latest musings

you know someday, I'm gonna have to figure out how to put pictures and stuff on this thing!

Anyway, not much to report since my last missive, still struggling with the final chapter of my novella though I've managed another 2000 words (and I thought I only had 1k left to write!). that brings the total so far up to about 32K and still counting though I know that it's slowly drawing to a close. It's funny really, I never thought actually finishing this would be that hard, I always had such a clear idea of how it was supposed to go but almost as soon as I started, the damn thing took on a life of it's own! It started as merely a short story about a guy who dates a werewolf and now it's got a harpy, an immortal demonic entity hell bent on ruining everyone and anyone she meets and gender change, not to mention it's set itself up for a sequel! (oh, and no werewolf!) Funny how these things go!

Here's a short extract for anyone who fancies a read:

“I found her later that day, she wasn’t far but I was still so weak after the night that for most of the morning I just lay on my bed, to exhausted to move. When it got to midday and she still hadn’t come to find me I began to panic and hope that Anya had come for her during the night to keep her safe. I made myself get up and get dressed properly thinking I’d go to Anya’s room at the local inn to ask her but before I could, someone knocked at our door and started shouting. I knew it wasn’t Anya because it was a male voice and she’s never come to see me with someone else. Whoever they were, they’d heard screaming in the night and once decided to come and find out what it was. They broke down the door and almost caught me but I ran through the house and jumped out the kitchen window.” She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts before taking a deep breath as if preparing herself for what came next. “I didn’t even have to break the glass because it was already broken” she continued. “It was broken because I’d thrown my daughter, my Elizabeth through it during the night while I wasn’t myself. I didn’t know that when I climbed through, I didn’t even stop to think why it was broken, all I could think about was getting away from the people coming to get me, that and getting to Anya and hopefully my Elizabeth. It was only when my feet hit the mud outside that I realised what I’d done.”

Talia raised her head and looked at me as she spoke and I could see the sadness in her eyes and the immense loneliness that consumed her. I looked in to those pale green orbs and saw the self loathing and self hate she felt in their depths and my heart melted. Though I still hated the part of her that could kill and main for pleasure, I found myself falling in love with her again as I had the first time I met her and worse still, I didn’t want to stop myself. She’d killed my wife and destroyed my life yet still I wanted to protect her and help to ease the pain and loneliness that blighted her life. Seeing the love in my eyes, she seemed to relax and her voice gained in strength and after a few halting sentences, she seemed to find a rhythm and told me the rest of her tale. She told me how she’d almost fallen on the cold, lifeless body of her child, torn and mangled by her own teeth and how her daughters face was a frozen mask of terror that even now, many years later haunts her almost daily. She told me of the flight across a city suddenly grown hostile and raised against her and of further promises extracted by Anya in exchange for safety. She told me of the years of misery spent as little more than Anya’s slave and plaything, forced to kill and demean herself to please her mistress and of a string of men ‘fed to her’ by Anya, men who’d managed to displeasure her keeper

Let me know what you think!

On a different note, I started looking on the net recently for advice on how to get an agent. (Seems they're quite useful for getting your work into print as a pose to just collecting refusal slips) but I found the whole thing quite confusing. Does anyone out there have any advice on how to go about this somewhat crucial but oh so difficult step?

On a final note, still no word on the attack on my girlfriend from the police despite the fact it was a month ago, kinda given up hope on that one. Makes you wonder why we pay council tax really!

Well, that's about it for today, time to go back to the keyboard I guess! Happy Ostara!

Stressful few days....

Well it's been a fairly eventful last couple of weeks up here in the desolate North East! Quite a few things have happened since my last post, not all of them good!

First, Katie (my long suffering girlfriend,) got attacked in a club on our first proper night out since moving up here. For some reason, probably jealousy, some girl decided to try and start a fight with us in a little club in Guisborough called Mojo's. Before we could do anything about it, the cow had punched Katie and actually knocked her out for a few moments. To make things worse, it was us who got thrown out of the club even though we'd done our best to avoid trouble and the bouncers wouldn't even get Katie a drink! morale of the story? don't go to Mojo's unless you're a local as it seems to be a 'local club for local people' (they even told us that as we were southerners, we shouldn't be in their club, can you believe it?'

On top of that, I've had to drop my driving instructor and put my driving test back, not end of the world stuff but very frustrating! I should have been taking my test and thereby avoiding public transport sometime in December but alas, my driving skills seem to be getting worse not better! My old instructor, a guy called Paul didn't take it very well at all (he was very very rude down the phone!) so clearly I'm better off without him. I guess I should have known better than to stay when he started bragging about speeding and stuff but hey, I thought what the hell, loyalty to your instructor has to count for something right?

So, between trying to sort out the assault on KT and my new instructor, I've not managed a great deal of writing however, the faerie tale is about half done and I may have found an agent! If that works out at least I'll have a better chance of getting my novella published when I finally manage to get the last chapter done! Now all I need to do is find the time to actually write!

Lastly, I just like to say thankyou to all those of you who've taken the time to read the extract I posted in the previous entry and have left feedback for me! I really appreciate your support and have already used your comments to alter the draft version of the faerie tale I'm writing. I don't know if I'll post the finshed piece on here or on my website (there's a link on my profile) or even if I'll send it for publishing but whatever I do with it, it'll be all the better for help from people like yourselves! Thanks again!

Till next time!