What Am I Doing: March 2023 Edition

It’s another grey, cold day in London – apparently spring is meant to be happening but you wouldn’t bloody know it – which means it’s time for an update post. In addition to my crippling LEGO and Warhammer addictions I’ve been getting into Transformers, which has caused my wallet to cry out in pain; otherwise general life ticks over very nicely. But you’re not here for that, you’re here for writing stuff. So here we go.

Boiling Seas 3 Progress Tracker

We’re now at around 45,000 words, at least 10,000 of which I anticipate having to cut. The biggest struggle at the moment is balancing two very separate plotlines and 3 POVs. It wasn’t so difficult in Nightingale’s Sword, as Tal, Lily and Max were almost always together, and when they were doing different things it wasn’t for long. But of course now Max is in a very different place to Tal and Lily, dealing with some very interesting things that I can’t talk about because it’ll spoil the book for you. (But know that I really want to.) The main issue is timelines. I think I’m going to have to go back once this draft is done and write out what’s happening every day to make sure things roughly line up, as I suspect that currently Max has spent about 6 months wherever she is, while Tal and Lily have passed around 3 in their part of the world…

But it’s coming along nicely. I’m about to get to the bit I’ve been looking forward to most of all, too, so that’ll be very fun indeed.

Short Stories and Stuff

It’s actually looking rather good on the short story front. I have, of course, had several rejections, which is par for the course in this business really, but it’s far from all doom and gloom. In addition to one story that’s been on a shortlist for several months now awaiting a final decision, I’ve got another piece in the final 10 for a rather exciting competition… that I can’t tell you about just yet, because the official announcement isn’t up yet, but as soon as it is I’ll be all over it. I also got to do a solicited submission – as in, they asked me to send them something – which was a nice change. Whether they like it or not is another question, of course…

Oh, and I had another story accepted for publication. In Australia, excitingly. So that’ll be fun. Again, more info coming as soon as official things are said.

Reading Stuff

I have started Magician’s End. No turning back now: the end of the Riftwar is alarmingly close. I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’ll let you know when I’ve finished it, probably next week. I also had a go at Intergalactic Bastard, but for the first time in a long while I DNFed. The writing style just didn’t do it for me. Sorry, Dave.

A side note – I did get knocked out of the SPSFC, in case anyone hadn’t realised yet; good luck to all the more fortunate semifinalists!

 A Song For The Void, however, was great. A very nice bit of eldritch horror, especially considering that I don’t normally read that genre. The historicity helped – since devouring all of Sharpe I love me some 19th-century action – and it balanced nicely with the consuming dread and some genuinely unsettling gory bits.

So that’s where I am right now: cracking on with Boiling Seas 3, awaiting competition news and the opportunity to properly announce some more good news. In other words, doing pretty good.