G'day Rebels and Royals,

Time for an update of epic proportions!

Nano and the crazy month of November.

I'll be going radio dark from here until early December. You won't be hearing from me during November because I'll be shackled down with cramping fingers, a drip feed of coffee in one arm, beer in the other. Nanowrimo is a week away. 

Cue Rocky-like training montage with far more sitting.

I've sworn a blood oath to finish the draft during the month of November, and right now I am embracing the crazy like a teddy bear filled with razor blades. For those of you that don't know anything about Nano, it's a challenge to write a fifty thousand word novel in 30 days. That is 1666 words a day. Mind you I already feel Finn and I are doing Nano.  We smashed out a section of the novel last night and when I calculated the word count...6666 words. I wonder if my muse is trying to tell me something? I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

Laptop story!

It happened. My poor abused laptop pushed me over the edge. Not only did the G and H key decide to go on strike, other keys joined the revolution. The quote tag key went next in an early showing of support followed closely by the left shift key. When the touch pad decided to join the party, there was a brutal police action. It wasn't pretty. I now have a new laptop just in time for Nano and so far, all good. It's performing nicely. I'm keeping a small memento of the previous laptop nearby, just in case. Remember, if you can't rule with love and kindness, abject terror works just as effectively in the short term.

Pre-order!

Hah! Made you look. Nope, I haven't pushed that button yet. I'm only going to push that button when the first draft is done. I'm a man of my word. BUT, I am going to tell you I think I'm right on track for the beginning of December. There will be ceremony...and beer, lots of beer. Of course, Inkshares just changed the funding goal structure. 750 is the goal. 

Right now if I take off my shoes I can count my followers and because I haven't pushed that button yet, or done any kind of social media campaign, I have a grand total of 0 pre-orders. So I have a fair bit of work to do. It's time to get a little bit creative and put on my stunningly handsome hat of temptation +5. I'm thinking about what to offer very deeply and I'd like suggestions. What do you want? I know what I want. I want to go on a plane. "Every author who hits the new pre-order goal will receive a trip to San Francisco to sign copies for their backers, including a round-trip ticket, one-night’s hotel, and lunch with the Inkshares team."

I'm not sure if Jeremy realized the cost of flying me out to America to sign books and enjoy lunch with the Inkshares team. Can't take it back now Jeremy, please don't make me fly long-haul coach. Maybe Finn can go, he's in SoCal. He could probably drive there.

Awesome daughter!

I've said I have an awesome daughter. It was in my description until Finn joined the crazy train. Not sure if you appreciate how awesome she is, like I do. She's very creative and she's done images of the main characters...anime style. Now to see if I can upload an image into this update somehow...or maybe just a add a bunch of the same image. *sigh* Now I can't undo, *facepalm* Anyway, have more of Sarge than I planned.

That's all the time my muse is giving me readers, back to the manuscript. Where was I? Oh right, North Pole...

G'day - This is a good news bad news update. I always find it interesting to ask people which they'd like first. It's very revealing as to whether they are an optimist or pessimist.   So, without any importance to the order...

The bad news -  Disaster has struck! I have been typing so much my laptop has decided to go on a part strike. Specifically, the g and h keys are the part that have decided they no longer want anything to do with this novel writing business. For unknown reasons, capitalization of those letters, will not be tolerated.  Peons! How dare you revolt on me when I'm writing about tyranny and injustice. I now have to use my desktop computer for my writing (to the quiet chanting of 'scab' and 'knobstick' by my laptop) which is far less comfy than my usual writing chair. As I type this, my cat is looking at me funny because I'm sitting in her chair. I share your pain Kisa, I don't like it either.

The good news - I can now reveal the name of the international man of mystery that joins me while we ride the crazy train together. Finn McRae. Despite sounding like a leprechaun, he's really a fun guy. Give him a round of applause ladies and gentleman. Okay that's enough. Stop now, you'll make him embarrassed. Apparently Inkshares can only have one author profile attached to a single project. So for now I get to censor...I mean pass on, anything he wants to say, and his reputedly fabulous facial hair remains an unconfirmed mystery. You'll have to keep looking at my ugly mug. 

Accordingly I've updated the profile and changed the cover art. I'm going to plug something here called Canva. It has a neato design template for an e-book. So simple, even I could do it. I'm sure someone with, you know, actual artistic talent could do much better and its free'ish. Check it out.

That's all for now rebels. Stay free.

'Ello, G'day etcetera.

Some of you may be wondering what I'm doing. I'm writing a science fiction novel, and have been entered into the Nerdist competition and...silence. Sure, I've followed a few authors that look interesting, read a number of interesting first chapters that I like...even pre-ordered a book! Rise by Brian Guthrie.

I've seen others that I'm following release thank-you's and video's and some really cool stuff, but from my end, not a helluva lot. 

Confession Part I. To be honest, I didn't even know the Nerdist competition was on when I joined Inkshares and uploaded the prologue and first chapter of the novel. Because Suffrage fits into the Science Fiction category, I was automatically entered. I just thought - wow this is a great way of getting people interested while I finish the novel. I can also use the motivation of the legions of adoring fans to spur me to greater heights of creativity, get some free editing if I find a friendly grammar nazi and maybe, just maybe, eventually see my story become an actual - made of dead tree - book.  That's why I'm not asking people to put the word out during Nerdist competition. It's why I haven't pressed the sell pre-orders button, (although I am savoring the anticipation like a fine cheese) or written thank-you messages full of wit and slight desperation.

My focus has been on writing the story, and this year, I'm going to be participating in Nanowrimo. Click the link to see my sworn blood oath! 

Confession Part II. I don't consider myself a natural novelist. Unlike some on here whose writing I have enjoyed, their day job appears to be writing (I'm looking at you Scott Barsoti  and Gary Whitta ) I'm just a regular bloke who enjoys weaving tales. I've come to the realization, that I need a bit of help with a few things, not because I couldn't write the story myself, but because I want to story to be as good as it can be. Being the visually orientated person that I am, I sometimes struggle to find just the right phrase or words to capture what I'm trying to convey. 

 - I feel like like I'm in the middle of an AA meeting here. Hi! I'm Julian and I'm a frustrated author who can't write proper.

To this end I have decided to bring someone into the project. Someone whose writing I enjoy and admire. This mysterious international man of mystery will be joining me while we take a wild ride together and finish the draft. BUT - he has a lot of catch up to do. A heck of a lot of reading and getting his head round things, and has to put up with me as I pester him. 

What this means on the road ahead... 

I had planned on releasing parts of the story as we move forward. Like, maybe a chapter a month. I'm having great fun with the characters, so why shouldn't you? While my mysterious friend get's hip deep in sticky story goodness though, you can expect this to be delayed.  On the plus side, once there is two of us - the writing will go much faster. Now I just need to figure out how to make my friend swear his first-born over to Titivullus the Patron demon of writing errors.

Where did I put that knife? 

So I'm commencing with the toe dipping into some fairly chilly waters with a great degree of trepidation here. I've been working on my story for several months, but the start of this story goes back a while. It's an idea I've had kicking around in my head that I never really had the impetus to actually get it out. It was just this niggling...itch...I couldn't scratch, because who has time to write? I'd longingly look at Nanowrimo and think...next year...I'll do it next year when things aren't so busy. Cue a camping weekend with a couple of mates with no TV and no fish biting and I sketched out my story to them, or at least the first book. It may have been the beer talking, but they all said, "You HAVE to do that". That's what started me on this journey, so Damo, Frew and John - thanks guys, you gave me the nudge I needed at just the right time.

I spent the first couple of months after that camping trip with just this aching need to get the story out and managed to put together a plot outline for the first couple of books that raised my heart-rate and excitement to where that tiny spark became a burning coal that if I didn't write it, would drive me completely bonkers. I drove my wife and teenage daughter spare talking through idea's with them. Problem is, I'm not a novelist, just someone who liked to tell stories. I've never written professionally before and I had no idea about what kind of medium best suited the story I wanted to tell, and this story came fully fleshed into my mind as a graphic novel of all things.

So I reached out to my local writing community with a plea for assistance and started a pretty steep learning curve with a bunch of people who are, frankly, awesome nerds. I say that with love guys, truly. Concepts like purple prose, fridging, these were new to me, and they made it fun to find out all about them.

So I hope you'll enjoy reading Suffrage as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

Julian S A Green