During 2014, my
writing has been somewhat disrupted by… well, by writing. Since March, my
official day-job has been as a freelance copywriter, and the work I've needed
to put into building that up — which seems to be paying off — has severely cut
into my creative writing time. Still, among all that, I seem to have got
through a fair amount.
I'm not as far
as I'd hoped through my current novel (working title The Empire of Nandesh) but I'm more than 50,000 words into it. I'd
been hoping to be nearly finished by now, but both the copywriting and other
projects have cut into it. I revised the novella The Dweller in the Crack, and wrote three shorter pieces, Finder's Fee, Turning the Tables and Gerda and the Darkness, but the biggest
distraction was my very unexpected diversion into children's fantasy.
A few years
ago, I wrote a very short piece called The
Biggest Dragon in the World, which featured a sorceress called Cariana. I
really wrote it for my own amusement, but it turned out as a children's story.
During the summer, I attended a workshop of mainly children's authors and took
the story along as my one qualifying piece. They loved it and encouraged me to
expand it into a series.
I've now
written half a dozen other connected stories, but the series took an unexpected
turn when, in the second story, I introduced Cariana's nearly-eleven-year-old
apprentice Flea, who's taken over as the central character. I'm having huge fun
writing about her — in the most recent, she has an encounter with pirates — and
the aim is to add perhaps three or four further stories and then, after
revision, try to pitch it as a book.
I've begun
self-publishing some of my out-of-print work, which has been an interesting
process. I have mixed feelings about self-publishing, but it's a valuable
option for an author with the experience and willingness to put in the work it
needs. So far, I've republished At An Uncertain Hour, the novel previously issued by StoneGarden, and Steal Away, the first story about
Karaghr and Failiu, which first appeared in the late, lamented Golden Visions.
I'm also hoping to bring out the sequel, Rainy
Season, also a Golden Visions story,
and perhaps others.
As far as
professional publication is concerned, December saw the publication of my
second ebook from Musa Publishing, The Lone and Level Sands. A contemporary (or nearly contemporary) fantasy but
set in a secondary world, this is archaeological fantasy somewhat in the
Indiana Jones tradition. It came out just before Christmas, so I'm gearing up
again to restart promotion.
Besides these,
I've had stories in The Colored Lens (Damned) and Plasma Frequency (The Lady of the House and The PetrologicEngine, the latter my "flintpunk" story) as well as in three
anthologies, two of which I was involved in producing. Light of the Last Day was the somewhat overdue anthology from
Fantasy-writers.org, which I co-edited and contributed Lari's People and Dayglow,
while the equally long-in-making The Tale Trove is the first production from my live writers' group, the East Herts Fantasy Writers. My contributions are Return
Switch, Hanuut's Stand, I See a Voice and three poems. I've also
appeared in Unburied Treasure, a
follow-up to last year's Trespass,
with the custom-written Finder's Fee.
So what of
2015? I'll probably continue to have less time to devote to writing than I did
before last year, but I have The Lone and
Level Sands to promote, and I hope to reissue Rainy Season this year. On a slightly longer-term basis, I've been
considering self-publishing a collection of stories about Eltava. All but two
have been published in various markets, and all rights have now reverted to me,
so it might be a practical option. But a lot more work than putting out single
stories.
I'll continue
with both The Empire of Nandesh and the Flea stories, and hopefully I'll finish
the draft of the former and have the latter ready for submission during the
year. That's assuming I don't get diverted again. We'll see.
I'd like to
wish you all a very Happy New Year.
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