The Shadow Runners

A friend asked me the other day if I would put the plot for The Shadow Runners on my blog.

That might take up a little too much room, and in true writer style, I'm still fiddling around with it. So... I've posted the Central Theme and a Synopsis to give you all the general idea of what the novel is about.

As soon as I have a bit of a look at Chapter 1, I'll post it here for you all to read. Yes, I'm still fiddling around with that too!

Do we writers ever stop "tweaking" our novels?

I'm trusting my own instincts to know when enough is enough. I'll know when I've got it "just right". That's when I'll stop fiddling around with scenes and chapters and send the thing off somewhere in the hope of finding a publisher.

Call me fussy, but I'd rather write it well. I'd rather spend the extra time making sure everything is "just the way I want it" rather than be forever thinking that "I should have rewritten that bit" or "there's that chapter in the middle that isn't as good as the rest of the novel."

No. Give me fussy any day.

So... till then, be content to know that Chapter 1 will definitely appear on this blog soon.

Catch up with you all then.

Central Theme of Shadow Runners

Shadow Runners

By Brittany Kingston
©2006

Central Theme



Jaxxlar and Ranger face a moral dilemma when they discover they have been hired by the wrong side.

They struggle with their consciences over whether to complete their mission to assassinate the herrragh they now consider a friend, or to join the fight to put Dennahn back into power as the rightful Alpha.

Accepting and dealing with prejudice becomes as big an issue as whether or not a person’s tenets can be bought or sold. Straddling the line between morality and duty, and confronted with irreconcilable differences between species, they are forced to accept the good and bad in themselves and others to work for a common good.

Short Synopsis of Shadow Runners

SHADOW RUNNERS

By Brittany Kingston
©2006

Synopsis

Ranger, a vedrathian human bounty hunter and Jaxxlar, a drinn assassin, make an unlikely team when they accept a mission to assassinate the leader of the legendary herrragh shadow runners.

On Andaman, where humans once made easy prey and the drinn are still abominations, they take employment as overland carreta guards to get close to their rendezvous point with the shadow runners. When an accident sees their employment terminated, they have to find their own way to the rendezvous point.

The shadow runners, who have been told they’re hiring Jaxxlar for his infravision and screening abilities, and Ranger for his alien weapons expertise, make contact.

Ranger and Jaxxlar establish their credibility with the shadow runners. However, they discover that their primary targets are: their friend Dennahn, who is the opposition Alpha to the herrragh who hired them, and his brother Turrrvahk, leader of the shadow runners.

Their sense of duty conflicts with their honor over whether to complete their mission or join the shadow runners’ fight to establish Dennahn as rightful Alpha.

When a traitor threatens to murder Dennahn then expose them as assassins, they’re forced to take drastic measures to save their own lives and rebuild the shadow runners’ trust.

Their decision to defect and help their herrragh friends has a profound impact on their own lives and changes the attitudes of Dennahn’s followers forever.

Meltdown of the Brain

Nothing, but NOTHING, sends me around the bend faster than modern technology when it doesn't work!

This time it was the computer.

Yes... AGAIN.

The hard disc failed. Yep, completely died. And with it went everything I hadn't had a chance to back up... AGAIN.

I was lucky that I didn't lose any of the accounts or any of my writing this time, but there were a few photos I was very worried about. Thankfully our resident computer expert managed to save everything off that old hard drive and put it on the new one.

The worst thing is that I had to reinstall all my programs. Time consuming and frustrating. Especially if you happen to be like me and you modify your word processors to your own particular likes, ie. colours, fonts, file locations, etc.

OK. So more than $400 later, I'm back on line, I've reconnected my email servers, reinstalled all my programs and even managed to put my old "Favourites" back on.

However... the one really annoying thing I did lose was my email address book. Grrrrrrr!

This is the fourth time in 12 months that I've had to start all over with my email addresses. To say that's a pain is a monumental understatement. And I don't even want to think about what's going to happen when I need to send the next newsletter out.

Computers!

I've come to rely so much on mine that I'm totally thrown whenever it spits the dummy - which it seems to do whenever I let my guard down and forget to back something up or think that I'll back it up on the weekend.

Note to self: Don't wait until the weekend to back things up. Do it immediately - if not sooner!

I have nothing more to say on that subject except: I'm still fuming and I DON'T TRUST COMPUTERS...!!!

Great to Be Back

Aaaaah, it's good to be back at the old keyboard.

I've been doing a great deal of running around all over the countryside lately. I have an exhibition of my paintings up at the Old Tobacco Sheds at Bright, Victoria. Kaye, a friend who paints similar pictures, and I joined forces to form Kwingee Earth Tones, a small gallery in one room of the old tobacco shed.

That all took a couple of weeks to set up and get organised. We finally managed and now have quite a display up there. Hopefully that will lead to bigger and better things for our art.

On the writing front... sweet stuff all I'm afraid.

I'm trying to get Shadow Runners finished. I'm so close to the end I can practically taste it, but do you think I can get my bum down here for long enough to get it done...? Not on your life! Very frustrating.

Well, hopefully today I'll get a bit of a go at it. After I do the accounts, of course...!

I had to buy a new printer/copier/scanner/fax on Monday. It printed, it copied, but it damned-well wouldn't fax or scan. Grrrrrr! Why do these things never work when you connect them? Why does it take 7 hours of phone calls to the manufacturer in Sydney [half a country away from where I live] to actually get the stupid things to do what they're supposed to?
Finally, after three days of utter frustration, all seems to be working. Keep your fingers crossed.

I still have a well-being expo in August to prepare for. I have to have a reasonable number of paintings for sale and exhibition there. Oh brother! Here we go again.

Because of the way I paint, channeling earth energy to create each picture, it takes anywhere up to three weeks to complete one painting, depending on the size of the canvas and the intricacy of the fine lines and designs within it. Slow going. Almost as slow as writing!

Oh well. I'd better get to it.

See you soon!

Painting or Writing Today?

... And today...?

Writing day for me, or painting day. I'm thinking I might write this morning and paint this afternoon.

I need to build up my collection for sale as quickly as I can. Quickly? Yeah, right! Sometimes it takes up to three weeks to complete some of my artwork.
I can hear all the other artists out there sniggering right now.

Yes, I know, but I work with a 000 size brush painting very fine lines and details on large canvasses. It takes time. Yes, fellow artists, you can all stop laughing at me now!

I'm having the time of my life, though. Since I took up the brush again after many years of raising children [2], animals [many], husbands [only 1] - you think I'd do this twice?, I've been really getting into it and enjoying my art on a whole different level.

I can't really explain how I work, but I channel Earth Energy to do my paintings. I begin on a blank canvass and just let it all happen. Nothing is planned and I never know what I'm going to end up with. It's different, it's spontaneous, it's fun, and it comes straight from the heart and soul.

Check out my Earth Tones Gallery under the Glenloth Photo Album on my Yahoo! 360 page. Some of my work is on there. It's hard to get a fully detailed photo of my work. The colours and finest lines don't always show up. Never mind - take a look and you'll get the idea.

Shadow Runners is also nearly complete. I'm right at a crucial part near the very end. Ending a book is a bit scary. You have to get that exactly right. It's like the beginning. If your end and beginning is not perfect, you can ruin the whole thing. Now I'm getting really nervous.

Anyway, I'd better get to it.

See ya!

Novel Writing on a Computer

The other day I was asked how I go about writing a novel on the computer and how I organize each novel I'm working on.

I find this is a really individual thing.

Some people make a file name for their novel, start at page 1 and keep going until they get to the end.

Personally, I like to separate each chapter into a different folder. I make my main folder, eg: "SHADOW RUNNERS" and then put each chapter inside that folder under a different file name, eg: Chapter One, Chapter Two - you get the idea.

I do it that way so if there are any glitches and I lose what I'm working on, at worst I'll lose one whole chapter, but I won't lose the whole book. And believe me, that has happened to me a couple of times due to power failures and computer failures. It's a wonder my heart is still beating. There's nothing worse than watching your work disappear and not be able to recover it. You go numb, then you get that awful sick, sinking feeling. Then, if you're like me, you'll cry. Show me a writer who hasn't had that happen at least once!

I'm also a manic saver. I have the auto save feature on every couple of minutes. I save my work all the time manually too. I save everything onto two separate CDs, onto a separate memory stick, and onto our secondary computer in the next room. Not only that, but I always print out each chapter after I've finished working on it.

Call me paranoid, but I've been devastated a few times by computer failures that obliterated months of careful writing and rewriting at times when I hadn't gotten around to printing my work out. Even though I managed to write everything again, I was always convinced it wasn't quite the same.

When I'm ready to put the whole novel together, I simply open a new file and import each chapter into it one at a time. AND I save it after each import.

Yes, I know that's time consuming, but it's safe -- if anything can ever be totally safe on a computer.

So there you have it. That's the way I like to work.

Now... have I saved that latest chapter? Have I printed it out yet?

I'd better go and take my own advice. See you later.

Brittany, My Yahoo Avatar

Introducing: Brittany

Brittany is my Yahoo Avatar.

Cute, huh?

Looks just like me!

She even has a pet dragon like mine.

Hey, I could have a lot of fun with this.

Do I Have Anything To Say?

All the boring GST is finished with - for this month anyway - and it's back to writing.

Did I mention that I hate all that financial stuff? Well, I do. But... if you run a business that's registered for GST, then a great proportion of your time must be devoted to it. I think I've said before, it's a monumental waste of a creative mind.

So, to get me in the mood, I'm blogging around.

Do I actually have anything to say, though?

Do I? Well... ask any writer if they have anything to say and see what happens.

Is it intelligent? Now, THAT'S the question.

I don't know about your house, but my book shelves are overflowing with novels from writers who've put together a story that speaks to me on an intelligent level, spiritual level, creative level, and on so many more levels. They're the memorable ones. The ones I can't part with even though there's no more room on the shelves.

I want to be like that.

I want to write novels that spirit the readers away to another time and space, into another reality. I want to reach right into their hearts and minds and create stories that people can't put down, can't throw away, can't forget.

That's what I call real writing. Real intelligence.

Listing numbers, figures, prices, columns of costs and GST percentages... that's not intelligent. It's mindless.

Some people love working with figures, though. They become lost in the search for logic, in the striving to help their customers or businesses become more astute in their monetary dealings, to squeeze the least little cent out of the tax system.

Not me.

I'd rather be lost in an alien landscape with alien animals and plants surrounding me. I'd rather be searching for the logic of why one race can't get along with another, why life itself is like it is.

Yeah! Give me those easy questions any day!

Reunion Lunch

Kaye and I survived our reunion lunch.

It was a little easier to talk to people out in the garden area of the North Eastern Hotel as we were seated around a large table. We chatted in a less formal way which I found easier. We were all able to join in the conversation and nobody was left out. Photos were taken and there were a lot of laughs.

There were two long tables set up inside for the meal and we all made our way in there and took a seat at random. The "in" crowd, was still there though, and little groups of people gravitated towards 'like souls'.

Kaye and I made a point of joining the "in" crowd and talking to them. During the meal, however, the conversation quite naturally divided into the "in" and "out" halves of the table again. It seemed to be a natural choice for people to "tune in" to the conversations that interested them most, or the ones they could relate to easiest.

We talked long into the afternoon. Long past what we each thought would be possible. What should have been a couple of hours turned into about five hours, then we all said goodbye and drifted back to where we all came from.

All in all, an interesting afternoon.

Kaye and I retured to Glenloth to analyse our experience and add our own visions to each other's memories of the past and the present.

It's funny what sticks in your mind, and what doesn't. I was surprised to find myself catching up with people I had completely forgotten I went to school with, until I saw them again.

Apart from the odd uncomfortable moments, caused by stepping outside of my comfort zone and taking a chance on people I barely remembered, I quite enjoyed the experience.
They're planning a 40th year reunion in six years time.

I've already decided to go along, if I'm still around then.

I'm glad I took that chance and made the first step towards getting to know the people I didn't really get to know all those years ago.

Perhaps I have grown up after all. Perhaps I have moved on.