Category: CRYO; A Changed World

Competition Time

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CRYO: Rise of the ImmortalsAre you an artist? Love to dabble with alien concepts and create new life? Want to win some Sci-Fi goodies AND get your artwork inside an eBook? You’ve come to the right place!

As many of you may know, CRYO: A Changed World has been completed and is undergoing edits.  This is the second book of the CRYO series, and I’m expecting it to be released at the end of the March. Then, very excitingly for me, I’m having my first ever blog tour for the book. But, back to competition time.

In A Changed World, an alien race make their first appearance and it’s time for you to get your thinking hats on. Using the information below, prepare artwork on how YOU envisage these new alien creatures. The best will be showcased here on my website, across my social media sites (G+, Pinterest etc) and the one winner will be placed within the print and digital copies of the books themselves!

PRIZES:

– One Winner will have their image featured within CRYO: A Changed World. They’ll also receive digital copies (in their preferred format) of books 1 and 2. They’ll be showcased on this blog too!

– Five runners-up will be featured on this blog and will also receive digital copies (in their preferred format) of CRYO books 1 and 2.

*NOTE* All entrants will keep the copyright to their images, but provide me with an attribution license to distribute artwork untouched. This includes sharing on social media websites and within the book itself. The winning entry will have a link to artists website from the digital copy (for print, the web URL will be provided).

Submission Details and Closing Date

The closing date is Friday March 28th. Please submit artwork with a subject line of “CRYO CONTEST” to geoff_wakeling(at)hotmail(dot)com. In addition to submitting your art, please let me have details of your website so I can link at G+, Pinterest posts etc to your portfolio’s!

Artwork Details

Now the fun bit! I’ve included as many details below as I can think of. Ask questions in the comments section if you need! And please, spread the word.

Physiology
 
–          Amphibian-like
–         Large eyes
–         No ears – just folds. Lacking hair – again, think amphibian.
–         Between 4/5 feet tall.
–         Three fingered, three toed.
–         A range of skin colours, from mottled brown and grey, to teal and silver. The colour of reflect their caste.
 
Clothing
 
–          Natural coloured tunics.
–         Their skin is breathable and has to be kept damp. As such, when outside their cities/vehicles etc they wear biosuits. These keep the moisture in. The suits are transparent but can be flicked to a dense opaque texture with the push of a button. However, they’ll often wear a body suit without the head component, slathering their face with a muddy moisturiser instead.
–         They use growing plants as adornments. Plants, fungi, lichen, flowers have roots embedded under the skin. These tiny pieces of flora then grow across the skin. Creatures are described as having swathes of silvery lichen up their neck, a cluster of bright flowers over their brow, or perhaps, fungi growing over their heads.
–         In addition to plants, they’ll use feathers and beads to decorate themselves.
–         Adult males wear funny flat-cap type hats, whilst the larger and taller females utilise long conical headdresses with adornments to make them appear even taller.
 
Environment
 
–          the creatures live in vast underground and cavernous cities.
–          These are kept moist, well lit and filled with plants; an artificial oasis.
–          Some architecture is on the surface, but covered with a transparent layer like their biosuits.

CRYO; A Changed World is written

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Just over a minute ago I wrote the last sentence of CRYO; A Changed World. I can’t believe it’s done and I’m over the moon that I managed to keep to my schedule and have it complete before January – though only just.

A Changed World has been great to write, largely because I’ve really got to indulge in exploring a new world. Rise of the Immortals was all about the CRYO lotto, the cryonics process and what happened when the podmates first emerged back into the world. There was a lot of scene setting before John was even frozen. I thought it was important to convey the place he was leaving, and the struggle he found himself in when striving to fulfil his dreams whilst saying goodbye to loved ones. A Changed World is entirely different in the fact that it’s no longer a struggle of emotion, but the struggle for survival. The new world is unrecognisable and somewhat hostile, and the CRYO podmates have a lot to encounter. From inhospitable landscapes, flora and fauna, to new creatures and foreign cultures, John and his gang have many challenges to face in the new instalment.

Now that the first draft has been written, it’s time for the hard work to begin. The book came in shy of 90,000 words, but I normally add words as part of the editing and rewriting process, so I’m under no illusion that it’ll end up nearer 100,000; a similar length to Rise of the Immortals. I’ll be self-editing in January, before sending to another editor at the beginning of February. That means, all being well, it’ll be ready for publishing by March. I also have Keith Draws on-board again for the cover, so I’m excited to get to work on that.

Alongside editing, I’ll also be starting the next Inside Evil book; it seems like only yesterday I finished New Alliances! It’s going to be bittersweet for me as I’ll bringing all those story threads to an end, but will also have to say goodbye to my characters in more ways than one.

Anyway, for now, I’ll enjoy the adrenaline at the end of the race. Happy New Year!

NaNoWriMo; When inspiration finally comes to fruition

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I haven’t updated the blog in a while and that’s been because every available word at my disposal has been thrust into this year’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month for those of you who don’t know). And, for the first time it looks like I’m going to complete the challenge; 50,000 words in a month. I reached 40,000 yesterday so thought I’d take a brief gulp of air and push my head up to see what’s happening.

Many years ago as I was walking passed a building site, inspiration struck me. The first year accommodation for my university were four concrete and skyline-domineering tower blocks. They really were an eyesore, but I had many good memories. When the site was sold to developers, I assumed they’d simply blow the towers up; you know, Vegas style. As I walked by on this particular day, an extremely long crane with a unyielding set of metal jaws rose into the air instead, and it began to dismantle the towers from the top downwards. The image immediately sparked something in my head; it was like a great creature reaching into the air and causing destruction with ironic grace. At that time I was writing Inside Evil, and there was no way I could fit in these beasts. And so, CRYO took its first footsteps of life.

Like all things, the CRYO tale took on a life of it’s own; so much so that these beasts almost didn’t appear at all. John and Kath, my main characters in the first novel, took over my head and led the story where they wanted it to go. But finally, as I hit 30,000 words in the sequel, years of thinking finally came into alignment and the huge crane de-constructing my former home finally wormed its way into the pages of my book.

This year, NaNoWriMo has been a complete God send. It’s fitted in seamlessly with my writing schedule, and I intend to have about 60,000 words written by the end of the month; that’s two-thirds of CRYO – A Changed World complete. It’s been extremely interesting writing this sequel and taking John, Anne, Amity and co into the great world beyond the CRYO station. They’ve discovered – actually, they still are discovering – a lot of new things and are leading me in great circles around my story milestones.  There’s also the battle of a language barrier between my CRYO survivors and a new race to contend with ….it’s a difficult line to write a new language without it becoming absurd, whilst trying to put enough in to show the difficulties my characters face.

Whilst I was aiming to get this sequel out towards the end of February, it’s looking like it might come early…and that’s something I’m extremely pleased to hear!