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3,000 words

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I woke up this morning, as usual thinking that I needed to tweet the scheduled blog post and share it on Facebook, only to remember I didn’t write a post yesterday…

That’s the third day I’ve missed so far. I had intended to write a post yesterday afternoon, but I’ve been working to a new target of completing 3,000 words on my Fallen Warriors sequel each day and yesterday it took me to after 5pm. I started at 9am…

That’s a full on normal working day to produce 3,000 words.

I started this new regime–for want of a better word– on Friday last week. Friday, Saturday, Monday and now Tuesday I’ve managed to hit 3,000 words each day. The only problem is that I seem to be taking longer each day to actually do it!

Admitedly, I’ve had a few distractions. My mind was elsewhere for chunks of time, and sometimes my body as well. Kind of hard to write when you’re not sat in front of your computer. (well, for me anyway.)

So, I don’t feel too bad about missing my 100 word target yesterday. Continuing Fallen Warriors is a more important goal. And to be honest, while I have now missed three days on my 100 words in 100 days challenge, I’ve never failed to write and publish at least a 100 word blog post each day. Today, I’ll need to write two posts, this one and tomorrow’s. Just need to think what I’m going to write for that…

Will Quince MP – A Ten Point Plan

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Some of you will have seen the Tweet by Will Quince MP that has kicked off a mini firestorm on Twitter since 5th August 2017: Just had to pay a parking fine for being 10mins late when in Devon, genuine mistake but caught on ANPR. Is it me or is £54 unreasonable?

Will then followed this up with a response last night: All those people having a pop at me today seem to forget that those on lower incomes are disproportionately affected by high parking fines.

I couldn’t help myself. I responded when I saw those tweets this morning…

Then I took a step back, thought about it and decided that a more constructive approach might be helpful and I wrote this open letter to him:

Dear Will,

after reading your recent tweets and indeed responding to them, I decided a constructive open letter might be a better way forwards. If I may, here is a suggested ten point plan for you to consider. I would be happy to discuss this further.

1. Take a deep breath and consider that for almost everyone who responded, this wasn’t about high parking fines.

2. Accept that not everyone who responded hates you (or even your political party.)

3. See this as an opportunity. You’ve obviously touched a very raw nerve. People – including myself – are angry about the way people are treated on benefits.

4. Engage in research about fines and sanctions for those on benefits.

5. Consider whether it is reasonable that the same Darwinian justice is applied to both parking and benefits.

6. Try and understand that people are crying out for compassion and mercy – you could be a catalyst for change.

7. Don’t delete your tweet or bury your head in the sand.

8. Do speak with benefits claimants who have been sanctioned.

9. Look into proposals such as Universal Income.

10. Finally, take a look at your pay check and compare that to the income someone on benefits receives.

It is my intention to post these suggestions on my blog tomorrow (www.dragonlake.co.uk) If you would like to respond I would be happy to acommodate you.

I am the author of Fallen Warriors and The Great Scottish Land Grab. I blog about writing, politics, faith and whatever else takes my fancy. My twitter handle is @my100goals

I have a lot of sympathy for your situation, I don’t doubt that you meant no harm by your tweet about parking fines. Your response to the reaction you have received however suggests you don’t understand why we responded the way we did.

I’ve been on benefits. I remember clearly the feeling of helplessness, of powerlessness. I have tried in recent years to make sure I will never, ever have to be in that situation again. I realise though that there are no guarantees. You are in a very priveleged position. You are in the top 10% of earners in this country (using the Office of National Statistics.) I am now also in that bracket of earners.

The responses you have received are NOT about parking fines – they are (mostly) about anger and frustration that a Conservative government has made life unbearable for the poorest and weakest in our country. If you can recognise that and find a way to fight on behalf of the poorest and weakest, then you will actually turn this situation into a positive force for good.

Yours sincerely

Mark Anderson Smith

Changing my focus

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I planned to use the time off I have this summer to write the first draft of the sequel to Fallen Warriors. It hasn’t gone well, at least as far as writing goes.

In theory, if I wrote 5,000 words a day, I could finish the first 100,000 word draft by the end of August. I still don’t know if I can do that.

I had a look at the numbers today as I set out to spend the whole day writing. Maybe 3,000 words a day is a more realistic target. That would have me writing until September 17th. (This is assuming I only write five days a week.) I won’t know unless I try. And if I try, I’m fairly sure – based on experience – that I’ll be further towards my goal than if I don’t try. Giving up is the surest way to ensure you don’t succeed at anything.

I don’t want to give up.

I also don’t want to bore you with numbers on a daily basis. This word count completed, that target reached. I doubt anyone really cares. But, this is a blog. A web log about something and I need my focus for the next month to be on finishing my novel. I committed to writing 100 words a day on this blog until the 29th August. So, I think I need to focus both this blog and the rest of my time towards my goal of completing a first draft of my novel.

I know I’ve a growing number of readers out there who want to know what happens next. I’m going to try not to keep you waiting any longer than I have to…

Planetary Modelling

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I’ve been fascinated by the possibilities offered by different types of worlds ever since I was young. Two of my favourite novels in my early teens were Orbitsville and Ringworld. The first a story that used the discovery of a giant sphere orbitting a star at earth orbit, the second a giant ring, also at earth orbit.

Both novels imagined that an advanced race had effectively mashed up all the planetary resources in a star system and turned them into a more efficient living space.

And often I would turn to my bible and find that planetary modelling was a concept at least some 4,000 years old…

The bible opens with not just planetary, but universe modelling. I used to enjoy playing with lego, but this was a whole different level of creative play! The detail however, either is deliberately confusing, or we’ve lost the meaning. For example, there are several theories about the meaning of Genesis 1 verses 6 and 7. Here’s the passage if you’re not familiar:

“And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.” KJV

For a long time I’ve believed the theory this is referring to a water barrier circling the original version of our planet – Earth 1.0. Whether that water barrier was free flowing water, ice or ice crystals or even water vapour, I don’t know – but water in some form that protected our planet from harmful solar radiation while allowing sufficient light energy through that most of the earth had a tropical climate. This theory seems more likely to me simply because the rest of the data we have supports it – if there was less harmful solar radiation, perhaps people would naturally live longer lives as described later in Genesis. If the whole earth had a tropical climate, it would explain why we find evidence supporting that around the globe.

Another theory is that the firmament was the earth’s crust and that large quantities of water were below the crust. I’ve never been all that keen on this theory, but personal preference just isn’t enough to bury it. Perhaps both of these theories are true to a certain extent. Some major planetary remodelling is recorded in Genesis 7, certainly, if even half of the water recorded in the flood was from underground and that exploded upwards, it would explain a substantial part of the geological record.

I would love to be able to run some simulations, to find out how we ended up with Earth 2.0 and what the first model actually looked like. Some day, maybe I’ll have time and the resources to do it. Until then, here are a couple of links that I found interesting on the subject:

Computer Modeling of a Vapor Canopy

Does science prove Noah’s flood?

Day 75 – Three Quarters of the way…

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Yesterday was day 75 of my challenge to write 100 words a day for 100 days.

I confess that I missed two days. Fortunately I’d build up a backlog of posts and so there has been at least one post daily.

I also confess that I’m not at all sure this is a challenge I’d like to repeat. I think the goal, while being specific – write 100 words a day for 100 days – is also too vague. I’m jumping around from topic to topic and there isn’t a consistency that might attract readers if I stuck to a single topic.

Still, reaching the three quarter mark is an achievement and the end is in sight.

Some numbers if you’re interested:

My average daily word count has started to fall, from a high average of 472 down to an average of 320 words per day over the last 25 days.

I’ve reached a total word count for this blog challenge of 28,827 words.

I had intended to also write 100,000 words towards my next novel last month. I failed abysmally. I didn’t even reach 5,000. That has to change. I need to reach a decent word count for August otherwise what am I doing?

On a positive note, I have a fairly substantial plot worked out for my next novel. Now I just need to fill in all that lovely detail…

It’s also worth having a look at where I’ve seen spikes in posts being viewed, mainly on the 18th, 25th and 31st July.

These spikes have been on or immediately after the following posts:

Lydia’s Song – a book review

Lydia’s Song – an interview with author Katherine Blessan

Digging a trench for Pod Point Cabling and our new Nissan Leaf

All three posts were shared to relevant groups and the two connected to Katherine Blessan’s Lydia’s Song were part of a blog tour where we were all sharing each other’s posts.

Other than that I’m averaging 5 post views a day which just doesn’t justify the time it takes. But, blogging is a long game and part of the reason for setting myself this challenge was to give myself an outlet for writing on broader topics, and to provide a platform to market my novels.

This blog has already allowed me to share information which others have found useful and to build relationships with others in the writing community. Both valuable reasons to write a blog.

A professional barcode for your book

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In yesterday’s post I mentioned that I was unsure whether to just leave an old email address in the manuscript when ordering a new print run of The Great Scottish Land Grab. I called the printer today and they advised they could also send a PDF proof which has prevented any delay, otherwise I was potentially looking at a full week to order a new proof copy.

I’d pretty much decided that I needed to change the email address, so this morning I did that, corrected another issue I found in the manuscript and then had a last look at the cover. I wasn’t happy with the back page.

I’ve created my own bar code and it dominates the initial draft. I’d also decided to add my author photo as I’ve seen that done and it just didn’t line up in any way with the text or barcode.

So, I had another look at some traditionally published books and decided to have a go at creating my own publisher barcode.

I added my website URL, put on the website of the graphic designer who designed the book cover the first time round and also credited my wife for her photo of me. Set it all up so everything lined up, shrunk down the barcode to a more reasonable size and the finished version is below.

I really like it. Hopefully a much more professional look to the back page. What do you think?