Friday, March 29, 2013

Update: Posted Books & Writing


Nice to see that the books I’ve been posting off are arriving safely:


It’s also nice to see the shelves up in my loft steadily emptying. Those books weren’t doing anyone any good sitting up there. Hopefully I’ll get to the stage where I’m only sending off new books. However, I still have plenty of foreign editions I’ve no idea what the hell to do with. Many German readers out there? Because I’ve got a couple of boxes of the things – can’t remember which ones they are right now. If you haven’t received your books yet I shouldn’t worry too much. I’ve never actually posted any off and have them not arrive. Also, if you’ve chosen ‘overland postage’ remember that can take as much as 6 weeks if you’re somewhere like America. If anyone wants any more they’ll find a price list further down this blog, though of course some are missing from that list. Get in contact at the email below my bio on the right here and I’ll let you know if I have what you’re after.



The writing is going well. Penny Royal I (which may be called ‘Isobel’) and II are finished to first draft while Penny Royal III is past 100,000 words. Yesterday my 2,000 words were written in the first of these. It was a sex scene. I didn’t do it for the gratuitous porn but because I’m taking more time now with character development and personal interactions. One fault to my writing is supposedly that my characters can be a bit cardboard, so I’m working on that. I’m also concentrating on more visceral/emotional reactions from my characters, more detail on aug communications and how that would change people’s behaviour, more on the nanosuites Polity citizens have running inside their bodies and how they’re used, and of course generally tightening up the plot. As I have pointed out before: the moment I think I’ve got nothing more to learn is really the moment I should quit.   

10 comments:

Jebel Krong said...

I remember how you changed gridlinked by introducing pelter and fleshing out his viewpoint to balance it out and that improved the whole. Still i never thought any of your characters were flat, some just necessarily more developed than others because of importance/whatever.

Unknown said...

The characters in the Owner series stand out as being very well described with personalities that match many I've encountered in real life. This added a lot to my enjoyment of the excellent first two books of this trilogy. Keep up the good work!

Phil M said...

That's very trusting of you. As you haven't asked me to pay for my one yet I take it the invoice comes with the book.

Neal Asher said...

Daniel, but I so often get the comment that the drones and aliens have more 'character' than the people. I'd like them to catch up.

Philip, well, there I was on the learning curve. I did concentrate on those characters more.

Phil M, I wondered about that Prador Moon sitting on the shelf. You can go through Paypal at my email or the donate button here. Ahem, I don't send until I get payment.

Phil M said...

Sorry, never thought to use the donate button. That's it paid for now.

Neil said...

Neal,

I don't know whether they have more character, but maybe they have more fun, are more irascible and often seem to cut through the moralizing to get the job done.

Out of interest, how do you fill out the characters, and how do you judge it's affect on the books pacing, or is that the editors roll again?

Neal Asher said...

Neil, that's all based on how I feel about it.

Unknown said...

One of the things that impressed me when I first started reading your books was so many different plot lines all intertwining at break neck pace & all relevant to the story as a whole .
I took the "cardboard " thing as some characters being more business than others , like Cormac who is a very serious kind of guy .

Lynn said...

I have never thought the humans in your books were flat. Maybe I was just having too much fun with the drones. I am interested in the inner stuff too, both the technology and the emotion. Don't change too much though. Your books are already awesome.

Andrew said...

I found it quite refreshing that you never felt the need to put a sex scene in your books.
I am interested in the action and the sci fi, if I want bonking I can go elsewhere.

The sex scenes in Peter Hamiltons books are awful and I end up skipping them.
Saying that, it will be interesting to see how you deal with it!