Rod Duncan's Blog
April 18, 2019
Of Stories and Raven Feathers
The final novel in the Map of Unknown Things trilogy has been sent in to the publisher. The name has been fixed. Cover designs are being created. The process of structural editing will soon be underway. But for a time it is out of my hands. And to some extent out of my mind.
After a couple of months of frenetic and focused work on that one story, I find myself with a few weeks in which I am able to drift. I have been walking a lot. And taking photographs. As I have mentioned before, this is just as much part of the creative process as the actual writing.
Yesterday, I paused in Jubilee Woods, near Loughborough, to take some photographs. Then the photographs were taken and I was walking away and I realised that I had, for the duration of that process, 'disappeared' from my own conscious awareness. That state of unawareness is something I hope to achieve when I am writing also. It seems to be an important part of the creative process.
As I walked in that dreamy state, I was playing with the threads of a story that has been in the back of my mind for some years. It concerns crows. It was the original reason for my watching, feeding and befriending
The full article and photographs can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
After a couple of months of frenetic and focused work on that one story, I find myself with a few weeks in which I am able to drift. I have been walking a lot. And taking photographs. As I have mentioned before, this is just as much part of the creative process as the actual writing.
Yesterday, I paused in Jubilee Woods, near Loughborough, to take some photographs. Then the photographs were taken and I was walking away and I realised that I had, for the duration of that process, 'disappeared' from my own conscious awareness. That state of unawareness is something I hope to achieve when I am writing also. It seems to be an important part of the creative process.
As I walked in that dreamy state, I was playing with the threads of a story that has been in the back of my mind for some years. It concerns crows. It was the original reason for my watching, feeding and befriending
The full article and photographs can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
January 12, 2019
The Mirror World of the Dyslexic Novelist
I wrote an article on dyslexia and writing, which has just been published on the wonderful Tor.com
You can read it here:
https://www.tor.com/2019/01/10/the-mi...
You can read it here:
https://www.tor.com/2019/01/10/the-mi...
January 1, 2019
The Outlaw and the Upstart King - unboxing video
A short video of me getting hold of my first copies of The Outlaw and the Upstart King.
A few words about keeping going when working on long writing projects.
And a thank you message.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyTNA...
A few words about keeping going when working on long writing projects.
And a thank you message.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyTNA...
December 3, 2018
Sale Sale Sale
The eBook of The Queen of All Crows has just gone on sale at a deep discount for a limited time.
Details here:
https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
Details here:
https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
November 2, 2018
Advance Review Copies available
Advance review copies of the Outlaw and the Upstart King are now available through Netgalley:
https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/boo...
https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/boo...
October 3, 2018
Cover Reveal
You will find the cover reveal of the next novel here: https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
And here is the back blurb:
As it is inked, so shall your oaths and bindings be.
Tattoos are the only law on the Island of the Free, and there can never be a king. Every clan agrees on that. But a returning exile has smuggled something across the water that could send the old ways up in flames. Elias wants revenge on the men who severed his oaths and made him an outlaw. But, if his wealth and honour are to be restored, he’ll need help from the most unlikely quarter – a mysterious woman, landed unwontedly on Newfoundland’s rocky shore.
And here is the back blurb:
As it is inked, so shall your oaths and bindings be.
Tattoos are the only law on the Island of the Free, and there can never be a king. Every clan agrees on that. But a returning exile has smuggled something across the water that could send the old ways up in flames. Elias wants revenge on the men who severed his oaths and made him an outlaw. But, if his wealth and honour are to be restored, he’ll need help from the most unlikely quarter – a mysterious woman, landed unwontedly on Newfoundland’s rocky shore.
September 10, 2018
Sneak Preview
In this article I discuss the cover art of the novel The Outlaw and the Upstart King and share a short extract from the book.
https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
August 31, 2018
What is a Writing Practice?
I’m preparing to teach a course at DMU which will be focused on the creative writing practice of the students. But what does that phrase mean: creative writing practice?In the last couple of years my own conception of it has expanded to include activities that do not at first seem related to writing. Walking, for example. And photography.
Wanting to understand what other people’s conceptions were, I put out the following on Twitter: “A question for all writers out there: what activities/elements are included in your creative practice?”
The question spread. The post was re-tweeted 65 times and ended up on over fifteen thousand screens. I received 53 replies, which included several hundred suggested elements of the creative writing practice. Many of those elements were common to different writers. And, more than that, there were a small number of clearly identifiable types of response. For example, many writers mentioned music, though with different specifications. Walking, and other activities involving rhythmic movement were another common theme.
The phrasing of my question was deliberately vague. This gave room for people to respond in different ways. Some took a narrow interpretation, focusing on the act of writing itself. Others saw their practice in broader terms, including activities such as dancing, sketching and even shovelling horse manure.
Below, I have laid out the responses in those broad categories, as best I can. A couple of the elements, such as dancing, occur in more than one category. Some elements were hard to categorise. For example, I wasn’t sure where to put “listening to voices in my head”, but ended up adding it to the meditative activities section.
I was thinking of having a section on ritualistic activities, such as the practice of only starting writing on the hour or the half-hour. These are a distinct theme, since we seem to have found many strange and different ways to trigger ourselves into that creative balance of mind that allows the magic to happen. But in order to arrange them in such a category, I would have had to interpret the reasons for the things people report doing. This is something I didn’t think I could do. As a result, ritualistic elements have ended up scattered through the other categories.
This is not an exact science. Some of the categorisation may seem arbitrary. It is also possible that I have missed out one or two suggested elements. Responses came so quickly at one stage, that I found it hard to keep up with transcribing them. But I think the list below does represent a reasonable impression of the range of responses. Many thanks to all the people who took the time to help me with this.
The full article can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
Wanting to understand what other people’s conceptions were, I put out the following on Twitter: “A question for all writers out there: what activities/elements are included in your creative practice?”
The question spread. The post was re-tweeted 65 times and ended up on over fifteen thousand screens. I received 53 replies, which included several hundred suggested elements of the creative writing practice. Many of those elements were common to different writers. And, more than that, there were a small number of clearly identifiable types of response. For example, many writers mentioned music, though with different specifications. Walking, and other activities involving rhythmic movement were another common theme.
The phrasing of my question was deliberately vague. This gave room for people to respond in different ways. Some took a narrow interpretation, focusing on the act of writing itself. Others saw their practice in broader terms, including activities such as dancing, sketching and even shovelling horse manure.
Below, I have laid out the responses in those broad categories, as best I can. A couple of the elements, such as dancing, occur in more than one category. Some elements were hard to categorise. For example, I wasn’t sure where to put “listening to voices in my head”, but ended up adding it to the meditative activities section.
I was thinking of having a section on ritualistic activities, such as the practice of only starting writing on the hour or the half-hour. These are a distinct theme, since we seem to have found many strange and different ways to trigger ourselves into that creative balance of mind that allows the magic to happen. But in order to arrange them in such a category, I would have had to interpret the reasons for the things people report doing. This is something I didn’t think I could do. As a result, ritualistic elements have ended up scattered through the other categories.
This is not an exact science. Some of the categorisation may seem arbitrary. It is also possible that I have missed out one or two suggested elements. Responses came so quickly at one stage, that I found it hard to keep up with transcribing them. But I think the list below does represent a reasonable impression of the range of responses. Many thanks to all the people who took the time to help me with this.
The full article can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
August 21, 2018
Sneak Preview
A short article about the names of novels and films and a sneak preview from The Outlaw and the Upstart King
https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
August 9, 2018
Sharing or Piracy?
Every day, I do a quick sweep of the Internet to check for new web pages offering my work for free. Every week I set in train a few more page-takedowns. On one occasion, someone was even offering my novel before it was published, free to download on a torrent site. (They must have got hold of an advance review copy.)
‘Piracy’ - that is what I would call it. But I am aware that those who partake of copyright material in this way often perceive it as ‘sharing’.
One of the sites that pirated my work was called oceanofPDF. It has recently been taken down, sparking a fierce online debate. Perhaps shouting match would be a more accurate term. As with so many political issues these days, there is sharp division and few people seem to be listening to the other side.
The unusual thing about OceanofPDF was that it had a kind of mission statement, presenting what it was doing as a virtue. Its main claim was to be offering books for free download to people in parts of the world where they were excessively expensive or not available, to people too poor to afford to buy. It even addressed the authors to some extent, encouraging readers to review the books as a way of paying something back.
I still had the pages that were offering my work taken down.
In the aftermath of the death of OceanofPDF, users of the site have been angrily lashing out at authors, calling us elitist, wishing we rot in hell, saying they will hunt us down and kill us. (Yes, really.)
This is an issue I have kept quiet about for a long time. But with that kind of language being used, I feel that I do now need to speak up.
1) Almost all authors can’t support themselves through their writing. That means we take on other jobs. Which means less time writing, and thus, fewer books. Far from being a wealthy elite, most professional authors struggle to make ends meet.
2) It is argued by some that stopping piracy is impossible, therefore we should not try. If this is really true, they should not mind OceanofPDF being taken down. There will be no end of other piracy sources.
3) It is argued by others that piracy actually helps authors by getting the word out about their work. It is free advertising. Neil Gaiman has said words to this effect. There are plenty of counter-arguments to this. But we don’t need to explore them here.
For authors who wish to avail themselves of this free advertising opportunity, there is a legal route. We can simply release our books with a creative commons license, allowing them to be freely shared. Indeed, many people do exactly this. There is a wealth of free books legally available online. But if an author has not released their work in this way, it’s a pretty good bet that they don’t agree with the free publicity argument.
4) It is also argued that none of the people illegally downloading would have bought the book, so there is no loss of earnings. And on the other side of the argument, people state that every illegal download represents lost income. It is fairly easy to see that the truth must lie somewhere between these two extremes. Thus, some illegal downloads do represent lost income. And as I suggested in point 1 - lost income results in fewer books being written.
5) Another argument presented in favour of piracy is to counteract the perceived unfairness of Digital Rights Management software (DRM) which tries to stop people who have bought an eBook from copying it to other devices. However, my publisher Angry Robot led the way in abandoning DRM, a trend which spread through the publishing industry. Even if this was once an issue, its significance has dwindled.
6) It hurts. I don’t often see this spoken about. But writing a novel takes every ounce of emotion and intellect and determination that you have. It takes terror and fatigue and elation and hope beyond hope. You go through it all willingly, of course. (It is the best job in the world.) But the product of all that striving is something infinitely precious to you. It is an emanation of your soul. To see it casually given away contrary to your wishes - that really hurts.
Reading Twitter comments about the demise of OceanofPDF, it is clear that many of the readers have no idea how much they are hurting the authors whose works they enjoy. ‘I’m so sad it has gone. Where will I get my free books now?’
7) Some people can’t afford to buy books. Here we get to the most interesting discussion to come out of the OceanofPDF debate. Many of the complaints being voiced on Twitter ran something like this: In my part of the world books are too expensive to buy. And many are banned by my government. This website was a lifeline. Now it is gone, I am so sad.
Of course, the counterpunch from authors and their supporters is something like this: If you can afford a computer and the Internet, then you can afford $1.30 for a novel.
However, I don’t think this point is so easily dismissed by upholders of copyright like myself. Gross inequalities ARE endemic in the world. Inequalities originating in nationality, race, religion, class, cast etc, DO give or restrict access to education and culture. Libraries do not exist everywhere.
On the other hand, there is a vast amount of written culture available for free and legal download. Copyright has a limited term. Want to read Pride and Prejudice, Moby Dick, Dracula, Jane Eyre - they are all yours. Project Guttenberg is a good place to find this kind of thing. And there are millions of pages of fiction being written today that are released free by the authors: fan fiction, original novels, short stories.
8) Other economic models have been proposed to support writers. Micro patronage, for example, and the universal basic income. Copyright is not perfect. But at present it remains our only legal framework. It makes writing as a career possible. Piracy undermines writers. It undermines the production of new work. I do not believe it is the answer to global inequality. It damages the very thing that its users presumably value.
Read other articles at : https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire
‘Piracy’ - that is what I would call it. But I am aware that those who partake of copyright material in this way often perceive it as ‘sharing’.
One of the sites that pirated my work was called oceanofPDF. It has recently been taken down, sparking a fierce online debate. Perhaps shouting match would be a more accurate term. As with so many political issues these days, there is sharp division and few people seem to be listening to the other side.
The unusual thing about OceanofPDF was that it had a kind of mission statement, presenting what it was doing as a virtue. Its main claim was to be offering books for free download to people in parts of the world where they were excessively expensive or not available, to people too poor to afford to buy. It even addressed the authors to some extent, encouraging readers to review the books as a way of paying something back.
I still had the pages that were offering my work taken down.
In the aftermath of the death of OceanofPDF, users of the site have been angrily lashing out at authors, calling us elitist, wishing we rot in hell, saying they will hunt us down and kill us. (Yes, really.)
This is an issue I have kept quiet about for a long time. But with that kind of language being used, I feel that I do now need to speak up.
1) Almost all authors can’t support themselves through their writing. That means we take on other jobs. Which means less time writing, and thus, fewer books. Far from being a wealthy elite, most professional authors struggle to make ends meet.
2) It is argued by some that stopping piracy is impossible, therefore we should not try. If this is really true, they should not mind OceanofPDF being taken down. There will be no end of other piracy sources.
3) It is argued by others that piracy actually helps authors by getting the word out about their work. It is free advertising. Neil Gaiman has said words to this effect. There are plenty of counter-arguments to this. But we don’t need to explore them here.
For authors who wish to avail themselves of this free advertising opportunity, there is a legal route. We can simply release our books with a creative commons license, allowing them to be freely shared. Indeed, many people do exactly this. There is a wealth of free books legally available online. But if an author has not released their work in this way, it’s a pretty good bet that they don’t agree with the free publicity argument.
4) It is also argued that none of the people illegally downloading would have bought the book, so there is no loss of earnings. And on the other side of the argument, people state that every illegal download represents lost income. It is fairly easy to see that the truth must lie somewhere between these two extremes. Thus, some illegal downloads do represent lost income. And as I suggested in point 1 - lost income results in fewer books being written.
5) Another argument presented in favour of piracy is to counteract the perceived unfairness of Digital Rights Management software (DRM) which tries to stop people who have bought an eBook from copying it to other devices. However, my publisher Angry Robot led the way in abandoning DRM, a trend which spread through the publishing industry. Even if this was once an issue, its significance has dwindled.
6) It hurts. I don’t often see this spoken about. But writing a novel takes every ounce of emotion and intellect and determination that you have. It takes terror and fatigue and elation and hope beyond hope. You go through it all willingly, of course. (It is the best job in the world.) But the product of all that striving is something infinitely precious to you. It is an emanation of your soul. To see it casually given away contrary to your wishes - that really hurts.
Reading Twitter comments about the demise of OceanofPDF, it is clear that many of the readers have no idea how much they are hurting the authors whose works they enjoy. ‘I’m so sad it has gone. Where will I get my free books now?’
7) Some people can’t afford to buy books. Here we get to the most interesting discussion to come out of the OceanofPDF debate. Many of the complaints being voiced on Twitter ran something like this: In my part of the world books are too expensive to buy. And many are banned by my government. This website was a lifeline. Now it is gone, I am so sad.
Of course, the counterpunch from authors and their supporters is something like this: If you can afford a computer and the Internet, then you can afford $1.30 for a novel.
However, I don’t think this point is so easily dismissed by upholders of copyright like myself. Gross inequalities ARE endemic in the world. Inequalities originating in nationality, race, religion, class, cast etc, DO give or restrict access to education and culture. Libraries do not exist everywhere.
On the other hand, there is a vast amount of written culture available for free and legal download. Copyright has a limited term. Want to read Pride and Prejudice, Moby Dick, Dracula, Jane Eyre - they are all yours. Project Guttenberg is a good place to find this kind of thing. And there are millions of pages of fiction being written today that are released free by the authors: fan fiction, original novels, short stories.
8) Other economic models have been proposed to support writers. Micro patronage, for example, and the universal basic income. Copyright is not perfect. But at present it remains our only legal framework. It makes writing as a career possible. Piracy undermines writers. It undermines the production of new work. I do not believe it is the answer to global inequality. It damages the very thing that its users presumably value.
Read other articles at : https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire
