Updates

Right, good news and bad news. The good news is that I've bought an apartment and will finally be moving out of my parents' house very soon, the bad news is that sorting out the paperwork and all of the endless shopping for furniture and things has severely impacted my ability to write, meaning the next chapter will be delayed. This is made more annoying by the fact that I've also been trying to get a promotion at work, which means that I'll be able to continue paying off this mortgage and buying food, but will also mean longer hours.

Now, I don't want every single one of my blog posts here to be me explaining why I'm unable to write as much as I truly want to, so in this case I'm going to ramble on about stuff related to writing. After all, one way to cure writers' block is to write about anything at all just to get yourself started. In this case, I'm going to write about my influences as a writer someone who scribbles things down that people seem to enjoy for some reason.

I suppose the first would have to be the 'Ciaphas Cain' and novels for reasons that should be very obvious by now. But following very quickly behind this the most direct of influences has to be the 'Sharpe' series of novels; the entire structure of the Royal Guard as I have portrayed it is entirely inspired by these portrayals of the British Army during the Napoleonic War, and Cornwell's descriptions of the bloody slaughter that was war just at the cusp of mass industrialisation are vivid indeed. Another important influence on my work has to be the 'Gormenghast Trilogy' by Mervyn Peake. Indeed, the only thing stopping me from writing a crossover, or at least something in the style of this masterpiece, is the knowledge that my use of language will never approach the level of gothic and grotesque description that Peake excelled at. They are books that defy easy categorisation, but I recommend them to everyone. The 'Flashman' novels are less of an influence if I'm honest; I haven't read many and I found the character himself to be too unlikable to fully enjoy the stories, or maybe that's just because I read Ciaphas Cain before Flashman so my views have been coloured by this.

With regards to fanfiction, there are too many to count, but obviously the plethora of Blueblood redemption stories definitely ranks highest: 'The Best Night Ever' and 'The Colour You Bleed' for example. The 'Lunar Stallions' series obviously influenced my decision to write about the Night Guards and, to some smaller extent, feature Princess Luna more. I also owe a debt to 'Past Sins' - I confess to being rather ignorant in my view of fanfiction as a whole in ages past, thinking it all to be mindless wish-fulfilment, but 'Past Sins' is what made me realise that yes, good fanfiction exists, there is more of it out there, and perhaps I should give it a shot.

I don't know if anyone else finds this dull ramble interesting, and I know it certainly doesn't make up for the lack of an actual chapter, but nevertheless here it is.