The Strange Tales of Peter James Martin

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Book 1: A Boy and A Rat

Wednesday 22 November 2023

#46 A Riz Christmas II + Update

Happy Blog Day Everyone!

So, another quick week this time round, and sadly, not for any good reasons. I'll explain why in a moment. First though, some good news, Riz’s Christmas adventure continues!

The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz

Part 2 is here and Riz thinks he's onto a good plan...or is he (we know he's not, that's what you're all here for!). Part 2 continues the trend of panel 2 being some of my favourite work (like lying down Riz from last week). A third of the way through and so we're on target to finishing on Christmas.

It has brought up an interesting (to me) conundrum. Over on Twitter (X) I've been cycling through the various comics with every vss365 I post (on comic 08 of this posting) and its probably going to be January before these issues enter rotation...which raises the issue of having a Christmas mini-arc when it's not Xmas. I currently have two other holiday themed comics (Valentines and Easter) but I think they're easier to deal with being one shots...

Nanowrimo Word Count...and an Update

I'm combining these two sections here as they're sadly related. As you're all no doubt aware by now, Nanowrimo is currently undergoing a crisis, one of its own making sort of (they didn't start it but their official response certainly didn't help). I've thought long and hard on it. At first I thought it didn't affect me too much as I've not linked to the main site much, if at all, but as time has gone on, and I've learned more, it's sapped my already low energy. I've tried to follow my own advice, but this plus my frustrations with the story have made me question my future with the event.

For now, I'm continuing on as I have to finish what I've started but, it is taking a long time to get the words done...I'm dreading the editing phase for this.

As for word count, its currently 36578 words so I've got 14,000 till I can step back from this madness. Let's see how close it'll be next week...

Anyway, that's all for this week, hopefully I can find something happier to talk about next week.

Till next time,

Keep on writing.

Peter James Martin

Quick Links

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Book 1: A Boy and A Rat

Wednesday 15 November 2023

#45 A Riz Christmas I + Update

Happy Blog Day Everyone!

A quick update this week (what last week should have been!) As I've got writing to get to, but...

I think I've unleashed something with my latest mini project for the Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz...take a look below!

The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz

What have I done?

With the Christmas season finally upon us, I saw it to honour it in some fashion. While my first thought was another multiple episode saga like the fifteen part one I did over the summer...just not as long. That's why I can say with certainty that this one will be six parts...I'm not dragging this out past 25th December!

Knowing the length, I set about trying to draft a story that would fit. How I went from that stage to giving Riz his own Dr Suess style rhythmic adventure is anyone's guess. I am sorry about that mind, hopefully my rhymes don't cause that much pain!

So from now until Christmas I'll be presenting the parts of this tale, and it should (if my maths is right) take us to issue 50, with only a couple of weeks to their big anniversary!

Let's see what happens next week!

Nanowrimo Word Count and Update

Made sense to combine these two sections as Nanowrimo is what I've been focusing on this week.

As it stands my word count is 22978, not bad and I should hit the halfway tomorrow, and this year, its feeling like a slog. Partly down to the issues I discussed last week (it happened again!). It serves no purpose repeating myself so I get through it, and I'll have a stronger story by the time editing is done.

There's no word on any future publication (aside from a potential volume 4 of Malarkey's, but still very early days on that). Hopefully I can get more printed next year...

Anyway, promised a quick update and I've delivered that I think l!

Till next week,

Keep on writing!

Peter James Martin

Quick Links

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Book 1: A Boy and A Rat

Wednesday 8 November 2023

#44 Sock It To Him + Nanowoemo

Happy Blog Day Everyone!

Today was supposed to be a meagre update post...then I ended up rebooting my NanoWriMo story on Saturday so I'm going to talk about that instead! Before that let's see what Brennan and Riz are getting up to in their Comic Tales!

The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz

I can't make my mind up if I like this one or not, a very daft idea given flesh here. The next minj arc will be starting soon, if I have everything worked out right!

Nanowrimo Word Count

Following on from last week's rather small amount, this week, my word count for Nanowrimo is...12778 words! I'm right on track for where I should be...which is lucky as you'll see below.

Nanowoemo

So...Saturday night. I was busy trying to get my words in for Nano when I hit one of the many stumbling blocks...I didn't care for what I was writing.

Let's be a bit more specific here.

By that I don't mean that I wanted to change from writing Avalon Tales, as that wasn't in doubt, it just the plot I'd developed for it...wasn't working. Turns out the plot I'd planned was not really the best fit for the word length I was looking at (30-40k). As I've not written many novellas, (the only one I have done, hasn't even been published yet...if ever), so I seemingly forgot one of the key tenets about writing, the shorter the length, the closer you have to start at the point.

Till this moment, I'd found the writing to be a slog, and it does show when I look back at the chapter I was working on at the time. The pace was dragging and the characters were bland. I tried to persevere but it took me about half an hour to write ten words. I knew I had to do something.

That something? Completely ditch the plot I was working from, redoing a lot of the characters. I was also looking at the earlier research I'd put together, and this 'change' allowed me to correct some oversights I made earlier on. Can't say which character this refers to yet but it has had a big impact.

So Sunday rolls round and I try to put words on the page. Given my decision, and I start a completely new chapter (I aimed it to be atca similar place plot wise...I'm going to have a lot of fun with editing this story). I implemented all the changes so certain characters are much different in their characterisation. I did twenty two thousand words that night in one go. Don't think I need to tell you how well that went.

Will this be the first and last time I have to do this (talking about during Nano of course...I'm constantly restarting short stories these days!)? Well, that remains to be seen...

Thats all for now, a lighter affair next week I'm sure.

Till then,

Keep on writing!

Peter James Martin

Quick Links

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Book 1: A Boy and A Rat

Wednesday 1 November 2023

#43 So Original + Malarkey's Imaginomnibus Hubble bubble

Happy Blog Day Everyone!

So, this post will go live on November 1st....but it isn't too late to enjoy the spooky season as the third Malarkey's Imaginomnibus is out now for everyone to enjoy!

I'll be discussing my story, "They Called Her Witch" in a moment, but first, the end of Riz’s writing (mis)adventures!

The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz

Again, apologies for reusing a 60 yearish old joke (I got it from the Peanuts Comic strips), but I did find it funny.

What's next for the duo? Well, theres another storyline on the Horizon, but for now, I think more ransom skits will be the order of the day.

Nanowrimo 2023

Well, it's November the 1st, and you all know what that means! Yes, it's Nanowrimo time.

So how much have I have done for this first update...Well, considering I've only had a couple of hours to write, it's only at 647 words. Hopefully we'll see more done next week!

Malarkey's Imaginomnibus Hubble bubble

So, it's come to this, a release of a third Malarkey's Imaginomnibus!

The theme (as ever chosen by the excellent Ross Young) this time was Hubble bubble, perfect for Halloween.

Really, the authors taking part in this deserve your readership, so please, once you've read your (free!) copy of Malarkey's Imaginomnibus Hubble Bubble, please check out the rest of the included authors stories, as they are all magnificent writers.

Now, I've already spoke about the first story I had planned for this Volume, one involving Ghost Duty, but obviously that didn't pan out.

Into it's place, I wrote a story that better fitted the theme...which was still rather loose! The story's premise came from a series of tweets I did all the way back in October 2021...I think. Thud provided me with some blueprints, and I set to work building on them. This included making changes to a couple of things (like giving the character a name as she lacked one before...till the very end anyway). I also got to go into extra detail with a few things though, I do fear that I didn't do enough.

Regrading the characters name, she was proving hard to pin down, that was until I started listening to a song by Green Day from their 21st Century Breakdown album, ¡Viva La Gloria! (Little Girl). That song hit so many beats of what I was wanting for the story, so much so, that it gave the main character her name.

The original plan for this story actually remained unchanged as it progressed, with only a couple of scenes changing. For instance there was supposed to be a segment focused on the school, a couple of them in fact. However these were amalgamated into the bus scene, which caused me concern on how it was going to be received...Guess we'll see. Another minor change was the removal of a character, but that was done to enhance another character. In a longer story I may have kept both, to play up the ending more, but I'm happy with how it played out. Of course, this means that a certain someone gets less story time, but he still gets his way.

Overall, this story has an important part to play with some of my other work, maybe one day the main story it's part of can get its time to shine.

That's all for this week!

Don't forget to go and get your copy of Malarkey's Imaginomnibus Hubble Bubble (for free!) right now by clicking here!

Till next time,

keep writing!

Peter James Martin

Quick Links

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Book 1: A Boy and A Rat