Back to writing

Posted on January 20, 2014 by ashleymanningwriter

I’ve finished my assignments, sent them off and shouldn’t have another for a couple of months. It feels good to once again not have that impending doom feeling hovering above me. My plans for the next couple of weeks is to get back to writing the second book in The Fragmented Sequence. I’m getting close to the end and should finish it. While doing that I’m also going to be editing the The Man Out of Place, which is coming along nicely. 

Nearly finished reading The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway. I’ve enjoyed it. More than I thought I would, especially since not a lot happens. Afterwards I have The Sun Also Rises to read, followed by Lord of the Flies. I’ve wanted to read Lord of the Flies for a long time, and have set it on my table to be read as soon as possible. 

Recently I’ve been playing Earthbound, the old Snes game that was finally released in this country last year on the Nintendo virtual console. I’ve known about this game for a few years and have wanted to play it from the first moment I found out about it. I’m about 4 hours into it at the moment and all it’s done is cement the idea that the snes is my favourite console. It’s just brilliant and I am having to stop myself from going back and playing it right now rather than get on with some writing. 

Watched The Frozen Ground over the weekend. My mum is a massive Nicolas Cage fan, so I’ve seen more than enough of his films. This one however was actually really good. The best thing he’s made in years, which may not be saying much, but I was expecting another Stolen, when I got a good entertaining film also based on a true story. The last film he made, The Croods, was actually quite good as well. One of my favourite films of last year. Hopefully this good film streak will keep up. 

Anyway, I’m of to go and do some writing. 1000 words is the aim. 

Thanks for reading,

Ashley.

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Assignments

Posted on January 15, 2014 by ashleymanningwriter

For this Sunday I have two assignments due in. A 2000 word chapter for my Dissertation and a 2500 word essay on Romanticism. I’ve finished the Dissertation chapter, and have chosen to do a question on comparing To The Snipe by John Clare and To a Skylark by Percy Shelley. I have some points, but haven’t written it yet. The aim is for 500 words today, 1000 tomorrow, 500 Friday leaving 500 for the weekend and plenty of time to recheck both the essay and chapter. All is going well so far. 

Yesterday I announced The Man Out of Place. A new e-book which will be coming out in March. The reason I chose this to be only an e-book was because of it’s length. It’s 26000 words long, which just, to me, seems to short to release at the price print copies cost. There is a second book in this new series, which will be around a similar length. I will release both of them together in print form later in the year. I enjoyed writing the first book and am already at work on the next one. I have ideas, the ending, the beginning (In that order) and some little bits to throw in here and there. 

I would like to point out that while it sounds like a detective book, from the summary I gave yesterday, it isn’t as such. I simply can’t write a detective book with a complicated plot and multiple suspects, maybe one day, but not at the moment. There is a case, there is a few suspects, but overall the story is about Elliot Morrow entering this new and strange world and trying to find his place within. 

I have just finished reading The Island of Doctor Moreau by HG Wells. I enjoyed it. The story is good, the themes are thought provoking and just as relevant now as they were over 100 years ago. I haven’t read that much of Wells but I should try to at some point. I’ve also been reading The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. I’m about a quarter of the way through it. I wanted to read his stuff after reading The Battler, a short story by him. I like his writing style. So far I’m enjoy the book but it’s rather short and I haven’t read enough to make any judgement. 

Thanks for reading, 

Ashley

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The Man Out of Place

Posted on January 14, 2014 by ashleymanningwriter

Image

I’m very pleased to announce that above is the draft cover for my new e-book, The Man Out of Place due out in March. For the time being it will be exclusive to kindle, but there will be a print edition later in the year, combined with the second book in this new series.

Elliot Morrow is a detective and has been following leads on one case for too long. It’s dragged him down. Not only has his family died, but he also found out that people around him are involved in a cover up. Just as he thinks he is about to crack the case and reveal everything, he finds a crystal. This crystal transports him into another world, that while similar in some ways, is completely different to his own. After finding himself at a crime scene he is suspiciously given the title of detective. Another case rears its head and Elliot must help solve it before finding his way back home.

The cover was designed by my brother Ben, with help from me and my girlfriend Tabby. It’s only a rough draft with many changes to be made, but I feel confident with how it looks at the moment. I’m very grateful to the people who helped me with it.

There will be plenty of information about the book released soon, including a first chapter preview (Hopefully next week, but probably the week after).

Some of you may be wondering what happened to the second book in The Fragmented Sequence. Unfortunately it has been delayed. There is a reason for this, but I really don’t feel like going into it now. Sorry. I may do at some point, but don’t count on it. I still think about the second book, From Within near enough every day and have plenty of ideas for it, but other things get in the way and I needed to step away and do something else. I will be returning to that book on Monday after I’ve finished my assignments (due in midnight Sunday) I am truly sorry for this delay and hope you enjoy the completed book whenever it is finished.

Thanks for your continued support,

Ashley.

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New Story, Twitter and Facebook

Posted on January 13, 2014 by ashleymanningwriter

My new story Dear Scuttles – Part One had just been uploaded. Please click HERE to read it. Share it, comment on it, come back for part two next week. I hope you enjoy. I’m quite anxious for feedback on this one. 

I’ve also made it my aim to use social media more. I would like to share my facebook page HERE and my Twitter page HERE. Please like and follow me. I will try to update both pages regularly. 

My presentation went okay today. I didn’t make much eye contact, fumbled around a bit in places but I got the job done. At least I didn’t mess up completely. Should pass it, and I’m happy with that. 

For tomorrow I have 2 pages to read about Romanticism which I’ve printed out but not looked at yet. Tomorrow morning it is. 

I hope you all come back tomorrow for the announcement. I’ve been putting the finishing touches on it and am pretty happy with the outcome. 

Thanks for reading,

Ashley

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New Story Incoming

Posted on January 12, 2014 by ashleymanningwriter

Phil’s dead now. Has been for two whole years. The public knows it. They say it was stress from his adventure, that’s what they’re calling it, and adventure, if you’ve been living under a rock and didn’t know. That’s not entirely true. Stress did get to him. He drank a lot. It wasn’t just the book, or the adventure, it was me. I was there as he looked over the blank page, his head filled with those disgusting thoughts. I was there when he crashed the plane in the first place. They said it was problems with the weather. They missed out his drinking. I was there when he found the cave on the island. I watched him as he climbed up the hill, thinking for some reason that he was in heaven. Sorry. I’m getting ahead of myself. I killed him. I put the thoughts in his head to punch through the window, slicing his wrists open, and let the blood fall. I told him to do it, and he listened. His wife found him later, blamed herself. She had left him a couple of weeks earlier, after the affair. Both the separation and the affair didn’t reach the newspaper. Nor did the death of his mistress. My work as well, just so you know.

***

This is the second paragraph of a shortish story I’ve been writing. One of my new years resolutions was to write one short story and upload it here each month. I got to a point today where I didn’t have an idea at all for this month. Good start to the year. So I say down and just wrote one word after another until a story formed. I will be uploading the first 2000 words tomorrow. The whole story is going to be between 4000 and 5000 words long, so I will upload it in two parts.

I’m quite excited about the story, it’s different from other things I’ve written, still fantasy, but different in tone. Still quite dark, but hopefully you’ll get what I mean when the whole thing is uploaded.

I was so excited about how easy this story seemed to flow that I had to upload something straight away. The first paragraph is rather dull to be honest, but I like the second one. I appreciate any feedback, either to this section or the story as a whole.

Another thing about this story is that it will be self-contained. A lot of the things I’ve uploaded here can be extended, but this is different. Anyway I hope you enjoy it and come back tomorrow to read the first half.

There’s also that announcement I will be making on Tuesday. All things seem to be set for it. Just putting the final touches on a few things.

So see you then and thanks for reading,

Ashley

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