work in progress

A few quick notes

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A quick note to let you know The Cities Beyond the Signal, my portal fantasy novella, is on sale on Kindle.

UK people – you can pick up a copy for 99p here.

US People – you can pick up a copy for 99c here.

The sale runs until 12 April.

The cover to The Cities Beyond the Signal by Christian Ellingsen. It shows a grey fog, bound street. Old, style street lamps line one side of the street, a building with a pillared front he other. A figure stands looking at the building. The image is distorted by ripples emanating out from the centre.

In other news

While we’re here, a quick update on the things I’m working on.

Tales From Vasini III is sitting patiently in its virtual draw while I do some tidying up on the first draft of The Vasini Chronicles III.

I’m now about 28,000 words into the first draft of the non-Vasini novella I’ve been writing. It’s looking more and more like this will actually be a short novel than a novella.

And that’s the end of that chapter

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Last night, I finally reached the end of the first draft of The Vasini Chronicles III. Woo’hoo.

It’s taken some time to get here. A year and a half, I believe (I should really keep a better record of when I start writing a first draft). But after 157,0000 words (some of which will hopefully be good) it’s done.

It will now sit in a virtual draw for a while before I start editing it to try to put some more good words in there and take the less good words out.

Next up is a non-Vasini related novella. But I won’t be starting on that until the New Year. Well, maybe a little bit before then, if I happen to have a spare moment.

Anyway, woo’hoo.

In other news

I’m in the depths of editing Tales From Vasini III. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the condition the novellas are in. They still need work, but its heartening that they are in as good a shape as they are at this point in the process.

Of course that will all be swept away when I next make a pass through them and despair at what I’ve written.

Don’t forget that Beasts of the Wildlands: Tales From Vasini II is out on 19 January 2023. You can pre-order it on Kindle here:

UK

US

Canada

Australia

France

Germany

Netherlands

Please check your local Amazon store if your location isn’t listed above.

If you’re on Goodreads you can find details and add it to your To Read list here.

Three things

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello,

Apparently it was June the last time I wrote on my blog, and then it was just a quick note on a Goodreads giveaway and two short paragraphs on where I was with writing and editing my works in progress.

This time though, I have a little more news with the promise of more news to come.

The Silver Mask sale

First, to the thing of immediate interest…

US and UK people — you can get The Silver Mask on Kindle for cheap for the next seven days.

UK people, it’s 99p and can be found here.

US people, it’s 99c and can be found here.

It’s a great chance to try out The Vasini Chronicles and find out about the world of Vasini ahead of…

Beasts of the Wildlands: Tales From Vasini II coming soon

The second Tales From Vasini book is finally coming in January 2023.

Beasts of the Wildlands will consist of two novellas — The Hunters and In the Ruins of the Deities.

More details — release date, cover, blurb — will come in the next few weeks.

But, yay! It’s coming and soon.

Looking back through my blog, it looks like I started work on the first of the two novellas back in 2017. So, it’s taken five years to get here.

And then…

Now that Beasts of the Wildlands will soon be out in the world, I’ll be turning my attention to editing Tales From Vasini III. Hopefully there won’t be as a big a gap between Tales From Vasini II and III as there was between A Divided River (Tales From Vasini I – 2017) and Beasts of the Wildlands (Tales From Vasini II – 2023)

Work on the first draft of The Vasini Chronicles III continues. It’s currently around 130,000 words. By my estimate, it will be about 155,000 to 160,000 when the draft is finished so I’m close to the final stretch. But my word count estimates are always wrong, so we’ll see. If all goes well — and fingers crossed it will — I should be done on the first draft by the new year. Fingers crossed.

The Theatre of Shadows giveaway

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

US people,

Nearly a year has passed since The Theatre of Shadows, the second part of the Vasini Chronicles, went out into the world.

To celebrate, I’m running a Goodreads giveaway. You have a chance to win one of 100 Kindle editions.

You can enter here.

You have until 15 July to enter.

And in other news…

The Vasini Chronicles III is still being written. It’s passed the 100,000 word mark and there’s still a few chapters to write until I have a complete draft.

I’m coming to end of working on the latest draft of Beasts of the Wildlands: Tales From Vasini II. This will hopefully mean I can move onto the copy edit, then a bit of proofreading and then it should — if all goes well — be in a position to go out into the world. Many digits crossed for that.

And now it’s 2022

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A little late, but Happy New Year, all. I hope 2022 hasn’t already destroyed the spark of hope that can come with the change in year.

So, 2021 happened, and I finally managed to publish The Theatre of Shadows: The Vasini Chronicles II.

On that note:

UK folks, The Theatre of Shadows will be available for £1.99 on Kindle until 12am 20 January GMT – you can find it here.

US folks, it’s currently $2.99 on Kindle until 12am 20 January PST – you can find it here.

So, what’s coming up for me this year?…Who knows. But here’s what I’m currently working on.

I’m 75k words into writing The Vasini Chronicles III, which means I’m hopefully past half way done on the first draft.

Beasts of the Wildlands – Tales From Vasini II – will soon be taken out of the draw for another edit and after that I should know how much work is left before it can go out into the world.

I’ve managed a first edit of Tales From Vasini III, but it will likely be sitting in the virtual draw until Beasts of the Wildlands is close to publication.

As a bit of a break from all the Vasini-related stuff, I’ve also been looking at my supernatural noir that has been sitting in the draw for the past few years. Still like it (very much), still (very much) want to see it published one day, still not quite sure how.

A short pause

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Back in August I posted about editing Tales From Vasini II: Beasts of the Wildlands.

I recently finished another draft and this one is now with someone to have a little look at.

While I wait to hear what they think, I’m having a look at Tales From Vasini III – the first time since I finished the first draft.

So, what can I tell you about it apart from it involving some murders around the Vasini docklands (and its working title is Murders in the Docklands)?

Well:

  • It’ll consist of three interconnected novellas
  • The current draft is 74,120 words
  • It will tie up a loose end from The Theatre of Shadows

And that’s about all I should tell you for now. After all, there’s a whole Tales From Vasini to come before it.

Out now and coming soon(ish – hopefully)

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , ,

The Cities Beyond the Signal is out now on Apple Books

My portal fantasy novella, The Cities Beyond the Signal, is now available on Apple Books. You can find it here if you’re in the UK or on your local Apple Books store.

Have a read and, maybe, if the urge takes you, leave a review on Apple Books or Goodreads (or both).

And coming soon

…ish – hopefully.

The proofreading of The Theatre of Shadows: The Vasini Chronicles II is underway. It will take a little time and, until its complete, I’m not going to risk saying when ToS will actually be out in the world, but we’re in the final stretch. Finally.

And coming later…I finished writing the first draft of the third novella for Tales From Vasini III. There’s a lot of work to do on it, which will have to wait until The Theatre of Shadows is wrapped up and I’ve done some editing on the stories for Tales From Vasini II. Next on the list of things to write is The Vasini Chronicles III. And then, after that, maybe something non-Vasini related.

Theatres, beasts and city treats

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , , ,

Work on The Theatre of Shadows: The Vasini Chronicles II is going well. I finished the most recent draft last week, getting it that much closer to being out in the world.

With the latest draft on The Theatre of Shadows done and The Cities Beyond the Signal now out in the world (more on that below), I’ve finally had the chance to start editing Tales From Vasini II, currently with a working title of Beasts of the Wildlands. This is an odd one for the Vasini books as the two novellas that it will contain are completely set outside of the city’s walls, dealing in part (as the name suggests) with the twisted beasts found in the Wildlands between the city-states. This will be their first edit after sitting on my laptop since I completed the first draft nearly two years ago (on 21 December 2018 to be precise). This has mainly been down to me concentrating on editing The Theatre of Shadows,

.

As an aside, I’m currently making good headway on the first draft of the second novella for Tales From Vasini III. Fingers crossed I can keep up this pace.

For those looking for a deal, my novella The Cities Beyond the Signal is currently 99p on Kindle in the UK and $1.99 on Kindle in the US. Both deals end at 12am (GMT/PST) on 30 November, so go get them now before the deals end.

You can find The Cities Beyond the Signal here in the UK and here in the US.

How long has it been?

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello, all. I hope you’re keeping well.

I started writing a post back in April, but for several reasons never got to post it. I tried again in July, but it still didn’t happen. So now, in September, I’ve salvaged some of what I originally wrote and put together a short update on where I’m at with a couple of things.

When I was writing the original post back in April, it was our seventh(?) week of being housebound. In many ways, not much changed. My day job means that I work from home on a regular basis. Tackling childcare while working proved a challenge, but rather than deal with the stress and put my daughter through the nonsense of her parents working while she wanted our attention, thankfully we were in a position where I could take some parental leave which made things easier.

Of course, tackling all of this, living in a situation so disrupted from the norm did mean that other aspects of life were getting disrupted. There was less time to read. At times, less inclination to write as my mind was full of processing what was (and still is) going on and working out how best to get our next load of shopping. But things moved along, just more slowly. Sometimes very slowly. Yet, with any situation you acclimatise to the new norm. Things started to speed up. I found the gaps in my day that allowed me to read a bit more and, as you’ll see later, I’ve even managed to write and, more importantly, edit.

It’s been great to be able to have my family around me more though. So much time can be lost not just to work, but to getting to and from work. And there are a couple of things that the disruption has let me do thanks to my daughter settling down earlier at night and not having to get everyone up at 5am in the morning so they can get out of the house in time to head to work and nursery. The main one was getting the chance to play Dungeons and Dragons for the first time in a decade.

Yes, I could probably have written more, but, truth be told, my mind, for the first few months, wasn’t in a place where it could concentrate for that long, too many distractions in the real world. One shot D&D games though were just plain fun. Limited thinking required, just focused on enjoying some time with friends and acquaintances with no pressure. To be honest with you, the release from what was going on probably allowed me to go on and do the writing I did do.

The Cities Beyond the Signal

I’m getting close to putting the finishing touches to the novella I’ve been working on under the title of The Signal (now called The Cities Beyond the Signal), the sequel to the novelette The City Between the Books.

That means I should, fingers crossed, have some news soonish about when it will actually appear in the world.

The Theatre of Shadows: The Vasini Chronicles II

Although The Cities Beyond the Signal will be released before the next Vasini Chronicles book, much of what time I’ve managed to get to write over the past few months has actually been spent on The Theatre of Shadows. Things are progressing well, there’s still work to be done, but it’s getting closer and closer to being ready.

Tales From Vasini III

I’ve actually managed to finish the first draft of one of the novellas that will make up Tales From Vasini III.

It needs work, and I still have the two other novellas that I need to write to go with it, but it’s a start.

Reading

I’ve already hit my Goodreads goal for the year of reading 48 books. It was mainly thanks to having bought the entire main series of The Walking Dead graphic novels via Humble Bundle. I managed to get through the two-thirds of the series I had yet to read thanks to not being able to concentrate on anything too text heavy.

Blogging

With the release The Cities Beyond the Signal on the horizon, expect me to start blogging a little more frequently over the coming weeks. Whether it will turn into a more frequent think in the longer term remains to be seen.

Anyway, keep safe and well. Wash your hands (do you remember when the advice was just wash your hands properly?), wear a mask, keep two meters apart and stay inside as much as you can.

Book 19 is missing

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , ,

I did it. Well, all but Book 19.

This time last year I decided to finally sit down and start reading/playing Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf adventure game books after I’d been trying to piece together a complete collection since the late ‘90s. You can read the story behind that here.

A year on, and I’ve come to a (temporary) end of my read/play through.

In the end I managed to get through the first eighteen books in a reasonable time — about one a week for eighteen or so weeks. I managed to pick up Book Seventeen (one of the few missing from my collection when I started the read through) for a not too unreasonable price. However, Book Nineteen remained (and remains) elusive (at least at a price I’m willing to pay). So I broke off from the read through in what must have been August last year.

A week or so ago, I finally gave up on waiting, and read Book 20 — The Curse of Naar — completing, with that one exception, my read through.

Was it worth the effort of collecting and the wait to play it all the way through in (almost) one go?

Probably.

Having grown up on standalone Fighting Fantasy books, it was kinda fun playing through an ongoing story. Certainly the first story arch of five books played well. They’re fast paced, fun reads. After that though the books started to become harder going. Not only did the pace seem to slow and it take longer to get through them, but they felt more and more linear, with the decision points not being about choices over a course of action but about what you had done in previous books or which skills you’d chosen at the start. There was a strong sense that it was almost essential to have read at least the majority of the books in sequence just to make sure that you had all of the prior knowledge and all of the equipment you needed to succeed.

Did I cheat to complete them? A little, although a lot less than I have with certain Fighting Fantasy books.

In other news

I’ve completed another draft of The Theatre of Shadows – The Vasini Chronicles II. I’m actually feeling quite positive about it and it seems that I’m getting that much closer to being in a position to publish it. Fingers crossed I’ll still feel the same when I go back to it in a few weeks time after its obligatory time in the virtual draw.

Until next time, keep safe and wash your hands.