Current location:	Mordvayne, south Remgarde
Current mood:	happy
Current music:	Hundred Reasons - "The Perfect Gift"

Back, you devils!

This week bore witness to the inevitable: the first stuttering in my so-far indomitable writing progress. The danger was always there, the hounds of inconsistancy snapping at my heals as they waited for me to stumble. This week they finally sank their slavering jaws into my, er, hmm...ok let's dispense with the imagery. To put it more simply, I got little writing done this week, demonstrated by the following diagram:

15,874 / 120,000 (13.2%)

 Barely over 500 words more than last week's total. This doesn't show the whole picture however. True, I only managed to write on Tuesday and Wednesday last week but I had good reasons: Thursday night I was preparing for my trip to London, Friday I was in London all day and didn't get home til late (not to mention being utterly knackered) while Saturday and Sunday I was busy being ill with a shitty cold and a head so fuzzy that I could barely remember my own name let alone do any writing. 

The writing I did get done was not particularly progressive in a word-count sense; I mainly re-wrote earlier passages and so the overall count did not really increase much. Still, after my four-day absence I managed to get back into the swing of it today. I didn't get that much done, but what I did was important. I had to write a scene where Lukan finds out why Magnus rescued him. I couldn't get it to flow properly and in fact I didn't have a clue how the scene would go. Worse, I was bored at the prospect of such a scene. So I scrapped it. Lukan no longer gets hanged: instead he demands execution by beheading on the basis that he doesn't want to die like a common criminal. He gets his wish, and is distraught to find that, as the shadow of the sword hovers over him, his life doesn't flash before his eyes...because he never really had one. All he feels is regret, and after he is gifted his last-minute reprieve, he realises he has to make something of his life.

In other news, I found an interesting thread on the Chronicles Network site in the publishing forum. It involves John Jarrold, fantasy publishing guru, who kindly has answered the questions of forum members. It is extremely insightful, not to mention interesting. John appears to be away at the minute, but there are over 20 pages of past discussion to get your teeth into. Check it out: http://www.chronicles-network.com/forum/10900-personal-question-s-to-john-jarrold.html Incidentally, John Jarrold is the (un)lucky chap who will be receiving the finished draft of The Winterstone, when it is done. I bet he can't wait...

My trip to London last Friday was pretty good, if you ignored the pretty horrific schedule: awake at 4.30, up at 5, taxi to station at 5.30, train at 6.35, arrive London for 9. Still, we went first class so got lots of nice food. The journey back was especially good fun, with much free drink and loud conversation, to the clear irritation of the tosser  business man sitting near us. 

Finished reading Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley recently. A solid effort but slightly disappointing. I found the serious style a little hard to swallow after the witty cynicism of Joe Abercrombie, and never really connected with any of the characters. The overall premise is good though. Currently reading Bitterwood by James Maxey. It's certainly not your usual cup of tea. Once you get your head around the dragons that act and live like humans it is pretty good. Some of the dialogue is a bit crap though.