The Fair Automaton (Cyber ... Wednesday?)

Have to say I like the sound of Cyber Wednesday.  Sounds like a character.  Hmmm...

A couple of days late, I know, but arguably better late than never, I've finished the files and am releasing The Fair Automaton as a short story into the world.

Until Sunday, that is.

Yep, it's a Cyber Week(ish) Freebie in honour of the UK's busiest shopping day -- which I missed, and did no online shopping on anyway -- mostly because it has a cool sci-fi sounding name that's always amused me.

You might remember this story as being painstakingly handwritten for National Stationery Week -- or you may not, because over 10 pages of my handwriting is enough to make anyone run for the hills.

It's been repackaged as a digital short story in a variety of formats, and these files will be available until Sunday, wherein I'll take them down again and whatever happens to them in the future is in the lap of the gods.  Or, indeed, myself, when I eventually get enough stories written to release as a collection.  But still.  Until Sunday.

Imagine it being said in a booming voice.

The Fair Automaton

The day the travelling fair rolls into town, North is determined to show his boyfriend Seith all he loves about it.  But while Seith's reaction isn't what North hoped for, he finds something amazing to attract him instead: a speaking, smiling mechanical man — an automaton.

Despite Seith's disdain, North can't help returning time and again to discover more of the machine's personality — and uncover more of its secrets.  It's not long before he finds himself becoming fond of it, but it's all perfectly harmless, right?

Until the machine breaks down, and North is blamed for it.  Is discovery of the machine's ultimate secret worth the cost of the personality North loves?

This freebie is no longer available.

Post-NaNo 2014: Now What? (Give Me Something To Do)

The thing with finishing NaNoWriMo is that there's weird sense of nothingness.  I know my story isn't finished but, for once this month (...not counting the start of it...) I'd like a little bit of a break.  The oddest thing, though, is that although every year I promise I'll finish my story afterwards and never do, this year I think I really might.  I'd like to know what actually happens, for a start, and in this case I'm only finding that out when I write.

It's been an up-and-down month, as I think my progress chart makes abundantly clear:

I didn't have a great start.  I actually thought I'd fail to finish for the first time in eleven years.  And then seeing some of the incredible word counts coming from some of the habitual overachievers kicked me up the arse -- though the last day was nuts because I'd really wanted to at least break 100k.  I finished up by writing 10,018 words yesterday to manage it.

My final total is 101,606 words (it seemed a nice round place to stop) and I'm now about 2/3 of the way through the story.  It needs heavy editing, I rambled a lot (you'd never guess, right?) and there are a lot of sex scenes in it because I worked on the theory that if I got bored or felt like I was slowing, then it was probably time to write one, but it's been fun so far.

You can probably figure out the way it's going from this Wordle image...

But like I said, I hit December 1 and this weird sense of inertia slips over me.  I want to write but I'm mentally exhausted -- and I've got Sunset Overdrive and Dragon Age: Inquisition waiting for me -- and, to make it all worse, it's Cyber Monday today.

Last year I prepped Three Graces as an ebook (with a downright awful first cover) and did a (very) limited release for Cyber Monday.  I think it got something like 15 downloads.  This year I'd wanted to do something else but since NaNo has been eating my brain so very badly I completely lost track of time until I started getting emails about Black Friday.  So I find myself on Cyber Monday with a cover for The Fair Automaton and a mostly-completed ebook, but here's the thing...

I don't like releasing short stories as single ebooks.  I mean, it's 5,000 words.  That's kinda small -- not that it felt it when I had to handwrite the damn thing.  I'd prefer to release at least three in a book at once, preferably five, and am only slightly hindered by the fact I have two with a third sitting in my head going "look at meeeeee" very quietly.  So I have nothing.  I am empty-handed on this most scifi-sounding of shopping 'holidays'.

So, instead, if you comment with two names and a situation, or a location, or anything you'd like a short story or flash-fic about, I'll write it for you.

It's not much, I know; I'm expecting a resounding silence, but I'd like to try anyway.  Smut, romance, sci-fi, fantasy, whatever, I'll give it a go.

Pinup Boy Sunday - Tauma

Maybe not a two-weekly feature per se...  Though in my defense, this one proved to be a little awkward.  I couldn't do it the way I wanted in 3D so this time, I'm sorry, you get my actual hand-drawn and coloured artwork instead.

This is Tauma, protagonist of my NaNoWriMo 2014 project.  He's a happy, unassuming man who works at a 'Palace'--a kind of exclusive club where men go for alcohol, music and conversation with handsome and intelligent young men, and who can then choose to sleep with said men.  Tauma has a secret, but who doesn't in that kind of place?

Except Tauma's secret can bring two countries to their knees.  Worse, so could his crush on one of his clients, the enigmatic Raven, whose own secret could just be enough to ruin Tauma's life entirely...

Pinup Boy Sunday - Admiral Fayth

This is rapidly turning into a two-weekly feature, isn't it?  The irony is, it's not the time it takes to render the image--it's the time it takes to render it again, and again, and again, until the lighting looks good and as little looks weird as possible (which in my case is the most time-consuming part; I always miss something).

Still, it's a good thing I enjoy it!

Today's pin-up is Admiral Fayth, the protagonist and all-round force of nature from The Rose Queen.

Fayth lives his life from his shuttle, quite literally: he eats, sleeps and works from it, hunting down property that is, if not already lost, then is likely to be in the foreseeable future.  Fayth is a thief, and he'd like to think he's damn good at it too (as well as being the hottest misappropriator of goods this side of eternity, of course).  That's why he gets hired for obscure jobs... like finding a certain gardener and returning them to their rightful owner.

Shame it all goes horribly wrong, really.  Still, every cloud has a silver lining, right?

As to the gun?  Well, he wouldn't want to brag... too much.

Pinup Boy Sunday - The Rose Queen

Possibly as punishment for being so happy last week that I could finally render images in a timely manner, this week's image took around a week to render, which is why I missed last week's posting.  Not a week continuously, no.  The main body of the picture, however, took around 25 hours solid to complete.  I then discovered some issues that needed correcting, so without the hanging and foreground plants, the image took around 7 hours per pass to render, and had to be re-rendered twice to fully correct everything.

Of course, none of this would have been possible at all on my laptop, so perhaps it was less of a punishment and more to prove a point.  So, therefore, after a week's unintentional hiatus...

Today's pin-up is The Rose Queen, from my project of the same name.

The Rose Queen—which is his title, not his name, but his name is something he guards jealously and dislikes announcing, instead most commonly going by the name of "RQ"—is sometimes a quiet and unassuming man, but not incapable of defending himself or standing up for himself verbally.  He is intrinsically a good man...

...but if he really wanted, if he really knew what he could do, then absolutely nothing in the galaxy could stop him.

Pinup Boy Sunday - Milos (Sci-Fi)

These have been on hiatus somewhat since my original attempts, mostly due to the fact that Sixteen sometimes struggles with rendering images and it's nearly impossible to do absolutely anything else while it's going on.

However!  Now I have Echo, I can still use Sixteen for everyday things and renders that could have taken five or seven hours on Sixteen only take two or three at most.  Unless they're ridiculously enormous, of course, and then what might take seven or eight hours on Echo would have probably overheated Sixteen entirely...

As a result, this totally pointless weekly feature is now back!

Today's pin-up is Sci-Fi Milos.

I normally avoid the 'elves in space' trope, especially considering his canon is already pretty damn odd, but I had the unexpected urge to render this.  I think he came out nicely enough, so I'm not complaining...

The Writer's Blog Tour

Not too long ago, the ever-lovely Nicole Nally asked me if I'd like to take part in a Writer's Blog Tour questionnaire she'd been tagged in, and I thought, what the hell, it sounds like fun.

And then I kind of forgot about it, but now she's posted her entry and that serves as a remarkably good reminder.

What Am I Currently Working On?

I've got several projects on the go, all in various states of disrepair—and then there the ones I should have on the go, but am apparently trying to avoid by trying to avoid working on other things instead.

Gratuitous Kir nudity is always fun

I guess, most pertinently, there's The Reconstruction of Kirill, the sequel to The Destruction of Kirill, which takes place in Gascony, which, in my steampunk universe, is a separate country from France.  I've just started chapter 5 and life is becoming rapidly terrible for the unfortunate hero (again).  It's all plotted out so there's nothing keeping me from writing it except the fact that it's all plotted out.  I had this problem with its predecessor too.

On that note, there's a short novella I'm supposed to be writing about Kirill and Niko's first Christmas as a couple, but that one's quite slow going....  Does so far involve sugar plums and smut though.

There's also The Rose Queen, a scifi about a man who's hired to steal a very quiet, shut-in young lady and discovers that if the information in the file is sparse, it's probably best not to make assumptions...  It's actually in marginally better shape than Reconstruction as I'm on chapter 6, but unlike Reconstruction it's not plotted out and suffers somewhat from the fact I was incredibly 'flu-ey when I started writing it.  It... needs some significant work, let's put it that way, but I think it has promise.

I'm supposed to be detailing the writing process of Dust & Ash for this blog, but it's safe to say there's not actually been that much progress to detail.  I discovered that it didn't feel inclined towards being plotted meticulously out like Destruction was so I've found myself starting chapter 4 and feeling a bit lost.  It needs even more work than Rose Queen does, or at least a spark of sudden plotting inspiration.

I should also have nearly finished with Three Graces: Spectrum now, but it's safe to say I've done absolutely sod-all on that in ages.  I reread the existing pieces and I've figured out why I got suddenly and abruptly stuck on it ('Black' and 'White' are in the wrong order, of all the stupid things) but I've yet to sit down and finish it.  I think I'm worried that how I write now is actually worse than how I wrote then (true, not actually just paranoia), so I keep putting it off.

And on the subject of putting it off...  I've been prodding a story called Chime lately because I feel incredibly bad about not even finishing chapter 3, but as I started it in 2011 I think we may be waiting some time for that...

And finally, I write occasional stories about a genetically modified dokkalfa (dark elf) and his co-worker / lover / ever-ready irritant human who work for a shadowy, semi-governmental British , which can be found both on this blog and on the Radial: Unravel tab up top there.  I love those dorky boys so I can never keep away from them for too long.  They're a comfort blanket.

How Does My Work Differ From Others In My Genre?

I honestly couldn't tell you...  I don't stick well to one particular genre—I write fantasy, sci-fi, steampunk (though I guess that's a derivative of one or the other, or both, aforementioned genres) and contemporary sci-fantasy—and as a 'genre', the m/m one is pretty colossal.  There's probably a ton of people who write the same kind of stuff I do, and I've just not met them yet.  Although I'd say perhaps my work differs in that other people actually have a knack for finishing it...

Though again, if they were just like me and didn't, we'd never know, would we?

Why Do I Write What I Do?

To be honest, I have no idea.  I've just always written like this, usually in the same genres.  Way (way) back in school, if ever there was a question in an exam that was just a single word, it was pretty much guaranteed that I'd write fiction for it.

For my A-Level English Language & Literature exams (that's a mouthful) there was one such prompt, which of course meant that I needed to write about two demons having thinly-veiled metaphorical sex in a dreamworld, that left one stabbed to a tree... and it was only a thinly-veiled metaphor because I wasn't too sure how well gay demon sex would go down (hah) with the examiners.  I kind of wish I'd written it explicitly now, just to see what would happen.

That was a depressingly long amount of time ago, and I'm still writing in the same genre, so I think we're stuck with one another now.  (And the demons; I still have those characters too.  I miss them but don't need another project right now.  So, guess what I'll no doubt be doing next week...)

So basically...  The short answer is: I can't help it.  The characters and events appear in my head, so I write them.

How Does My Writing Process Work?

It varies depending on the project is the short answer.  The long answer is that I actually am not quite sure, because of the fact it varies between projects.  Some projects seem to lend themselves to being plotted out chapter by chapter while others seem to demand being flown by the seat of the pants, and a few like to straddle the line between them without ever managing to put a foot in either camp.

A lot start out like the image to the left: a stream-of-consciousness set of notes that helps me sketch out ideas and work out who's doing what and where.  These all go in one notebook and I use different coloured inks to keep the stories separate.

If they're lucky, they then end up like the picture on the right: a series of key scenes.  In this case, the red ones were the ones I thought of before I started plotting Destruction out, and the green ones were ones I'd thought of during the plotting process.  I'm not entirely sure why I decided to to it that way, but it made sense at the time.  (Disclaimer: this might as well be my battle cry and will probably end up on my gravestone.)

Also, might include spoilers so on the off chance you actually want to read The Destruction of Kirill proceed carefully and possibly avoid the stuff in green.

Once I've got the scenes in non-specific order, I can figure out where it is I want them to go, hence the purple numbers beside it.  The actual plotting is always done in purple (I'm on my second atyouSpica Lavender pen) because somehow it just feels right.  And if it feels right I'm not going to argue with it.

When I've got those basics, I can either skip straight to the plotting, or I can make a detour via beats/breakdowns which is (in my case) when I break down the plot into a string of events.  I use a two-column method because I can then use the second column for relevant notes, cute ideas etc. that link directly to the first, left-hand, beat.

To the left is the start of Reconstruction (so no actual spoilers), complete with little note about the the room Kirill and Niko are sparring in and an addition to a section from the second chapter.  Some pages have nothing in this column, others have five or six notes.

Then, once that's done, I can move on to the actual plotting.  In my case, it's a scene-by-scene stream of text, all in the aforementioned lavender pen (which actually ran out halfway through the plotting of Reconstruction as a dodgy kind of portent), which expands on the breakdown until it fills out approximately a chapter.  Again, if you want to read Reconstruction you might want to not look at the right-hand image too closely as it possibly contains spoilers, coming quite near the end.  It was when I'd just replaced the pen, so it's in a stronger colour than pretty much everything before then.

Once I've got that, I'm all set to write.  The one problem with this approach is that you can feel like you've already written it so it can take away the desire to rewrite it.  On the other hand, you have a very clear roadmap of where you're going so, unlike writing by the seat of your pants, you're unlikely to get stuck unless your characters suddenly and wildly deviate from the plot (which is always possible, admittedly).

Obviously, when it comes to thinks like Rose Queen, it all starts and ends with the first step.  Everything else is crammed into my head—so if I get hit by a truck tomorrow, that'll be where it stays.  If you're worried about the possibility of sudden death, plotting might be the best way to go.

I Tag...

As the adorable Nicole tagged me (and you can read her four answers over at her blog: http://nicolenally.wordpress.com/2014/08/22/the-writers-blog-tour/), I choose to pass the baton on to Danni and Windi.

Danni has a degree in Writing Contemporary Fiction from Southampton Solent University, writes fanfiction and is a fiend at NaNoWriMo (my description, not hers, but anyone who writes 55,000 words in 18 days is a fiend).  She likes shiny things, has an impressive collection of notebooks that I am just a little big jealous of, and is a Fountain Pen Enabler—mostly by encouraging everyone around her to buy them.  You can find her stationery-based blog entries at: http://fourwordsfourworlds.wordpress.com/category/danni/.

Windi is another stationery addict and the owner of some very beautiful handwriting.  She has a lot of varied interests and tends to gravitate to new things often, but her love of Matt Damon and Jack Davenport will never die.  She also likes shiny things and notebooks, and is a very sweet and enthusiastic personality who is currently finishing up a novel.  You can find her various blog entries on a variety of themes here: http://windismusings.wordpress.com/.

Day 10 - Singultus

Rating: PG
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: Funny what turns out to be shocking enough to scare away a hiccup.

“For God’s sake, will you just shut up!”  Alex snarled over his mountain of paperwork.

Day 9 - Votive

Rating: 15
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: Betting against Alex is usually futile...

I won the bet.

Day 8 - Ameslan

Rating: PG
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 99
Summary: To his horror, Milos's new class list has come through—which gives Alex an even greater variety of ways to insult him.

Milos gaped down at the paper left casually on his desk.  “More classes?”

Day 7 - Cacography

Rating: 18
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: Alex is testing Milos's handwriting in the best way he knows how.  Whether Milos agrees it's the best is another matter entirely...

“This is—ah—impossible!”

Day 6 - Fink

Rating: PG
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: Sometimes life would be easier if civilian law enforcement and Alex didn't have such major personality clashes...

“What part of ‘I’m a government agent’ don’t you understand?  Do you need to see my card again, or are you just terminally stupid?”

Day 5 - Serein

Rating: PG
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: Light drizzle has a different effect on each man.
Notes: Due to various things, such as birthdays and two-day weekends, this starts the backlog of unposted flash fics.

Light drizzle pattered over Milos’s skin.  To his right, Alex grimaced.

Day 4 - Philology

Rating: PG
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: It's an important day for Milos, but if he doesn't stop fidgeting Alex might just feed him that envelope.  But he can be supportive too... in his own way.

Milos fiddled with the envelope, folding its corners until Alex glowered at him.  “Either open it or put it away.”

Day 3 - Desiderium

Rating: PG
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: Alex is obsessive about keeping his files in order, but there's one he's willing to let slide.

Two office moves and the file was still in Milos’s drawer, not in the cabinet.

Day 2 - Brusque

Rating: 15
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: In most fighting partnerships, there's always one person who gets the crap kicked out of them on a regular basis.  Guess who it is in Milos and Alex's?  But Milos has his own ways of getting revenge, one way or the other...

The wall felt no better the third time Milos crashed into it than it had the first.  “Ah, f...”

A Challenge, And A Story - Cat's Paw

I've fallen out of the habit of writing recently, which means I've got a whole lot of no progress whatsoever going on.  So I've challenged myself to write a piece of flash fiction every day for a week, inspired by the Dictionary.com Word Of The Day.  This is basically the significantly less breakdown-inducing version of the original Pax's Ridiculous Writing Challenge.

Which should be interesting, if only for me.

Today it's from Unravel, a series of stories about Milos, a dokkalfa experimental bioweapon working for a shady semi-governmental body.  (You can find out more by visiting the "Unravel" tab up top there.)

Rating: G
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: A short exchange in the elevator does nothing for Milos and Marrok's relationship.

Lifts were awful enough, Milos decided, when they held just him. To be crammed into one with Marrok was plain torture, and his former boss clearly agreed. 

The Destruction of Kirill - Launch Day and Giveaway!

Today's the day my first published m/m novella, The Destruction of Kirill, is released!  It's been a bit of a headache all the way through its life, starting from the fact it took me about a year to even start writing it, to things accidentally going 'live' before they were supposed to (I'm looking at you, Amazon), but we've got here in the end.

If you're curious, missed the previous post, or you've not seen me freak out over Twitter yet, here's the synopsis:

Born in the workhouse and moulded into an obedient slave, Kirill expected his life to be simple: serve his wealthy owners until they grew bored and sold him, repeating the process again and again until the day he died. He never wanted his master's precious only son to take an unhealthy interest in him, and he didn't expect one single horrifying summer's day to plunge his life into ruin.

Now he has to adjust to another kind of life: one with a man who never wanted to own a slave and has no use for the one he now possesses. But just when Kirill thinks he's finally found normality it all comes crashing down again—and worse, this time it's all his own fault.

Hauled into a world of chaos and destruction by a charming stranger, Kirill struggles to manoeuvre his way without letting both his past and his grief overwhelm him, but is his rescuer all that he seems, or has Kirill walked from one hell straight into another?

If you'd like an excerpt, you can find one from Chapter 4 over at the announcement page.  And, if any of that whets your fancy, you can pick up an ebook copy at any of the usual suspects:

Amazon || Smashwords || Kobo US + UK || Barnes & Noble || All Romance Ebooks

In addition, due to the fact that people were kind (or brave) enough to preorder TDoK on All Romance eBooks, the ARe Edition comes with an exclusive bonus chapter.  It's not something I'm likely to do again, so don't worry about that, but for a début release from a completely unknown author, that anyone would want to preorder it at all meant a lot to me.

I think I mentioned something about a giveaway before, didn't I?  Here it is: you can win an autographed paperback copy of The Destruction of Kirill, an antique brass style handmade necklace and a print and / or digital copy of the ARe Edition extra chapter (depending on whether you want both, or just one or the other).

It's easy to enter: you simply enter your email in the Rafflecopter box below.  After the contest has ended on the 26th July, I'll email you to get your physical mailing address and I'll post out the package on the 2nd August.  Please make sure it's a valid email address and one you actually check; if I email you and you've not replied before Thursday at the latest, I reserve the right to select another winner.

If you've got any questions please don't hesitate to contact me via one of the methods on the right, and good luck.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Destruction of Kirill

In seven days' time, my first m/m romance novella The Destruction of Kirill comes out.  It's been a bit of a fraught endeavour and at one point I thought I'd never get it done, so I can't quite believe it's almost here!

It's been an interesting, albeit rocky experience: it's the first story I've ever plotted out in its entirety—which both almost killed it and is the only reason it's finished—and working on the cover necessitated buying a new PC to save my laptop from certain doom, but after everything it's done.

I became very attached to Kirill and Niko while I worked on this, and I really hope that readers will too!

The Destruction of Kirill will be out on the 15th July 2014, and you can preorder copies on Kobo US and Kobo UK, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, iTunes US and iTunes UK.  Other retailers will become available after the release date.

As a thank you for preorders, there's a special edition copy available at All Romance Ebooks that comes with an exclusive bonus chapter.

Synopsis

---

Born in the workhouse and moulded into an obedient slave, Kirill expected his life to be simple: serve his wealthy owners until they grew bored and sold him, repeating the process again and again until the day he died. He never wanted his master's precious only son to take an unhealthy interest in him, and he didn't expect one single horrifying summer's day to plunge his life into ruin.

Now he has to adjust to another kind of life: one with a man who never wanted to own a slave and has no use for the one he now possesses. But just when Kirill thinks he's finally found normality it all comes crashing down again—and worse, this time it's all his own fault.

Hauled into a world of chaos and destruction by a charming stranger, Kirill struggles to manoeuvre his way without letting both his past and his grief overwhelm him, but is his rescuer all that he seems, or has Kirill walked from one hell straight into another?

Excerpt

---

Reuben Gamble was two years older than Kirill. He’d heard about the handsome only son of his master and mistress, naturally—always in glowing terms—but had never met him. School and university kept that illustrious young man from home, and even when he’d visited Kirill had never set eyes on him. He’d been too busy working to pay attention. 

Only when Reuben returned in disgrace did Kirill learn the master’s son had been employed for two years after university—not that it seemed he’d been too occupied with work. The servants discussed it at length; with his room just off the kitchen, Kirill couldn’t help but hear the late-night gossip even when he tried not to listen. The tales mostly centred around rumours of debauchery and drunkenness, gambling, late-night carousing and no-shows at work, all of which led to Reuben’s expulsion amid a cloud of debt. All was retold in such salacious detail Kirill wasn’t sure any of it was accurate. Not only did he not want to listen, but all the gossip made him nervous. The less he knew about his master and mistress, and by extension their offspring, the better.

Despite Reuben’s return to the fold, however, life carried on as normal. Kirill helped with the added washing and ensured one extra room was spotless every morning while the family was busy. The most he saw of the master’s son was the occasional glimpse; with his eyes kept down and every hour not spent at his mistress’s side focused on work, that was all Kirill was ever likely to see.

Everything was as it should be. Until it wasn’t.

At midsummer the tweeny left abruptly, her stomach rounder than Kirill remember it being a month ago, and her choked sobs stabbed at his heart. She’d matured into a pretty seventeen-year-old, promoted from between-maid to housemaid while remaining friendly and cheerful; although she’d ceased chatting with him once he’d recovered, she still threw him the occasional sweet smile and once in a while hid food in his room to compensate for his sole meal being after the first sweep of cleaning in the morning. In return he tried to take on some of her work to make life easier for her, and hoped she never noticed.

Even for a naïve slave it was easy to guess what had happened, but he’d never thought of her as the careless type. She never made eyes at the other servants. Perhaps it was a village boy she’d met on her one day off a week. She’d cared for him once, he’d wanted to do the same. He hadn’t loved her—he wasn’t sure a slave was even capable of an emotion like that—but there was an odd protectiveness he couldn’t help and her departure left a crushing pain in his chest. She’d been cast out and there was nothing he could do for her.

No one else was hired in her stead. Some of her tasks fell to Kirill, others to the tweeny that suddenly assumed her role: a girl who’d never expected such hasty advancement and was ill at ease with it. The extra work wasn’t as bad as Kirill had secretly feared and his guilty attempts to eavesdrop on what might have happened to its previous owner were fruitless. Sullen normality returned, punctuated only by low whispers of gossip he couldn’t catch and the times he lay awake at night hoping for her safety.

Two weeks after the maid’s dismissal, Kirill was cleaning an upstairs hallway that connected the spare rooms when footsteps filled the air and sent his heart crawling into his throat. It didn’t matter that he knew he did a good job, he was still terrified that one day the master or mistress would find fault. He didn’t even know why, beyond half-suppressed workhouse memories of what happened when he did things wrong, but it was enough to make him strive for perfection.

His grip tightened on the cloth and he threw himself more fully, if that was possible, into buffing the mahogany dado into a shine as the footsteps grew louder and a shadow passed over him—and instead of moving on, came to a standstill. “What are you doing?” 

Kirill thought his heart would fail entirely. “Cleaning, sir,” he addressed the rail, polishing so hard he felt the muscles of his arm stand proud.

“And you enjoy that, do you?” The voice was both familiar and not, amusement colouring the warm tones.

“Yes, sir.”

“I’m not in the wall. Face me when you speak to me.”

The laughter in the voice was irrelevant, it was clearly an order. Kirill turned slowly, keeping his eyes down. “Yes, sir.”

The voice wore expensive shoes. He remembered cleaning them only hours before, one of the day’s first tasks. “Aren’t you a little too handsome to be doing this menial work?”

“No, sir.” His hands twitched; he resisted the urge to cover his scars.

There was a snort of amusement. “I’m telling you that you are.” Two fingers pressed under his chin. “Raise your head.” 

As much to escape the fingers digging into his skin as in response to the command, Kirill did so.

With a sharp tsk, the hand gripped his chin more firmly. “Open your damn eyes.”

He’d been taught it was only respectful to shut them rather than stare openly at his master, but an order was an order. Nervously, he opened them.

Reuben Gamble gave him a brilliant smile. “That’s much better, isn’t it?” The hand relinquished his chin and brushed away the flash of white hair that fell over his forehead. “This came from the accident? But only the front...” The fingers moved to smooth the black strands over his ear instead. “Will you tell me about it?”

This was the most uniquely frightening situation he’d ever been in. Only his mistress ever asked him friendly questions and he knew the answers he was expected to give, but being addressed so informally by the owner’s son—and expected to answer for himself? He could barely breathe. Stepping sideways with a gesture to the door beside him, he tried to deflect the question: “I’m sorry to trouble you, sir. I’d hate for you to waste your time talking to me—”

Two hands squeezed his shoulders. Suddenly the wall was against his back, the dado hard against his spine; the hands slid down his arms to settle on his hips. “I’d much prefer you stay here.” In one step Reuben was only a hair’s breadth away, each word tickling Kirill’s nose. “I’ve been fascinated by you for a while now. My mother’s always had impeccable taste.”

The hands on his hips slid down to gently cup his buttocks. Kirill flinched as they dragged him fractionally closer, just close enough for the older man’s interest in him to become evident. His voice came out as little more than a whisper. “S—sir, what are you doing?”

His backside was released, only for the hands to shift upwards again: one to his chest, just above his heart, and the other to slide between their bodies and stroke the front of his trousers.

With a terrified squeak he twisted away, freed through sheer dumb luck than real intention. Leaving his equipment where it lay and without daring to look back, Kirill fled his master’s son and bolted down the stairs.

There was no sign of Reuben when he crept back, heart in his mouth, to pick up where he’d left off; he’d never before realised relief had a taste.

Collecting Shinies

Today, the awesome Danni blogged about the things she collects, and it got me thinking.  I know I collect stationery, that much is obvious (and usually either her's or Clairabel's fault, I firmly maintain), and what started out as a fondness for gel pens is starting to grow into something a little worrying now.

I collect books too—but that's kind of obvious too.  I've got a to-read stack that's reaching alarming proportions, and it's not counting all the Kindle books.  I can't help that either, because books just look and smell right.  They're a comforting weight in your hand, and a less comforting weight on your shoulder when you're trekking back to the bus station.

I'd love to collect models, but they're usually eye-bleedingly expensive.  I stick to the Togainu no Chi Shiki and Akira figures I got a few years back, even if Akira is a pain to dust; they're both gorgeous and so far most people overlook the fact Akira's flashing his underwear.

So I thought about it some more, and then I realised with a faintly sinking sensation that what I actually collect is computers.

Not in the "new one every year, cutting-edge technology" sense—not that I wouldn't love to—or the "obsessive Apple fan" way (I don't own anything Apple), but in a more haphazard "I need something and then I get grossly attached to it" or (more often) in the "I don't need it but I don't care" way.

So... uh...

I should introduce a new member of my family now, shouldn't I?

This is the latest part of my collection and part of the first category of 'needs': a new desktop PC bought for the intention of actually being able to render images in less than five hours without crashing at the thought of it being 2500px tall.  Here I'll qualify that this isn't actually something Sixteen's can help: he's a laptop and they're not really designed for things that make them overheat quickly, such as colossal images that only Amazon want at that size.  (The image on the screen is at 2500px tall, for reference; that's a 17" monitor and the image reaches to Kirill's hips.)

The dusty desktop in the background isn't mine, by the way.  It's my mother's, and she never got round to naming it.

So far it's working well.  We've had some issues with my 3D content that are nothing to do with the PC and everything to do with the issue of absolute pathways in save files and changes in OS—I'm only familiar with Windows 8 in terms of 8RT on the Surface so it's taking some getting used to—and maybe a few computer games have sneaked onto there (but they work so nicely I couldn't possibly ask them to leave again...).

There has, in fact, been only one real issue.

The "Name your PC" screen cropped up and I had a complete brain freeze.  It's like naming characters in games: it's something that requires great thought, lest you give it a strange or inappropriate name that completely skews either its personality or your perception of it (depending on which camp you're in in that regard).  And what with my newest project being on my mind a lot lately, I may have called it "Echo".

Still, it could be worse, right?  I could have named it after a man who went mad and coded himself into a computer system.

Hell, one day I'll end up naming a computer Durandal and then I'll be really screwed.

So... please say hi to the newest member of my technological family and most recent part of my favourite (and most expensive) collection!

Writing Dust & Ash: Starting The Process

The other night, I wondered 'aloud' on Twitter whether anyone would be interested in following the creation of a book, from first flailing ideas to an actual finished product, bearing in mind that I am about as far from a proper, professional author as you can get.

One person liked the idea, so guess what?  I'm doing it.

Not just because Danni was interested (though it is a big part of it—no one wants to work on something no one's interested in) but also because it's something I might learn from the experience of and—fingers crossed—help keep me focused.

The project I'm going to be working on is one that crashed into my head a couple of days ago out of nowhere (I suspect it got lost en route to someone actually competent's imagination) and, in my case, the 'working on' bit of the process usually comes after characters with names decide they're going to infest me.  Sometimes even when they don't have names.

And 'names' is exactly where this all started, so it's where I'll start.

The Initial Idea

One thing I have in common with a lot of other writers is a notebook I use to jot down names that have either come to me out the blue, or I've seen somewhere and liked, or that might not even be names at all but could be worked into one.  They either sit on the page and wait until they're needed, or they randomly attach themselves to characters: for instance, Kirill wasn't supposed to be called Kirill, but once the name was attached nothing else seemed to work until I stuck with it.  In this case, I'd jotted down two names a couple of months ago: Dust and Ash.

So far, so generic.  At the time, I looked at it and thought, "I bet they investigate supernatural crimes in modern fantasy or something," and promptly forgot all about it.

I was working when suddenly I realised, apropos of nothing, that Dust was a twin and his brother was called Echo.  Echo had been born second, was a little smaller, a little quieter, and followed his brother everywhere.

And then I realised that Echo didn't follow his brother everywhere; he'd led the way once.  Echo was dead.

Refining The Idea

It's not much, but it's a place to start.  Now I've got the kernel of an idea, I've got questions I can ask: why is Echo dead?  How does Dust feel?  How does Ash, Dust's best friend, take it?  What genre is it?

For me, this is the part where I start to work out the plot.  Life is significantly easier when the plot appears first because you can sit down and start to work out the kinks almost immediately, but in this case I've still got a lot of work to do before I can get to that point—like find the plot.

For me, this involves asking more and more questions and writing down everything in another notebook.  Being me, I have different pens and inks for different stories at this stage: it's handy if you use one notebook for every idea.  I don't do it all in one go—I can't, it doesn't all pour straight out of my head, although damn I wish it did—so I write what I can and go away and do something else, and if something else comes to me, whether it's a question, an answer or a random idea, I scribble it down.

Music Helps

No, really.  I'm not kidding.  Sometimes, something in a song can spark an idea I might not have otherwise had, or made me realise something much quicker than I would have without it.  I usually construct playlists for stories I'm working on, which is partly a procrastination exercise (my favourite hobby), and partly because while I might not actually hear it while I'm writing, as I tend to tune it out, it helps keep the outside world from encroaching—always handy when you share an office with a parrot—and feels like it helps keep me focused.

In this case, I'd heard a song on the radio in the supermarket earlier and I couldn't get it out my head, so I looked it up on YouTube.

While listening to the lyrics, I realised something important: Echo's body might be dead, but Echo himself is not.  This gives me the genre: fantasy of some flavour.  And if Echo's soul is somewhere else, then it means someone has done this to him, which gives me the shadow of a villain—and a lot more questions.

And for no apparent reason, I can see a tea shop / café, which gives me something to think about for world building: what kind of fantasy world needs a tea shop?  Probably a fairly affluent one with good trade links and plenty of social time; now I can start to work out where Dush, Echo and Ash live.

This is about as far as I've got.  I still need to work out who the villain is and what he gained from doing what he did, what Dush and Ash are going to do about it, and an actual plot (always a good idea, right?), but it's a starting point.

Next time, I'll talk about plotting and, hopefully, I'll be able to start working on this in earnest.

Craft Sunday: A Slightly Less Nekkid Box

I know I said these would be occasional but I guess this is a little ridiculous.  Sorry about that.

Still, I've not had much to blog about in this regard.  Or at least, looking at all the photos, it turns out that how I feel and how I've been documenting it haven't quite matched up, so this might turn out to be a little longer than expected.

Two months ago, shortly after my first post, I met up with my fellow Notts NaNoers (my local writing group as well as my local NaNo group, and all at least as odd as me in their own ways) and after chat and food, @anikadaniels and I went and examined the paint department of the Broadmarsh Wilkos.  To be honest, I didn't have much idea what I was looking for and I'm pretty indecisive, so having Anika with me was a great help, particularly when it came down to narrowing a surprisingly large amount of wood stains and varnishes down to particularly 'steampunk' colours.  We settled on Teak and Antique Pine.

The first thing I've learned about painting wood is...

Shake the goddamn bottle properly.

That, to the left, is Teak.  Or at least, it would be if I'd given the bottle/can the thrashing it clearly needed, because it came out looking remarkably pine-y.

In hindsight, that photo is hilarious.  You'll see why, assuming you haven't already scrolled down or seen a later picture.  But still, let that be a lesson to you all.  If you're going to paint something, really, really shake the can, because otherwise you'll end up with a wishy-washy colour.

So I picked the damn thing up and gave it a proper shake.

Significantly better results.

Still a bit light though; I wanted to go for something deep and rich.

It should be noted here that I'm doing all of this with a very cheap paintbrush that I'd bought specially for the job.  I've got proper paintbrushes and there is no way I'd use one with wood stain or paint, but cheap ones from The Works do a remarkably good job, even if I had to clean what looked like glue off the one I'd chosen for the job—which came from a sealed pack.  I suspect whatever they used to glue the bristles in leaked somewhat.

So I kept on and the more coats I applied, the darker it got, until I
settled on a nice dark colour.

Using a brush gave the effect of it being made out of real, solid wood, rather than the balsa wood it's actually made out of, and looks better in person than these pictures would lead you to believe.  I started out by painting the inside of the box just to test it (and you can see why above), but after a while it became...  I don't know, just something that felt like it should be done.  I know I'm planning on covering it over, but it didn't feel right to leave it naked.

I'm undecided about covering over the inside top as well, so I painted that too.

It's quick-dry paint so it didn't take too long to get through layers, and I still have a lot left which is handy as my mother has now put in her request for one too.  (I don't think I can make an industry out of it.  I'm having a hard enough time sticking to writing.)

I've designed the top, but it's still as yet unpainted, because I'm not wholly sure how to approach it.  I don't know whether to outline the cogs in waterproof pen and then paint, as the cogs are supposed to be Antique Pine while the rest of the lid matches the box, or whether there needs to be a design in the middle.  I've considered buying watch parts too and simply attaching a real cog in the center.

On that note, if anyone knows of any good UK-based sellers of steampunk construction pieces or jewelry box items, I'd love to know about it.  I'm particularly looking for interior chains to stop the lid opening all the way, but anything would be good.

All that was done over the course of May.  At the start of this month (June), I headed to John Lewis in the Victoria Center with @SplitShilo and @AgentNotts, where we proceeded to ooh and ahh over the various fabrics, some of which are eye-wateringly expensive.  If I won the lottery I'd just camp out there and sniff material, I swear.  We examined all the fabrics and I stupidly neglected to bring the actual box along to check colours, but both my friends are very talented artists and could take a good guess at the colour I meant, and in the end we settled on this particularly nice burgundy taffeta.  I only bought half a metre (£3) but there's a lot there for the size of the box.

I've yet to figure out how to actually line the box, so any details there would be greatly appreciated.  It's probably not a good idea to start a project like this without any actual idea what I'm doing, but being thrown in at the deep end is the best way to learn.

Probably.

Not that I could resist the lure of all the fabrics entirely.  I did end up splurging on some expensive but beautiful material.

I've got no idea what I'll do with it, but the squares are surprisingly large and the material's pretty thick.

I even ended up buying a £35 sewing machine (for light work).

Now I just find myself wishing that my sum total knowledge of sewing wasn't a couple of weeks of art classes where we all made T-shirts to a pre-ordained design and size.

I still have it, sixteen years later.  It still fits.

That doesn't say much for the T-shirt; I hope this is a much greater success.

Adventures With The IRS - Receiving An EIN

As I'm in the preliminary stages of preparing for my first "proper" ebook release I realised that I needed to stop faffing around and (finally) apply for an EIN from the US Internal Revenue Service.

The thing is, I'm terrible with phones.  Anything that involves calling people I will try to put off time and again.  It's hard to believe that I was actually a legal secretary once upon a time (well, four or five years ago) and therefore had to field calls all the time.

As a result, it's been pointed out to me that with the amount of time I've now spent avoiding calling the IRS, I could have just faxed them the relevant form and had the EIN...  so, with that in mind, I loaded up Skype with £10 credit, sat in my office, steeled myself and gave them a call.

Whereon, having selected option "1" from the automated system... I promptly ended up on hold.  Their opening hours are 6am to 11pm EST so I was actually ringing around 10am, pretty much when other people finally screw up the courage to ring about tax issues, but I was only on hold for about 6 minutes, which was impressive.  If I'd been ringing the UK version I'm pretty sure it would have been significantly longer than that.

When my call was answered, I'm not entirely sure I made myself clear straight out the gate (I'm really out of practice with phones...) but once we got past my stupidity and he identified the fact that I'm clearly an idiot he spelled everything out for me and made it all significantly less scary.  We went through the form SS4, which I'd already filled out in Acrobat (you can download both it and its help file here), and I discovered that I am apparently unable to phrase the letter "D" (it's the Midlands English accent), which made life difficult as my address contains a few of the little blighters... but about ten minutes later he gave me my EIN and also answered my question on whether I have to file a 0 amount to the IRS for tax purposes (the answer is no, you just file taxes in your own country as normal).

So I'd like to extend a huge thank you to the lovely Mr. Witt, should he ever see this (and hopefully I've got his name right; I'm terrible when I panic), because he spelled my name properly, he made the whole process easy, quick and painless, and he also made me laugh (intentionally).

If you're putting off getting your EIN because it seems daunting, or because calling the US is a frightening and potentially expensive experience, don't.  It's a super-easy process, especially if you've already completed your SS4, you get your number straight away over the phone with a confirmation posted to you, and the best part?

As I called using Skype, a 15-minute phone call cost me 35p.

Efficient and affordable.

Unboxing: Watch_Dogs Dedsec Edition

Long time no post!  It's in part due to the fact that I'm actually writing The Rose Queen—I know, me, writing; whatever is the world coming to—and partly because I am a lazy arse.  I'm pretty sure you've already noticed the latter.

I didn't feel like I was making much progress with The Rose Queen to be honest, until I actually paid attention to my total word count last night and realised it's currently at 21,000 words.  So... not a novella then.

Short update aside, that isn't what this post is about (I'll maybe do a dedicated one later on).  Nooo, this post is about the downright huge box that arrived this morning.

Meep.  AC:IV for size reference.

 I normally preorder games from Game due to things like shiny reward points and supporting British game stores, but in this case they'd actually sold out of the Xbox One version(!) so I bought it from Amazon instead.  That comes with the added advantage of coming via Amazon's delivery network, which now they've worked out the kinks is pretty good and means deliveries arrive when they're supposed to.  Anything using the Royal Mail here is at the mercy of the postman—which can mean anything from the delivery driver shoving a "You Weren't In" card through the door when I plainly was, to returning items without attempting to deliver them because they were damaged by postal staff, to outright theft.  (Yes, all three have happened to me; the first and last most recently.)

Rant aside...  I thought the size of the box would be misleading, because sometimes things are packed to the gills with paper and plastic, and the contents are tiny.

And to be fair, when I opened it, this was the first thing I saw, so you can't blame me.  So I dug in, started fishing around in the box and realised...

I hereby claim this box...

It wasn't misleading at all.  I was not expecting that.  The last special edition I ordered was DmC, which came with a hoodie, soundtrack CD and DLC, and all items were separate in the cardboard box.  To have it arrive in a nice box was... unexpected, although possibly shouldn't be because Ubisoft have a history of nice packaging.

The skinny little legs in the background belong to Q, a cat with a pathological love of boxes.  He'd perked up when I bought the box in, and now he was going to nonchalantly come and 'look'.

Once I unwrapped the packaging (so much for Amazon's eco-friendly stuff, the amount of plastic that went into covering this!), I was again surprised.

The box is nicely designed and the inside packaging is designed with a place for every piece of the special edition kit—although in my case, a lot of it had slid down during transit.  You can see the bottom of the Augmented Reality card box beneath the game box, which should have been much higher up, but all the contents were safe and undamaged.

The full extent of the contents is still surprising, considering IMO the price isn't that much higher than a standard Xbox One game.  It comes with a fairly large and very nicely detailed Aiden Pearce figure, soundtrack, AR cards, map, artbook and three badges as well as the steelcase box.  Aiden comes in his own safe packaging to protect him, so he hadn't budged in the slightest in transit.  I've yet to find a good home for him (he's bigger than Shiki and Akira on my desk, so between them doesn't work) so he's gone back into his box for now.  Everything seems nicely detailed: the artbook is hardback and filled with beautiful concept art, the cards come in a staggered file-type packaging with their own box, and the map is made of glossy, good-quality paper and fits neatly into the steelcase box for handy reference.

By this point, I'd moved the packing box and paper contents to one side; you can see Q eyeballing it.  He hopped in not long after and proceeded to traumatise the parrot, who thought a kraken had moved in under his cage...

So, that's the unboxing of the Watch_Dogs Dedsec edition.  If anyone wants closer, more detailed pictures of anything, just let me know and I'll see what I can do.

I've not even had a chance to play it yet!  That's this afternoon's entertainment...

No-Nonsense Reviews - Objects in the Rearview Mirror by F. E. Feeley Jr.

Pros
+ Intriguing, moving story
+ Relatable characters
+ Emotive subject

YMMV
+/- Some references to earlier times in characters' relationship are never expanded on

Cons
- The writing reads a little oddly in places
- The last part of the epilogue felt superfluous

I remember vaguely reading an effusive comment about this book that prompted me to go and check it out on Amazon and, curious, I bought it, but I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

What I got was a surprisingly touching paranormal tale about a haunted house and a loving couple, and I absolutely could not stop reading it.  The characters felt real and spoke in a convincingly human way to each other and to friends in the story, and I really rooted for both their relationship and their sanities to remain intact.  The plot itself is intriguing, although very different from how I'd expected after the prologue, and although I kind of saw the end coming, I didn't expect its execution, which was pleasant.  Even the moral (there is one but it doesn't get in the way, I promise) is good—and is well worth remembering.

It's only when I added it to my Goodreads read list that I discovered that this is actually book #2 in the author's "Memoirs of the Human Wraiths" series, but it reads nicely as a standalone novel.  Although I marked the final paragraph of the epilogue as a 'con', I'm not sure if it may actually relate to the first book (which I'll very likely pick up now), or if it'll become relevant further along in the series, but as it is, it just feels a bit redundant and nonsensical.

Also, I don't often comment on covers, mostly because I barely notice them when they're Kindle novels, but the cover artwork is beautiful.

I've not seen that many new ghost stories (or maybe I'm not looking in the right place?), but it's nice to read a good (and genuinely creepy) example of the genre.  I'm really hoping that the author writes more!

• Goodreads page for Objects in the Rearview Mirror
• Objects in the Rearview Mirror at Dreamspinner Press

Footnote: while I was reading this book, we discovered that the toilet paper in the downstairs loo had decided to empty itself onto the floor for no apparent reason.

No-Nonsense Reviews - Forest of the Forsaken: The Witch's Snare by Joanne Brothwell

Pros
+ Interesting modern premise
+ Had good moments making the reader doubt themselves

YMMV
+/- The relationship between characters developed too quickly

Cons
- Disappointing ending

I picked up The Witch's Snare based on its premise as being a modern-day Grimm's Fairy Tale, which it most definitely is, but for the most part I considered it to be a 'middle of the road' kind of read.

It was well-enough written, well described with good sex scenes, but I found the development of the relationship between the two main characters too fast to be particularly believable.  Luckily it wasn't as incest-y as the description seemed to imply (I don't like incest stories, but I'll give anything a try once) and there wasn't any interaction between the characters before the plot started.  Although, considering the suspicions of both main characters, that they agreed to go along with the plot at all felt a little weird and slightly off—if I had the suspicions they did, I'd have run a mile.

The witches themselves were nicely creepy, particularly in the middle of the story, and I found myself second-guessing my theories a lot, particularly in an "is she-isn't she" kind of way which was nice, even though rationally I already knew the answer.  That's always the downside to reading a story based on an established tale.

Considering the nature of the plot I'd say there are little surprises in store, but some twists were interesting, but the ending came too abruptly and too neatly for me.  I'd have liked a little more and, although everything was explained, it somehow didn't feel explained quite enough to be fully satisfying...

• Forest of the Forsaken: The Witch's Snare on Goodreads
• Joanne Brothwell's Author Page

No-Nonsense Reviews - The Carr Family series by Susan Coolidge

Pros
+ Easy to read and hard to put down
+ Fairly short books
+ Likeable characters

YMMV
+/- Victorian novels, so heavy on the morality
+/- The fourth book moves focus to a secondary, less likeable, character

Cons
- The third book does not give a good account of Americans (particularly children) abroad

I was given the first three of these books as a child (there is a fifth, which I've not read), although I only really remembered the first two and part of the third.  When I first got my Kindle I found these free on the Amazon store, but I only remembered I had them recently and decided to re-read them.

The first three stories revolve around Katy Carr who starts out wild by Victorian standards, but with a kind heart, and follows how she is eventually 'tamed' with the aid of a sainted cousin and a life-changing event.  Even when she's bratty Katy is likeable, and she grows into a sensible young woman who still retains a little fire and temper while still being the model of Victorian womanhood.

It was obviously written as a kind of manual for how young Victorian women should be and can be pretty heavy-handed with it, but it is typical of its time, so to judge it too harshly for it or view it with modern eyes would be to do it a disservice.

The first two books aren't too bad, but the third makes American travellers to Europe seem unbearable, particularly the child, Amy, who becomes a complete and utter brat—definitely my least favourite out of the four I've read.

The fourth breaks away from following Katy to follow her younger sister Clover instead, which is an interesting change but I didn't find Clover, sweet as she is, as engaging as Katy and it doesn't hold the interest as much as the first three.

They're interesting reads for a snapshot of Victorian America, and they're apparently semi-autobiographical too, and they make an interesting change of pace, but I think it'll be another fifteen years before I feel the need to read them again.

• What Katy Did on Goodreads
• What Katy Did At School on Goodreads
• What Katy Did Next on Goodreads
• Clover on Goodreads

No-Nonsense Reviews - First There Wasn't, Then There Was by Troy Blackford

Pros
+ Brilliantly written and difficult to put down
+ Gripping story
+ Unexpectedly emotional

YMMV
+/- Near-impossible to categorise

To be honest, this is the most difficult book I've ever tried to review or describe.  It's just... so different, and that's not a bad thing.  It's just a little awkward in this situation, because many parts of it that make it so remarkable would be giving away spoilers.

It's well written and very difficult to put down once you've started it, but as it's quite short it's a two or three hour read.  The story flits from the present to the past, but the interruptions are well done and although I was a bit dubious about the modern-day office boys to begin with, they grew on me and shared my sense of "wait, I want to know what happens!"  Each chapter is masterfully finished, which only compounded the issue of "can't put it down!"

At one point, I was a bit confused to find myself crying at it.

I'm not sure whether it's a supernatural story, or a metaphysical one, or a metaphor for something and to be honest, I don't really care. (Although for me, I liked to take it at face value as a supernatural story.)

It's a bloody good read.

• First There Wasn't, Then There Was on Goodreads
• Buy First There Wasn't, Then There Was at Amazon