Sunday, November 18, 2018

Last of the Cathedra - the new writing phase begins - six leagues and all's well

2019 cover

After a slightly abortive start in August 2018 (where I spent too much of my annual holiday time reading Haruki Murakami's KILLING COMMENDATORE) and got most of the characters the wrong way round in the first three chapters but with books of hand-written notes to fill in the narrative gaps, I'm back writing the 2020 Hertzan Chimera sci-fi novel "Last of the Cathedra".

As of this morning, prior to my jog, I a) have a fully-fledged 24-chapter structure b) the three main characters in this 'love triangle' suitably re-motivated character-wise c) a full Sunday-to-Sunday week off work to really hammer this baby good and hard for a sustained period.

I'll report back next Sunday to let you'all know how it went and what the book turned into. I can feel it in my bones, some narrative high-jinx is curdling the fungus of my writing feet.

Yes, I write with my feet. Tsugi no nichiyoubi made... ciao bambinos.






Saturday, July 07, 2018

LAST OF THE CATHEDRA - updated cover - close to beginning the DOC

final cover concept
August, it'll probably begin in August when I have a week off from work, the writing of the new Hertzan Chimera novel LAST OF THE CATHEDRA.

I've been 'letting the novel stew' since completely filling the delicious notepad I bought a month or so ago. It's like this thing now has a life of its own, and instead of adding my notes to the already-busy earlier draft of this book spanning the last three years... I'm gonna start a NEW DOC and revel in the real new moments of narrative and character discovery that 'writing this damned thing' will undoubtedly introduce to the mix.

ALL PLANS ARE OFF, now it's just a case of 'going back to basics' and enjoying the dance of fingers on keyboard... oh, here's a new (stripped back) cover design to illlustrate the New Start. Split the name in three because RA but not just that... it's also to reflect the 'three main characters' of the serial narrative, on both planets of the tale.

The third planet's right at the end but we don't talke about that, it's a magickal secret between myself and the reader.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Hertzan Chimera novel - LAST OF THE CATHEDRA - three faction chapter headers

LAST OF THE CATHEDRA
triple chapter headers...


I did this in my 2008 novel Planet of the Owls, where each alternate chapter had either a graphic human_header or an owl_header.

This book, there are three factions embroiled in a Classic Love Triangle... Cathedra, Human and D-reamer.

There'll be a relevant chapter number above each of these serial icons as the book unfolds its chapters. It's currently the plan that chapter 1 and chapter 23 will form the prologue and the epilogue of this book, written by (or from the perspective of) the Last of the Cathedra.

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Hertzan Chimera novel - LAST OF THE CATHEDRA - narrative update and new cover

enhanced cover concept
you're right, this is how I plan and execute my novels...

No, this is not a new novel. 

As you'll see from the subtle update of the last cover this new novel had, it's the same novel. Well, it's a content output from the last three years of notes leading up to the writing of this novel.

"The story started to resolve itself very successfully today and I now understand a lot more about the two central characters of this inter-galactic love story and their pivotal roles within this universe of words."

Hope it continues to write itself in such an emotive way.

Sunday, April 08, 2018

Hertzan Chimera novel - CARRIERS AND CATHEDRALS - narrative update and new cover

inspirational cover concept
So, I'm back from my relaxing holiday and I think I have the basis of certain story elements that will sit happily within the alien-prequel-esque structure of my new my INTERGALACTIC SLAVETRADE novel Carriers & Cathedrals.

 It's gonna be pure romance; pure lovely, love! 

Since the pre-holiday Happen announcement, the book has concreted around certain key narrative threads and while it conveys itself across this intial plane of the narrative process the cover and title of the book have changed.

Here's the best way to describe this book, "Alien Prequel That Never Was."  I know there are many people out there who were disgusted with how Ridley Scott butchered Gigerworld with his terrible Alien-prequel i.e. Prometheus. This book isn't that pile of steaming corporate bullshit, believe me. This book is how we get the perky inhabitants of Gigerworld onto the planet LV-426 without all that space-jesus black-goo ass-cracker-crew live-forever-like-a-robot-called-David nonsense. 

Not sure if cover/title will stay this way but it's 'illustrative' of where the current path of the INTERGALACTIC SLAVETRADE vector is going.

Fuck off, HC, it's a mainstream romance!

QUICK-FEEDBACK UPDATE: while the 'new' title Carriers & Cathedrals sounds like an implied narrative amalgamation between Military and Church, the 'carriers' aren't really those kind of Carriers and the 'cathedrals' aren't really those kind of Cathedrals. It's great that I'm getting such feedback so early in the day of this post going live suffice to say, "You're all gonna be surprised (I hope) and delighted to see where this strange-prequel-lovestory narrative goes."

Or went...

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Hertzan Chimera novel - HAPPEN - about to...?

On the back-burner since late 2015, this proposed 'new novel' from Hertzan Chimera has been through several title revisions already. I always do this during a book's life-span, as the thrust of the book resolves itself over various phases of narrative revelation.

And a new title lends itself to new cover art, added.

But with this one (so far) it's all been under-the-radar of the usual real-time writing process. I literally have hundreds of pages of notes and no desire to ring-fence the story... just a feeling that the psycho-morphic slave-trade world of HAPPEN (as it's currently called) is about to awaken from its long-distance inter-stellar stasis.

Is the writing proper about to begin? Feels like it might...