Mystery Model Takes Shape

This Sunday was quite a nice day, and since our beloved council failed to collect the garden waste from my street this week my wheelie bin is full preventing me from taking on another of the overgrown bushes. This meant I spent the day working in the garden in a different capacity. Up went the sunshade and out came the Mystery Model. I still have not found the original plans I drew up for this, which went walkies sometime during the winter months when my attention was elsewhere. Fortunately I had taken some photos of the original foam-board construction when I had pieced it together, so I have those for reference still. The advantage of these smart phones where we simply photograph just about anything that does not move these days. (What is with all those plates of food on Facebook and Twitter?)

Piece #1

Anyway I digress. I got a couple of sessions done on the Mystery Model along with a period of rewrites for the final installment in Karl’s story. The Beta Readers are sending their feedback through and I’m responding accordingly.

But you want to know more about the model. Piece number 1 came into play today. This is the main body of the ground floor of the building. It was marked out with a row about 3cm high which has been covered in DAS Putty. 

One of the two corner pieces attached

The reclaimed putty has been turned into something of a paste and with a little PVA glue it has been spread over the bottom part of the ground floor. Once it had dried out a little, I carved the stone effect in. I will certainly be taking the advice offered by Greg, when he commented on the last model post. I had kept it wrapped in its original foil but it was not sealed and not kept in the refrigerator either.  I will certainly remember this for the next packet I open, but I think it’s just a little late for this one. But it is still being used to good effect.

Piece number 5 also stepped forward today. This is the front reception area. It was attached to the front and the brickwork brought round the sides. Pieces 13 & 14 from the other week were attached to the rear of the ground floor making most of the base framework complete. 

There are still a couple of pieces to add yet to really finish the structure of the ground floor.

To allow me to continue working on the model whilst the glue holding the pieces together dried I held them all in place with the old favorite Dressmakers Pins. 

Mystery Model takes shape

Next article in this series: Mystery Model takes Shape - Part Two
Previous article in this series: Mystery model parts #13 & #14

Gag Reel and Fight Director

Trapped in Karl's dungeon whilst
editing book three

I’m now in full edit mode for book 3 of Karl’s trilogy, which is keeping me from the model table at the moment. There are three parts to the final book, and part one has come back from the read through crew and the proof reader along with a selection of comments. Despite my own initial attack at the printed page with a red pen there have still been some interesting typos that have come to light.

This has got me thinking, maybe on here or on Karl’s Facebook page I might present a book’s equivalent of a Gag Reel that features on the extra’s of many TV boxsets.  It’s amazing just how one missing letter can change the meaning of a sentence and since the word is genuine it would not be picked up by a spell checker.

Just one example of an edit found in book 3, and I’m picking this one since it does not give any spoilers away.

“...whilst the surrounding buildings had been allowed to gather the grim of years.”

Guess what TV series I might have been watching recently?

This is just one; others have raised even my eyebrows when I saw them.

Old way with figures.

The other area of note is the rewrite of the last chapter.  Initial feeling was that the final battle didn't quite give it enough punch.  Reading a fight or battle in a novel is not the same as watching it on screen.  Several blows get traded on the screen quickly and the action moves fast, but different camera angles and fast cuts making each move fresh and exciting. In a book a detailed blow by blow account would become quite monotonous even with the aid of a brilliant thesaurus.  Now in the past I have used some of the models and lead figures to block the movements of characters before committing pen to paper. However in this instance I needed to go further afield and call in the help of an expert.

Yes, in the credits of this book there is now a Fight Director.  

I’m not going into the details of who is fighting who, since that would give much of the story away. But I required a bit more guidance on how the fight could work since I had armed my characters with an eclectic collection of weapons, which did not make the fight technically easy to choreograph so that it would be believable.  However I am now certain that with the help of Andy this finally works and the conclusion to the adventure is far better than it would otherwise have been.

So allow me to introduce my Fight Director, Andrew Ashenden. He has devised fights for tv and stage and taught in several prestigious drama schools, but he had to admit this was the first time he had been asked to help with a fight scene for a novel.  

Notice I said novel and not book, since he has also written two books on the subject of stage combat.

Countdown Continues

Well the countdown deal  on Karl’s first two volumes is now in full swing, the first book remains at 99p/$1.66 until Saturday night when it returns to its full price, the second has just stepped up to the mid price range £1.99/$3.34 where it will remain until Saturday night. 

 

Quite a few people have taken advantage of the offer even though the Countdown deals do not seem to be widely publicised by Amazon.  Don't miss out on this chance as these deals don't come round very often. Also Amazon Prime customers can still borrow the books for free on their Kindles.

Just go to Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com and search for "Karl Axilion" or follow the links in the previous post.

Latest news on book 3 – the original handwritten draft, yes somewhere in the region of 344,000 words all scribbled out in longhand have been typed up, reviewed and is now undergoing proof reading and review with the read through team. There have already been some interesting developments which I’ll talk about in a later post.

Some people do ask why I don't just type up the work instead. For me the creative flow comes from putting pencil to paper. If I’m typing like I’m doing now for this blog and I mystipe something up pops the red underline or whatever colour Word throws up for grammar and punctuation and I feel compelled to go back and correct. 

This breaks the creative part of my brain which is trying to get the story out, by handwriting I can get it to paper and then step back and tidy up and make corrections during the transcription process. I can also write anywhere using a note book providing I have my pencil and a sharpener. They are much lighter than the laptop and the battery capacity on the old thing is not up to much these days. I know there are new super fangled gadgets out there now but hey I’ve just stopped using a quill give me a break.

Greetings from Miltonburg.
For more postcards from Miltonburg why not LIKE Karl's page on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/KarlAxilionTrilogy

Mystery model parts #13 & #14

The hard brick of DAS putty has spent some time soaking and once it became soft enough I was able to break it down and use it again. 

So time to get started again on the mystery model. 

I’ve misplaced the note book with the designs in but I still know how the model goes together. 

Two ground floor corner pieces are going to be stone work. (These are #13 & 14 on the plan.)

I smothered the pieces with PVA glue then spread the putty over. 

Left it a few minutes to dry out slightly then carved the stone pattern into semi dry putty, then left them to dry out.

It’s not much, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Next article in this series: Mystery Model Takes Shape

Previous article in this series: New Mystery Model, parts #9, #16 & #18

Karl’s Clock is Ticking

As the third and final part of the Karl Trilogy goes into its second draft now is a good time to join the adventure, especially since this week both volumes are available in the Kindle store on the Kindle CountdownDeals.

Kindle countdown deals start low then the price slowly rises back up to the original price during the run of the deal.  So why not try something new for summer.

Book 1 will run for 99p on Amazon UK and for $1.66 on Amazon.com for the whole week, you have until Saturday night.

Book 1 Amazon.co.uk

Book 1 Amazon.com

Book 2 starts at the same price as book 1 but only for a couple of days before it rises to £1.99 ($2.65 approx*) on Tuesday night, then remains at that price until the end of the deal next Saturday night.

Book 2 Amazon.co.uk

Book 2 Amazon.com

(*) I don’t  have the exact US price step available to me since I am UK based.

A postcard from Miltonburg

PS I’ll be posting an update to the mystery model quite soon.

Where has all the time gone?

"Oh My Giddy Aunt," as the Second Doctor was heard to say a few times. It’s nearly half past May and this blog is looking sparser than a, well a 1976 reservoir. 

Sorry, sorry I had planned and intended to be far better this year, but time, tide and stuff...

I’ve been so absorbed in getting the final part of Karl’s trilogy finished everything else has gone by the wayside. No model work has been done, no book reviews written. Although I have been reading and here is the pile of books waiting for the reviews to be penned.

There are a couple in the pile I really want to rave about so I might just cherry pick them out first.

As far as model making goes, that mystery model is still cluttering up the kitchen. I did try to turn my attention to it the other day and went in search of the putty stuff to make some stone walls and it was hard as rock. I couldn't even chisel any off.

However, all does not appear to be lost, I’ve left it soaking for a few days and it appears to be coming back to life. So you never know, I might just get round to it one day soon. But not this bank holiday, this coming bank holiday my attention has to go to getting the garden fence fixed. Grrrrr!!!

So, Karl. First draft is done. I say first draft; it’s the first draft I let my read through team see. It’s more like a third draft. The first always hand written – call me old fashioned but pencil to paper is still the best way for me to get those initial ideas out of my head. Draft two comes when that gobbledegook and illegible scrawl is typed up. The third follows a complete read through and the attack of the red pen. Then others get to see and comment.

Let’s just say I’m already working on the fourth draft...

If you want to know more about what is happening with the books then pop over to Karl’s Facebook page, give it a like and the more likes we get then the more we can do with the page.

https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/KarlAxilionTrilogy

Or if you prefer the little blue Twitter bird then give me and/or Karl a follow @djkettlety  for my general weird grumblings or @karlaxilion for book news and Karl’s own occasional messages from Miltonburg.

Catch you soon, and that’s a promise.

Derek

Karl Birthday Offer

Since January 6th is according to the Christmas story the day the wise men actually arrived at the manger, the end of the 12 days of Christmas, and the birth date of Joan of Arc I thought I'd celebrate. 

Okay there is another reason - it's my birthday also.

So on 6th Jan for one day only there is a 24 hour special offer on both installments of the Karl trilogy published so far on the Kindle.





Jan 6th prices

Book 1 Birth of Mystery & Book 2  The Lost Adventurer
 $1.63 on Amazon.com  & 99p on Amazon.co.uk

Sorry but these are the only markets we can set up special offers on.