Just discovered there's a review of my book at On a Pale Star. You can read it HERE. It's pretty positive, they're looking forward to the next one, which is nice, and didn't find Candale whiny, but likable, which is also good, especially as that was a bit of a worry for me. All in all, yay :)

Well, not getting far with Children of the Shadow! No surprise there. It's hard to find the right place to start really. Should I start when he's a prisoner, half unconscious, when he's rescued, when he's meeting with the seer who arranged his rescue, or just a general morning at the keep where that seer lives? It's hard to get the right start, one that can easily lead onto the rest of the story, but still be interesting. It's also hard because this time the hero is with a whole lot of new characters, in a completely new place, and introducing them, and informing the readers of how he got to this point, without info dumping is hard!

But, in happier news, the publisher has told me that she wants to get all the print books on the list started first week in April and that I should go ahead and get the cover for the second part of book one done. So i have. So, hopefully, the book will be done soon (not sure how long it takes to be listed on Amazon and so forth) and out in time for the book launch bbq I have already arranged for July. And, of course, in time for the convention November, so I might actually get to do one!

After not getting very far with the Forest of Ghosts I have decided to work on the Children of the Shadow instead. This is the final book in the Ellenessia's Curse series and I'm hoping that working on it, getting it out the way and done, will let my thoughts roam more freely so that I can develop the Forest of Ghosts properly. Besides, I think my hero, Candale, has waited long enough for an end to his tale, to find out what it's all about and find some happiness, and so I'm going to give it to him. As with the Seer's Tower I've had a couple of false starts, trying to find the right place to start the last chapter of Candale's tale, but I think that I've found it now. Only time will tell, of course. Strangely, it's with him in bed. It's where the first and second books both started, it seems right that the last one should begin in the same place, I guess. Why break with tradition?

Bristol Con is selling tickets, cheaper now until May. Really hoping to be there, selling books and whatnot, this year. http://www.bristolcon.org/ if you're interested.

13149 / 120000
(10.96%)

not been doing much. Spring is in the air and it makes me restless. Makes me wonder how I ever got anything done before!

I have written 11,637 of 120,000 words. I am now 9.69% done! no frills wordmeter

(still not sure why the graphics do not show properly but at least you can see the percentage)

Finally gotten beyond the pain that was chapter two to write and things are flowing along nicely now, helped even more by Mr Kitty shifting his bum off the laptop :) Although soon will come the dreaded travelling, always the hardest part for me to write, as there is only so much scenery, or camp life to write about. But hopefully the disappearance of a ghost, and the development of a ghostly crush will make it easier, and more enjoyable to write, and read.

Been reading Carol Berg's Soul Mirror, the sequel to last year's Spirit Lens, and I'm enjoying it far more than I did the first one.I don't usually like reading about female characters, and I do find the style of these books rather formal, as the characters are rather formal. But the book is full of lots of twists and things I never saw coming, the characters are as deep and realistic as ever, and Anne, the heroine, is actually interesting to read about. I actually find myself wanting people to pair up, and that's rare with me, so it must be good. I may try my hand at a proper review, when I've finished it.

Well decision has been made to only split the print version of the Shadow Seer, so I have sorted out the website to represent that. Hopefully the split will go ahead soon and I will finally have a book to force on my friends.

The Forest of Ghosts is still lagging. I have holes in it, two, in fact, but I know that they will be filled eventually. Half the problem seems to be that I'm rushing it. I'm not completely sure why, but that's why it seems to be lacking something. Hopefully the weather will improve, I will be able to get out and about and that will jog my brain into action.

Ordered Carol Berg's latest, the Soul Mirror, my first new book of the new year, just as the prequel to it was my first new book of last year. I'm a little disappointed to learn that an anthology that was going to feature a sequel to my favourite book of hers, Song of the Beast, is going to be delayed. It also features a story by my friend Kari Sperring, which I was also looking forward to, so that's a pain. But it's also comforting to know that even established writers can have these sorts of problems.

I haven't done much work on the Forest of Ghosts over Xmas. Not because I've been busy with family and festivities, but because I'm still distracted by a Facebook game, and because my tom cat, Mr Kitty, has discovered that laptops are warm and comfortable, just as one of my female cats, Megaera, discovered that so is my chair. I could move them both. Unlike my third cat, Claudia, neither are prone to fits of growling and biting and clawing, should I try and do anything as awful as to shift them away, but it's Xmas, and they're cute, so I've chosen to leave them alone. As a result I've only done about two hundred words in the last week and a bit, but I do have two happy cats. (Claudia moved away on her own, discovering radiators are better for warmth than laptops)

But the Xmas holidays are almost over, and along with the cats having to be shifted, it's time for resolutions. Along with the usual, lose weight, I have two, finish the Forest of Ghosts, and do some proper networking and book promotion for the Shadow Seer. It should be out in print before too long but even if it isn't, I need to get my butt in gear and do conventions, meet some other writers, meet some readers, that sort of thing. BristolCon, in November, organised by my friend and fellow writer, Joey Hall, is a must. Hopefully there will be other sorts of things along the way. For now though there is a cup of coffee waiting for me.

I hope everyone has a good and safe New Year's Eve. See you in 2011.