George and Glenda

Not done much writing for the past few days but that doesn't mean I haven't been active. I've actually stopped to give myself some time to think over the next developments in a couple of projects I've been working on, in particular Lucilla and George and Glenda. The latter is almost finished now. It just needs the climax working out. The main idea for this came to me, strangely enough, at four this morning when I was lying in bed, unable to get back to sleep again. It's a good twist which puts two of the characters who are mutually hostile in great danger with a massive problem to solve.  Should work. Hopefully I can have this sorted in a few weeks, then the novel will be finished. This is different to most of what I have worked on before as it isn't horror as such, with no supernatural elements in it, but a crime novel.

Into the Dark - novel

Now that I have finished what I think is the final rewrite on this novel I am left with the problem of what to do with it. Should I try sending it off to publishers, even though past experience has shown I can expect to wait up to 12 months or more for an answer, usually no thanks. Or go the quicker but, perhaps, ultimately less satisfying route of putting it online as another ebook, like Goblin Mire or Sendings - except I think this is a much better novel than either of them. It's a problem. The trouble with me is that I would much rather get on with whatever else I get stuck into writing next than go around trying to market what I have already finished, especially when it is so frustrating - and can sometimes impair my ability to get on with writing new stuff. It would be great if I had an agent to do all that for me, but getting an agent these days is, from what I can gather, even more difficult than getting a publisher. I suppose there is no need to make a hasty decision, I have still to finish either George and Glenda or Lucilla. And do a final rewrite on The Return.
One of the worst things about trying to get stuff published are the long delays. I have had a collection of short stories, The Lurkers in the Abyss, in the pipeline with Midnight House for years now, yet that seems little nearer actualling getting published than ever. I have had interest expressed in a second collection of my stories from a British small press publisher - a very good one, too - but the final decision over that seems to have come to a halt and months have gone by since I last had any emails about it.
The funny thing is that for a good few years I have been increasingly more convinced that the only printed collections/novels of mine to appear will be postumous. Call this a stupid, illogical conviction if you like, but it's been there a while - and is growing in validity as time goes by. It happens, though, and to much greater writers than me. Take Lovecraft for example.
Oh well, that's that bit of depression off my chest. Onwards and upwards!

George and Glenda

Well, I have finished rereading and titivating the text so far in this novel. I am now at the point where I have to write new material - and, hopefully, complete it. This is the tough part, as I have placed all my characters in a complex series of events that will have to be resolved shortly. I have killed off one major character, but deciding who and how the rest will either die or survive is going to be tricky, especially those I have ambivalent feelings about.

George and Glenda

While Linden is going through my latest print-out of The Return with a fine toothcomb (and a very energetic pen!) I have picked up again on a novel I started writing last year called George and Glenda. First of all I am working through the seventy odd thousand words I have already written, rewriting, etc., to get myself back into it, then I intend to complete the remaining ten to fifteen thousand words to finish it. This story is a departure for me, as it's a complex murder novel with no supernatural element at all, concerning the results of a jealous sister's decision to murder her younger, more successful sibling for her money. George and Glenda is its working title and may be changed when it's finished. I don't know. A better alternative hasn't struck me yet.