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About this blog

Very Trivial Content

Entries in this blog

 

Onety Zero

I'm back. I expect nobody knew i was missing but nevermind.   Well I'm at uni and its been approximately two years since i have even touched my book but after battling depression and uni in equal measures I'm ready to get back into the full flow of writing. As ever the blog will be for casual readers who are interested in my goings on, both book related and life. Meanwhile the usual list of questions will inevitably hit the forum. I might start posting galleries of art i draw and the stuff i get up to too.   Heres a little section of my book i thought I'd post, criticisms and advice muchly appreciated as i don't quite like the way this section reads   A distressed woman of about forty with dishevelled hair was being held up by the arms by a legionary. She flailed and writhed, bawling herself senseless, until finally she broke free and ran at the crowd that had gathered by her villa

Vibius Tiberius Costa

Vibius Tiberius Costa

 

N!ne

Ok here is one section picked at random by my calculator from my book. I would love feedback, usually i keep everything to do with my writing very close to me but whatever.   A bit of background, my lead has escaped his room on the day of a fictitious (I Think) festival (In March - if anyone knows the real name of a festival sometime in march that has something to do with the god Mars I would be very grateful.)   Shrines and temples were filled with boisterous men cheering and jeering as animals were sacrificed. Vibius glimpsed the tavern, it was alive with energy. The noise drew Vibius in with a smile igniting his face. The tavern was bursting with life. Men from all backgrounds were merrily chanting or drinking. A Roman soldier and a peasant sat side by side gulping from two large urns, both were sloshing the red liquid about them. Tables and chairs spilt out onto the road - all full with men. A thick tree bough was standing in an iron bracket above the doorway. Crowned with flames, it illuminated most of the outside along with the table candles. It wept shards of flame into the air as it flickered orange light onto the cheerful faces below. Vibius walked inside, out of the chilling night air and into the warmth. An armoured soldier walked by with a grey faced man muttering to himself incoherently. The soldier placed him by the door and he fell asleep instantly, still muttering with a toothless smile on his lips. The soldier let out a deep laugh and turned back inside. A seat was free at the counter and Vibius sat himself down admiring the armour. It was well made and looked good but he doubted it would hold up to a really powerful lunge. Vibius looked away as he thought of what his father would say about the armour and even worse, what he was doing. "Vibius yer turned up, I thought yer weren't goin' to come? 'Ave a free drink lad." Said the friendly tavern keeper handing Vibius a drink with a gnarled hand.   It is an alright section, it also shows how little i really know about Rome nad how unspecific I am. Any tips, pointers, ideas, criticisms, Roman information, facts, criticisms or (unlikely) praise I will happily reply and aknowledge.   If anything I would prefer you to pick holes in it and tear it apart witha cynical eye. Negative feedback to me is worth gold. I'll explain some other time. I hope you enjoyed, or not.   vtc

Vibius Tiberius Costa

Vibius Tiberius Costa

 

Ocho

Although I really shouldn't I believe it is time for me to put the book out of my life, not forever but until I want to come back to it. Any advice on if I should stop at 80 thousand words and see what happens. Or go to 120 k go off with that or even go to 240. The book was always going to be split in 3 (Rome, Travel and Mediolanium)why not make it 3 books. Unbelievably I have a few notes on another book - nothing to do with Rome. I am not even sure if i write particuarly well. So if enough people ask my next blog will be a tiny extract only if enough people ask. Or I would personaly PM it to an insistent or actively writing member. I'm pretty sure that if i had an agent this owul be forbidden but waht the hell   vtc

Vibius Tiberius Costa

Vibius Tiberius Costa

 

SE7EN

It has been almost 10 months since I've been on UNRV and i have missed the knowledge and people. I have been struggling and grappling with my final year at school. I have only written 5000 words at best in 8 months breaking about 110000 words (only another 100000 - 150000 more). I feel that the book is slipping away and will never be finished. It is hard to combine history with story, i have had to completely bend huge aspects of history but not break them. On an aside note should i just write the bits that i enjoy? or do the end first and work backwards? Also I have two theories for books that i want to start but whats the point if i cant finish one? I may go on to this site more frequently now. if anyone could speciffically aid me in my research i would be grateful. i have more to say but like my book nothing is happening. Also i do believe its not writer's block either. Whatever, I hope people remember me.   vtc

Vibius Tiberius Costa

Vibius Tiberius Costa

 

1+2+3

Well I haven't gone on Unrv for ages but I'm back for a tiny bit, I wanted to see my name on the birthday list All is reasonably fine. Book should go on a growth spurt now i am off school. I should have more time to bash out a few chapters here and there. I passed every subject oh yeah few A's few B's and even a C, top in school 4 accounting, english and Information systems. Well enough bragging. Birthday celebrations to do   cheers Unrv for being a gr8 source of knowledge and friendliness this year.   vtc

Vibius Tiberius Costa

Vibius Tiberius Costa

 

Cinq

I have returned, although I didn't leave for long. I think it's about time to reveal my age, I am sure you won't be surprised. I am therefore stil at school, am working towards uni and possibly moving into finance (however I am not boring as i am sure you have all atained). However for purposes i wish didn't exist i will not have my age up for long before i turn it back to 0, as i don't really want my age on the internet for long. I was fed up of 'lying' to you lot.   I think you will now understand why my book takes so long, for i am still at high school and comes second after school.   Please don't treat me to differently but bear in mind that i have less knowledge on Rome than you probably originally thought.   Cheers   vtc

Vibius Tiberius Costa

Vibius Tiberius Costa

 

4

Well if yo bare with me I'd like to place an image in your heads, imagine if you will: A sterile like clean plastic base about the size of an adequately sized bedroom. Connected on like a limpet a circular dial, atop a clear tube filled with all your possessions. Now slowly and carefully place both hands on the dial. It's cold but you can't stop yourself. With a shrill matallic sound it slowly shifts around. The room fills with a monstrous etherly grumble and shakes - at first small but then greater. Your possessions begin to spin, the tornado of stuff increases pace at the same rate the noise and shaking does. It all becomes to much to bare. You close your eyes and crawl into a corner. It stops. You open your eyes. The scene appears all fine. You look with bleary eyes your room is a mess.   Voila there you have it my bedroom, summed up as a blender-ed mess. I have finished my editing of the first third of my book and am cracking on with the second part. I took a few weeks off from it which helped bring me back fresh and have a differene eye/perspective on it. Anyone else doing a book or form of writing should definitely take some time off and come back it helps - believe me.   vtc

Vibius Tiberius Costa

Vibius Tiberius Costa

 

III

I thought I'd just quickly bash out an entry.   As you all probably know, i am an avid guitar player nad have just recently got half way/almost there through learning this song, I get tired out though - guitar players will know what I mean, my fingers begin to ache basically. Although i know the song, I suggest you skip to the solo to 6mins20secs so 6:20. If you have a spare 5 mins, or you can listen to it in the background. I cannot finish the song though because I snapped a string . Here is just the full solo with all the frills (can't quite work out this one) enjoy!   I finished learning CLOCKS, THE SCIENTIST and SPEED OF SOUND all by Coldplay on both guitar and keyboard which was fun and hard, Chris Martin must be a robot.   That is pretty much my abilty on instruments unless you count the triangle. Any suggestions on what I should learn next, I am learning loads of stuff so nothing FREE BIRD styley difficult.   I know it's a short entry but nevermind.   vtc

Vibius Tiberius Costa

Vibius Tiberius Costa

 

Two (that's the number after one apparently)

Thanks for the warm comments, I left off at the part when my life went a bit crazy and I had just asked my mate to help me write the book. I think!   Well at this point about 10 months ago I was still drawing and noting, nothing serious when I received several phone calls and letters and what-not. All saying that my request to emmigrate to Australia, so I had just sorted out my life after a messy braek-up when I get the news. The bungalow had just sold so i didn't have long left in there either. Basically whether I was having doubts or not my life was hurtling at Aus faster than I wanted it to. I was in a bit of a mess.   I got two chapters of rough work just to show my mate what I was trying to achieve and what issues i was trying to touch upon. He got them and being a competent writer added his own work to - and on - it (I have recently combined the chapters and taken a fair chunk of what he did out). I may need some advise on this subject from a few people - should I get rid of all the bits he did and replace it with my own work for whatever reasons?   A moving date was settled and in a frantic blur I was almost on it. My final week in sunny ol' England was 5 days of drinking about 50 units in 7 days. I left my life and all my friends behind. I wasn't excited at all, in fact I was borderline devastated. I killed the book near the end of January-ish.   So that was it, I thought. However I am clearly here on UNRV, so what happened I hear you ask. Well basically once I had 'semi-settled' here I found myself thinking about the book and restarted it. In a flurry of preparation I was ready to work out the first third of my book. My friend had pulled out when I did and now I can see wasn't really prepared or even cared. I hastily bashed out a plot-line and then had to 'almost-completely-settle' and left it be for a while.   Those around from when the time I joined can see I dropped off UNRV for a long time. Anyone remember that? Anyway, I booted it up again a few months ago and spent some really serious time on it. Finishing the first third at about 45000 words, although I am currently editing that third, but I have just began the first chapter of the next third.   Well now you know where I am at I will be using this blogging space for whatever I want. Which probably means quite a lot of short film reviews (not short films but short reviews), ranting about my novel and the Romans in general, sport and guitar blab.   vtc

Vibius Tiberius Costa

Vibius Tiberius Costa

 

Prima

This is my blog then, I will try and write an entry 1-4 times a month, I hope you will enjoy my musings. This particular entry is about how and why I ended up here at UNRV.com. It is quite uplifting to be able to write a blog so please comment .   Well, here it goes. Romans have become a huge part of my life, almost accidently I stumbled on this site while searching for Rome: Total War. I had a peek, didn't think much of it and moved on by hitting 'back' hehe.   A few months later I had just finished a small book that was - frankly - awful, my characters were weak and wet. They had no emotion and their were far to many of them, but I learned from that so much when a month later I read it. Noticing my own mistakes was a big turning point for me. After this I struggled a bit with general life and ended up in a bit of a predicament. During this time I came to the decision that I would write as professionally as I can, not just an extended piece of work.   I sifted through some possible ideas and eventually settled on a Roman orientated novel. Some minor research, early august 2006, on rough setting and timing brought me here again. I formulated a few time eras. Punic, Middle Republic, Julius Caesar, Augustus, I never wanted to pick an imperial time because all the previous roman knowledge i had was before that.   I read Emperor by Conn Iggulden and found out that Adrian Goldsworthy amongst other authors had already done Caesar. I scrapped Augustus at this moment. The Punic war era I also got rid of for the sake of overkill on the subject and I wanted to make create my own character rather than retell the story of another eg. Hannibal or Scipio. By almighty powers of deduction I ended up in the middle republic. I drew a lot of sketches of romans and maps of Rome during the period. Because I was still not confident in myself that I was going to make this book a reality i contacted a friend to see if he would do it with me. *For all the authors out there* I had no idea what I was thinking. Anyway, he said he would and at this point I specified the time frame and a super-rough plot (basically a few lines on one all of my maps). I also gave my character a name.   With name in hand I prepared myself for a few months of serious research, planning and other work. Third time lucky I hit this site and found the forum... and... begrudgingly signed up (september 4th) under the alias of my character name that i changed a bit because vcc isn't as interesting (for wont of a better word) than vtc. I blurted out a few random comments and kept up with my research.   Yours blogfully   vtc

Vibius Tiberius Costa

Vibius Tiberius Costa

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