Where we left our heroine, she was recovering from Covid and a bad fall. May was promising, with a visit from a sibling, a road trip, and a long-delayed trip to Nova Scotia coming up in June. Work on the witch novel was proceeding, flamenco class had been resumed, I’d had my first writing date […]

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Finished off the first review of the novel. Conclusions: Next steps: Onward!

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I’ve now ignored the shitty first draft for about 2 months so it’s time to start the less shitty (let’s hope) second draft. I’m starting with some suggestions from Matt Bell’s book REFUSE TO BE DONE for my revision process – but I’m quite sure I’m going to draw the line at writing the book […]

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While the Witch Novel is marinating (i.e. I printed off all 299 pages but have not looked at them AT ALL), I’ve turned my attention to my other project, The Glass World Thing. This is the project that started as a fluffy modern romance, switched gears to become a historical fiction supernatural thing (possibly not […]

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Last Monday, sitting in Balzac’s Coffee Shop on Market Street across from Gemma Files, I finished the shitty first draft of the the Witch Novel. Cue the celebratory noisemakers and confetti. (Sadly, there was no champagne for me as I’m doing dry January.) I know shitty first drafts are the thing but I struggle with […]

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Or perhaps the mid-month slump. I’m on target for my NaNoWriMo goals but definitely feeling like I’m tap dancing like crazy and waving my jazz hands in an attempt to conjure up something meaningful to write. To take the dance from metaphor to reality, I’m also working on my piece for the next flamenco video […]

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I’ll no doubt curse myself by actually writing this but what the hell, let’s live dangerously. I’ve had a reasonably productive year (for varying definitions of productive). I alternate writing months with planning, plotting, exercise months and just came off writing 5,000 words for September. I’ll sign up for Nanowrimo for November, with a target […]

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I had a target of 5,000 words for July, which I managed to achieve* despite everything that was going on in the rest of my life. I’m not persuaded they were GOOD words, mind you, or advanced the plots at all, but – as I am constantly being reminded – it’s easier to cut words […]

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Somewhat to my own surprise, I’ve now passed 100,000 words on The Witch Novel. Some of them are even good words, I think. This project had its beginnings in 2015, the year after COLD HILLSIDE was published. I’d gone back to some old, unfinished projects to see if anything might spark some inspiration. I made […]

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I spent April in the woods and the weeds of both WIPs. I wish I could say that I had a clear plan for what I was doing, but it was more a case of “write the next thing you think might happen here” and hope for the best. I’m not sure any of it […]

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