Wolfish

I know I've been a bit quiet since finishing Creeper's mid-August.

I've taken some time out to attend to real world affairs, and to write a couple of shorts for magazines, just to give my imagination a bit of room to breathe. Novels are long, they take up a large part of your life until you finish one, then you feel a little unsure what to do with yourself.

I have started the first edit on Creeper's. I'm at about 125 of 300-and-something. I'd like to say I'm feeling confident, but I'm not. I think I could be looking at my third crash and burn.

I love writing contemporary prose whilst I'm doing it. It's a lot of fun for me, but when I read back through I just keep thinking should have written something historical. 

Recently heard that Children of Lir won't be out until 2017 as the publisher wants to put together a marketing budget for it. I'm happy to wait. After what they did for Rosy Hours, I know I'm in very good hands and that, when the time comes, they will make it beautiful.

Secretly, it also takes a tiny bit of pressure off knowing that I'm one book ahead. Gives me plenty of time to write another couple of fails and have them rejected without a sweat breaking out.

But I'm in a bit of a flump at the moment.

I recently wrote what I consider to be one of the best short stories of my life, but even magazine submissions take an age to respond. I'm obeying the rules and not putting it out to multiple publications, partly because, if they do accept it, that's rent for a month.

But the muse is hit and miss. Tried to replicate that sparkle yesterday and it fizzled and died.

The pound to the dollar is not fun either. Most paying magazines are based in the US, and when you convert the fee into pounds, it's a lot less return on your time.

Anyway, enough of all this.

Every slump has to end sometime.

I'm continuing to plough on with the Creeper's edit. I know I need to rewrite the ending and deal with a couple of plot chasms. Not looking forward to sending it out to beta readers. Thinking I might just skip that step and throw it through submissions with the full expectation of GNDN. 

I'd like to keep writing shorts for a bit, I'm not ready to fully commit to another novel, though I know what it will be when I do.

Instead, I'm having a go at writing a novella, working title Wolfish. 

It's at 5,000 at the moment. 40,000 would be useful, as that's the cut-off for many of the novella competitions I've seen, and I don't know anyone who has actually sold a novella. Who knows, though. 40-60,000 is the likelihood. Can't sell it, can't enter it... sounds like my level of planning.

Continuing in the same vein as Rosy Hours and Children of Lir, the theme is not original, but the way I tell it should hopefully be sumptuous. 

I'm twisting Red Riding Hood into something adult. 

Shexshual.

Not erotica.

Dark.

Enthralling.

Little bit of a mystery angle to it.

I'm confident this one will be worth reading.

If nothing else, it'll be a chance to post lots of pictures of wolves. What other reason do I need?

I've been staring at the MS for a couple of weeks, contemplating how to begin. This evening I drank beer and hashed out 1,000 words which came very easily. Writing is sometimes easier than you think it's going to be, because you think so much you think it's hard. 

Also, this morning I had a truly lovely message over Twitter. It's been a long time since launch day, so these sort of things are much rarer nowadays. It's amazing what a few words of encouragement can do for a flailing author. When you know you're capable of something good, you strive to do it again.