Endings - When is it time for a sequel, and when should the damn story be left alone?

Another novel comes to an end. Two Doors Down (still not happy with that title) has reached the final chapter. It's a pretty dramatic feeling.

Page 400. Never thought I'd get here.

Don't fret, this doesn't give away anything major (not that you'll know what the story is actually about). By the time this novel gets a release, you won't even remember seeing this picture. Plus, there's no way you can read every word of this. My heiroglyphics can be somewhat troublesome to decipher.

It's been a long journey with Ari (who lost her phone and needed a job to replace it) and the old bat from down the road (who gave her a job, but what a job it is). It's changed both characters (as it should - your story MUST have an arc, people!), and I've enjoyed tagging along for every minute of their discoveries. But they're about to move on without me. They don't need me anymore.

Now, I believe I've discussed endings in the past (here, somewhere, maybe), but I haven't really gone into what it means for the author. Months on end are spent with these characters and their stories. What happens when the story is done? Is there always room for a sequel? Should there be?

Even if there's never a sequel, these characters (if we've written them well, if we've made them sing) never leave us. If I was asked to put any one of my characters into a specific scene or situation, if I was asked to write them right now, I know that they'd snap immediately back to life for me. I know how they'd react. I lived with them all for long enough.

I wrote a novel YEARS ago (massive comic fantasy, I mean huge), and the lead characters Louisa Laloupe and Geraldine Floure still pop up in my head sometimes. A real pair of idiots. I loved writing them. That book was so much fun to discover. I kind-of wish I could write it again. I definitely wish I could get somebody to read about them. It was demented. Body swaps, musical numbers, extraordinary violence, supreme stupidity, Lead Astray had it all. Man, I miss it.
And we're talking 17, 18 years since I finished writing it. Gerald and Louisa are still with me. I still know what stupid things they'd do. I think that when you're having fun with a character, or you're at least interested in them yourself, then your writer's work is going well. They should be unusual. They should be strange. They should be bloody-minded. They should occasionally be cowardly in the face of dangerous. They should, at least sometimes, be stupid. They should be like us. And we should miss them when it's all over. After all if the writer doesn't miss them, then why on earth should any reader care?

Getting to the final act of A Graveyard Visible was a relief, because I thought I would never get there. That novel stopped and started so many times that I was convinced it was out of gas and would have to be abandoned in a ditch. Importantly, however, when I wrote the final line I was sad it was over and I was out of that world (for a while at least; need to let these scratchings rest before attempting the next draft), and I was also proud, because the work had that feeling of completeness. It was whole. It felt right. It felt done. It's hard stepping away when the story's done, though. I'd spent a lot of time with Caleb and Misha. They're a part of me.

Honestly? AGV is a dark place - but also an incredibly interesting one.

Layers of shadow and light.

Technically, there is room for more story in the world of AGV - but I'm tempted to leave it alone. Let it stand. Let readers make of it what they will. It's a very dark world to be in, and if I returned I would only find it darker, pitch black almost. As a contrast, Two Doors Down has been packed with lively bright energy. That's not to say that AGV is slow-paced - quite the opposite. The difference is that Two Doors Down feels complete, a story that has been told in its entirety.

It's funny how some novels you write could go on after the end, but it doesn't feel right. That's what it's all about, the feeling of completeness. If the writer goes too far and tries to wring another book out of the characters, it can dilute the appeal of the first book. It can leave a sour taste. That can't be worth it. This is probably too famous an example really, too obvious a choice, but look at the Star Wars prequels. That whole debacle should feature in writing classes - How To Ruin A Property and Really Upset the Fan Base. Never force the story. (Just noticed I wrote 'Star Wars' and 'force' near to each other. Ignore that.)

There's stuff up in the air with AGV, though. So, more is possible. Or not. I could change my mind, though.

As for Macadamian Pliers, have I said 'so long' to him? No. That story isn't over. That's going to be a trilogy. Second volume is pretty much done. No endings there yet. Reaching the end of the first book was more a case of 'so long for now'.

Macadamian Pliers

Out now. Go on.

A Graveyard Visible

Also out now. Go on, seriously

Laters.

(Hey, look, that was an ending.)
(Or was it?)

Next up, a series of spooky blogs. Halloween is coming...

Ever found the plan for a novel years after you lost it? I just did...

Here's a surprise and a half.

So, at the minute I'm deep into my biggest writing project in over a decade. It's called Polka, and it's about a pig who lives in a walled city and finds his small life magnified in ways he never wanted. At the same time as scribbling away at this novel, we are doing a lot of home improvement, and we've just turned the shit-tip of an outbuilding into a craft room. This has meant a lot of lifting and shifting of old stuff that hasn't been looked at in years. It's terrifying the amount of stuff you can gather over time. There was a street-ful of all kinds of mad things in that one building, including a spare sink, a selection of Easter bonnets, a disco ball, and something that once upon a time might well have been alive.

(Before we continue, can I say that obviously you haven't read this novel of mine that isn't anywhere near finished yet, but don't worry, this whole piece has a little point at the end, I promise. It wouldn't be like me to write something totally pointless.)

There was a box. In that box were some notepads. One of those notepads was this little feller:

This is volume 2 of my original 4 year old plan for Polka.

Modelled with my lovely Karen's fluid painting artwork.

I wrote about 120 (admittedly small) notepad pages of unusually (for me) detailed scene notes for Polka before I lost them. Some of these scenes are written as whole chapters, almost ready to drop straight into a book. There is no sign of the first notepad full of planning. The way things go round these parts, that may not be seen for another four years, and won't that make a nice prompt for another lovely blog post?

It has been somewhere between four and five years since I saw these pages. My heart hurtled into my throat. I almost didn't read it. After all this time, after writing 80,000 words of this novel, did I really want to look at this lost plan and discover that the route I was now carving through the story was inferior?

There are so many differences between what I had done then and what I'm writing now. It's like two people in completely separate places were given the same basic premise, the same opening scene and left to their own devices. In fact, that's exactly what happened.

There's a moral to all of this. Stick with it.

Character-wise, Polka (the main pig) is a bit more sure of himself. That's not a big deal, but in my current version, he's more introverted, not quite shy but definitely happiest when in his own world. This gives Polka a better arc, as against his wishes he is drawn out of this inner existence and into real life and it's challenges. A bigger change is in the character of his best friend, Nayt, who in the early version is a lot more brutish (hogish?) and ends up turning against Polka. Their relationship is far stronger and more nuanced in the new version, I'm pleased to say. There are characters in the old plan that aren't in the new write, and vice versa.

It's amazing to see how differently all the events in this later section of the book pan out. Without that first notepad of scene planning, I will never know quite how I got to the situations I scribbled out in notepad two. The only thing I know for definite about the lost notepad number one is that the first two scenes are exactly the same. There is a flashback to a young Polka being locked in the cellar by his particularly hardcore Grandfather Pig (known as Grandhog), and then the story picks up with Polka and Nayt heading to a public speech by the leader of the city. After this, the tracks diverge.

 Beware: spoilers for a novel that doesn't exist.

The biggest difference by far, however, is in the matter of good and evil. The antagonists are very clearly bad from the outset, Polka doesn't seem to ever make a bad decision, the forces of good are unquestionable. In the version I'm writing now, everything's shaded in greyscale. Even the 'goodies' have done things they aren't proud of, or are prepared to do unpleasant deeds to get where they need to be, or it's simply difficult to tell which side they're on. There are those who would overthrow, but can we believe that they would do a better job?

I feel, in a way, like I've made contact with an earlier version of myself. Much has happened in real life between Then-me and Now-me. Then-me seems a little more idealistic than Now-me (although that too is shades of grey - I've always been something of a cynical bastard). I've long held the belief that the past is gone, it trundles away as soon as it's been seen, but I've stumbled upon myself from the year 2014, and although it's a bit of a one-way conversation, it's fascinating all the same.

So, what am I trying to say to you here? I want you to know that your work is incredibly rare (unless you are copying something someone else has sweated over and simply changing a word or two here or there - shame on you!). There is only you who could write exactly what you are writing in this moment. Even the you from four years ago, four months ago, four weeks ago, maybe even four days ago couldn't do what you are doing today.

Don't wonder whether you would write better in the future. There are other stories waiting for you there. This story you have is for the Here and Now.

Get on with it, and let us all see what you've got.

Laters.

A. I. Insurrection by Michael Poeltl

Hey all.

Here's a book that's been out for a month or so, and it's probably passed you by in the glut of new releases that are always tumbling across the internet, so I thought I'd highlight this one for all you sci-fi nuts out there. And there's plenty of us.

Over to Michael Poeltl to tell us about his book.
A.I. Insurrection – The General’s War Press Release. Feb, 15^th, 2018

2162. Artificial intelligence claims sentience, but it's the proof that will divide the world, and usher in the violent end to utopia, unless an uneasy alliance of adversaries can stop it.

A.I. Insurrection, the new release by Michael Poeltl, author of The Judas Syndrome trilogy, takes the author back to his roots of dystopian sci-fi. “This novel investigates global utopia and the struggle to maintain an unrealistic hold over everything and everyone,” Poeltl explains. “Certain aspects of humanity will never be satisfied with the thousand shades of grey a utopia will provide, no matter the spin. When faced with the threat of their robot slaves rebelling, distrust in the system begins to infect the general public, opening the door for a new world to emerge, and new leaders to rule.”  Discover how quickly a near-future utopian society can become a dystopian nightmare fueled by fear as the A.I. populace of United Earth become sentient and demand their freedoms.

Raymond Bellows, United Earth Chancellor, challenges the A.I. claims until an astonishing truth is revealed by Host: SENTA, one of hundreds of millions of individual robot Hosts who teams up with the Chancellor while struggling to discover her new-found awareness.  A secret coup schemes to over-throw the peaceful government, while a separate threat of human/tech hybrids who think the current regime is anything but idyllic arise from the Shadow net, taking direction from the mysterious Allfather avatar. In a three-sided war, humanity and humanity’s creation fight to claim their own place in an ever-evolving solar system.

“I believe science fictions fans, myself included, appreciate the complexities of artificial intelligence, and the moral questions which accompany it, like: when is intelligence consciousness? The novel also offers an exciting potential new proof of life for sentience.” Poeltl declares with an air of cloak-and-dagger surrounding the surprise reveal behind his new book.

Goodreads ratings for A.I. Insurrection are settling in at a respectable 4.25 stars and has one reviewer saying: “A great read for anyone who enjoys extensively built worlds, philosophical questions, and an ol' fashioned A.I uprising.” - Ari Augustine.

This is Poeltl’s tenth book and the first of 2018. For more on Michael Poeltl and his books, visit his website: www.mikepoeltl.com Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, or join him on Goodreads.

Also, click this link to get the book from Amazon.

Remember, there's more than just the big famous names out there in the world of writing. So many great talents could be getting lost in the crowd, so take a chance every once in a while, you might find a gem.

Laters

Introducing... Silently In The Night by Clayton Graham

It's the weekend (woo hoo!) and you may very well be on the lookout for a new book to keep you entertained. Well, before you make any decisions, hold fire and take a look at what I've got for you here.
And if it's not for you? Okay, that's cool, but why not share this post around, because it might be just what someone else was looking for...


SILENTLY IN THE NIGHT

A collection of tantalizing tales with more twists than braided hair:

Here you will find mystery, murder and mayhem – plus a moment of romance. All the stories will make you stop and think, even question your role in the world and the universe. Just what are we doing here, and where are we going? Easy questions with problematic answers.

This anthology of sixteen short and thrilling tales of unusual, extraterrestrial and conspiratorial stories is the latest compilation from Clayton Graham, the author of science fiction novels Milijun and the soon to come Saving Paludis. The characters in this eclectic collection are mostly ordinary people whose reactions to their fears and to unexpected events will have you guessing at every turn of the page.

This collection is intriguing reading which, among many other things, encourages the reader to:
Sympathize with a doomed husband and connect with an altruistic robot. Explore an isolated Scottish isle and touch down on a far-flung asteroid.
From the light-hearted to the darkest depths of the human psyche you would be hard pressed not to find something to like about Silently in the Night.
Many different visions of the future are within these pages. And as a bonus, there is an excerpt from the soon to be published Saving Paludis, which introduces the reader to two of the principal protagonists in this tale from the edge of mankind’s known universe in the year 3898AD.
If you love mystery with a hint of the paranormal, and the interplay of human foibles, grab this smorgasbord of short stories then get yourself a copy of Milijun, the mind-bending sci-fi novel by Clayton Graham.  

Go and give it a try here. Beats reading the same old thing again and again, doesn't it?

Laters

Book review: A Soul Divided by Daniel M. Quilter

Here, then, is the next phase in my stumbling efforts to support fellow indie authors. This is the first of a (probably very) occasional series of reviews, recommending works that could be well under your radar.

First up, David M. Quilter's A Soul Divided.

Amazon blurb incoming:

When the princess of the technologically advanced Human Empire is kidnapped by an agent of the Mystic religion, they’re forced to turn to the last person they’d ever expected to ask for help: Drake Ashbell, a snarky pirate who has a problem with authority, and a dark secret. 
When he’s pulled into the conflict, Drake finds himself caught up in a fast-paced adventure that will take him to distant worlds, make him face his tragic past, and test the limits of his soul.

Sci-fantasy. That's what we've got here. I'm far from the biggest sci-fi fan, (I enjoy it on the screen but don't follow much of what goes on in books) but I do think that magic in space is a pretty novel idea, and can't imagine that there's been too many variations on this idea. Immediately, then, there's a freshness to the work, difficult to achieve in any flooded field.

Things get off to a pretty quick start. Olivia, Princess of the Human Empire, looking forward to an evening of staring the stars, finds herself watching as five soldiers are taken down by a single man, and we're only a couple of pages in. The action is taut and tightly written throughout the book, and it's the speed of events that really helps the book. The ideas are a tad cliche, but when done with gusto the whole story makes for a rollicking adventure that will keep those pages turning.

The characters aren't the usual cardboard cut-outs either. Olivia in the above scene finds the confrontation an 'interesting' diversion from the norm. The brothers Vahn and Drake offer up interesting contrasts. Vahn, sent on a quest to find his criminal half-sibling, is diligent, Drake is a Han Solo-esque rogue with a knack for a snappy line (he's the kind of guy who'll jump through a window if you don't let him use the door). Not long after we meet Drake we're into a chase scene. In fact, it's to the book's credit that we never sit still for long periods of exposition. In that sense, A Soul Divided is very reminiscent of original trilogy Star Wars or Indiana Jones.

My only niggle is that the cover doesn't do a particularly good job of representing the story, so I recommend any prospective readers look past it (and we all know the proverb about judging and book covers...). There's a review I've seen that complains about the paragraphing, but that's not a problem I had, unless it applies to the print version? Anyway, kindle edition is laid out correctly and easy to read. A couple of editing issues here and there, nothing overly bothersome though.

A Soul Divided, then is recommended if you're after a real blast of adventure set around a solid magic system that sticks to its rules.

As a bonus, the kindle edition is only a couple of quid. Get it here

Back to promoting myself/babbling rubbish soon.

Laters

Mannethorn's Key by Simon Lindley

Hey.

It's been a while.

In my next post I'm going to talk about what happened with NaNoWriMo, but for now it's time to big-up another up-and-coming author.
This time round, I've got Simon Lindley talking about his fantasy novel Mannethorn's Key. He talks not only about his novel, but also about the process of world-building, and it's pretty great advice for any budding fantasy writers out there.

World-Building 101 by Simon Lindley

The Realm, The Land, Middle Earth, Narnia – I presume you have spent some time visiting at least one of them. I know I have. And, if all goes well with the ‘travel brochures’, Drageverden will soon be another fantasy ‘tourist’ destination. However, I expect people will only visit if the place promises immersive adventure!

World-building in fantasy is as critical to a plot as character development. When done well, it can transport the reader so absolutely that they yearn for the place long after finishing the book.

I’ll share with you some of my challenges, and the process I go through in creating a land that I am confident is not only believable but tangible, tactile and immersive for my readers.

One of the difficulties I’ve struggled with at times is purple prose. As writers, we sometimes lean to the flowery – long, buttery descriptives – waxing poetic, sprinkled with a fine, magical dust, like morning dew settling on the vine and… oh, I beg your pardon!
I have learned to 1) be succinct, 2) alternate between long and short/slow and faster-paced sentences, and 3) avoid overuse of adverbs. Purple prose detracts a reader as much as a similar life scenario. We’ve all been in one of those awkward moments when someone has talked for well over twenty minutes about, say, fruit flies because, well, they’re a fruit-fly expert, and we nod, and nod, and nod and mm-hmm — until we nod off.

Another habit I picked up came from kindergarten: Show & Tell. I love to tell people things. He saw a dog. Maggie was angry. The bird was tired. The danger is that by doing so, a writer creates a barrier rather than an invitation. We must ‘walk’ as we write, immersed in the land and noting its effect upon our character/s. I must show, not tell.

Like all trips we take, we discover as we go. I make an effort to step from character interiority back into Drageverden regularly, to generate an interaction between the two. It is easy to blurt out all the details of a place, but that is not how we naturally absorb our surroundings, and it quickly becomes tedious. Our character must shake as she enters the darkness of the spider’s lair, snap her head back at the whisper over her shoulder, brace with teeth clenched as the dust cloud rises from the horde cresting the last knoll – and we must be there with them.

Tolkien carried his readers along – experiencing the ground under a hobbit’s foot, smelling the foul mead and men of the Prancing Pony, and anticipating the Brandywine narrowing near the ferry, still far too distant to escape the Nazgul. He rarely tells. What’s more important is that no matter who you talk to, Middle Earth is different for everyone. Why? Tolkien let the scenes play out as much by emotion as he did geography and although he painted a vivid picture of the land, he left our conviction of and immersion in Middle Earth to fill in the deeper details.

So I haven’t provided you much regarding DrageVerden. Oh, I could talk, believe me – ask anyone who knows me and you’ll soon discover I rarely shut up — but you must ‘walk’ alongside the giants crossing the Arvian Plains to understand the shock of it all, or spend a day with Ka the drakehawk to experience her love for the Swamps of Ierloquetze. Brochures never do a place justice. You have to book the holiday.

Okay, okay! I’ll give you a little foreshadowing prior to your trip: Drage is Danish for dragon. Verden means land.

Happy Trails!

Simon Lindley is an author, musician and intrepid explorer in the real world and along the rolling landscapes of his imagination. His book, Mannethorn's Key, the first in the Key of Life Trilogy, will be released in print and ebook formats January 5, 2018 at fine retailers everywhere. It is also available for pre-order now.

So there you go, guys. Give Simon's book a shot, remember we're all meant to be supporting each other. It's too easy to buy the same old crap from your local supermarket shelf from the same old names. Try something new, why don't you?

Laters

The Definitive It.

Let's jump right on that bandwagon!

I feel justified too. Stephen King's been a huge influence on my burgeoning career as a writer, and It had a major effect on me. So damn right I'm going to wade in on this.

Now, it's been a while (yet again) since I've posted. I was just getting some momentum going, then... you know, events happened. I'll talk about some of it in a future post, not quite ready yet.

But there's no better time than now to discuss It.

I'm going to state my conclusion up front: I believe the upcoming movie adaptation will be the definitive version of the story. Novel included. There. I said it. And you know what? I mean it.
There's going to be a lot of 'It's and 'it's going on here. Should be fun to keep up with.

Here's my raggled copy. Probably worth about 20p.

Which is less than a Freddo. Seriously, how do they cost so much?

Before I go any further, and hopefully before the hatchets come out, let me jot down a couple of provisos. I love Stephen King, right? I've gobbled up his books since I was just starting my teens, and there's no doubt that he's a big influence on me becoming a writer. Also, most (note that word most) of the novel It is great - just be aware that I'm going to argue how King started out very, very good, and got a hell of a lot better as his career went on.

Also, I don't have a lot of room to judge, really. My first novel probably sold 6 copies (3 to me), and my second isn't due out until April 2018 (subtle plug for A Graveyard Visible there), so I'm not exactly at the top of my game yet. Still, I retain the right to be as critical as everyone believes they have the God-given right to be on the internet - and I shall do so constructively.

The main thing, and let's get this out of the way now, is the ending. We can all agree that the ending of the original 1990 mini-series didn't work. It's not just the special effects either (can't expect much; It was made for 90's American tv, and there was no budget for effects, and no room at all for any of the gore in the book). Dramatically, it's flat.

The novel has the same problem. The climactic confrontation doesn't work, not when the characters are kids, and certainly not when they're adults (both battles run in parallel, switching from one to another in an attempt to give a double-rush of excitement). You see, we've spent near enough a thousand pages following their various clashes with It in it's multiple unpleasant forms... and then at the end, apparently the best our human minds can do with It's 'true' form is to conjure it as a big spider. Oh well. This form simply doesn't compete, terror-wise, with a psychotic clown called Pennywise. Nor is it as scary as the leper, or the werewolf, or any other of It's visceral, beastly, life-threatening variants. In truth, this last form is a real disappointment, and we would have been better off with the clown. There are other issues, such as the Turtle, which is about as 'out there' (readers of the novel might get that one) as King has managed to go, and I suspect that his editor let him get away with a little bit too much.

I mean, really. Even back at the time I thought we 

would have been better off with no ending than this.

The point of all this? From what I've read, the makers of the new It 2 part movie are dropping the ending entirely. No spider. Hooray! Common sense prevails! The weakest part of the novel is being removed. What are they replacing it with? Who knows, but I'm actually looking forward to finding out. At least now there's a chance that, come the final reel of film two, I might not be disappointed this time.
The only part of the prolonged end sequence that works is the devastation that descends upon the town of Derry, and how the place falls apart. I do hope that some element of this is retained somewhere along the line.

Is that all I've got? Nope. There are other issues, things that absolutely would not translate to screen, some for legal reasons I suspect. The whole 'Beverly' scene towards the end (if you've read It, you know the one, if you haven't, then you really need to be prepared for a no-holds-barred experience) has also been left out, which is only right, really. In fact, something I'm hoping has changed significantly is the portrayal of Beverly throughout the story, particularly as an adult. She's pretty much a vessel for men to do what they want. You can argue that's caused by the treatment she receives from her father, but it's all a bit flat and one-dimensional. And don't get me started on the sappy performance of her in the 1990 mini-series. Let's leave that in the past where it belongs.
From the sounds of things, the amount of (mostly) verbal abuse that the Losers Club receive is going to be toned down, and I think that's a shame. We have to be honest about bullying. Kids can be really unpleasant shitheads. There's no point kidding ourselves; if you can think a vile thought, then you can bet that some kid somewhere on this planet is gleefully shouting it at someone at the top of her/his lungs.

Cannot wait. Absolutely cannot wait.

They're making other changes too - the forms It takes throughout the novel are being altered for the screen. We're going to get the Leper and the dead kids, and that might be all from the original. I'm all for seeing something new. Plus it will be good to get the Leper this time - that part of the novel is freaky. And the Leper isn't going to be CGI. Look it up if you don't believe me...

Does it sound like I'm not a fan of the novel? Because that's not strictly true. It is the best two thirds of any horror novel I've ever read. The sense of place and time it conveys is phenomenal. So rich. You can almost smell the heat of the Barrens, and hear the running of the water (in both canals and sewers). I just think there's always a problem with having a main baddie/creature who's true form we cannot comprehend. If our mind can't see it, then how's something supposed to write it (it? It? it It? Aaaaargh)? Anyway, I'd place good money on this being the best horror film of the year, and if it's not... well, I'll eat my hat. Or your hat. Or your dinner. Whatever looks better.

Let's all report back after the movie's come out, what do you say?

Laters.

(Click here to see if I can write any better.)

Oh God, this BOOK!

Oh God, this BOOK!
What am I going to do? What am I going to do?
I don't understand what's happening, I really don't. This can't be happening.

Things couldn't be going better for my career as a writer. For a start, I now actually have a career as a writer. A publishing contract. 17 years down the line. Not with a vanity publisher either. No money going from me to them. They're publishing it, making an actual hold-in-your-hands book. What better validation can there be than other people wanting to take a chance on your novel? Surely this means that I can actually write, so I can take confidence in that. Yes. Of course I can.

So why is A Graveyard Visible dying on me?

The story must be in here somewhere.

The irony! That a novel about so many coffins should bite the dust! It's chugged and chugged and chugged, and now it has ground to a complete halt.

I know. I'm not the first this has happened to. I absolutely won't be the last. Doesn't make the situation any easier to handle though, does it? Some kindly soul pats you on the shoulder and says, 'Never mind, just move onto the next thing, eh?' It's at that point one looks at the kindly soul and screams 'I've written 37,000 bleeping words and you think I can just move on?' and then one rips the individual keys off the keyboard and bashes each one into their forehead and proceeds to type 'D I E I D I O T' over and over and over again.

If that sounds like an extreme over-reaction, then you are not an author and do not belong here. Please, move along. Go find some kitten pictures to stare at.

He's doing a better job than me.

Sorry. That was mean of me. It's just that this... situation makes one a bit tense. I'm sure you understand. If you don't? Then you are not an author and you don't belong here!

Sorry. Did it again, didn't I?

Here's where I got to in my stupid bloody novel. Caleb and Misha have just come out of a fairly spectacular showdown with a kid so bad you'll want to punch his head in. There has, in fact, been plenty going on, with certain events changing the relationship between the two leads, and the story now shifts gear. It is time for Caleb and Misha to talk. She's got something very important to say, something that will alter one of Caleb's long-held beliefs (the death of his mother always looms large, and it's been a major factor in forming his world-view). They climb to the top of the fort in the playground, lie on the roof in fine rain, stare up at the clouds at her instruction...

And nothing. She's got something to say. I know she does. It's important. It drives Caleb to make his next decisions. But I can't get her to say it, whatever it is. When my dumb, stupid writery instincts took me down this cul-de-sac they advised me that this was most definitely the way to go. Everything had been fine so far, hadn't it? It wasn't fine. Misha mumbled a little bit, pointed at the fat grey clouds above like she had something grand to say, and then it all came to an end. What's worse, for some reason I can't find my way back to the road that brought me here. It's become a sealed circle.

I had a novel die at approximately the same point about eight years ago. Shanty for the Soulless it was called, a pirate story taken off the high seas. The ship, the parrot, the captain's way of life was chopped out from under him in one single swipe, leaving him floundering to find his way in a harbour town full of people who remembered him from his last colourful visit. Captain Silus de Sansa was a great character, I had so much fun with him, and yet a powerful horror dawned on me as I hit 35,000 words. After a dramatic opening, nothing had happened. Plenty of talking in different locations, plenty of meetings with figures from Silus's past and reminiscing about events that occurred before the start of the novel.

It was dead out of the water.

What really killed it was the pull of another story. I let the other story take me over, promising myself I'd go back to 'Shanty' in six months and give it another go. I never did, never will. I think it's happening again here. With Mac Pliers landing a contract, I very suddenly feel a strong urge to focus all my attention on him. Maybe I'll come back to 'A Graveyard Visible' in six months.

Except I won't. If I drop it, I'll never go back. I love this story. I do. No. I don't. I hate it. I hate it!

The gates are closing...

So what on earth (or under it) do I do?

Laters. Maybe.