Darkling Muse, fresh from all sorts of sideshow terrors, has gripped my pen hand firmly the past month or so and forced me to finish my second novel, 809 Jacob. This one is currently 110,000 words long, and is one I actually started before my PhD.
I will set about doing the final edit run-through once I return from the jungles of PNG. I'm off for two weeks geological field work in the deep dark and spooky jungles of the Highlands from the 21st of this month, and man, what an adventure this will be!! I will get a helicoptor ride each morning out to the region we will be working on that day, then a ride back to the base camp each evening. Last time my boss was out there, he had a Death Adder fall from a tree onto his hat, and a crazy rebel point a home-made shotgun into his face! Definite story material...
I've also had a slight change of plan regarding my first novel. The idea in that book is bulging at the seams, so in line with my plan of developing it into a trilogy, I want to add a little more to it in order to link these new ideas. So, for now, 809 Jacob will take priority; I intend to submit this novel to publishers by the second half of this year (which will please the dark fellow).
But for the next 10 days before I fly out to jungleland, I will be finishing some short stories - and getting stabbed by needles and sorting out visas and getting Malaria pills.........
5 days ago
