On Leave

Jungle Fever is suspended for two weeks (last week and this week) for some much needed author respite.

Apologies, of course.

So.

Tired, frustrated, physically ill and unwilling to focus on anything except non-JF related writing. Hence the appallingly poor quality of this weeks installment.

My apologies.

Back From Beyond

Well, with Nano (successfully) behind me it's back to doing what I do best.

No, not that.

Not that either.

And that's just sick.

I mean, writing Jungle Fever for you, my adoring and not-at-all demanding readers.

Half Way There Day

An (admittedly late) update:

- I'm half-way through my Nanowrimo (whee!).

- JF seems to be updating as expected; if I can just teach Blogger to write them for me I'll be all set.

- South Australia has closed the Simpson Desert because it's too hot.

And that's about it. Hope you all are enjoying JF while I'm away :D.

White Hole Spewing Time...

If you're having some interesting issues with your RSS feed it's because I've changed the dates on all my Jungle Fever posts so that they're is only one a week (around the time of 'Revelations Pts. 1 and 2' I evidently skipped one).

I hope this isn't too much of an inconvenience. New installments will now be published on Saturdays at 7am Eastern Standard Time until December. I'll be Nanowrimo-ing until then, as previously mentioned.

Things To Come

As previously mentioned, I'll be participating in Nanowrimo again this year so I've already polished off the next five installments of Jungle Fever.

A word of warning though: some may find the next few installments after next week's to be a little...different. You'll either feel this is a refreshing change of pace or a great injustice. And another word of warning: some of these flow into one another, as I wrote them all over one big long weekend.

I really do hope, gentle reader, that you enjoy reading these things as much as I enjoy writing them. Remember: without you, I am nothing.

Crunch Time

I've foolishly decided to pick up Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month for the initiated) for the third year in a row. In 2006, I wrote 34,000 words of a story called Deadwing, an epic spanning 540 years and dealing with Hell, bloodlines and the fate of the world. In 2007 I wrote 10,000 words for a pulpy story about Socliasts, all-American heroes and nuclear weapons set in the 1950s that later inspired Jungle Fever.

Well, this year I'll try it again. The question is whether I can write 50,000 words for Nanowrimo whilst also writing 900 words of Jungle Fever a week for five weeks. I figure I have a few options:

1. Churn out six installments of Jungle Fever this weekend.
2. Put Jungle Fever on heitus until December or
3. Forget Nanowrimo.

I'm not too keen on Option 2 and Option 3 would damage my pride too much. So it looks like I have a lot of writing ahead of me. Hech.

Purpose

I promised I'd go into these things a little and, thus, here we are. First off, note that these are a little more regular and not nearly as polished as my Jungle Fever posts.

Secondly, why I'm writing Jungle Fever:
It used to be that I'd do a lot of writing over December-January, then do virtually nothing all year until then. This meant when December eventually rolled around I was ten months out of practice and had to rebuild my writing skills. Jungle Fever is designed to alleviate that by giving me the opportunity to write a bit every week of the year.

Obviously, this has some drawbacks. For one, I have to write even when I'm not really in the mood. It also means I tend to write with only a very thin plot in mind and some plot points (such as the meaning of the word 'VENUS' on the Norseman, John Brady's part of the deal with Guerrero and the local Hauca tribe of native peoples) probably won't be addressed at all. Which is a shame.

Also, I'm kinda motivated to tell a story, and not have characters just run about every week (as opposed to some of the anime I've seen, which appear to do just that). I want to tell a good story, and for it to be well written, but this is also about me building my own skills through writing regularly. So it's a bit rough and tumble at the moment. When I hit my stride (if ever), hopefully things run smoother and more elements will be fully fleshed out.

I am worried, though. Will the mediocrity of the first two dozen entries turn off more readers then it attracts? And is my haphazard, often changing, "Oops, run out of words. Will have to wait to next week." style grating on readers? Am I forgetting the setting too much (I think I stopped describing the jungle three installments ago).?

Or is this all just me worrying for nought?

Hello World

Well, it's the eighth week anniversary of Jungle Fever, my ongoing web serial. I've created this little side blog to discuss my motivations, inspirations, aspirations and predications for writing.

Think of this as a director's commentary of sorts (where I'll mostly wank on about how artistic I am and bemoan my lack of recognition despite having obvious talent :P).

First off: I want to apologise for the 'jumpy' nature of the last installment. There's a lot of disparate elements I wanted to bring together (i.e. how to rescue both Rex and Caroline) and one of my readers suggested it was about time Mohsen got a nod. So here we are. More next week, as always.