So I was meant to come home and start working on my secret project tonight, but while at the gym I ended up talking to this lovely woman... until 1:30am. So, obviously nothing much has or will be written tonight. However, I will be damn sure to get at least a blog post out!
I have big news in relation to my upcoming book; after an overly long time of faffing about - it's now all in the hands of the graphic designer who will be putting it together for me. This is the last stage of the project, I can't even edit it any more. This fact alone is terrifying the shit out of me. Just to give you some context, here's a pic from my computer.
March 2011 is the earliest copy I've got, but I know I started this story in late 2010. So that's a good seven years that I've been tinkering away at this story, building and adding to it. Now that it's out of my hands I'm obviously relieved but also freaking the hell out - I've been able to work with it for so long!
Those are some interesting jumps in word count there, each time the story has grown in complexity as I've thrown more and more into it. It's not like I've been working on it for seven years straight either, it's done a lot of sitting around while things peculate.
The thing with this story is, and part of me is screaming that I'm even writing this down, it's mostly based on my life. The original inspiration for the story was a dream I had, and the setting never changed, but the plot has grown over the years as I've dug deeper and deeper into a lot of childhood issues that have left some damage. I don't know when exactly, but at a certain point it stopped being just a story and became an outlet for me, a way to deal with some of the stuff I'd been through while growing up.
The main character is based on me, but he's not me. It's a worse off, never tried to fix himself, version of me. My worst case scenario, if you will. I don't know why I even though it possible to write a story about myself and keep that fact a secret, but I've been operating under that delusion for a few years now. But I've been looking at the artwork... and there's pictures of me in there and there's just too many anecdotal stories for readers not to notice something was going on.
I think I needed to tell myself that I could hide the fact that it's based on my life, but this close to release I can't maintain the lie anymore. The vast majority of characters in this story are based upon people I know, and the vast majority of situations are real events that have happened. The world didn't end though, well... not for you lot, so you're going to have to use some common sense to figure out which parts of the story are true and which are fiction. I think you'll be surprised by the ratio, however.
You don't end up in therapy, for three years, if everything went as it should have. There are going to be some characters in this story who are not shown in the best of lights, and the protagonist is definitely one of them. He's just at the start of his journey though, so cut him some slack.
For other people who don't like how they're portrayed in the story, well... take comfort in the fact that you had an impact on my life, even if it wasn't for the best. I'm not out to get anyone specifically, I should clear that up, but certain individuals are going to get called out for certain things they've done in the past. How they chose to take this is up to them...
But, to end things on a lighter note - I've got something of an announcement. To kick off the count down to completion, and hopefully, subsequent release - I'm doing a cover and title reveal!
Days too Dark is the name of my upcoming novel, it's a Post Apocalyptic Log set after the world was plunged into darkness. It's an exploration of the narrators background as well as the end times - and why the former makes him so suited to the later. This is his actual journal mind you, so it's going to be jam packed with his scrawled writing and there's some fantastic artwork in there from a few very talented artists.
What this means though, is that I had to get creative with the cover. He can't have an awesome picture of himself standing outside some ruined building, the tattered remains of civilization scattered about, because this is his actual journal. It's got to look like something that a person would be writing in after the world ends! So this is what I came up with... I managed to get a little creative with the symbolism, and I get that it's not the most flashy cover but it meshes really well with the overall project.
There's still a little way to go before I'm ready to announce the release date, but I figured that I'm all giddy with excitement so I'd give an announcement.
So that's it! What do you all think?