Finished 1st draft of 'How to'

38,000 words. Took over 4 months of sneaking a minute here, a few minutes there...
Now I need to read it, edit, check characters, add names, add more description, maybe get it up to 45-50,000 - would be nice.
Here's the spiel...:-)

No one was injured in the making of this book. However, there may be some casualties when reading....

In an ancient long-forgotten deranged land obsessed with power, greed and mud, a boy called Norby stands up to the problems around him. His is a typical story of 'boy meets girl, boy turns into soup, escapes, boy meets girl again, boy is kidnapped and becomes the 'chosen one' for a tribe of canibalistic vampirish desire-driven crazed warriors, boy leads them into battle, loses the chance of a lifetime to bed hundreds of Amazonian women and finally wins the girl'. 

If you thought 'Manna-X' was 'out there', this one will hurt...

Won TIW Winter Open!!!! :-)

Yes! I won it! Thank you to all who contributed their time and vote :-) Without you I couldn't have won!
This is the highest accolade I've ever achieved....3 challenges, 1 grudge match, 2 elimination rounds and now 1 Open final :-)
Now I'm in the Championshop Annual Final in May 2014 sometime...and a chance to win a free book cover design :-)

In fact, without you, I am nothing except a guy writing stuff on his computer...so, again, THANK YOU for your continued support! 'Dani's Shorts 2' and 'How to' are coming very soon...

So close to finishing 1st draft of 'How to'

Going through the 'battle' scene in 'How to'...getting there, really. All I need is a little quality time...then I'll get to the badass bit where I read it :-) Some characters aren't even named yet, they have their own life (emotions, habits,etc) but no name...I chose to name the bad characters with anagrams of 'career' authors - those writers who churn out yet another brain-sucking book every 3-6 months, earning tons of money and keeping the general readership (and so the world population) at a certain not-so-high awareness level - they dumb down the masses, and the good characters are named after anagrams of authors I respect, ones who may have been 'career' writers in their time but also created something FANTASTIC in the literary world or at least made an impression. The hero, 'Norby'...is in fact Byron...he's not a favourite of mine, but he created some wonderful work. I also named places in the same way, leaving the 'evil' place without changing the name...yes, the place is so evil...the settlement is called....you guessed it..."Grisham" :-)

What are they doing with movies nowadays?

I watched a few movies some friends said are worth the time. They weren't.
One was "The Day of the Siege", it's got a 3.3 razing on imdb. I see why. Not only is it slow, the actors stand there and open their mouths a lot, what they say is stupid and what they say is that Christianity is fantastic and any other religion is not...
The other was "Justin and the Knights of Valour", with a 6.0 rating. Oh dear. Great graphics, typical adventure story but such a bad script AND what was worse than the scrip was the casting! I have rarely heard such bored actors reading their parts. OK, they all try but they're as into their roles as soggy diapers. They kill every line...lines which are pretty awful.
Who are these scriptwriters?
Who are these actors?
Who are these producers who make these movies?
Who knows, but they're lucky, that's what they are. Terrible at what they do, but lucky all the same.
And who are the backers of these movies? Give me some time and money and I'll write you something to blow your socks off! Oh, I have...'How to' skeleton is slowly coming to completion, then character fixes, scene and description fixes...:-) Soon, soon...

Why do I do Iron Writer?

Three days into the Flash Fiction Iron Writer Winter Open Final...long title...and I'm in the lead - I've been here before. Why do I do this? Why do I do Iron Writer at all?
I tell you why. Because it's EXCELLENT for building up your writing skills, making you notice the successes and errors of yourself and others, stretching yourself to see where and how you can write, finding your boundaries. I'm good at dialogues and sparse description, all comedy. Others are good at other things, and you can learn from them. You meet others at the same stage as you, unknown, trying things, chatting with them, collaborating with them. I'm also helping edit the 'official' winner's anthology, due out after the Annual TIW Final (I hope I'm there).
As a writer, I'ev changed, become a little more polished/streamlined. Looking at the titles of the stories in 'Dani's Shorts 2' - out in just over a month, FREE on Smashwords - they're a different bunch to the first collection. Only 3 of the 55 have been seen on TIW (yes, I had a go at Challenge 40...nuff said...I like the second half of it). The latest, Challenge 48, is a eulogy - I had to research it. A year ago, I wouldn't have even thought it was possible for me to write comical eulogy. So...it will be interesting to see any reaction or feedback to this new collection. Here's the proposed cover...:-) Oh, and if you haven't voted for my "Marital Strife" story yet, please do so now :-) Thank you.
http://theironwriter.com/challenge-47-2013-winter-solstice-finals/

The Iron Writer Winter Open Final has begun!

Yes, you guessed it! The Iron Writer Winter Open Final has begun!
Please come read and vote for "Marital Strife" by Dani J Caile :-)

http://theironwriter.com/challenge-47-2013-winter-solstice-finals/
If I win, I'll stop going on about voting!
So, please vote! And get your relatives and friends to vote! :-)
...still working on 'How to'...:

One more day countdown

One more day and the VOTING CAMPAIGN begins :-) With the Autumn Open Final, I thought I had a chance because I had the most votes in the Elimination Round...but the eventual winner was only holding back. Now, with the Winter Open Final, I know the 'power' of the other 3 authors, and anything is possible.
Today I also did 2 things...
1. Sorted out the remainder of 'How to', putting it all in order - but not writing it all up yet, that's still a week away, the skeleton.
2. Started TIW Relay T2 with 150 words (see below)...which gave me an excellent idea for my Brad Shaw novelette, a cheesey detective thriller!
Here's the 150 words (but these will be revamped/changed a little in the novelette)

Nothing worked. The dreary comedy on cable, some cool jazz music on his 4 track, the book he'd bought months ago from the Antiquarium because he loved the cover but hadn't had time to read. He still had that feeling. Something wasn't right. Pouring a brandy, he watched the seconds hand on his kitchen clock. Somewhere something...his mobile phone rang. It was an unknown number, landline. He picked it up and stared out through his lounge window into the night, overlooking the flats opposite.
"Hello, Todd here."
"Mr. Lehr, I think I may have something which would interest you."
The voice on the other end wasn't familiar, in fact it sounded alien, like some voice effect was being used.
"Who is this?"
He was sure the voice sniggered hoarsely, away from their handset.
"That is not important. What is, however, is what I am about to say."
Todd listened intently.