Tag Archives: jack reusen and the spark of dreams

Would you like to be a zombie?

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Close_Gate_in_Case_of_Zombie_OutbreakBig spoiler for ‘Jack Reusen and the Spark of Dreams’ coming up…there are ‘zombies’ in it. I’ve got ‘zombies’ in inverted commas because I’ve tried to aim along the lines of slightly frightening, irrational people rather than terrifying undead corpses stalking the earth in search of brains. The books are for kids of five and up so, you know, I should probably avoid the brain eating.

So, there are no dead people and there is no brain eating. Other than that I’m running a few standard zombie movie scenarios in the course of the book: the general ‘something’s not quite right’ feeling evoked by the early stages of classic zombie flicks, leading on to irrational people chasing the heroes, and then our heroes are locked in a house with a horde trying to get in. Hopefully I’ve kept the scariness balanced enough for it to be exciting but not nightmare-inducing (don’t worry I’ll test it on my own kids first).

So here’s the fun bit: I was wondering if anyone out there wanted to volunteer to be a ‘zombie’. If I get a big influx I’ll need a way to decide who gets in, so feel free to give me an idea of what kind of behaviour your ‘zombie’ might display.

Here are a couple of examples, a lady with a fixed ‘plastic’ smile, her eyes gazing right through you as she makes paper aeroplanes out of important documents from her briefcase. Then there are two men queuing for coffee who attack each other over a packet of sugar but who forget their fight completely and limp away when someone interrupts them, one limping from being kicked in the butt.

Both of these come from the early ‘zombification’ stage but you could describe your zombie however you like. The basic idea is that people are losing their senses, getting lost in irrational, repetitive, and even dangerous activities (with a slightly comic twist). The best three will make it into the book. I’d particularly like to see ideas for members of the ‘zombie horde’. I look forward to hearing your suggestions/submissions (make sure you pop them in the comments below so I can find them easily), all the best, John

And as simple as that, here they are…

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wpid-imag1318_burst002_1.jpgThe books have arrived! The official book launch for ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame’ will be in Fun Junction in Perth this Saturday (21st February). I’ll be reading excerpts from the book and talking about stories and writing. There are three sessions scheduled, at 1pm, 2pm, and 3pm and they’ll go on for as long as kids look interested.

My last few nights have been spent reading through the book to find the best, most exciting parts to share with those of you who can make it to the launch. I can’t wait to see what kinds of reactions I’ll get on Saturday.

I’ve also been working on book two (while not chasing up book deliveries etc.) and I’m fairly happy with the book’s progress, though I’ll need to knuckle down on Sunday if I want to meet my deadline of the end of the month. Provided I can get it done by then, I’ll have four to six weeks to edit it and neaten it up (and beta test it a little/lot) before sending ‘Jack Reusen and the Spark of Dreams’ off to the printers.

I look forward to seeing you on Saturday in Perth (if you can make it along), all the best, John

Reusen Writathon

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starling-216086_1280Just in case it looks as though I haven’t been doing anything I thought I’d pop down a wee log of progress for book two (‘…the Spark of Dreams’). Currently I’m sitting near the end of chapter five with 11,846 words.

Today’s words written so far are 1,186, not a huge amount this morning but Jack has just met four new characters: a boy with no arms, a hedgehog girl, a fawn, and a bird-girl with her own special skill.

They all took a bit of work for me to be happy to start writing about them so that was a good portion of this morning’s activity.

Now stopping for a spot of lunch and then it’ll be school-run, feeding the kids, getting homework done and bath night, then hopefully sometime around nine I’ll be back at this keyboard to get to know more about these new characters.

In the mean time I’d love to hear what people think to my using a character with no arms and what kind of things you think might be worth thinking about for him. Pop your responses in the comments section below.

Until tonight, thanks for reading, all the best, John

February will be Jack Reusen Writathon Month

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Writing with pen on paperIn February I’ll be back to my daily writing totals from Nanowrimo because I’ve come to realise that the only way this whole writing business is going to work is if I actually, you know, write.

My final edit is almost done (something like a chapter and a bit left), all I can do is apologise for how long its taking and take on board what I’m learning for the other books I’ll be releasing this year.

Book two has four chapters drafted, I’ve planned out most of the plot and only one or two new characters will be joining Jack and the gang for this one (so not too much work to do there). It would be easy for me to get complacent with this, after all I’ve said that ‘Jack Reusen and the Spark of Dreams’ will be out in April. Just now that feels like a long while away but I can’t take that for granted.

I need to remember all these little mistakes I’ve made in scheduling the release of ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame’. To be honest this post is as much for me as it is for you, it should hopefully stand as a reminder for me to leave a lot more time for revisions and cover design in future.

‘Jack Reusen and the Spark of Dreams’ will be out in April, I’ll be releasing another Jack Reusen book in September, and a mini book for Christmas (about 8 to 10 chapters). Keeping all of this in mind I should really be working on this solidly. That’s why I’ve decided that February is Jack Reusen month for me, just like I did with Nanowrimo I’ll be setting myself daily targets. As I go along I’ll blog about my progress and possibly even include the odd wee spoiler on here (really really minor ones mind you, I can’t let too much slip).

To anyone still waiting for the first book’s release, it is coming, slowly but surely, I promise it will be here soon. It will be out on kindle first. This is simply because I’ll need to figure out a lot of bits and pieces with the printers for the print edition, but I can handle putting together the digital edition myself.

To put a fire under my tail I’ll put out a deadline just now (I work well with deadlines) so I’ll say that the digital edition will, at the latest, be out next Saturday (24th January) and the print edition will be available just under two weeks later (provided all goes well with the printers) on Thursday the 5th February.

All the best, thanks for popping by and I’ll introduce you properly to Jack in just over a week, Cheers, John