C.M. North's Blog, page 3

Preparing to Publish

Good news, everyone! I’ve scheduled with my editor to get the manuscript for The Broken to her at the start of February, and I’m very excited to see what she has to say about it! She’s been a staple for me ever since I published my first fantasy novel, and was critical to the success […]

The Music of The Broken

The Broken is about a band. Naturally, as I started writing the book, I realized I wanted to hear their music, too. After all, their music is my music; the soundtrack to their youths is mine. As I wrote a few weeks ago, a large part of the past few years has been spent working […]

A Further Update on The Broken

I did it – I finally did it! After several years of effort, I wrote the final words to The Broken last week, and I breathed a deep sigh of relief; the writing process is over. The publishing process is just beginning. But before that, I wanted to take a moment to review the history […]

With Apologies to Jenny

When I crash, I crash hard. I had intended to have the first draft of The Broken finished by now (I really wanted it done by the start of October), and I had promised my colleague and friend, Jenny, first dibs on the manuscript for beta-reading. She really enjoyed 22 Scars (or so she tells […]

Sometimes …

Sometimes, depression is outright misery. A black shadow across the sun, a deep and pitiful despair that rips life from your soul and leaves you bleak, morose and struggling to survive even another moment on earth. Sometimes, depression takes everything from you; sometimes, it leaves you comatose in bed and unable to lift your head, […]

An Update on Fall, and The Broken

The days are definitely shorter, and colder. I woke up the other day freezing because the blankets had all fallen off the bed, which I haven’t felt in months. When I leave work at night it’s actually dark. And I feel the closing in of my mind in association with the days of dark, a […]

A Ramble on Depression and Death

I haven’t written as much for The Broken as I wanted to; not as much as I promised myself. I’ve been depressed, and it’s taking a toll on me. I can’t use it as an excuse in its entirety – I’ve failed to write significantly even when I wasn’t feeling miserable – but at the […]

Separating Art from its Creators

I saw a post on Facebook this morning regarding upcoming HBO series Lovecraft Country, about a black family traveling across the US south in the 1950s. The post itself was a review from the LA Times, but the caption was simply: “I hope Lovecraft is churning in his grave.” For those of you who don’t […]

A Follow Up to My Commitment

I did well to begin with; really, I did. Around three weeks ago, I committed to writing around 200-250 words a day on The Broken, in order to get the book itself completed by the end of the year. That same week, I wrote about 1,700 words, or exactly one week’s worth of writing. I […]

Thirteen Reasons Why (Again), and the Undermining of Important Messages

Many of you who have read either my blog or my book, 22 Scars, know that I don’t take mental illness lightly. Having suffered with depression and bipolar symptoms for what essentially amounts to the entirety of my adult life, being a former self-harm addict and struggling to this day with suicide ideation, any story […]