In which G. Wulfing invites you to visit Tumblr

I have, in the last few months, made my Tumblr blog fancier. It now has a page where you can see all my published books, complete with blurbs, links, and their gorgeous covers made by Dr Riptide. It also has a fancy new header image. 

On Tumblr I mostly publish short, miscellaneous posts about writing, arguing with my brain, and ranting about things. I also post a link to my latest blog post every time I publish one. 

(Of course, if you are one of my Tumblr followers and you see, on Tumblr, a post inviting you to click the link to this blog post, this blog post will be inviting you to return from whence you came. Please enjoy the irony as my gift to you.) 

I have started making moodboards for my stories — which is a more demanding and time-consuming art than many might think, but very satisfying — and you can view them here. I'm quite proud of them.

G. Wulfing's pre-writing ritual

Part of the difficulty in writing is getting my mind to think about writing instead of all the mundane things it thinks it should be thinking about, and the frivolous things it would like to think about. If I have set aside an hour for writing, on some days it can take an hour to get my mind into the zone for writing, so that as I finally begin to write, I have to stop. Or it may take half an hour, in which case just as I start to get some real writing momentum going, I have to stop. Having a pre-writing ritual, as detailed below, helps enormously.

• Make a hot drink – masala chai latte, hot chocolate, or mochaccino
• Wake computer from sleep
• Light candle on desk beside computer (the soft, pure, soothing, romantic light somehow magically helps me to focus)
• Sip drink slowly
• Listen to a song, which may or may not be relevant to the manuscript I am currently working on, but either way gives my brain a few minutes in which to drift before I ask it to focus 
• Choose which manuscript to work on and open it
• Turn on rain noises
• Then – only then – start writing.

This routine helps my brain to leave behind the mundane thoughts of food and other duties, and to shift into writing-only mode. 
The rain sounds give my fidgeting brain a constant noise that cues it to focus but at the same time gives it something to get distracted to: like a tether, the rain sounds keep my brain from wandering too far into other thoughts. If I write in silence, my brain tends to wander off toward every frivolous little thought that slides past it. When in the past I have written to music, my brain tended to get distracted by the music: after all, listening to music is so much easier than writing! Thus, the rain soundtrack keeps my brain distracted enough from the silence that it can focus, but not so distracted that it abandons writing altogether.
Having said that, I did manage recently to drop the entire box of matches into my mochaccino as I was trying to light the candle, so this ritual is not without its hazards. (No matches were harmed, and the box is merely slightly coffee-tinted.)

Incidentally, because the world is currently even more awful than usual, Raymond's Nemesis and Raymond's Secret are currently free in Smashwords' 'Authors Give Back' sale, so you can read and/or download all three Raymond books for nothing. Link here.
Keep calm and stay home. And read all those books you've always wanted to read. We don't get to choose how horrendous the world is, but we do get to choose how we respond to it.

Pre-order for Raymond's Secret

Raymond's Secret, the third book in the Raymond series, is now available for pre-order!
Here is a blurb.

–––––

Toby Wilson’s best friends from school, Callum and George, are starting to become more and more worried about Wilson’s other friend and fellow student: the polite, mysterious Raymond. Is Raymond just foreign and a bit weird, or is he genuinely dangerous? If he is genuinely dangerous, would knowing the reason why be more dangerous than not knowing it? Wilson struggles to allay his friends’ fears without lying to them or betraying Raymond; and then another problem appears: Raymond has a stalker. And she even knows the contents of his lunchbox. Wilson finds that he needs to learn to emulate Raymond’s poise and acting ability very quickly – preferably without going mad, hurting any of his friends, or getting into huge amounts of trouble that would be extremely difficult to explain to adults.
Raymond’s secret threatens to explode in his face – and take Wilson, Callum, and George with it – in this story, the third in the ‘Raymond’ series, about the ‘sort-of vampire’ and his long-suffering friend Wilson.

–––––

For the past two years I have published a Raymond book at the end of December, as an end-of-year treat for my readers. Raymond's Secret is scheduled for publication on the same date this year: 31 December 2019 – though if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, that will be the 30th for you, and websites that are based in the Northern Hemisphere will show the release date as the 30th.

I invite you to pre-order Raymond's Secret so that you can get it the moment it is released, and at a special pre-order price.
If you're not familiar with pre-orders, they are quite simple: you can order the book in advance, but you will not be charged until the day the book is released.
Pre-orders are open now at Barnes & Noble and Kobo, and should soon be available at iBooks. You can also view the book's page at Smashwords, though pre-orders won't be available there (but you will be able to buy the book there when it is released). The pre-order price is US$0.99, which is about $1.57 in New Zealand dollars as I type this. However, a couple of days after the book is released the price will go up to US$2.99, so it's worth pre-ordering!

The cover is to be revealed in November.

Pre-order for Raymond's Nemesis

If you enjoyed Raymond, you may wish to know that there is a sequel: Raymond's Nemesis.

–––––

Toby Wilson's enigmatic friend from school, Raymond, has a secret, and Wilson is determined to help him keep it. So far, he has managed to keep the fact that Raymond is a 'sort-of vampire' hidden even from his best mates, Callum and George. As far as they are concerned, Raymond is just 'unusual', or 'eccentric'; after all, so long as he can play basketball with them and Wilson, what do a strange accent, a curious eye-colour, and an extraordinary amount of poise, matter?
But then a new student arrives at their school and starts to show a discomforting amount of interest in Raymond. The new student has a bullying streak, and seems to suspect that Raymond is … different. If he figures out what Raymond is hiding, Raymond and Wilson will be in the biggest trouble of their young lives: blackmail, lies, and difficult questions from parents and teachers could be just the beginning. Once again, Wilson finds himself in a graveyard at midnight with questionable company, and, suddenly, keeping Raymond and his dangerous secret safe becomes far more difficult and frightening than either Wilson or Raymond had imagined it could.
‘Raymond’s Nemesis’ is the second story in the ‘Raymond’ series.

–––––

Raymond was published on 31 December 2017, as an end-of-year surprise for my readers. Raymond's Nemesis is scheduled for publication on the same date this year: 31 December 2018 – though if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, that will be the 30th for you, and websites that are based in the Northern Hemisphere will show the release date as the 30th.

If you want to receive Raymond's Nemesis the moment it is released, you can pre-order it.
If you're not familiar with pre-orders, they are quite simple: you can order the book in advance, but you will not be charged until the day the book is released.
Pre-orders are open now at Barnes & Noble, and should soon be available at Kobo and iBooks. You can also view the book's page at Smashwords, though pre-orders won't be available there (but you will be able to buy the book there when it is released). The price is US$0.99, which is about $1.55 in New Zealand dollars as I type this.

The cover is to be revealed in November.
Here is an extract from the story.

–––––

A couple of weeks later, Raymond e-mailed me to ask if we could meet at the graveyard again after school someday that week. I replied that I had agreed to meet with Callum and George that afternoon, but the following afternoon, which was Thursday, I would be available.

As always, he was at the graveyard before me. I usually chatted with George and Callum for a few minutes after school, and that pause gave Raymond time to get a head start, so that we wouldn’t be seen walking together.

We dumped our backpacks in the shade of the great oak tree, and Raymond sat cross-legged in the short grass.

“What’s up?” I asked, flopping down beside him.

“Do you recall Logan Graves, the student who joined our school at the beginning of this term?”

I pondered. “The tall guy with dark hair?”

“Indeed. He has been displaying an interest in me.”

I looked at him uneasily. Raymond had such an unusual way of putting things. “What sort of … ‘interest’?”

“It is difficult to say. On numerous occasions I have seen him observing me with definite interest, perhaps curiosity. Generally I try not to be obvious, but this Logan seems to have noticed me. He seems to have perceived that I am … different.”

I frowned. We were silent for a moment.

“I suppose … it was bound to happen eventually,” I mused heavily.

“Of course,” Raymond agreed, “and I must admit that I never had a completely satisfactory plan as to what to do when it did.”

I looked at him. “Oh.

“… I sort of hoped that you did.”

“Most of what I do can be explained,” Raymond said. “I have an unusual eye colour; that is remarkable, but not abnormal. I seldom blink –”

“You never blink,” I interjected. “Not when anyone’s looking, anyway.”

“That is true,” Raymond conceded. “I could invent a medical condition to explain that, and also to explain why I stay out of the sun and wear sunglasses when outside.”

“You’re pale, but lots of people are pale, and you would be if you stay out of the sun all the time,” I supplied. “And you have an accent because you come from Romania.”

“Just so,” agreed Raymond.

I grinned. “Your dress sense is a little harder to explain.”

Raymond looked at me. “What is wrong with my dress sense?”

“Nothing. That’s the whole point. You dress better than anyone I’ve met. Certainly better than anyone else at school.”

“Ah, I see. Thank you.”

“But then most of the time we’re wearing uniforms at school anyway. And the reason you speak like that – all politely and properly – is that English is your second language.”

Raymond looked at me appreciatively. “Precisely.”

“So if we can explain everything about you, what’s the problem?”

Raymond inhaled deeply. “When you first began to notice me, did you not say all these things to yourself in your mind?”

“Um … I suppose so.”

“And yet you still found yourself wondering whether or not I was a vampire.”

“Well … yeah. But there was the blood thing. That was what really made me wonder. You could have been just a really unusual guy, except that you couldn’t keep your eyes off other people’s blood.”

“Indeed.”

“So … all you have to do is disguise your –” I shrugged, not knowing what to call it. “Your blood obsession.”

Raymond was silent.

“It’s not that hard, is it?” I asked.

Raymond sighed. “It should not be.”

“Just stay away from anyone who bleeds,” I told him. “You managed when Bertha threw that basketball at me. My nose was bleeding, but you didn’t even look at me.”

“I was focussed on preventing Bertha from harming you further.”

“Right. So … focus on something else. Distract yourself. Just don’t let Logan see you staring.”

Raymond nodded. “You are right. It should be easy.”

I hesitated. “Then why don’t you sound convinced?” I pressed him. “Come on, you’re the guy with the amazing self-control. The guy who never blinks or raises his voice. You can make yourself look away if you have to.”

The corners of Raymond’s mouth quirked in the merest of smiles. “You flatter me.”

“Well, it’s true, isn’t it?”

“Sometimes, as you know,” Raymond said slowly, “there are moments when I am more vampiric than even I intend to be.” 

–––––

In which we discover that G. Wulfing cannot write to a deadline

My muse is dreadfully fond of yanking me around. I posted the following to Tumblr about a month ago, and it has always been true.

My muse loves to play the following trick on me. She gives me masses of inspiration for a story, so that I feel I must write it immediately, and I temporarily drop the piece I’m currently working on, telling myself that I’ll write this new story quickly, get it out of the way, and return to the piece I was trying to work on. The inspiration then suddenly dries up, and I’m left with two half-finished stories: the one the muse just inspired me to write, and the one I dropped in order to write it. I glare at the muse in frustration and resentment, and she shrugs and disappears, leaving me to slog, at times painfully, through my attempts to finish the story that she dumped in my lap. Eventually she will return, but not to help me finish any of the stories I have half-written: no; she comes to bring inspiration for yet another story.
She is a brat, but she is also what will make me great. I am nothing without her, and she knows it. Occasionally she takes pity on me and helps me to finish, or at least make progress on, a story that is currently incomplete, but this is rare. More often, I am left to finish alone what she urged me to start.

The Enemy Soulmate is a perfect example of such a caprice. I began it near the beginning of this year, and, as mentioned in my previous blog post, hoped and planned to get it finished in time to publish in July; and at the rate at which it was progressing, that seemed entirely possible.
And then the muse vanished with a flutter of glittery wings, leaving me knee-deep in the swamp of a first draft, her illuminating glow fading with her; and as I continued to slosh, step by step, through the mud, the fog gradually lifted to reveal that the shore, which I had thought not far off, was in fact nowhere to be seen. And I have been slogging, at varying speed, ever since. O inconstant fizgig, that trifles with my very soul!
Because of this 'adorable, playful little quirk' (read: 'cruel, deceptive, nasty little vice') of my muse's, I invariably write multiple stories at once. I currently have approximately fifteen stories in varying stages of first draft, with other, fragmentary ideas in waiting. When the muse abandons me in the midst of a story, and I cannot squeeze anything more out of my brain regarding it, I skip to another one, so that I can always work on something. The downside to this approach is that it takes forever to get any story actually finished, but the upside is that I can always feel that I am making progress on something, even if it's not the book I'm currently trying to complete.
For The Enemy Soulmate, however, I wanted to see if I could get the story finished within a few months, if I focussed solely on it and persevered with it even when uninspired. I wanted to finish it quickly and get back to the story I had been working on when the muse decided that I was going to write The Enemy Soulmate instead. I am told that that is what 'professional' writers do – finish the book no matter how uninspired they feel – so it must be achievable, mustn't it?
The result of this intention is that I have spent a disappointing number of hours staring at the manuscript on my computer screen, cudgelling my brains, frustrated and impatient and half-inclined to throttle my mercurial muse next time she has the impudence to appear.
My deadline of July scuttled past, and then my next deadline of August ... and although the shore of the swamp seems to have appeared, hazy in the distance, it could simply be a trick of the murky light, and I am loath to set a third deadline lest I miss that one too and the concept of 'deadlines' start to become rather meaningless.
It appears that I cannot write to a deadline. Hours spent trying to write do not equate to progress being made. The stories will be finished in their own time, and I cannot pressure them into hurrying. I had always suspected that this was the case, but I had hoped to be proven wrong.
In fact, trying to finish the story by a certain date increased my frustration when the muse disappeared, and certainly took a lot of the pleasure out of writing it. I cannot say whether I would have made more or less progress had I not been trying so hard, but I am sure I would have been less frustrated.
Still, it is good to know, so that I can avoid setting deadlines in the future. Apparently, I have no say in when my stories finish themselves: I'm just the writer, and all I can do is make sure I have the tallest, most waterproof boots I can find, and plenty of snacks in my backpack.

I'm on Tumblr

I have a Tumblr blog now: www.g-wulfing-author.tumblr.com

There is not much there yet; I'm still finding my way around Tumblr, and I confess that I'm not adept with social media in general. However, if you are on Tumblr, please feel free to follow me. I will be posting there when I publish a new blog post here, as well as when I publish a new book.