I’ve just finished a (perhaps still slightly rough) copy of the cover for The House of Snow and Apples. This will now be Book Two of The Winter King. Book Three will be Fair Upon the Tor (incomplete). Book Four will be A Charm for the Nameless Child (complete, 100,000 words). I didn’t really do…
Updates and Suchlike
Just a quick update to say that Allie Sumner posted a very thoughtful review of A Treasure of Bone & Promises at her book review site Allie’s Opinions. I’m still some way off having The House of Snow and Apples ready for release, although I have at least started in on the cover art. I’ve uploaded…
The House of Snow & Apples: Second Draft Complete
I’ve now finished taking my on-paper edits and using them to make changes into the Pages file for The House of Snow & Apples. It’s only a 40,000 word novella (or novelette? I can never remember the divisions and categories), so it didn’t take nearly as long as a full 100,000 word novel would have. One thing…
Edits, Edits Everywhere
It’s a hot day outside, the sky a sort of molten, carved-out sapphire blue. It’s one of those days that you either need to embrace fully with a trip to the beach or sitting under a tree in the local park, or failing that, hide from in an air-conditioned space. I have edits to wade through,…
Second Drafts & Colours
I’ve finished the on-paper edits now for The House of Snow and Apples, and am slowly transferring them across to the Pages document I write in. It’s now sitting at about 40,000 words, though cutting and adding may change that slightly. The other thing I’ve been thinking about lately is racial diversity in fantasy. I mean…
The House of Snow & Apples: First Draft
Well, The House of Snow and Apples, Book Two of The Winter King, is complete as a first draft at 39,000 words. I just typed the last line. It took me longer to get to the end, and the story is much longer than I initially estimated. Certainly, when I started the story in mid-January I…
Endings & Other Stuff
It tends to be something of an truism in writing fiction that authors will eventually discover they have a problem with the beginnings or middles or ends of stories: very few people are good at all three. My largest stumbling block tends to be beginnings. It’s taken me a long time to even work that out. The story…
Thoughts on Titles
Well, I’m now nearing the end of the first draft on what will now be the second book of The Winter King. The manuscript is sitting at about 25,000 words, so a medium to long novella. In an earlier post I discussed the (somewhat) confusing reasons why the release schedule I had so carefully laid…
Alien, Rockstar, Goblin King…
Like many, the death of David Bowie has taken me by surprise. I’m a little knocked to one side. Not speechless, but just feeling that the world is suddenly, unexpectedly, a place with slightly less wonder. Bowie, of course, did so much in his life, although, in the end I suppose I’m the right age…
State of Work
I’ve managed to throw my release schedule into disarray by overthinking the connectivity of things. What I’d intended to be Book 2 in The Winter King, working title Prince of Ghosts, has started to look to me like too much of a jump from Book 1. Anyone who has been following my work, will also…