Monday Methods : R.B Harkess

My writing day starts absurdly early, thanks to my partner who I have to taxi down to the train station at the ungodly hour of six in the morning. Having said that, it does mean I am sitting at the

kitchen table, ready to start, by about 6:30. Things tend to go something like this.

Open Mac, log on

Realise I forgot to make tea

Put kettle on

Log back on to Mac

Open Scrivener

Kettle boils, make tea.

Log back on to Mac, open the right scene.

Dry cat off, because it raining and he’s just come in soaking wet and jumped up onto my lap.

Log back onto Mac, compose thoughts, ready fingers above keyboard

Try to stop the cat, who is now hungry, from stomping all over the keyboard

Feed Cat

Log on to Mac — make note to extend the screensaver time-out

Type twenty words

Dry the other cat, who has just come in soaking wet…

not the author's cat
not the author’s cat

And so it goes on for about an hour. Eventually they get bored with harassing me and settle down, and I can finally get around to some real writing.

At the moment, I’m working on the third and final book of the Warrior Stone trilogy (as yet unnamed). I used to say I was more ‘pantser’ than ‘plotter’, but these days I’m not so sure. I start off needing to know all the backstories, what the motivations are, and some fairly detailed notes on any new characters. All of this is done pen on paper, preferably with my special ‘writiing pen’ that my partner gave me about 20 years ago. From that, I go to what I call ‘scenes’; two or three lines, like ‘Somebody tried to kill Claire by….’ or ‘Claire is at the hospital with her parents. Stuart comes in and they…’ (You didn’t actually expect I was going to tell you what happened, did you?)

From there, its time to transcribe everything into Scrivener, and then I start filling in the blanks. In this phase, first draft, I’m doing the equivalent of scribbling in pencil so fast I can hardly make out what I’ve written. This is one of the most wonderful parts of the whole writing process to me. It’s like giving birth to the story; quick and rushed and exciting and at then end of it I know if I’ve got something I can work with.

There are some that say being a plotter takes away the fun of exploring the story as you write it. All I know is that since I started plotting, I’ve finished every novel that made it as far as a list of scenes, and that I have a drawer full of 20-30,000 word false starts I didn’t plan first.

Happy writing

 

Warrior Stone : Underland Out Now!

Out now!

Underland is a twisted copy of The Real that uses industrialised magic to power a weird mix of stolen technology. It’s just enough like The Real to make travelers over-confident and get them into trouble. Which is just what happened when Claire Stone accidentally falls through rushing home one night. Claire is offered a job as a Warrior, hunting down and destroying shape shifting monsters.What adventure-hungry lover of fantasy could refuse? Everything seems great, until a friend goes missing and the Warrior has to turn Hunter.

WSUsmall

‘Warrior Stone: Underland is an action-packed urban fantasy that brought Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere to mind. Fill with adventure, magic, slick weaponry and a great cast of supporting characters (Evie is brilliant).’
Kim Curran

Available now for Kindle via Amazon worldwide

Paperback coming soon via Amazon

Ebook versions available soon via SpaceWitch

 

Crowing Foxes, Emily Nation and Warrior Stone

Lots of news for you all today.

First of all Warrior Stone is winging its way out into the world. We are very proud of this first Young Adult novel on the Fox Spirit roster. It’s had a cracking review already as well as some incredible pull quotes.

Cover by Linzi Goldstone 

WSUsmall

 

 

We also have a cover image reveal for Emily Nation by Alec McQuay, out later this year. The image is by Jenna Whyte. The novel is post apocalypse punk set in what’s left of Cornwall.

Book cover Base 2 copy

 

 

Finally, the sekrit project we have been working on for some time!

‘And the Fox Crows’ is a collection of poems based on fox mythology from all over the world by V.C.Linde. A free sampler will be send out with the next newsletter so sign up now! The cover will be by S.L.Johnson and we look forward to revealing that soon!