Skin

And for my next trick...

Just finished my 5,000 for the day. Submitted Red & White (Snow White & Rose Red) to Ghostwoods last night, now cracking on with (Donkey)Skin / Peau d'Âne. Sort of a forerunner of Cinderella, but with more incest and dead animals. Urm... it's not as bad as that sounds.

Feeling cheerful. My writing's been a bit hit and miss this year due to other projects, so it's nice to know I'll have achieved something solid. The three stories together should make a decent-sized collection, and three stand alone stories with interweaving themes for those reading closely.

Unfortunately, it has given me pause for thought over the other novel I was writing, Still Life. I still think it's a good idea, and it's half written already, but I've stumbled upon something else which looks like an even better idea.

Keeping it under my hat for now. I'll see how I feel once Skin is submitted.

It's been interesting writing multiple stories these past few months, but I think one book at a time might be the way to go. It's nice to have another story to write when you're getting annoyed with the one you're looking at, but if you get annoyed with both, that's twice as much reason to goof off.

On with the donkey story!

Tartaria Tablets

Huh. Just after we crack the meaning of the Voynich Manuscript, a new mystery. Writing may be a few thousand years older than first thought: 

Scientists argue that the Tartaria tablets are evidence of a writing system that predates the one in Ancient Sumer by at least some 2,000 years. They have dubbed it as the Old European Scrip or the Danube Script.

The so-called Tartaria Tablets are three artifacts recovered in 1961 from a Neolithic site in Tartaria, Romania. Since their discovery, the three enigmatic tablets have created confusion and excitement among archaeologists.

Full article here.

I Dream of Kitty

Traumatic couple of days. One of my three kittens (technically now cats), failed to turn up for breakfast. Occasionally one is a few minutes late, but nothing keeps these guys away from food. More unusual, it was Sophie, who is a complete cuddle lump of a house bunny.

Naturally, I feared the worst. I printed missing posters and canvased the neighbours. I scoured the ditches and bushes along the road. I put up a flyer in the local café.

Before bed last night, I poured myself the ultimate comfort drink. African Tea is basically hot milk with spices. Sometimes people show it a teabag, but so swiftly it's hard to tell. Before bed, I make it like so:

• Cup of milk
• Dash of cardamom
• Dash of nutmeg
• Dash of cinnamon
• Heaped teaspoon of honey

Stir over heat until warm.

You can add ginger, but I don't before bedtime.

Anyway, I've noticed over the years that this drink is guaranteed to get me a good night's sleep, but also bestows crazy dreams. I used to dream a lot. Multi-colour surround sound. Now, not so much. But add a dash of nutmeg and I'm trippy till the sun comes up.

I had this really powerful dream that all three kittens were with me and I was giving Sophie an extra big cuddle.

When I woke, I assumed it was 'goodbye.'

Opened the back door and all three kittens tumbled in!

I'm currently typing this in my room, where Sophie has been allowed special bedroom privileges (usually reserved for rainy days). She's crawled under my quilt and is fast asleep. The other two are out, but she's staying home tonight with plenty of food and a comfortable couch. The poor love turned up with her eye swollen half shut, her head shaking, a squeak of pain and a flat nose. I'm completely mystified what happened to her. Will get the vet to come check her over. Just extremely glad to have her home.

Coming Up Roses

Yay!

Just finished Red & White, first draft. Came in just shy of 29,000. That's quite a bit shorter than I was expecting. Maybe I can add a bit in the edit, but as it's one of three and the first is around 50,000 that's okay. Each of the stories stands alone, but there's a running theme throughout.

Will edit this week and see what Ghostwoods says.

I used to love editing, but I'm looking forward to starting the next one more than editing this one. I was listening to Tea & Jeopardy the other day. Emma was interviewing Robin Hobb, who talked about the stories you have yet to tell always being more interesting than the one you're working on. I can relate to that. The next idea is always sparkly, whilst the current one reminds you of the inadequacies of language in manifesting that brilliance. 

Still, it's always better to have more ideas than not enough of them.

Onward!

Sunrise

Watched a lovely sunrise over Kigali this morning as the election results for the UK rolled in. We're an hour ahead here. I made it to 7 a.m. and woke feeling very content. I'm a big Jeremy fan and it's wonderful to see the Labour gains. As one commentator pointed out, many of the Labour MPs who were strongly critical of Corbyn, tonight owe their seats to him. Very proud of all the young people of the UK who turned out to vote. They really did make a huge difference. Whatever happens now it's deeply satisfying to see a strong, hopefully more united, opposition. Politics worth waking up for.

Roses at 20k

Brigette Barrager

2/3 at 20k = 50/50²

Little bit of author algebra.

Novella two of three is at 20,000, which is halfway through the book and halfway through the overall project.

Long story short, the re-adulting of Riding Hood got a nod of approval from Ghostwoods and a request for a second darkling tale. So, I decided to makeover Snow White and Rose Red, but couldn't resist the idea of a trilogy, as the first is at around 50k, but the Roses are only likely to make it to around 40k. So, I've picked Donkeyskin (Peau d'Âne) as the final addition, and the one yet to begin.

The potential here is to release each as an e-book, culminating in a paperback compilation at the end.

It's just an idea at the moment, but a nice one.

The thing is, I haven't done any writing for weeks. I've been so wrapped up in other things, mostly getting my piano project off the ground. 

I finally got back to it yesterday and I'm making up for lost time.

I've put Still Life on hold and committed myself entirely to these three fairytales. In two days I've written 10,000 words. Could never have done that with something that required research. It's such a freeflow - a lot of fun to write.

The working titles are Wolfish, Red & White and Skin. So, if you hear me mentioning those, you'll know what they are.

Split Worlds Concludes

Huge shout out to the lovely Emma Newman who provided the narration for Those Rosy Hours audiobook and runs the wonderfully authory podcast Tea & Jeopardy. Emma writes a series called Split Worlds and the final instalment, All Good Things, was released yesterday. You can find out all about it here.