Retro Roadmaker

I came across this article about a 1960s concept nuclear roadmaking machine. Similar idea, though far more colourful than the machine from my Roadmaker stories.

Science Fiction Encyclopedia

The third edition of the Science Fiction Encyclopedia is now on-line. It includes an article about Jupiter magazine that mentions my Roadmaker series, much to my excitement.

Roadmaker Shortlisted for Ictineu Award

The Catalan translation of Roadmaker that appeared in Catarsi #1 has been shortlisted for the Ictineu Awards, in the Best Translated Story category. Also nominated is fellow linguaphile and multiply translated author Frank Roger, and Spanish author Santiago Examino, former editor of Efimeras who translated some of my flash fiction into Spanish.

This is the first time one of my stories has been shortlisted for anything, and I'm very pleased.

The Road to Israel

The original short story Roadmaker has been published in Hebrew in the webzine Bli Panika (Don't Panic!). This is my second story publishhed there, and the fourth language for Roadmaker.

Novel Writing Regime

I’ve finished part 4 of Gap Years and almost reached 50,000 words. I’ve settled into the routine that I developed towards the end of writing Roadmaker. Both novels are divided into parts averaging 10,000 words, divided into subsections of varying lengths. I save each part as a separate file. I try to write each subsection in one sitting so that I start each writing session on a new scene. I wrote without looking back. Only if I’m in mid-section I read the last couple of paragraphs to remind myself where I was.

At the end of section 2 I went back to edit section 1. This is a fairly light edit consisting of:

• Spelling and grammar corrections
• Changing, adding or deleting the odd word or sentence
• Checking for inconsistencies
• Adding ideas that have developed later but need to be introduced earlier

The advantage of this is that I’m reading stuff I wrote two or three months earlier, giving me a fresh perspective.

When I have a clean draft I send it off to my writing group for critiquing. I read the critiques as I receive them, to get an overall feel for the problems that are most commonly pointed out. When I have them all I sit down and go though them one at a time, making corrections and amendments to the manuscript.

I like to do this one section at a time so that any major flaws are picked up early and I can avoid them going forward. This critiqued version is then left until I finish the novel.

After each part is written, checked, critiqued and amended I then go back to the beginning for the third and final edit, by which time there is hopefully not too much to change. I found last time that the main thing I picked up on the final edit was the unnecessary words or sentences that could be deleted to tighten up the text.

I’ve read about several authors’ methods of drafting their novels, but this seems to work for me.

Frisian Translation

The Frisian translation of Dog's Best Friend has been published this week on Ensafh, the Frisian literary website. This flash fiction story is set in the world of the Roadmaker and originaly appeared as a piece of Friday Flash Fiction. It was later published in Jupiter, where the original Roadmaker series appeared, and has since been translated into Bengali for the Sonajhuri literary webzine.

Frisian is my twentieth published language.

New Bengali Translation

The Bengali translation of my Roadmaker story Dog's Best Friend appears on the literary webzine Sonajhuri today. It's a bit tricky to find what you're looking for if you can't read the script. My story is here. I am the first non-Indian writer to appear in the magazine.

This is the 18th language I've been published in - and the first new langauge of the year.

Roadmaker in Spanish

The Spanish translation of the original Roadmaker story appears in this month's edition of Aurora Bitzine.

This is my second story in Aurora Bitzine and my tenth story in Spanish.

Roadmaker has already been translated into Catalan for Catarsi and accepted by Hebrew webzine Bli Panika.

First New Language of the Year

A work colleague translated my short Roadmaker story Dog's Best Friend into Bengali, or Bangla, for me last year. The translation has just been accepted by Bangla webzine Sonajhuri and will appear in their February issue. The editor says I will be the first non-Indian writer to appear on the site.

One More Mention for Roadmaker

Prolific reader and reviewer Richard Horton provides his annual summary of reading over at The Elephant Forgets. In his round-up of Jupiter magazine he mentions two stories that were also on my list of favourites and gives a mention to my Roadmaker story Dog's Best Friend.

A Year of Writing

The biggest milestone in my writing this year – in fact the biggest of my writing carrer so far – was the completion of my first novel Roadmaker. I wrote ‘The End’ in March, then after much editing and revising sent it to its first agent in September. After that I started work on my second novel Gap Years and I’m over 10,000 words in so far.

The next biggest project has been Quivira, the story I’m writing in collaboration with Jonathan C Gillespie. It’s just about novella length and almost finished.

Aside from that I’ve written one flash fiction story, two microfiction stories for Twitter and my first three comic scripts. That’s a lot less wordage than usual on shorts, but it’s more than compensated for by the novel-length work.

I still have 5 short story ideas awaiting , so one of them will be starting off once Quivira is wrapped up. Plenty more to do next year then.

Further Spanish Translations

The Spanish translation of Up To My Neck In It is now on-line at Aurora Bitzine, with a couple of great illustrations to go with it. This is my ninth story in Spanish. Five of these have been reprinted, and another three stories accepted for translation and publication.

I also had an email from a different translator at Aurora Bitzine who is working on Roadmaker for a future issue. I submitted this months earlier and never heard back, but apparently they now have an extra translator so they seem to be going through their submissions backlog. Not sure when that will appear yet.

End of the Road

That's it. The third and final edit of Roadmaker is complete. All that remains is to polish up the synopsis, which is a bit long and waffly. Then to submit it. I now feel a strange reluctance growing inside me. After all this time and effort do I really want to send it on its way, to risk rejection and misery? It's like your child's first day at school: you know it has to happen, but does it have to be yet?

Dog's Best Friend Reviewed

Jupiter has been reviewed at The Fix for the first time, and David Hebblethwaite has this to say about my contribution:

Rounding things off is “Dog’s Best Friend” by Gareth D. Jones. This is a very short piece (one page), attached to the universe of Jones’s “Roadmaker” stories, but it stands perfectly well on its own. It is a character study of Alf, who lives in a post-apocalyptic society, and would rather spend time with dogs than seek out human contact. The story is nicely effective within its limited parameters, and ends the magazine on a poignant and thoughtful note.

A Tale of Two Novels

Roadmaker is in the final editing stages, though I have to admit I’m a bit weary of the task at the moment. I need a break so I can come back refreshed for the final assault.

To fill the gap that Roadmaker will leave, I’m already working on the next novel, entitled Gap Years. This started life as flash fiction, then was expanded to a 1500 word story. My Orbiter writing group liked the concept I’d come up with, but suggested I expand on the middle section. As I started thinking about it the possibilities and ramifications took off and I realised there was potential for much more.

This time I’m determined to follow all the advice I’ve been reading and plan the thing properly. Last week I wrote a synopsis of the proposed novel, fleshing out some of the concepts into a coherent plot. Next I wrote a plot summary, breaking it down into a series of scenes, each with just a few words. I’m now going through the summary and expanding each heading with thoughts and ideas about the locations, secondary characters, motivations etc.

I’ve written a ½ page biography of the main character. It has far more detail than I’ll likely need but will help to keep him consistent. I’ve also spent some time researching the small island that he comes from.

Another idea that I’ve adopted is to include photos of the characters in the summary. I’ve got some famous people pasted into the plot now. This helps to maintain consistent descriptions throughout the book. I’ve found photos of spaceships and boats too that I can base descriptions on.

Not too much more preparation and I’ll be ready to begin…

Second Edit

I've sent the last two sections of Roadmaker off to my Orbiter writing groups to be critiqued. Both of these have already been edited by me so it'll be interesting to see what else they find. The last sections didn't get too many comments on the text itself, but mostly general comments on parts of the plot and the characters. I've actioned many of the comments that were straight-forward to fix, but some will need a bit more work - the excessive number of POV characters for example. I guess 26 is too many!

New Jupiter Review

A new review of Jupiter XXIV has appeared, on SF Site. Of my story Dog's Best Friend it says:

To begin at the end, with the shortest story, Gareth D. Jones offers an enjoyable snippet, a little character sketch, in his Roadbuilder sequence.

:o)

Roadmaker Translation Reviewed

A review of Catalan magazine Catarsi appears on the website El Kraken today. Translated into English the meaning isn’t always entirely clear, but in part it says of Roadmaker:

The point is that Jones tells his story with simple sentences, made little, also, just after the story has a tendency to think that is a down ... but if you reflect, you can read between the lines and maybe ... will become a more developed story than we thought.

This road can be at once a metaphor for the progress but also of the uncertainty of a future that can not be anticipated. However, it is sometimes a story a little upset.

Dans Le Chateau

I've spent a week in a French chateau where I completed the initial edit of Roadmaker. Curiously they didn't have wifi in the 18th century, so no posts last week. Half of the novel has already been through my writing group and more sectons are with them now. It'll be a couple of months yet before it's all done.

Meanwhile, a 2nd review of Jupiter 24 is out. It only makes brief mention of Dog's Best Friend, but then it's a brief story. It's a good review overall though.

A Pleasure to Read

The first review of Jupiter XXIV has appeared, over at SF Revu. It has this to say about my contribution:

Last of all, we have "Dog's Best Friend" by Gareth D Jones. Set in the world of Jones' wonderful Roadmaker series, the story features Alf, an old man, who has no human friends but still finds some companionship of the four-footed kind. This was a pleasant affectionate look at humans and dogs that was a pleasure to read.