowhere else to be. Then send them out to battle not only vampires, but all manner of demons and other nastiness.

The problem with any TV series about vampire hunters – and especially one about teenage vampire hunters – is that it’s going to be compared to the TV show about vampire hunters.

And you have to have something pretty special in order to stand up to that… hijacking the Van Helsing mythos and giving Gene Hunt a pointless American accent is not really going to cut it.

So Demons, ITV1’s latest attempt to tap into the Doctor Who fanbase has left me about as underwhelmed as Primeval did. It’s a decent enough way to waste an hour in front of the telly, and being a 6-parter, it doesn’t threaten to take over too much of life…

On the other hand, the series is nearly over and I’ve only just mentioned it because I’ve ended up stacking episodes up on my Sky+ box, just not caring enough to watch them.

Screw down my diodes and call me Frank...

....look who's coming back!

Yep, it's true... Red Dwarf is returning to Earth for two brand new specials on the improbably named digital channel, Dave, which has been showing re-runs for some time.

Rimmer, Lister, Kryten and the Cat have all signed up, Doug Naylor is writing and directing, and we get to see the finished article, along with a couple of new behind the scenes shows, this Easter. No mention of which, if any, version of Holly will be along for the ride yet though...

Am I excited? Well... hopeful, let's say. The last couple of seasons - first with the departure of Rimmer, and then with the resurrection of everyone else - kind of lost the plot, and while I have slight reservations about the Dwarf returning to Earth, nothing is as it seems in the Dwarfiverse (and anyway, Lister has already been back to Earth in the official novels)...

On the plus side, the only photo so far released by Dave is of Lister is his trademark leather jacket, so hopefully no more of that canaries nonsense.

But just in case, I'll close with these wise words from Holly:

He's dead, Dave. Everybody's dead. Everybody is dead, Dave!

Tuesday Tunes: Radio 1's Live Lounge Volume 3

It’s January, so it must be time for Tuesday Tunes to do the annual* Live Lounge CD review. Obviously everyone else did it in about November when it came out, but I was kinda busy that month.

Anyone who cares should already know the formula: 40 tracks of exclusive live performances (the clue is in the title), consisting in roughly equal parts of one-off cover versions and recent hits.

This is the third CD of Live Lounge sets from Jo Whiley's Radio 1 show, and I'd like to say the standard keeps getting higher, but unfortunately I think the reverse is true. Although that could be because I've not had the chance to listen to Jo Whiley much lately, so a lot of the acts on the latest compilation may as well be strange new life forms.

That said, it is still worth... well, whatever it's going for on amazon right now, and the mix of artists is as ecelctic as ever. In the 'songs you know' category, we have Duffy (Mercy), Adele (Chasing Pavements), Scouting for Girls (Elvis Ain’t Dead), The Streets (Blinded by the Lights), and Athlete's Wires, quite possibly the best song ever.

The cover versions are always more interesting, and this time round, among others, you can hear:

Dizzee Rascal’s reworking of The Ting Tings' That’s Not My Name;
REM doing Munich;
The Script doing Eninem's Lose Yourself;
Kate Nash doing an Arctic Monkeys cover, which rocks mainly because its Kate Nash;

Goldfrapp’s laid back version of It’s Not Over Yet;
and Bat for Lashes (no, me neither) throwing some 80s into the mix with a cover of Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams.

*Volume 2 was reviewed in April 2008. Volume 1 wasn't reviewed.

CSFF Blog Tour: Post Script

I intended to post yesterday, on the final day of the tour proper, but got a bit caught up in filing my tax return online, a pointless task which involves me paying a chunk of extra tax which will returned to me at some later stage when the powers that be realise they've already taken account of it in my PAYE coding. By the time I had rooted out all the necessary paperwork and logged onto the website about 3 three times I was fresh out of time for blogging. Ho hum.

So here, a day late, but here nonetheless, is something possibly meaningful.

On the 'about the author' page of D Barkley Briggs' website, the story is told of how The Legends of Karac Tor came about, as a tale his four sons could relate to as they dealt with the loss of their mother. The Legends of Karac Tor tells the tale of four brothers who, 'while struggling to adjust to life without mom, become enmeshed in the crisis of another world. Along the way they must find their courage, face their pain, and never quit searching for home.'

The thing that struck me when I read that was how the author used his talent to help his kids, and by extension, others in the same situation - thus bringing something good out of a bad situation.

I've been following the Daily Audio Bible podcast almost on time this year, and this week we've been following the story of Joseph, he of the posh jacket, and the extreme example of God working all things together for good. And this all kind of comes together for me because, although you may not get it from this blog, I've been to some pretty dark places in life over the last 3 or 4 years, and my latest WIP, Project Seven is a kind of therapeutic attempt to work that out, and if at the same time I can help someone else out of the same situation - or stop someone getting into it - then that will have made it all... maybe not worthwhile, but it will make sense of it.

I think I've forgotten where I was going with this now, except that The Book of Names is an excellent example of how we as writers - even writers of speculative fiction - can make a difference.

Tuesday Tunes vs CSFF Blog Tour: The Songs of Names

This isn't going to be as much fun without the mixtape, but, well, if you feel that way inclined you could hunt these down and make your own Top Ten Songs of Names:

10. Abba - The Name of the Game
What better way to kick off that with a slice of 70s cheese pop?

9. Terence Trent D'Arby - Sign Your Name
And what better way to follow that with some 80s cheese pop?

8. Destiny's Child - Say My Name
And 90s cheese pop? Anybody sensing a theme?

7. De La Soul - Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)
OK, bear with me here, because this is verging on the tenuous: Ring Ring Ring borrows quite heavily from 80s popsters Curiosity Killed the Cat's Name and Number, and somehow manages to make it cool.

6. The Kinks - You Don't Know My Name
Written by Dave Davies, who is a guitar genius but doesn't write songs as well has his bro. Sorry, Dave.

5. Eminem - My Name Is
What? Who? Slim Shady! Warning: Contains swears

4. Rage Against The Machine - Killing in the Name
While we're in 'Parental Advisory' territory, here's a teen anthem to rival that Nirvana song, largely on account of all that screaming (and swearing) 'I won't do what you tell me!'

3. Petra - What's in a NameAnd in true mixtape style, we segue easily from sweary shout-rock to (slightly cheesy) Christian Rock.

2. The Beautiful South - Song For Whoever
You remember the one.... Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue... etc.

1. The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name
Probably not an indie rock response to Song for Whoever... They call me 'Stacey'/They call me 'her'/They call me 'Jane'/That's not my name...

Yeah, it's not really up to the standard of the vampire top ten a couple of tours ago, but it's the best list I could cobble together on the tube this morning. I'll try harder next time.

In the meantime, come back tomorrow and join me in the quest for a relevant and potentially interesting tour contribution on this blog. It will be a long and difficult journey, fraught with danger and mythical beings.

Bother, should have done a mythical beings top ten...

CSFF Blog Tour: The Book of Names by D Barkley Briggs

This week, the blog tour features The Book of Names by Biggs Darklighter, who I always thought was Red Three, but according to his website, he's some kind of author.

Which seems pretty obvious, since I just said the tour is about his new book. Am I rambling? Ok.

But seriously, The Book of Names is the first volume of the Legends of Karac Tor, and is so called because it's about names getting stolen. No, it doesn't make any sense to me either, but I haven't read it, as usual.

His website's pretty neat though (although, I'm not sure about the section about the Dark Side... have you turned, Biggs?), there's a section of links about myth & lore in our world, which is the kind of weird stuff that I find really interesting.

So, for meaningful comment on this month's featureed book, your quest leads into the Hidden Lands of these mythical beings:
Sally Apokedak
Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard
Valerie Comer
Frank Creed
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Shane Deal
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Timothy Hicks
Joleen Howell
Jason Isbell
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Magma
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Alice M. Roelke
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Phyllis Wheeler
Timothy Wise

Be seeing you...

A couple of days ago I had it in mind to post something about the imminent remake of The Prisoner, the original series of which I have been slowly making my way through on DVD since visiting the village a couple of summers ago.

I had in mind to wonder whether it would be the same without Portmeirion and Mini Mokes, or whether its themes of freedom and individuality are all the more relevant in today's society.

But that all seems a little pointless given yesterday's news, that Patrick McGoohan, creator and star of the 1967 series, died on January 13th after a short illness.

He did so much more, but The Prisoner - whether you think it is profound or a load of utter nonsense - is what McGoohan will be remembered for. I don't know whether McGoohan got fed up of being remembered as Number Six; I wouldn't blame him if he did, but Number Six is a man of principles, unafraid to go against the flow and stand up for his rights, and the rights of any individual, whatever the cost to himself.

A pretty good legacy, if you ask me.

The belated New Year post....

Well, I guess it's about time to call an end to the extended holiday hiatus and dust off the old blog, eh?

It is traditional at (or more ususally about two weeks before) this time to set completely unrealistic goals for the year ahead. So, I might as well join in, eh? Well, I have a couple:

• Sort out a daily devotional time. Not always easy when my work takes me out on the road, but along with that I plan to stay up to date with the Daily Audio Bible, which always comes out in my car with me.
• Find a cell group. I kind of lost regular connection with fellow Christians shortly after Her Babyship arrived, and for various reasons have finally decided this is a good time to pick that up again.
• Advance my professional development. An issue which has been slightly forced by the loss of more qualified people where I work, and certain professional organisations noticing how quiet I have been on the CPD front. Ooops!
• Write! I don't know whether this is really my last priority, but having discovered how much I can get written if I put my mind to it (and use WriteOrDie) during NaNo, there is really no excuse. I think the time is right for Project Seven; all I have to do is get my head down and write the bloomin' thing. Specific target for Project Seven: a 90k first draft by the end of September. That gives me a nice 10k per month target, and then leaves October to prepare for NaNo '09...

No bloggy promises this year, although I will make an effort not to miss another CSFF Blog Tour (apologies to the Lost Genre Guild, which sounds like the sort of thing I would sign up for except Project Seven isn't speculative).

Project Seven wordcount so far, incidentally, is 2530. Hmmm....

I wasn't going to do this...

...but I feel obliged to start the year with a Doctor Who post. Because what's a blog for if not for inflicted one's ill-informed opinions on the world?

And my ill-informed opinion at the moment is... well, it could go either way. My heart did drop somewhat when I saw the 11th Doc, and I kind of mentally went 'What? What?! WHAAT?!'

But the new team, and Russel T Davros, seemed quite upbeat about him, and Steven Moffatt has been responsible for some of the better Who so far, so... I'm willing to give him a go. I guess being a young whippersnapper he might have plenty of Dalek fighting years in him. As long as it doesn't become a total kids show.

I guess you know you're getting old when the Doctors start looking younger...

Closing down for Christmas

I know, it's been pretty dead in here all this month, but I'm about to head off for all that family responsibility stuff that Christmas brings with it.

So I'll be back and bloggier than ever* in the New Year.

Until then have a peaceful Christmas and a great New Year. :)




*levels of blogginess can go down as well as up

Tuesday Tunes: The X Factor

OK, so here's my advice for anyone who sort of likes the X-Factor song (Hallelujah) which is just bound to steamroller its way to the Christmas Number One (yawn).

Go and download the version by Jeff Buckley. You could download the original by Leonard Cohen if you fancy a really depressing Christmas, but the Buckley version is widely touted as the best. Hey, it's Christmas - you could always do both. I'm off to get the Buckley version, and do my bit to get a decent Christmas Number One and stick to Cowell.

Well, it would be fun, wouldn't it? Not that I (or probably anyone else) have cared much for that once prized title since, well, whenever the last non-Pop Idol Factor one was. 1873, I think.

Sci-fi Song of the Week

Now I want no excuses here. You may have heard the latest addition to the mixtape; it has been on a couple of my favourite podcasts in the past. If not, if you are even remotely interested in a jolly, Christmassy, sci-fi related, fun song, you must listen to Chiron Beta Prime by Jonathan Coulton, and you must do so now. The mixtape is still over there on the left. Go listen!

EDIT: Mixwit is shutting down at the end of the year, so this is your last chance to visit the Sci-fi songs mixtape, and all the CSFF Blog Tour mixtapes so far. Blub! Find them all here.

NaNoWri... oh whatever, it doesn't matter now!

Yup, 50,000 passed by at around 11.30pm on Friday. I have written 50,000 words in four weeks. At times I didn't think I would make it, but here I am, with a (very) rough draft of my second Old Testament Space Opera.

Sadly I may not be able to blog for a while; I have to dig the kitchen out from under the dishes and various furry things I don't think have names.

But I guess I have to keep the momentum going, so I'll be back in my writing chair after a couple of well earned days off.

NaNoWriDayTwentySeven

47,893!

I can taste victory from here!

That extra chapter has just taken off in a big way. I am too tired and achy to continue now, but nothing short of the Rapture is going to stop me finishing before bed tomorrow. I am a man on a mission!

NaNoWriDayTwentySix

It should be getting easier now: the finish line is in sight, less than 5000 words away, but rather than sprinting for it, I find myself wading through treacle. The problem is that the story is basically finished. In fact, I was writing the plot so sketchily and so quickly to start with, that it ended at about 14k; I managed to add a twist and get the next act under way, but ran out of steam again about 30k later. The last few days I have just been padding some scenes out, occasionally cheating a little, desperately clutching for an extra word wherever there is one to be found.

There is an epilogue, summarising a sub-plot which suggested itself too late in the process to go back and add in without completely reinventing the timeline and rewriting from the ground up. I could easily make the word count that way, but time no longer allows for it.
There is another scene I would like to have put in earlier, so I might add that either in sequence (although it will make no sense), or as an epi-epilogue, so that I can use it properly when I rewrite.

Yep, that’s right: when I rewrite. Before mid-October I had no real intention of writing this story at all, but now it’s done, I can see the potential in it. It needs a lot of work to beat it into any kind of shape, but right now I think it might be worth doing - later.

Much later.

Obituary: Aidan Qqayle, a leader and a Follower

Aidan Qqayle, preacher and United Colonies leader, has died this week aged 68 Standard Years.

A dedicated Follower of the Creed and much respected man of God, he fought the establishment of the Eight Nations Space Agency until he was called by God to join Litah - the Link Between Tellus and Heaven - and subsequently inherited leadership of the United Colonies from his father, Galford Lomas.

Qqayle was on a tour of the Lomas system, telling United Colonies citizens his testimony and the story of the establishment of the Colonies from his unique perspective.

After a speaking engagement a small group of trouble makers took issue with part of Qqayle's message, and he became embroiled in a riot, in which he sustained serious injuries from which he was unable to recover.

It is a testament to the power of Qqayle's story that a revival of the Creed appears to have started in the City since his departure.

Qqayle was a man of great humility, and those closest to him say that the last thing he would want is to be remembered as a martyr for his faith. Rather, Qqayle saw himself as a deeply flawed individual, who by the grace of God had been allowed to lead the United Colonies and been given the honour of encouraging the widespread adoption of the Creed across the Colonies.

Aidan Qqayle is survived by his wife, Doctor Savana Qqayle, and two sons, Rufus Bornane and Galford Qqayle. Aidan will be buried alongside his father at the original landing site on Lomas Prime.

The story of Aidan Qqayle's involvement in Litah and the United Colonies is told in Countless as the Stars.

NaNoWriDayTwentyOne

It is going surprisingly well at the moment :) especially given the ludicrously slow start it had. The start wasn't quite as slow as my progress report suggests, but it wasn't working to start with so I didn't worry too much about updating my word count... There was a spell of about a week where I was full of cold and the last thing I wanted to do after a day's work was write, especially with the word count targets looming depressingly overhead.

But I have had a few days off work this week, which was always a standby in case of behindness.

I have, as well as the thousand words of nonsense I posted here yesterday, enabled a number of cheat modes in order to catch up, mind, such as:
- tagging every single piece of dialogue, he said pointlessly
- including lengthy IM conversations, complete with screen names
- removing all contractions. Even in IM conversations
- an email complete with to, from, bcc, etc.
- which was subsequently read out to another character
- an in depth summary of Countless as the Stars, to which this is a sequel
- so far at least two passages have been repeated from a different perspective
- a couple more passages pasted from Bible Gateway and had the names changed
- taking some comfort in the fact that the NaNo word count consistently comes to more than MS Word. Which usually comes to more than Write or Die. Shhh!

The story has taken a few odd turns, thrown in to keep the words coming, and is shot through with plot-holes you could lose Wales in, but actually I think it might be worth salvaging at some point. I could probably trim all the superfluous words and pointless scenes and get a reasonable novella out of it if I tried.

I am currently at 37.5k - ahead of the 1667 per day target! - but trying to get to 41k today. I am back at work next week, but if I know I only have to make 1000 words per day I think I might actually survive...

NaNoWriDayTwenty

I wasn't going to post any excerpts from my NaNo (working title Children of the Stars), but this bit turned out to be really good. The overuse of dialogue tags and absence of contractions is a bit distracting, but perfectly fair under the rules of NaNoWriMo. So, it's Chapter Eleven, and Aidan and Savana Qqayle (our heroes from Countless as the Stars, reprising their roles) are contemplating their adventures so far...

'It has been quite a trip, hasn't it?' Savana said, sitting in the small but comfortable guest quarters in the Lomas Two settlement.
'You can say that again,' Aidan said emphatically. 'I think the only thing that might have made it more interesting would have been if my wormhole trip had ended up taking me further afield than it did.'
'Not too far afield, I hope,' Savana said. 'Not back to Tellus, I mean.'
'No,' Aidan agreed. 'Nor as far in the other direction.'
'What were you thinking then?' Savana asked.
'Oh, maybe if it had left me out by the outer rocky planets. Then I could have explored some really new territory,' Aidan said. 'That would have been really interesting.'
'You should do that,' Savana said. 'Take Gally with you though. You two could do with a male bonding trip.'
'Oh, oh,' Aidan said excitedly. 'What if we ended up at Lomas Five or Six, and found the missing StarCities out there.'
'Why would they still be out there? Wouldn't they be able to tell the rest of us were nearby?' Savana asked.
Aidan shrugged. 'Maybe they are trying to get here,' he suggested. 'Or maybe they are deserted. Maybe everyone died by now.'
'Everyone on a StarCity cannot die,' Savana objected. 'They are designed specifically so that cannot happen.'
'Maybe they contracted a virulent disease form a dirty telephone,' Aidan suggested. 'Or had a bloody civil war. Or encountered a stray wormhole...'
'All fairly unlikely,' Savana said.
'Yes,' Aidan agreed, 'but it would have been an interesting trip.'
'Granted,' Savana agreed. 'It would have taken a long time though, wouldn't it?'
'Well, yes,' Aidan agreed, 'but on the other hand, there is no way we should have been able to see as much of the system as we have done in so little time.'
'Hmm,' Savana said. 'So what you are saying is that you should have taken Gally off on your little wormhole trip, harnessed the power of sub-space travel-'
'Sub what now?' Aidan interrupted.
'That is what we will call it,' Savana said. 'The place where the wormholes go will be called sub-space.'
'Isn't that a bit Star Trek?' Aidan asked.
'Well, yes,' Savana admitted, 'but that also makes it a well known and readily identifiable mechanism.'
'Right,' Aidan said, bemused.
'So anyway,' Savana went on. 'You two discover this, then go off and explore the outer planets-'
'And discover a ghost city,' Aidan interjected.
'If you insist,' Savana said. 'And then we go off on our jolly across the system.'
'Exactly,' Aidan agreed.
'Actually, that would make more sense,' Savana said.
'In what way?' he asked.
'Well, Gally and I came out on this big quest,' she explained. 'To try and cure the infertility on Lomas Prime.'
'Yes,' Aidan said. 'What happened with that?'
'Well, nothing,' Savana said. 'Which is my point. Maybe the big quest should have been to find you.'
'But that would be impossible,' Aidan said.
'Not if Gally had been researching wormhole phenomena all his life,' Savana said.
'Yes,' Aidan agreed. 'That could be what he was doing at the beginning of the story, when the lights went out.'
'Aidan, stop talking as if you're a character in a NaNo novel,' Savana said.
'Ok, sorry,' Aidan said.
'Did we ever hear what happened there?' Savana said. 'About the power cut?'
'We did not,' Aidan said with a smile. 'But the readers did.'
Savana threw a cushion at him. 'Nobody reads NaNo novels,' she said.
'Well, if they did,' Aidan said, risking her wrath again, 'they might have seen that Gally was blamed for the power outages by his boss, and he volunteered to come with me in order to get away from her and the settlement that she turned against him.'
'That could be awkward when we get to return,' Savana said.
'Extra point of conflict,' Aidan said, knowingly. 'Just what a NaNo novel needs!'
'Er, quite,' Savana said, bemused.
'Well go on then,' Aida prompted. 'What would you have put in if our lives were a NaNo novel?'
'I think Gally needs a girlfriend,' she said.
'I think he needs two,' Aidan said. 'Conflict, remember?' he added in response to Savana's glare.
'Whatever happens to the Straker twins?' Savana asked. 'Weren't they supposed to appear in this boo- er, part of our lives?'
'Good question,' Aidan said. 'Still, there, er, would probably be a good twenty thousand words to go at this point, so they could still turn up.'
'Twenty thousand, you reckon?' Savana said. 'Well, what do you think will happen to us next then?'
'Well, I imagine that we will press Gally into a relationship with that Sharita girl,' Aidan said.
'Oh, she is nice,' Savana said.
'But she will turn out to be barren,' Aidan said, 'so Gally will hook up with one or more of his virtual girlfriends as well, you know, to-'
'Broaden the gene pool,' Savana interrupted. 'I bet that rule was thought up by a man.'
'That is not very fair,' Aidan protested.
'Says the man with a son by another woman,' Savana grumbled.
'That was your idea,' he reminded her.
'That is another story,' Savana said.
'Yes,' Aidan agreed. 'Countless as the Stars by Steve Trower. Available from stevetrower.co.uk.'
'What are you talking about?' Savana said.
'Sorry, that was not me,' Aidan insisted. 'It was the author, putting a piece of blatant self promotion into my mouth.'
'Should self promotion not be hyphenated?' Savana said.
'In all probability, self promotion should in fact be written with the use of a hyphen,' Aidan said.
'A simple yes would have done,' Savana said.
'In retrospect, I would anticipate that a simple affirmative would have provided the information after which you were inquiring,' Aidan said. 'However, it is my belief that the author is desperately trying to drag this segment out to a nice round one thousand words, and merely wished to ensure the best possible use of the phrase self promotion in the context of the written page.'
'Sorry what?' Savana said.
'I said,' Aidan replied, 'in retrospect, I wou-'
'Now you are just taking the mickey,' Savana interrupted.
'Fair point,' Aidan agreed. 'Is there anything else you would have liked to have done during the course of this nov- er, portion of our lives?'
'How long have we got?' Savana asked.
'About ten words,' Aidan said.
'Well then, no,' Savana said.

NaNoWriDayNineteen

I have just passed the half way mark...

I should have been there earlier, but I struggled yesterday, suddenly ran out of plot and didn't have any idea where things were going. So today I sent my protag to the other side of the planet, abandoned him there and subjected him to the most horrible tortures known to, well, me.

That was probably a bit unnecessary in the grand scheme of things, but it has kept me writing and got me interested in the story again. Whether any of that makes it into the final cut (assuming I ever edit this rubbish) is doubtful, but that's not important right now.

What is important is that I need to keep going, or I will never make it. This tea break is now officially over.