This year has been strange on the writing front. It’s so different to last year, where I hit the ground running and never seemed to falter. Perhaps I made the mistake of thinking that I would just carry on the same way.
After last years marathon and the total number of words written (514,000), at the moment it feels as if there are no more new words left in my head. It’s as if I need to stop and let the well fill up again. Talking to other writers, I don’t appear to be alone in this, there seems to have been a whole lot of nothing going on over the last few weeks.
This week also sees the blog tour for Andorra Pett, I was going to write about that today, I’ve since decided to leave it for a week or two. That way, I can see what effect it’s had on my sales and profile. However, that had left me with a hole to fill in my posts, hence this last minute piece, which is mainly about where I am.
Despite having flu or something very like it, and feeling unable to think straight for most of January, I’ve managed to get the second edit of Andorra Pett on Mars finished. In the end, it was just a tidy up with a few small re-writes. That will be off to my editor for a second look at the end of the month, we are still very much on course for an April launch.
I have two completed manuscripts that need to be looked at again before we get to the editing stage. I finished both of them last year and have let them stew. Now, on reading them again, several months later, I can see the imperfections in them and I’m working to rectify the plot, pace and characterisation before I send them out for editing. Both have had beta reads, which has also helped me identify problems and suggest solutions.
If things go well one of them, I haven’t decided which, will be published later in the year, probably around September time.
Which brings me on to new projects. I’m still working on my online course in fantasy world-building. At the moment I’m struggling with the video production, just about everything else is done. I have a chance to present it again in Exeter Library on March 31st, in a 90-minute workshop, consisting of the best bits. That will give me a chance to get feedback as well. March is actually looking busy, as well as the event in Exeter, I have a meet the author Q&A session in Brixham for World Book Day, a talk on Sci-fi at Exmouth library and Bath Sci-fi and Comic Convention to go to.
Novel wise, I have a few projects on the go. If I’ve told you this before, please bear with me.
Firstly, the sequel to Myra and Freefall is well advanced, probably over half done. Called Promise me, it ties all the loose threads from the other two books together and might even be an end of the Dave Travise story. At least for now. I hope it will keep everyone off my back as well.
My steampunk series has a third potential chapter, at the moment it’s just an idea but it may well develop into more.
A third Andorra Pett novel is definitely happening, and fourth is a distinct possibility. I have an idea for a spin-off as well. More on that when it’s a bit more organised.
There are two completed short stories that I’m looking to expand into full novels, one is currently entered into a competition so I can’t tell you much about it, suffice to say its a steampunk-esque adventure with a slightly younger feel to it than a lot of my work. The other is one that I’ve featured on here before, called The Orbital Livestock Company. I had a comment that suggested it could be longer, the person was intrigued enough to want to know more. I had to think about where it could lead and came up with some possible plots, all of which I can explore and find the most exciting. Who knows, there may be another series there.
So, even though I don’t feel very inspired at the moment, I have enough to occupy me for a while, if I can just shake off the feeling that I can’t be bothered, I can get started again.
