IT'S OVER AT LAST

I've just this evening finished my Novel as part of the National Novel Writing Month. My novel titled The Ghostly Heart is now complete and I'm proud that I was able to finish it in a month. I'm happy with the story too and I hope it's as passionate and sad as I wanted it to be. As you can see below, I have included the icon that is given to all winners of the National Novel Writing Month.

I'm seriously considering trying to write a book in twenty four hours and perhaps for charity. Anyone out there that would like to sponsor me, I would be glad to hear from you.

My next book is going to be a large historical novel- my opus- set in London in 1888. It is also a chance for me to look back into my family, as my father's side came from Bethnal Green, and his Grandmother remembers when Jack The Ripper was going about his gruesome business. My book, although set at the same time as the Whitechapel Murders, are not soley about that, and are actually focused around other political events of the period. It is of course, going to be hard work, but most of the research is done.

Just realised I'm missing the modern version of a Midsummer's nights dream on BBC One. Nevermind- writing comes first.

I'd like to say well done to the other participants of National Novel Writing Month.

Mark Yarwood

Nearly At The End

Well, National Novel Writing Month is nearly over, with only eight days to go. I'm on the final stretch and can't wait for my novel: The Ghostly Heart to be finished. It's good to have another novel under my belt and that means this will be my eighteenth! I'm going to celebrate it with friends by going out for a slap up meal. I should also smoke a cigarette and drink a black russian- my new 'I've finished a novel' routine. Eighteen books! It still seems like yesterday that I was starting my first book 'Love, Regret and Murder'. I was so young and didn't have the first idea how to write a book.

After this latest speedy effort I'm going back to an unfinished historical fictional book that I started a couple of years ago. It's going to be six hundred pages at least and set in London in 1888. I keep reading back the start and it's not bad, but have to get all my research material fro London before I can begin.

Ah, Christmas is coming fast and I shall travel to London with my laptop under my arm, but will be back for the new year and will continue to write.

Mark Yarwood

Writing Until the End

I have this month taken on the challenge of trying to write a novel in a month as part of the National Novel Writing Month. I met up with other people from Devon last Sunday who have also taken on the challenge and we had a good and productive time, drinking and writing. It's good having met a few other writers in Devon, as now I'll have people to bounce my ideas off.

My book is entitled 'The Ghostly Heart', which is based on an idea I had some time ago and only just got round to working on. I'm 17,000 words in and it's going well. The title is sort of taken from The Great Gatsby, where the narrator says 'No amount of fire and freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart'.

The book is basically about a love triangle, but it also more than that. There is a mystery surrounding a cult and the grip it has on the main character's ex- lover. Well, I should be finished by the end of the month, the deadline. I realise now that I've never worked to a deadline before, so I suppose it's good practice.

At the moment I'm trying to think of a sort of ritual I can do at the end of my novel, like smoking a single cigarette or eating a big meal or something. Well, I'm going to think about it.

Yours

Mark Y

Five Things

Ok, haven't updated my site for a while as I've been concentrating on my novel writing, but my friend Laura has persuaded me to get back to blogging. Here's my Five Things list:

Five Things I plan to do before I die:

1) Swim with sharks
2) Become a lectuer of creative writing
3) Live in New York for a year and write a book
4) Get married at least once, probably in Las Vegas.
5) Drive a Ferrari

Five Things I can do:

1) Write books
2) Draw pretty damn well
3) Remember and quote films
4) Do the best Michael Caine impression in the Universe
5) Laugh like some evil villian

Five Things I can't do:

1) Play Football
2) Sing
3) Drive
4) Forgive and forget easily
5) Stop writing

Five Things that attract me to the opposite sex:

1) Making me laugh a lot
2) Brown hair
3) Full figured
4) Cleavage
5) Nice legs


Five Things I say a lot:

1) Fantastic
2) 'Water' in a weird, crap foriegn accent.
3) 'That's the best news I've had since I threw up my lunch'
4) In all my years as a London cabbie I've never heard of that address before.
5) It's too early for this shit

There you go,

Enjoy

Mark Y