Dear lord, that last blogpost did not age well.

As any long-time followers of this blog will know, a gap of seven months between posts isn’t exactly out of character for me. Nor is waxing lyrical about a novel’s progress, and proclaiming it will be done in a month or two.

In actual fact, after a gap of 4 or so months when I simply got no writing whatsoever done, over this last month, I’ve finally managed to pull my finger out and not only finish the first draft of Shadows, but also do the First Great Edit too. The latter is always far more satisfying than the former – I print out an entire draft and scribble over it in blue pen, a process that not only brings the wordcount down to something sane but also marks a remarkably big step in quality.

This time round, it was seemingly sponsored by Flying Tiger. See the below pic for evidence.

Managing to shave over 6000 words off at this stage is a very satisfying feeling. There are several more rounds of editing ahead – including at least one working alongside a professional copyeditor – but this might well be the shortest novel I’ve done yet. Which for the sake of querying, is a good thing indeed.

Querying will be starting soon, and in force. But not just yet. Too tired. Too much else on.

In the meantime, over January I penned another 1000 word-er for a competition this January, and not winning it freed me up to release it on Amazon. I’ve also linked it to my Short Stories tab, so you can view all of them in one place.

It’s called Bane of Legions, and focuses on one key pivotal moment in Rome’s history through the eyes of its two players. And without spoiling too much, it might also have some bearing on the novel I’m working on now…

Are we done here? We’re done here.

See you in 8 months, I guess. At least I’m owning it now.