The Write Stuff........................

It is no secret that I enjoy writing and that through the medium of this blog I have been able to indulge myself. I have also penned a couple of articles published in the SFSFW journal – Ragnarok and have also contributed to both a rules set and a scenario pack – Land Ironclads and Aeronef over the Aegean; both of which are available from Wessex Games. I have also posted a number of pieces on my old mate Tas’s outstanding blog: Yours in a White Wine Sauce under the heading of Arabian Campaign. Away from wargaming I have also been engaged in writing a novel which is probably around the two thirds complete stage. This has been ongoing for a couple of years now and will be finished at some point although it is a very personal work and I am under no pressure to complete it to a timetable.

A number of years ago I revealed an intention to write a VSF based novel, in part inspired by Aeronef, Space 1889 etc and my own liking for the works of Messrs. Verne, Wells and Conan Doyle. I have a number of ideas and several pads of notes for this project and have decided upon the form the story should take. Several clues have been dropped about some of the content over the last couple of years – mainly due to my ongoing interest in the life and exploits of Lawrence of Arabia – and I am now in the position of being able to start work in earnest, and therein lies the problem. I am not a full time author and so life, work and family has to be the priority before I am able to indulge in this particular flight of fancy.

My attention span can be short lived and I tend to work better with either deadlines or encouragement providing the spur. One of the biggest benefits I have thus far accrued from writing this blog is the support and encouragement from kindred spirits and this has been a massive help in my completing a number of projects over the last year.

With all this in mind I have taken the decision to set up another blog which will in fact be my VSF ‘novel’ with the posts being the chapters. I have opted to do this as I believe I will have more chance of completing the project with a degree of audience participation rather than as a solo endeavour. The blog will be moderated – if only so that I can respond to comments as and when they appear. The posts will follow a logical order and will be presented as they are ready to go to press. This will be on an irregular regular basis (i.e. they will arrive but I cannot say they will every week!).

I have the story bedded down and know how it will go from the start to the end. I have the characters designed and the all important hardware has also been addressed. The one thing I have not tackled is to turn any of this into a gaming scenario so stats for various rule systems will be missing.

I am planning on making the first entry over the weekend and so would appreciate any comments and observations etc in the usual fashion.

The blog will go under the title of: The Sword in the Sand.

No clues there then………………….;-)