February's (lack of) writing progress
My mother died on the thirteenth of February, so as you can probably imagine, I haven't done much writing this month. She had Alzheimer's disease, so we knew this day was coming, but I don't think any of us expected it quite so soon.
As you'll have guessed from the "about the author" section at the end of each of my books, she was one of the main reasons I love books and writing so much. My dad, being a librarian when I was a boy, would bring me whatever he thought I might like, and it's perhaps thanks to him that I love reading in general. But it was Mum who loaned me her copy of The Hobbit and started my life-long love of fantasy specifically. (Though to be fair, I don't think that was her intention. She was probably just trying to stop me complaining of boredom when I was off sick from school for a couple of weeks.)
Around that time, Mum started writing short stories and articles, and had some of them published in magazines. Her example was at least partly why I started writing my own stories. She was my first fan, and later, my first (and gentlest) critic. She's listed in the acknowledgements of most of my early books, and she earned her place there. She was very well-read, and had a knack of suggesting improvements in a way that made me wonder why I hadn't thought of them already. She was always willing to listen to my accounts of how well or badly my writing and marketing were going, though the dementia made those conversations increasingly one-sided in later years.
As someone wiser than me said, grief is the price we pay for love. I know that the pain of losing her will fade, but never go away completely - and I wouldn't want it to. I count myself fortunate to have many happy memories of her.
In other news (!) I did manage a bit of writing and editing of Command Authority, which now stands at about 31,000 words. I think most of the scenes are there, and it's just a matter of filling in gaps now. A possible problem is that the ending is quite open. Without wanting to give any spoilers, the protagonist proves that the accepted answer to a question is wrong, but doesn't make much progress on proving the right answer. So I might have to write another novella (and maybe a third after that) or carry on writing and make it a novel.
I also decided what my next novel will be after all the other stories I said I want to finish. I had thought it would be a standalone sci-fi novel, but then thought that (especially if I leave Command Authority as a novella, with more to come), I'd have too many ongoing series. So instead my next novel will be another Dragonrider book. This will be the third, after The Accidental Dragonrider and The Reluctant Dragonrider. It will probably be the last in the series (though never say never again). Following the "tradition" of the series, the protagonist will be the son or daughter of Tiwan, the protagonist of The Reluctant Dragonrider, who is the daughter of Iko, the protagonist of The Accidental Dragonrider. I have an antagonist, and a felonious little plan for him or her to mature (actually quite a big plan), but I haven't quite worked out how the protagonist and his or her allies will thwart it. Still, plenty of time for that. I also don't have a working title, except that I know it will be The [Adjective] Dragonrider, because I like my series titles to follow patterns, to make it obvious which books belong in which series. Seeing as I don't need a title until I'm about to publish it, I have even more time for that.
(And yes, I'm aware that saying I have plenty of time in an article that starts with someone dying isn't the greatest idea I've ever had, but I have to stay optimistic...)
As you'll have guessed from the "about the author" section at the end of each of my books, she was one of the main reasons I love books and writing so much. My dad, being a librarian when I was a boy, would bring me whatever he thought I might like, and it's perhaps thanks to him that I love reading in general. But it was Mum who loaned me her copy of The Hobbit and started my life-long love of fantasy specifically. (Though to be fair, I don't think that was her intention. She was probably just trying to stop me complaining of boredom when I was off sick from school for a couple of weeks.)
Around that time, Mum started writing short stories and articles, and had some of them published in magazines. Her example was at least partly why I started writing my own stories. She was my first fan, and later, my first (and gentlest) critic. She's listed in the acknowledgements of most of my early books, and she earned her place there. She was very well-read, and had a knack of suggesting improvements in a way that made me wonder why I hadn't thought of them already. She was always willing to listen to my accounts of how well or badly my writing and marketing were going, though the dementia made those conversations increasingly one-sided in later years.
As someone wiser than me said, grief is the price we pay for love. I know that the pain of losing her will fade, but never go away completely - and I wouldn't want it to. I count myself fortunate to have many happy memories of her.
In other news (!) I did manage a bit of writing and editing of Command Authority, which now stands at about 31,000 words. I think most of the scenes are there, and it's just a matter of filling in gaps now. A possible problem is that the ending is quite open. Without wanting to give any spoilers, the protagonist proves that the accepted answer to a question is wrong, but doesn't make much progress on proving the right answer. So I might have to write another novella (and maybe a third after that) or carry on writing and make it a novel.
I also decided what my next novel will be after all the other stories I said I want to finish. I had thought it would be a standalone sci-fi novel, but then thought that (especially if I leave Command Authority as a novella, with more to come), I'd have too many ongoing series. So instead my next novel will be another Dragonrider book. This will be the third, after The Accidental Dragonrider and The Reluctant Dragonrider. It will probably be the last in the series (though never say never again). Following the "tradition" of the series, the protagonist will be the son or daughter of Tiwan, the protagonist of The Reluctant Dragonrider, who is the daughter of Iko, the protagonist of The Accidental Dragonrider. I have an antagonist, and a felonious little plan for him or her to mature (actually quite a big plan), but I haven't quite worked out how the protagonist and his or her allies will thwart it. Still, plenty of time for that. I also don't have a working title, except that I know it will be The [Adjective] Dragonrider, because I like my series titles to follow patterns, to make it obvious which books belong in which series. Seeing as I don't need a title until I'm about to publish it, I have even more time for that.
(And yes, I'm aware that saying I have plenty of time in an article that starts with someone dying isn't the greatest idea I've ever had, but I have to stay optimistic...)
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