#16 You Didn't, Did You + Brennan and Riz State of Play

 Happy Blog Day Everyone!

Today, I want to talk a little about where Brennan and Riz is as a series, but before we get to that, let's get to the Comic!

The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz

I think this one perfectly encapsulates Riz's opinion on charity...Well, I guess I could be more explicit but I'm not sure if I could get away with showing that! You do have to feel sorry for Bren at times like this, whereas some people trying to do good will have a metaphorical devil on their shoulder, he's got one in his pocket (though sadly he's no devil, as that would be an easy explanation).

Guess Brennan will have to learn to be sneakier with donating to charity.

Brennan and Riz: State of Play

So, it's been 6 years now since I started with Brennan and Riz (elements of the characters are older but that's besides the point) and in that time there has been 26 short stories featuring the pair, spread across 7 books. There's a full length novel with a 2nd being worked on and a 3rd being a scribble in my note book.

Looking at things that way, it's a lot of Brennan and Riz. It's probably worth mentioning as well that one of them is in an obscure book that deals with stories about the Middlesbrough football club. It's funny to think that the story I'm talking about was actually the 2nd one I came up, the first going no where despite several attempts at a workable draft. It's this story (Goblins on the Pitch) that I'd try and "Reissue" in another collected edition if possible.

Thinking back to those first batch of stories though, the first 10 (From Girl in the Water to Wild Hunt on the Road), I can look back and see a subtle shift in how I wrote them. For instance, the way Riz spoke only became more defined as I became more experienced writing him, sharpening his edges as well. If you want an example, just compare Riz’s speech in Girl in the Water to how he talks in A Boy and A Rat.

Not that was the only difference, another is their views on Valarie. This was recently brought to my attention by someone asking me about it on twitter, regarding how Brennan views her in Goblins in the Tunnel, contrasting to how he was, well, everywhere else. My own plans had changed from that story, not least of all Valarie’s backstory which was overhauled exhaustively. This had an unseen knock on effect to other things (like her own novel that I was working on, that's pretty much apocrypha now). While had I inadvertently softened him is another matter, the question of what happened exactly is a sticking point between the pair. I do have an idea in mind but it's still a little beyond the time scale of the three prequel novels, given that I picture them happening within a year of each other. 

So in short, its something I'm planning but I don't know when it'll appear (though I can confirm it'll be pretty Valarie heavy...not that some of you will complain)

Now, what's next for the pair? I've spoken recently on a story of theirs that I ultimately abandoned but by no means was that the last of the ideas. I once said that I had about 60 different ideas for then squirrelled away in a note book, and that still holds true, but I'm also adding to it constantly it seems. For instance I've taken another step closer to having the pair deal with the Lambton Worm, something I've often teased, and have them venture under Richmond Castle to see what's lurking under there. There's also the unreleased stories that are completed and just waiting to be unleashed (this is collection that I was waiting for the Redcar story to complete) and there's yet another Harvey Duckman Presents tale to debut with another two in the pipeline.

To top that off, we also have the Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz, which will receive its own dedicated blog post in about 4 weeks time, to coincide with its 20th strip.

I know there is still some gaps of course, there's no audio books for example, and this pair could really, really benefit from them. It's something I'm going to have to figure out.

I think that's it for now, paradoxically there was both a lot and not a lot to say about the pair.

If you want to catch up on the pairs adventures then feel free to check out the links below!

Till next time,

Keep on writing!

Peter James Martin

Quick Links

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Volume 1

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

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Volume 2

Malarkey's Imaginomnibus Volume 1

#15 At Least He Tried

 Happy Blog Day Everyone!

Another short one this week but I do plan on a bigger piece for next week as I want to do a general look at where Brennan and Riz are after the release of Volume 2.

The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz

15 strips already, where does the time fly? Doesn't seem like 10 minutes ago where I was debating even doing the strip. I think when it comes to strip #20 (which should be late May/ early June) I'll make that the focus and talk about its genesis in more detail and the weekly battles I have in bringing it to you all.

On saying that, I think it largely goes unnoticed by the larger world which may be for the best as its not good in the slightest!

Jokes aside, I wanted to do another minimalist dialogue comic, and this one fit the bill perfectly. Definitely learning a lot of show don't tell while working on this project.

Update

Okay, in lieu of a proper blog post this week, instead I'll offer a small update on my goings on.

The short story that I've been working on is..

Still being worked on. I'd never have guessed that a short of only 5k estimated words would have taken me this long but there we are. Parts have been edited again to flow better (and not have to give the mc plot armour to avoid being arrested...twice. The more you have to contrive and explain, the more you slow down the pace. Still got some time before the deadline, so I'm not too worried yet.

Brennan and Riz stuff...See next week.

Daemon Soul...Sigh, I was supposed to be sending this out on submission but nerves have got the best of me, plus seeing people I know with far better work than me getting rejected constantly isn’t helping matters. Still, I've been doing some things in this universe, like the short I'm writing.

Other hobbies...Miniature painting has now become my defacto relaxing hobby of choice, aka the thing I do when I'm not writing. If only I was good at it...

Anyway, thats it for now, look out for next week where I dive into all things Brennan and Riz to see the state of play for the pair!

Till then,

Keep writing!

Peter James Martin

Quick Links

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Volume 1

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

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Volume 2

Malarkey's Imaginomnibus Volume 1

#14 A Favour Owed + Rewriting a Rewrite

 Happy Blog Day Everyone!

So while today is more talk about short story writing, it isn't about my current project, which I'm still working on. Instead I want to go on a tangent about a Brennan and Riz story that recently stalled...Before all that though, you know what it's time for...

The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz

I had the third panel in mind ever since I realised I could do a Easter special early on when I started the Comic. What I didn't have was a storyline to go with it. I whacked my brain for two weeks to come up with what you see here. Was it worth it? Probably not.

Rewriting a Rewrite?

So I was working on my current writing project (a short story for those just joining us) when I came to the realisation that I was going to have to rewrite the beginning yet again. The cycle may be familiar to other authors. You start writing an idea you had, one that you absolutely love. Over time, things change, the direction of the story changes and you realise, maybe with horror, that the start of the story no longer even syncs up with the rest. What do you do in this case? Why, you rewrite it.

I've spoken in the past that I ended up rewriting my current project, and it will not surprise you that I've ended up doing yet more rewrites, though these are to less severe degree than the first few. You might think that this is the most reworked story I've ever done...Well you'd be wrong about that.

Before I started work on this story, I was in deep on a Brennan and Riz short, and that one, had been reworked a lot more...

Let me set the scene.

The story was to be the finishing touch in another volume of Brennan and Riz short stories. It was based off an idea that I wrote down in my initial batch of 60+ ideas, a list I wrote back in 2018. It was based off some folklore from Redcar, that the wind made a strange sound as it blew through a exposed shipwreck. That was all I wrote about it then, something small that I hoped I could expand into a 3,000 word story or so.

At one point I'd intended to write it alongside other seaside based tales, I'd plenty from Whitby and Saltburn to make it an attractive proposition, but other writing projects took precedent, such as A Boy and A Rat thus the idea slunk away, till it was needed again.

Cut to last year when after a lengthy rewrite of its own, A Boy and A Rat finally debuted, I turned my attention back to what was then going to be Volume 2 of the Brennan and Riz anthology. At the time, the word count had come to 55,000 or so, well under the word count of the first collection. Needing a couple more ideas, I returned to the list for inspiration, where Iocked eyes on the idea again.

The writing started well, opened the story in thr middle of the action to tease events before diving back in time, and things were progressing well. Then I had the idea to reference an earlier story that dealt with similar themes, first rewrite happened. Still, no big deal, I carried on writing. 

I ended up taking a small break as I was feeling burned out on writing the pair, switching gears to other stories around this time (like the original draft for Ghost Duty) till earlier this year when I finally returned to it, revitalised by the news that the publisher had signed off on Volume 2 (abeit in a completely different fashion than what I was expecting). This is where the rest of the rewrites started to kick in.

When I returned to the draft, my thoughts turned to the antagonist of the piece and what they were doing it for. My original intention wasn't holding up (not to mention that the length had exceeded the limit of 3k words) so I'd decided to bite the bullet and upgrade it to Novella length, well, at least 10k. This, again, required a rewrite. Then, came perhaps the biggest problem, I progressed to the climax of the story, when for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to completely do a 180 on the antagonist, something not too dissimilar to what happened with the Wrym in the Abbey story. This, you guessed it, necessitated more rewrites as I needed to seed the character I'm early and come up with a completely new villain, to help set up a surprising new status quo at the end. At this point, the story was creaking under the strain of all the changes, old sections changing abruptly into new ones.  Plot threads awkwardly ending or being introduced. Things happening to justify the plot...It became a tangled mess. Don't get me wrong, the new characters I created will still be used...this idea though probably won't be. Its a sad but needed trait to recognise when something isn't working and needs to be culled.

So what's next for this Brennan and Riz tale? It may have an ending but it certainly doesn't have a beginning or an middle. For now, I'll continue with this other short story and when that's finished...who knows? Maybe I can get the inspiration to start afresh, with a clear goal to work from in the beginning.

That's it for this week.

Till next time,

Keep writing,

Peter James Martin.

Quick Links

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Volume 1

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

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Volume 2

Malarkey's Imaginomnibus Volume 1

#13 Who Wouldn't Want One + More Short Story Writing!

 Happy Blog Day Everyone!

Another week has gone by, I'm wondering if something is gobbling all the time up as it certainly doesn't feel like 13 weeks have gone by since I restarted the blog!

Regrettably, it is another short one, as I'm in the middle of writing up a guest blog in my indomitable style and there's no new releases on the horizon for a while yet...

Still, you do have a brand new comic to slightly entertain you!

The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz

It's only now that I look back and realise that I missed a trick by not having the giant rat be completely golden, next time maybe. I still feel like the Comic has yet to find it's feet but what do you think? 

Anyway, moving on!

More Short Story Writing

Work continues apace on my current short story, and wouldn't you know it, I've rewrote it 3 times now! Let me explain my process For my moment.

When I'm writing an idea, I'd normally take it to completion, wanting to get the skeleton down, and then I'd make my changes, like a sculptor with a block of stone. Sometimes however, I can't do that. To continue my sculptor analogy, I'd chiselled too far then what I'd needed, rendering the whole project worthless. It's times like that I resort to the early edit, erasing wholesale words that I'd just literally put to page. I've gotten better at identifying when this feeling will hit, normally when the words aren't inspiring anything but spite.

In this case however, I didn't engage in a full annihilation of the story (which I have done. Kill your darlings? I've committed mass word murder) rather, I'd reframed it. Changing the tone slightly, while trying to reinforce the themes, something I'll do again once it's finished. This has left me well under the half way point, but I'm trying not to rush this.

One thing I'm also aware of, is that this will be the 2nd Daemon Soul (if I hadn't mentioned this already, then yeah, it's connected to this particular story of mine) story set in the 80s, following on from a short I wrote a year or so again. One that was ironically based off a song (two songs technically). I do wonder if I have any more in me for a future 80s anthology! Not that anyone would read that... Would they?

Anyway, that's all for this week. Hopefully I can reach the half way point next week but till then,

Keep writing.

Peter James Martin

Links

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Volume 1

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

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Volume 2

Malarkey's Imaginomnibus Volume 1

#12 Only One Way to Win + Short Story Writing Continues

 Happy Blog Day Everyone!!

A brief one this week as my focus is heavily on getting projects done with little time as we head into the forthcoming Easter Holidays!

So let's get started:

The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz

This might be my favourite comic I've done so far, and it's certainly given me ideas about what a Brennan and Riz deck of playing cards would look like...

Short Story Writing Continues

As the title suggests, I'm still cracking on with the short story I started talking about last week. I did end up restarting the story, building on from that first draft, rewriting it and bringing forth a much better story. I did hit a bit of an issue with getting motivated enough to do more writing (something that can easily occur from time to time). 

How did I overcome this? Well, truth is, I didn't. You see, something I learned over these past few years is that forcing yourself to write, rarely works out well. In my case, if I force myself to get words on the page, that's all I'm doing, putting anything down, regardless if it makes sense. Then I'd come back to it and delete the whole mess as it was of much bad quality compared to the rest of my output (which regular readers will know isn't that good anyway!). What I found that works, is simply leaning into what groove I was feeling at the time, letting that urge to write recover, with new ideas aplenty to boot. It means that stories or projects will take longer, but because I'm not rushing things out, the quality should be better, I'll be more focused on doing the best I can instead of watching the clock constantly. 

As an aside, this is also changing the way I look at Nanowrimo, but that is a subject for a completely different time...

Anyway, it was only a quick update for this week, I'll be back next time with hopefully more to tell. I've also got a guest blog post to try and write at some point!

Till then,

Keep on writing.

Peter James Martin

Quick links:

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Volume 1

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

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Volume 2

Malarkey's Imaginomnibus Volume 1

#11 Why Don't They Always Do This + Further Thoughts on Short Story Writing

 Happy Blog Day Everyone! 

Let's kick things off with our favourite duo in comic form:

The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz

I've had this idea in my head for a while now, still not satisfied with how it came out but then again, I'm never satisfied! Definitely one that may see a redo down the line.

Further Thoughts on Short Story Writing

So, after last week's Blog post on Brennan and Riz Volume 2 (Click here to get it!), I was musing what I should waffle on about today, when by a curious combination of luck, I started work on a brand new short story, which got me thinking about the process...

Usually with writing, I'll often have an idea to start with, a spark. In Brennan and Riz's case, this was often Brennan and Riz do X or they meet X etc etc. This time, I had no idea (as I'm writing this in the past tense, it may be worth pointing out that this isn't a barrier depending on your writing style). I had a prompt to work with, which is better then when I'm given a deadline and just told 'write something', as having the freedom to write absolutely everything, can be extremely daunting at times.

With prompt in hand, I spent a while throwing it around my head, seeing what came to mind first, and what came first? A song.

I've touched upon the idea of music and writing before and with most of my non-Brennan and Riz work (the process doesn't really work with them, and I'm not sure why). This was the key to unlocking what I'd eventually start writing. 

After a fair few plays of the song, and thinking back over on the prompt, the idea was starting to coalesce, and it attached itself to one of my established writing universes (despite this universe only seeing two published short stories attached to it so far). This worked out really well as I'd been itching to write one particular character, though he would take somewhat of a backseat as I began outlining the plot. I'm not saying he's been removed from the story entirely, just the perspective has shifted, and he's back in the shadows as he should be, fitting the time and with who else appears in the story.

This is sort of what I love about writing shorts, how fast the idea can change from that initial spark, characters having their roles changed or their allegiances shifted in an instant. Big form novels have their place as well of course, but it's a lot harder to change direction with them once they've gotten underway, not without needing significant rewrites of course...like with what happened with A Boy and A Rat, but I digress...

So, yeah, the outline was finalised...somewhat, as I said things can change quickly if an idea isn't working! I turned to writing the actual story...and ran into the stumbling block of important first words...ah, my life as a writer.

I'll leave it there for now, I'll provide updates on this story as I progress with, I have a somewhat gracious timeline to have it done by, but of course I have other projects calling my name...

Till then,

Keep on writing!

Peter James Martin

#10 Valarie's Tips and Tricks + Brennan and Riz Volume 2

 Happy Blog Day Everyone!

Today is a special day as I get to tell you that you can go and get Brennan and Riz Volume 2 right now! (Click here to get yours!). With it's release I want to talk about a tricky little thing called, continuity...

But first, the weekly comic!

The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz

This wasn't the Comic I'd intended to present this week. I looked through the script I'd prepared and realised two things. First, as written it would  undermine the characters. Yes, these strips aren't serious but they hold true to themselves, while what I'd written, would have pushed further till that 4th wall broke down. Secondly, it committed a grave sin, it just wasn't funny.

With those factors, I shelved that particular script till I could make people smile with it. In its absence, I had to quickly brainstorm a new idea, and a simplish one at that. This is how Valarie’s Tips and Tricks was born.

As always, please excuse the quality, and the fact its crooked.

Anyway, onto Volume 2!

Brennan and Riz: Volume 2

That's right, 10 more Brennan and Riz short stories have been bundled up and re-released into the wild.

Wait...

Re-released?

Yes, it's true, these aren't brand new tales (though they probably will be to most people). Aside from Yeti in the Snow, all the other stories are taken from Harvey Duckman Presents anthologies 1-9. While it doesn't help people who already own those copies of Harvey Duckman, it does mean that people who just want the Brennan and Riz stuff, can get their fix. My original plan had been to release all the Harvey Duckman stories in a volume called The Harvey Duckman Files (go figure) letting the original stories have the spotlight. Honestly my publisher's approach is probably easier.

Anyways, that wasn't what I wanted to talk about tonight. What I wanted to discuss is continuity.

 In the beginning, there was no such thing as a set order for the Brennan and Riz stories, they could all be read independently...Except that this has never been true. In the first 3 shorts (Girl in the Water, Goblins in the Tunnel, Ghosts on the Moor) all have Brennan living in his car. He only moves into the Office we all know and love in the 4th short story, Violinist in the Basement (which floats some of Brennan’s childhood to the reader). This isn't a drastic example of continuity, just a welcome one as the recommended list is simply the stories in order #1 to #10. Then came The Yeti in the Snow (the last short story to be numbered before Volume 2 came along). This short again was to be stand alone, till I mentioned Brennan’s mother in it. You see, this was the last short I wrote before embarking on Nanowrimo 2018, where I'd complete the very first draft on A Boy and A Rat...It largely still works on its own but is enhanced with having read the novel. This isn't a bad thing, but shows we're edging slowly to the point where prior reading was going to be an advantage. 

Then the American Trilogy happened, while the three don't reference each other, they still were designed to be read one after the other (that way I wouldn't have to keep explaining why they were in America despite living in the UK). I suppose you could read them out of order, as long as you don't get hung up on why they're in the states...

This came to a head with the story for Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 8 (now #19 in Volume 2), where on thinking up a reason as to why the Japanese spirit comes calling to little old Teesside, I decided to bring Gallows in. Now, I tried to give him an introduction, but it's nothing compared to his origin in the A Boy and A Rat. 

Floodgates were open at this point, even the stories I was working was drawing on the first novel and setting things up for the second novel! I'd gone off the deep end.

I've managed to claw some of this back (2nd novel being scrapped and restarted has helped). Only two of the newly written shorts mention Gallows or mention anything from A Boy and A Rat. Thus, if I had to do a reading list, it'd be publication order, with reading A Boy and A Rat between #18 and #19...A simple change really!

Well, I waffled a lot there but while I would like everyone to read all my work, I do want people to know that except a couple of instance so far, that the stories can be read in any order.

That's all for this week.

Keep on writing!

Peter James Martin