Looking Ahead
This week we’re already in our southern hemisphere spring equinox—over the days of Tuesday 20 and Wednesday 21 September—and that feels like both a hopeful time, and one to think about what’s coming up in the six months ahead.
Daughter of Blood
Firstly and most importantly for me, I’ve begun work on Book Three in The Wall of Night series, working title Daughter of Blood. I’ve had the prologue in my mind for some years, almost from the beginning of writing The Heir of Night, as well as the ending and a good idea of the story arc in between. But last week the beginning of the the first chapter beyond the prologue came to me, so I knew it was “time to begin.” So far I haven’t put pen to paper—or fingers to keyboard either 😉 —in a narrative sense, but what I am doing is going through The Gathering of the Lost and picking up all the story threads that I need to have in my mind as I begin to write, and getting them into one document that I can keep referring back to.
I know it may sound a little dull, but for me as the author it’s actually quite exciting, because what I am dealing with is possibility, that sense of the paths of the story opening out, and believe me, that is quite deliciously exciting! 🙂
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A Thornspell Short Story—about Rue!
Also on the “to do” list is writing a short story about Rue, set in the Thornspell ‘verse—as a result of the “Fun with Thornspell” competiiton that was decided last week, here. I am actually very excited about this and already have some ideas percolating—and don’t forget it’ll be published right here on the blog, probably in a month to six weeks time. Writing it won’t take that long, but I always feel it’s best to give the story some downtime before coming back to it and revising into a second draft. So I’m giving myself that time, with apologies if it seems a bit of a wait for ‘just a short story.’
But you see, I have this theory about short stories, which is that they are as much their own literary form as a poem or a novel, and getting them ‘right’, so that the tale being told works as a short story—well, that’s not as easy as you might think.
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An Interview with Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris About Their Newly Released Steampunk Novel: Phoenix Rising-—A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel
This week is NZ Speculative Fiction blogging week, and all going well I hope to bring you an interview with our own NZ author abroad, Pip Ballantine, and also Tee Morris (well known to many here in NZ, as well as his home USA) whose Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences steampunk novel, Phoenix Rising, was recently released in NZ. But if not this week, it should still be “soon.” 🙂
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Christchurch Friends of the Library Talk on Tuesday 18 October
You may recall that I recently spoke as part of the Writers’ Tea Party at the Hurunui Memorial Library in Amberley, which I reported on here—and coming up I have another library event, this time as a guest of the Christchurch Friends of the Library at the South library in Beckenham on 18 October.
I understand the event starts at 12.15 pm and is open to all, for a gold coin entry charge.
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And there may be another “Looking Ahead” just a little later in the week. 😉