WRITING UPDATE

Fresh words have been a bit thin on the ground in recent days. I’ve been caught up in rewrites and business matters with Big Finish for Destination Prague, and in the last couple of weeks, have been happily engaged in the first round of flogging poor old Mark “What the hell have I gotten myself into?” Smith as we embark on our AHWA mentorship together. Poor guy: he wasn’t expecting homework :)

I’m thoroughly enjoying my work with Mark, all jokes aside. He’s a humble and hard-working guy who’s determined to make the most of the process, and has already rewritten one story under my bumbling tutelage. It’s both refreshing and energising to be working so closely with someone who just wants to be involved, and writing, and whose only goals are to become a better writer and sell his stories. It throws my own decisions of the recent past into clearer focus, and makes me pleased about the path I’ve chosen— to cofine myself to work for work’s sake, and turn my back on the off-putting and damaging distractions. Mark’s a good guy, fun to work with, and I’m going to be taking credit for every success he ever has from now on…

I’ve a collection of half a dozen stories that I’ve managed to line edit over the last month, and I’m looking forward to getting through them and putting them out into the world. I set myself a target of 12 new sub missions this year, and if I can finish these in reasonable time, it’ll take my tally for the year to 15, so I’ll be a happy writer-boy at that point. Having received 4 rejections in a single day this week (owowowowowowowowwwwwwww) it's fair to day that I'm definitely back in the harness as far as being a prolific writerboy goes.

And I’m pleased to report that, amongst all that lot, I’ve laid down the first words of a new novel, The Death of Vaz Tey. I’ll be discussing it more as the writing continues, but so far, I’ve discovered that it concerns the world’s oldest immortal man, the plot to kill him, and a secret buried on the Mongolian Steppes. I’m letting this one flow organically, rather than trying to plot out every step of the story, so it’ll be a journey of discovery for me as much as it is for the characters involved. It’s much more fun that way.

writing+update