#write 425 words today and left it on a bit of minor ledge-hanger to get me excited next time - what will Miss K say after meeting a ghost?02:44:37 PM March 08, 2010from web
If you read my blog on a regular basis you might have noticed a number of posts about Frederick II appearing. What does it mean? Well a while ago I was working on a project about Frederick II called Stupor Mundi. I recently decided that I would have another go at this novel, but not worry too much about conducting exhaustive research. Instead my plan is to just keep writing and go back at a later date to check facts and add in any nuggets from my research. I have also taken on Stephen King’s advice in On Writing to just see where the story takes me. I had already come up with an interesting situation and enough plot ideas to get going, so starting wasn’t really a problem, but I didn’t know where the journey was going to take me.
So far I have about 10,000 words written and I am aiming to do about 500 words a day. Each day is exciting and new and I have surprised myself. I find that when I don’t write for a day or two it’s much more difficult to get started again though. Whereas I suppose if you have everything planned out you can pick up the torch more easily as you have a firmer idea of what comes next.
I’ll keep you posted on how I get on, but if you want to read any early chapters they are over at OWW now and also will be coming up on the queue at Critters at the end of March. If I have time I’ll put them on Critique Circle too!
It seems that some people are still fighting the propaganda battle that once raged between Innocent IV and Frederick II, for instance this article about Saint Rose of Viterbo.
Little twelve year old Rose preached against the Imperial occupation of the Papal city of Viterbo. She even apparently predicted the death of Frederick II and kept the morale of the people going during the Imperial rule of the city, which lasted from 1240 to 1250.
I find it interesting that this article, which was posted earlier this year, is written in such partisan terms. For instance there is great shock that Frederick II wanted to occupy poor little Viterbo.
I came across this very good biographical video of Frederick II on Youtube. It features lots of good images, many of which I hadn’t seen before. The sound is music, so you can watch it without the music on and read the captions to get the story of Frederick II’s life.
How strange is this! I just came across a Facebook page for Frederick II! Well I am now a fan. Some nice photos I hadn’t seen before on the page and he has 383 fans, which is probably more than he had in his lifetime! Unfortunately Facebook doesn’t allow you to indicate whether you think he is the Antichrist or not!
Has anyone seen any other cool Facebook pages for historical figures? Or perhaps there’s a few fictional pages out there? Does Severian the Torturer have a page for instance?
If anyone out there uses Critique Circle and fancies critiquing my latest story “Chivalry”, then it’s now on the Newbie Queue. It should be there until 23rd February.
Haven’t used this site before, so I am looking forward to seeing how it works.
Some work seems to have been done on the previously threadbare website for Season of the Witch! Unfortunately the site still uses annoying flash players to slow down loading of content, but now there is more than just a brief synopsis and trailer video.
You also get sections on:
Story – the synopsis again with some weird sort of scrolling action going on – again not very user friendly!
Gallery – pictures each of which take about a minute to load because of the silly flash player!
Cast & Crew – also limited by the flash player
Downloads – wallpapers of different still photos and sizes
Doesn’t really add too much. I would be interested to see some sort of cast and crew interview or maybe a new trailer!
A new novel by dark fantasy, new weird writer China Mieville is due out in May of this year. Called Kraken the book has something to do with squid worshippers and the Natural History Museum!
Almost as exciting as the new novel is the news that it will also include previously unpublished drawings by Peake. I think I might read all the novels again soon in preparation!
March 4, 2010 | Posted by Mark ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=00b9daf7-b8d0-4e50-86a0-feb3d86e3e47)
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