It’s a lovely, warm morning in Station Square, Cambridge. I am in Caffe Nero, sipping green tea.
I’m on a gentle health drive. I’m phasing out dairy products. Cheese has gone. I thought I loved cheese, but I haven’t missed it at all. Next is milk, which is the big one. From tomorrow, my breakfast mug of keto chocolate stirred into hot milk will go. I will drink lemon tea.
My dietary adjustments are directed towards one goal. To reduce weight and relieve knee pain.
I never thought, after a year and a half of intensifying back pain, I would ever be rid of it. But it’s gone.
Knee pain? I’m coming after you next!
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Work on revising ‘The Half-Life Girl’ initially went very well. I sailed through chapters 41 to 46. However, I then reached Chapter 47 of the 60.
Momentous events happen breathtakingly fast in the previous chapters. The main characters have to make quick, instinctual decisions.
Those decisions must advance the story along the route I’ve planned, but they also must be consistent with how we, the reader, expect each character to behave.
There are contradictions.
I am digging down into the core of each character, both protagonists and antagonists, to lay bare and explain their deepest motives.
It will strengthen the storyline, but it’s time-consuming.
The rest of the book is written. Once I push through Chapter 47, I hope I can complete the revision with very little further trouble.
This roadblock is the reason I haven’t been active in the Facebook Groups.
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I can see that more of you have joined the two Facebook Groups.
I left you last week with a challenge - to come up with design ideas for a front cover for ‘The Half-Life Girl’.
I reminded you of what the front cover of ‘Beyond The Shining Portals’ looks like.
The central feature is ‘the shining portal’. Ideally, I’d like to echo this shape in ‘The Half-Life Girl’.
Elektra has to find and fulfil her destiny by the age of 22 at the latest. She’s in a race against the clock.
So, the image that best fits this is a clock face.
The background could be black with stars or tiny space ships since the book is set in the time of the wars between Imperium, ruled by the FirstBorn, the other dynatoi worlds and the worlds of the Maiden Orders.
Elektra, herself, is 18, she has olive skin and dark eyes.
The Facebook group link for ‘Beyond The Shining Portals’ is here.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2423605674550007/
Password: Jack
If you scroll a long way down, you will come across images created using
https://deepdreamgenerator.com
It’s a free AI artwork generator. It will create images based on your descriptions. It is endlessly patient, so you can ask for changes without it becoming irritated.
Post your images in this group
The Facebook group link for ‘The Half-Life Girl’ is here.
Password: Elektra
Many thanks