Saturday 14 July 2012

Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy, grumpy

All right, maybe I'm not that grumpy.

I just thought I might try a little experiment.

I've mentioned before how I've discovered that the posts where I gripe and groan and whinge and complain seem to get more views than the posts where I'm happy and cheerful. Only problem is, this week I'm actually not feeling quite so bad and I'm struggling to find things to complain about.

But, just because I'm not feeling so bad, I don't want my number of hits for the week to suffer. So I thought, what if I pretend that I'm grumpy, just to get people interested, but then I write a not-so-grumpy post anyway. Will people be annoyed? Will they see it as a dirty, lowdown trick to try to get more readers? Or will they just get over it and read the post? I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Anyway, you're probably wondering what it is that's made me so not-grumpy today (assuming you've read this far).Well, the good news is I'm actually making progress on my "long-forgotten" novel. The one I started over four years ago and got more than halfway through (in one of those bursts of enthusiasm I'm prone to get) before it fell by the wayside (in one of those even longer bursts of apathy I'm even more prone to).

With the great responses I've been getting to the books I've published over the last 18 months, I figured it was time to get back to it. Reading through what I've written so far, I'm thinking that maybe it's not too bad, and has a bit of potential. It's different from the other things I've written. It's more clearly YA/MG than the others, with a teenage protagonist. Also, it's a female protagonist, which is a big departure for me. I like her a lot. She's probably the most interesting and complex main character I've done so far.

Of course, in a lot of ways, it's also a lot like other things I've written. It's set in a world that's very different from ours, though also similar in unexpected ways, and it has lots of strange made up words.

I've actually managed to write two new chapters in the last two weeks which I'm quite excited about. And I've set myself some deadlines. A first draft by the end of the year and publication by the end of next. I want to push myself, but I also want to take the time to make sure I get it just right.

Discover Fantasy Update


I can't finish this off without a mention of week three of the Discover Fantasy tour. The first two weeks have been great fun. In week three, I'll be popping over to see Karen Pokras Toz and Vixie's Stories.

Check out the schedule for full details of where you can catch me, Dave and Jeremy. And don't forget to enter the prize draw to win a $100 Amazon gift card.