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24 January 2014

Plans, schemes and machinations

14:32 | | Edit Post
You could, if you were so inclined, call this the State of play address.

My goal, new years resolution, plan, aim, or whatever you like to call it, is to try and publish four novels in 2014

Primary of these is George and the Dragon.  The oldest file I can find that references George and the dragon is dated 7 December 2007.    Which means I have been working on the novel for over six years.  It's now 33 chapters and just over 100,000 words in length.  As a comparison this is what the file contains:

George and the Dragon.

Chapter 1 – The rain of fire.

The summer had rolled slowly on for George. He spent most of his days down by the river. Actually it was more like a brook and it ran along the end of the gardens of the great old house where he was staying. George and his mother had come to stay with his uncle in early June. Since then he had spent his days getting up at 8:30 having breakfast with the butler Mr Smyth, the grounds keeper Roger and Eileen the house keeper. Then he’d get some maggots from Roger collect his rod and a packed lunch prepared for him Eileen. George had been told that Roberto the chef was far to busy for such things and warned to keep away from the kitchen if he had any sense.

It was a hot day and the water in the brook rolled slowly past. The water level had also become lower as the summer had progressed, However, George could still sit up against the large Weeping Willow and let his feet dangle in the cool water while he dozed in the summer hear.

Chapter 2 – The base

“What was that?” Asked Flight Lieutenant Davies.

“I never saw anything sir.” Replied  

Chapter X – The Chinaman

The train journey to London was uneventful and if anyone had asked George he would have told them it was “quite boring really”. However, nobody did ask him, in fact nobody really asked him anything, even though he had grown up so much now and rode the most fearsome dragon in the whole kingdom the adults still decided everything without ever consulting him.

Reading this no it all looks a little primitive the titular Chinaman is no longer Chinese, I decided I was mixing eastern and western mythologies and so he is now a character from western mythology instead.

With the exception of George all of the names mentioned in the text above have been changed.  But the three scenes that I had started to develop in that early, stuttering prose all still exist in the book.

It doesn't really give you a sense of what the book is about.  

Here's my George and the Dragon synopsis:

World War II has broken out.  The Germans have started to blitz the UK and now they have a new weapon, a weapon so powerful it could end the British war effort before it has even started.

With bombs falling dangerously close to home George Atkins’ mother, Mary, decides to evacuate their home and go to live with his uncle in the heart of English countryside.  George’s whole world is turned upside down when five dragons, ridden by Luftwaffe airmen, destroy his uncle’s house.  At the same time, with thanks to his father and a group of bumbling British scientists, George becomes the rider of an emerald green dragon he names Spitfire.

The pair and are recruited, albeit reluctantly, by a special unit of the RAF.  As the first dragon and rider fighting for the allies, they face the biggest challenge of their lives to save the country from defeat by the Luftwaffe and the evil leader of the Nazi’s forces General von Vogler and his mutant dragon Blitzkrieg.


At the moment I'm completing a final edit of the novel using prowritingaid.com.  This is invaluable as a tool when editing any written work. 

I have also decided that the first two chapters meander far too much.  So I have decided to slam them together like the protons in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and see what it spits out.

So that's the plan for George and the Dragon.  I'll discuss my other novels in future posts.

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