Updates
Hi, everyone
It’s been a busy couple of weeks. I’ve finished the first draft of The Prince’s War (Prince Roland’s story, The Empire’s Corps) and I’ve resolved to try and take it a little easier for this week. That said, I do have edits for Child of Destiny and Stuck in Magic, which will be published as the start of a spin-off series (provisional title for Book 2 is Her Majesty’s Warlord), as well as a handful of other loose ends to worry about at some point. I’ve fallen behind on my email, so I probably need to do something about that too (sorry if you emailed me and I didn’t reply.)
I’m unsure what to write next, to be honest. I’m torn between The Cunning Man, which is a massively expanded (and third person) version of the novella in Fantastic Schools III (which could do with some review love, if anyone’s interested) and Standing Alone, which is the more or less direct sequel to Cast Adrift. Owing to a slight mix-up, mainly my fault, any cover for Cunning will be delayed, which will give me time to edit but also slow production a little. Let me know which one you want, please.
In other news …
I’ve been considering a weird little idea partly inspired by Barb’s Changing Faces. The basic concept is that there’s a pair of university students, a man and woman in their twenties, who have an argument over who had it worst in the past – men or women. A goddess/Q-type meddler overhears the argument and decides to show them what it was really like by sending them back in time (and possibly into a fantasy universe) and gender-swapping them. The young man becomes a young noblewoman, the young woman becomes a low-ranking nobleman fostered at the noblewoman’s castle. They rapidly find out the past isn’t a bed of roses for anyone.
I haven’t decided where to take the story yet. Part of me wants to keep it as an intensely personal story, with the two struggling to survive and establish themselves; part of me wants to think of it as another tech uplift story and/or fantasy setting story.
What do you think?
Chris
