C.K.Roebuck
Hi,
First Welcome to my blog. I will try to keep you up to date on the latest happenings with my current book “Sleep!” and any other works in progress that may happen along the way.
Harvey Duckman Presents Steampunk
10th August 2023
A few days ago I completed a new project, something that I had never done before, and so I wasn’t sure if my understanding of the genree was even correct. All that I knnew was that a future Harvey volume will be Steampunk and I wanted to give it a shot. I had had the idea of George and Marvin, the Assassins in my mind for a while and played about with them on the Twitter #vss365. I really liked the idea of writing a larger story involving these charcters, and then it struck me, what if they lived in Victorian times, a time when steam driven engines were the norm, street lamps were gas lamps and the Thames was a sewerage depository. With this in mind I set about writing my first Steampunk short story, along the way adding in actual unusual deaths from Londons history in the year the story is set. I also added a twist at the end adapted from a very well known piece of fiction and submitted the story. I was amazed when within a couple of days I received a responce that the story has been accepted by the Harvey Duckman team for the future Harvey publication. Now with that done I’m going to continue on with the next draft of ‘Sleep’ beforr see doing on to the publisher’s beta readers.
Critcal Nexus
16th June 2023
While awaiting feedback from betareaders, I took to reading a fellow author’s book that I bought last year. The book is Critical Nexus by Kate Baucherel, the fourth in the Sim Cavalier series and possibly her best to date. I don’t want to spoil the plot for you, but needless to say, this story does not dissapoint. An old enemy returns which puts Cameron and her team to the test once more and battle commences resulting in a climatic ending with a twist that I didn’t see coming.. I’ll let you read and find out the rest.
Epilogue
20th March 2023
My 3rd draft of “Sleep” is now written and I ‘m onto writing the epilogue, this part ties up some loose ends in the story and opens up the storyline for the sequel. I’m happy enough with the state of my third draft to send it onto betareaders before starting work on my fourth draft, perhaps write another short story for Harvey. With Scifi Scarbs around the corner, I’m looking forward to another weekend with fellow Harvey writers.
“Sleep” 2nd Draft Done
19th December 2022
Finally got the 2nd draft of “Sleep ” done and decided to give it a rest for a few days while visiting family for Christmas before starting on the 3rd draft. I hope you all have a great time over the holidays and that you all enter the New Year refreshed. See youi in the New Year.
Harvey Duckman Presents…Volume 10
August 31st 2022
My mega short(not short at all) story, The Witness, is to debut in Harvey 10 alongside the othe 14 amazing stories. If you havn’t read my story Splinter of Hope from Harvey Volume 6 yet, I recommend you do so before the 9th of September as The Witness is a direct sequel and although The Witness is great as a stand alone story, it will make much more sense if you read Splinter first.
First Draft Finished
July 22nd 2022
At last, my first draft of Sleep is done. The story is written but the work is far from over. I’m giving the story a few days rest then getting back to it by going back to the beginning to add some polish and if need be use some scissors. At over a hundred and six thousand words, I’m not too worried if I have to make any large cuts. I’ll keep you posted on further developments right here and on twitter.
The Witness, 100,000 and Kapow!
July 3rd 2022
Its been an exciting last few days for me, first I breach the 100 thousand word mark, then I get an email, a totally unexpected email regarding my long short story “The Witness – sequel to Splinter of Hope” and an upcoming Harvey Duckman anthology that is due out very soon. To top it all I met up with my fellow Harvey writers at Kapow! the scifi convention that takes over Stockton highstreet. I’ll let you know the exact release day for the next Harvey volume when I get it and I’ll post the cover here. Until then I’m going to carry on trying to get to the end of “Sleep”.
Watch this space.
95,000 Words
I have officially breached the 95,000 words mark of my first draft, and now on the final streth of my first solo full length novel. Every step that my characters take is another step towards the end, another step to me, going back to the beginning of the story that I started writing two and a half years ago and making it better. I don’t know how long my second or third drafts will take but I’m hoping it wont take as long as my first.
Stay tuned and you’ll find out.
ScifiScarbs April 9th-10th 2022
Welcome to the Harvey Duckman Writers
Although there are quite a few of the Harveys here, there are some that unfortunatly couldn’t make it. Some because of distance and some because of being ill with the dreaded covid. Our thoughts are with those of you that arn’t well and we wish you a speedy recovery.
All in all, it has been a fantastic weekend, sold some books, got to sign some too. The best part for me though, personally has been the Harveys getting together, supporting each other, the drinks and the stories shared. Harveys are an amazing bunch and I’m proud to be in the Harvey family.
Harvey Presents Volume 9
March 9th 2022
As you may have guessed from the cover picture of Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 9 below, I just heard that my short story Fungal Rock has made it into the next volume of this amazing anthology. I’m so exited about this, especially as it ties into my current work in progress ‘Sleep’ . On that note, Sleep is currently at just short of 79,000 words and still going. I’ts not too much longer to go now for my first draft.
Harvey Duckman Presents: Volume 9 available at #Scifiscarbs and Amazon from the 9th/10th of April
August 7th 2021
My completed short stories are now in the hands of Harvey Duckman, with volume 8 around the corner, work should begin on vol 9 soon after. I’m hoping Fungal Rock (Phoenix) will be in 9 but we will have to wait and see. No word on The Witness yet either but I wasn’t expecting that story to make it into any recent Harvey as it’s a bit too long for the traditional anthology. Perhaps if Harvey decides to publish a booko of longer short stories in the future then The Witness could see the light of day, who knows? For now I’m continuing work on my main novel Sleep.
July 24th 2021 SPOILER WARNING…
Finished writing my plumbing themed short story, just got to do a few more read throughs to see if I can spot anywhere that I can improve it or any obvious mistakes before I send it on to Harvey. I’m going with the title Fungal Rock, it was going to be Fungus , Rock and Rats but I thought that was too much of a spoiler. Then I was going to go with the name of the ship in the story, The Phoenix but that is too much of a spoiler for my main work in progress that is set in the same universe, so Fungal Rock it is.
July 15th 2021
I’ve almost completed my plumbing themed story, though if having a blocked pipe will qualify it is another matter. It’s taken shape better than I imagined and it fits into the ‘Splinter of Hope’ universe in a way that has helped me write part of my main wip that I wsas having trouble with. My next blog post should be to let you know that I’ve finished this currently untitled plumbing story and submitted to Harvey.
July 1st 2021
The editor of Harvey Duckman has talked me into writing another short story for the upcoming plumbing special and after some though an idera came to me for a story that will fit in nicely into the middle of my main wip and should work as a stand alone story too.
June 28th 2021
I got some contructive replies back from a couple of beta readers today and made some changes as a result. I’m still waiting for the rest of the feedback before I submit this to Harvey Duckman, though I’m afraid it might be too long at just under 8000 words. Keep your fingers crossed for me please guys.
June 24th 2021
Excited and nervous, I finished my 5th draft of ‘The Witness’ at last and sent to a few beta readers to see if they can fnd anything I could have done better.
March 10, 2021
I now have my first few pages down for my next short story, it will continue on from where Splinter left off. I don’t have a definite title yet but I am considering calling it ‘The Witness’ .I have the beginning written down and I already have the ending in my head, now I just need finish writing what comes in between,
March 04, 2021
I have had an ide in my head for a while, a follow up to splinter, today I got the first few lines down, so far I’m happy with it’s direction. I am hopeful that I will meet the deadline for a future Harvey anthology
December 11 2020
Volume 6 includes stories by: Andy Hill, J.A. Wood, Mark Hayes, R. Bruce Connelly, A.D. Watts, Liz Tuckwell, Ben McQueeney, Melissa Wuidart Phillips, J.S. Collyer, Peter James Martin, C. K. Roebuck, Joseph Carrabis, Alexandrina Brant, Tony Harrison and D.T. Langdale, with a foreword from steampunk author Jon Hartless
The anthology is available to buy from Amazon on both kindle ebook and paperback too.
If you do buy and read Harvey 6, please leave a review, all the contributing authors would appreciate it more than you know.
December 08 2020
So excited, I got the fantastic news that my debut short story, Splinter of Hope is to be in Harvey Duckman Volume 6 .
This latest anthology from 6e publishing is expected to be out before Christmas and will be available initially on Kindle then later on paperback from Amazon, I will post a link here on my blog and on my twitter @CKRoebuck the moment this awesome book goes on sale. I hope that you like Spinter of Hope, it is set several milion years before Sleep and ties into it too. You could say that without Splinter there would be no Sleep.
A quick update on Sleep, I am currently about 62,000 words in and I am hoping to get a fair bit more writen over christmas whilst off work, watch this space
August 11 2020
I’m now at 48,000 words in and over half way through. My main character is about to uncover a secret or two and everything will change. I’m so excited to be getting to this point as its one of those main points in the story that I have had planned from the beginning and will also tie into the short story “Splinter of Hope” that I wrote in May. I haven’t heard if Splinter has made the cut to be included in a future Harvey Duckman Anthology yet but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
May 13, 2020
Its been a long month and work on Sleep has been up and down, yet it has been constantly moving forward at varying paces. I am currently at almost 40,000 words so around third of the way through at a guess. I am back at in my usual full time job so i am trying to juggle my writing inbetween. That was going well until a short interuption two days ago.
Splinter of Hope
Just two days ago I was working at me desk when i was struck by a muse, i swear that is the only way that i can describe what happened. An idea popped into my head and when I got home I immediately sat down and started to type. Then last night a tear tore its way down my face as i typed the last two lines of a new short story. A story that I had no intention or even the slightest idea I was going to write until the day before. I still don’t know where it came from but I love it. It currently does not have a permenant title but I am thinking of naming it “Splinter of Hope”. It is unlike anything that I have ever read or written before. I am hoping with much luck that if others find it good enough that it will eventaully join the ranks of short stories in the infamous Harvey Duckman Anthologies. Watch this space.
April 1, 2020 NEWS!
It seems the global pandemic that is Covid-19 has pretty much ground the world to a holt. We are all on lock down and all conventions and gatherings are cancellemd which includes I am very sad to say ScifiScarbs. Even through all of this, several writers from the stables of Harvey Duckman Presents have books coming out in the next couple of weeks as well as Harvey Duckman Present No.4 which should keep you readers busy.
I myself am currenly searching for inspiration for my own book Sleep. The story is at a critical phase where I need to get my wording just rightI am sure once I get past this stage in the story it will be once again full steam ahead.
Keep reading your books, keep safe, keep alive and I hope to see you all next year at ScifiScarbs.
April 4th 2020
Today is the day we should have been at the seaside, ScifiScarbs maybe off but the events must go on in anyway they can. Check out the video feed from the Harvey Duckman presents gang here..
Old News.
I’ll also update you on any conventions I may be attending; That being said, I have been invited to take part in the Writers Convention that is now part of ScifiScarborough, the annual .Comic-con that takes place at the ScarboroughSpa and I’m totally stoked about as it also be my first full weekend there.
The venue is awesome! Not only does it have guests from may Scifi movies and TV shows you can also buy memorabilia or take part in the cosplay. Some amazing scifi writers also attend, such as C.G.Hatton and J.S.Collyer. There you can pickup their latest works and have them signed too. You never know, you could meet the elusive Harvey Duckman..
The 9 Harvey Duckman Presents Volumes of short stories as well as the Christmas and Pirate Specials are available from Sixth Element Publishing, including a wide variety of merchandise. 6e are constantly on the look out for new talent and are always open for new admissions.