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L.D. Alford: Works in Progress |
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Work in Progress |
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7 December 09, I've already had feedback from one reader on Warrior of Darkness. I made some additions and fixes. I've been promised to get hard copy with notes on all the novels. That will give me an excuse to go through them all again--I love that. One of my other readers finished Shadowed Vale. I want to Write Ddraig Gnoch next, but I will have to read all the Ghost novels again. That will allow me to pull in all the elements. I want Draig Gnoch to conclude the Ghost novels. 19 November 09, First run through is complete. The novel is ready for review. I am working on the marketing material and will put up its own site soon. The domain is already in my hands. I am pleased with the novel. I want to read it again. I should wait for a while. This is a stand alone that is tied directly to all the other Aegypt novels. This is the darkest of all of those except the first. It is a rip roaring adventure with some very bittersweet elements. It also has a lot of humor, especially in the conversations. Scath is the funny person working with all the straight-men. She can't help it. 17 November 09, Fastest novel I have written to date. I couldn't stop. I started on 31 October and finished 17 November. 19 Chapters at about 20 pages per chapter and around 100K words. I'll get the details up after the next run through. I have some important foreshadowing to add and a whole section where Scath confronts Niul. The denouncement is really neat on this novel. It is one where everything doesn't fall into place, it flows together. This is a real action and adventure novel with lots of the strange added in. Starts and ends with Belfast bombings. Get some CIA action and some explanation of things from other novels in the series that were not explained in detail before. Gunfights. Get to find out what happened to Kathrin's sister. 14 November 09, Sorry I haven't put up an update for a while. I've been writing. I can't stop. I'm up to chapter 16. I've probably given away too much of the story already. Klava is in trouble with everyone. She was banished from the Celtic lands for breaking three of the great laws. She actually got off on two, but the last stuck. Kathrin had to banish herself and Lumiere decided to go too. Kathrin knew the courts wouldn't keep her banished, but she made a requirement that Klava would have to be allowed back too. Kathrin wanted a vacation--she never liked the mantle of the land. Klava and Scath get sent to San Diego. When PIRA capture Niul, Klava must return to the UK to rescue him. The problem is, she was banished. Stepping foot on the Celtic lands means she will be given a death sentence. Now she must retrieve her tablet and get to Niul. What she doesn't know is Niul is a set up by the PIRA as a trap for her. I should have told you that in between, Niul is trying to make up for what he did to Klava--it is all very bittersweet and painful. She told him the proper order was to win her affection, prove himself, and wed her. Niul is attempting to do all those things. 1 November 09, Up to chapter 3. Klava, without Scath's knowledge, is making Scath her priestess and Brigitta, the goddess of the Irish Lands catches wind of it. Klava needs someone to take care of her, Scath needs a friend and a place to stay. In addition, the intell stream indicates a double bomb is planned by PIRA for the next new moon. Klava is ready, Scath wants to help. That's when things get sticky. Red Donald brings his entire cell 12 strong: himself, 2 assassins, 4 bombers, 4 muscle, 1 magic ( a new one, Niul lost all his stuff due to Klava's work). Niul is a hanger on. Donald thinks Niul wants revenge on the girl who spoiled his magic and the bomb. Niul just wants to see and meet her. Before the bombs can go off, Donald sends his assassins to kill Klava. They open fire and murder Scath. Klava cant do anything about it--if she uses the tablet to heal Scath, the bombs go off and 546 people will die. She blocks the bombs and returns the power. The fireworks begin--the PIRA cell were watching from an embankment. Unfortunately for Klava 13 who were guilty get wacked, but 17 innocents lose their lives. This drives Klava into a state of near insanity. With all her remaining strength, she takes the ka of Scath into the tablet, but the water of the well rejects the dead ka. The ka of Scath is dissipating. driven by her anguish, Klava carries Scath's dwindling ka to the tombs and puts her in the closest one. Meanwhile Niul finds the dazed and confused Klava. She is in a completely vulnerable state. He drives her to his flat and unable to control his desire, rapes her. 30 October 09, Klava is a bad girl--well kind of. She wears black, smokes John Player Specials like a smokestack, drinks Guinness for breakfast, and only comes out at night. She is living in Belfast and preventing PIRA and UDA bombs from going off. PIRA is the real problem. And the problem for Klava is to handle the bombs using her unique method requires the force to return to the ones who made the bomb--usually with dire consequences. The guilty always get killed and that causes Klava pain. Sometimes the innocent get hurt and that tears her apart. Still she saves more than those who are killed--she has chains that evidence this to her. A gold chain where every link is a person who she saved and a black and silver chain where each black link was a perpetrator and each silver link is an innocent. Klava has picked up a roommate. She found fourteen year old Scath on the street. Scath looks after Klava when things get bad. Klava thought she was just helping Sadth--its kind of mutual. The PIRA are using magic to hide the bombs--Klava can handle that, but her presence at the latest bombing drew attention to herself. The PIRA's magic wielder wants to meet Klava--the leader of the cell wants to eliminate Klava. So it begins. 29 October 09, Yeah! Time to write another novel. This time I want to write Warrior of Darkness. This will answer what happened to Klava. Like all the Aegypt novels, It will be a very different book, both from the other novels in the series and from any other novel you might have read. 25 August 09, I moved the notes from the writing of the Shadowed Vale to its secret page. I started on a new novel--the final one in the Ghost Ship Chronicles. I'm naming it Ddraig Goch. Ddraig Goch means Red Dragon in Welsh. It is the name of the ship Nikita, Alex, and Mara take at the end of Shadowed Vale. I intend to use the ship in the final novel (kool). I really haven't started writing on it seriously yet. 24 August 09, The first cut of Shadowed Vale is complete. I am happy with the love story and the adventure story. |
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Novels |
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Here is the current list of novels I am working on or have finished. You can see the working title may be entirely different than the final title. This is because until the work is finished, I usually don't bestow a title. I think the year started is right in most cases.
How to read this chart. The highlight indicates the novel I am working on now. Column: 1. My original numbering sequence. The large number is the number I gave a work when I put the list together in about 2000 or so. The small number is the order of my concept development of the novel (Illidin is the first novel idea I conceived). The Ghost novels have some suffix letters because I imagined them as one book and later broke them apart into three (now four, maybe more). 2. Type of work. Fiction - F, Historical Fiction - HF, Science Fiction - SF, Fantasy - Fan. The small number is for completed novel and the order of completion. 3. Title is the final title of the work. I leave the working title until I fix a final. 4. Year started. I went back and tried to determine when I started each novel. 5. Stat (Status). Writing - W, Incomplete - I, * - ready for marketing/publication, On contract - C, In consideration - A, Published - P (year and month) 6. Words. The number of words in the novel. 7. Notes. 8. Working. Working title for the files. A work can only be considered completed when it is published, and I keep a list of changes for each book after publication. If I ever get a chance to fix some things, I will. Once I have a work started and outlined, I can finish the first draft in about 2-3 months of daily writing (0700 to 2100). I like to aim for 10 to 20 double spaced pages per chapter and about 20 chapters. This is a guide to give about 60,000 words or more per novel. In general, I have a goal of about 100,000 words per novel. Some novels need more and some a little less. |
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Past Notes |
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I just finished writing The Shadow of Light. This is the fifth Aegypt novel. I am very happy with this novel. It is a fun mystery/spy/adventure/ancient/modern world story. You will find it all fits together very well and concludes the Aegypt adventures well. I don't know if I will write another novel in this series, but I left some open ideas just for that purpose. I would like to write another novel based on the children of the family. I propose to work on Regia Anglorum next, but we shall see. Keep checking. I'll put info as I write when I start on that novel. |
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L. D.
Alford is a novelist whose writing explores with originality those
cultures and societies we think we already know. His writing
distinctively explores the connections between present events and
history—he combines them with threads of reality that bring the past
alive. L. D. Alford is familiar with technology and cultures—he is widely
traveled and earned a B.S. in Chemistry from Pacific Lutheran University,
an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Boston University, and is a
graduate of Air War College and Air Command and Staff College. L. D.
Alford is an author who combines intimate scientific and cultural
knowledge into fiction worlds that breathe reality.
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