Apologies for the lack of blog post last weekend but it was my birthday the week before so I was busy hosting a birthday BBQ on Saturday. What a nightmare they are! I spent the whole day getting everything ready for it, and then the whole evening running about after everyone. It’s a good job that I only have my immediate family come to them or I would be hiding behind the sofa wishing it was over before it had even begun. Koyo hid upstairs all night, glaring at anyone who dared to come up to use the toilet. My cat is rather scared of strangers, and since my family rarely comes over, that’s what they are to her. She particularly mistrusts small people (children). I ended the evening sitting on the floor of my living room, watching Cardcaptor Sakura movie 2 with my nieces and nephews. Normally we end up watching My Neighbour Totoro. Eldest niece did shout for Totoro but I showed her the pink box of Cardcaptor Sakura and she was sold. Good day in the end but so much hard work!
My actual birthday was during the week before. I had a great day courtesy of my hubby. He took the day off with me. I had pain au chocolat for breakfast (very bad), opened my presents, went shopping (but didn’t buy anything!), went to Starbucks for coffee, then we went to see Clash of the Titans (why is Perseus suddenly in love with Io? Utterly wrong. Just change mythology why don’t you? Also, pointless 3D alert!), and then shopped some more, and then we went back home and into Oxford for Yo!Sushi (I love Yo!) where I ate a lot of Pumpkin (Kabocha) Korroke and Edamame, Dorayaki, and Mochi. Totemo oishikatta da yo! (it was very tasty!) So all in all I had a great day.
Last week I spent most of my writing time working on the second draft of Ascension. It’s getting there now, and I’ve added the scenes in that I wanted to and fixed parts up. I have to polish a few more scenes to get some setting description in there, and tweak a bit, and then it’s ready for a check over for passives, making sentences more active, and generally neatening it up. I have another two weeks marked down for Ascension Second Draft in my calendar, so I think I have plenty of time to do the usual spit and polish on it.
It started out at the end of first draft at around 72,000 words, and it’s now nearly 86,000 words. I’m pleased that it’s grown because the story is more rounded now. I think there’s only a few bits that I need to watch for in my next stage of editing when I get back from holiday in June. Just stuff that I need to make sure sits right and makes sense, and that doesn’t leap out in a glaring way or doesn’t fit the characters.
The muse has been busy. A story that was going to be about vampires is now about angels. He’s really into angels at the moment and I was contemplating a particular plot when walking to work through London, and it struck me that it would work better as an angel story. I like the premise, so I’ll probably write it with angels instead. I’m not sure when I’ll get to write it. I’d really like to get Ascension finished, and Forbidden Blood finished too, and then perhaps I could write it. But then, I do need to do draft edits of Her Dark Angel and Her Fallen Angel, and also write Her Warrior Angel. I have far too many stories on the go! I really need to clean up house and get things into order. Maybe this new story will have to wait until then. I don’t want to, because I don’t like it when there is only editing work in my future, but I guess it’s my own fault for writing so many stories in one go! Of course, my Hades’ Boys are going to demand time at the end of the year as promised to them. I think I need to check my calendar!
I bought a couple new books on writing this week. I already have a stack of them and some are more useful than others, but it’s good to have them there as reference, and I’ve found some of them to be very insightful and helpful. I’m hoping these two will be the same and will give me some good pointers about writing, plotting, editing, etc. I think the thing I need pointers on most at the moment is securing an agent. No luck so far but I figured out the primary cause of the problem. The story was far too long.
The next story that I’ll send out to agents is Ascension, which is a demon/witch pairing for the hero/heroine so it’s a bit different, and it’s the perfect length for a first novel. Of course, I’ll mention my other complete novel in my query, and the ones I’m working on, because it looks better if I have several to offer.
I am absolutely shattered today, so that’s it from me. Have a great week everyone and I’ll keep you all posted on my progress with Ascension.
