The Lion

For their loyalty to her cause
She rewarded them.
Before her throne they knelt, heads bowed,
Respectful,
And sapphire light engulfed them.
For moments they knew bliss and then -
Changed eternally -
They emerged into new life.
Free together they enjoyed the novelty,
Discovering what it was to be,
And in their play they trespassed,
Using gifts that did not belong to kill.
Rent from top to toe by claws designed for giving,
A fissure opened to allow a shadow in.
Multiplying like the darkness,
The creatures grew from the once proud ones sin.
Blue flame flickered now in colder fury,
Cursing the favoured for their one ill fated action.
Shamed to look upon each other they scattered,
Seeking distance to fill the void they had created.
Yet hope still glimmered if they paused to find it.
Redemption lay within their grasp,
If not their sight.
To rid the world of shadow and to heal it,
To end the wrong they caused and make it right.
Until that day they must wander,
Knowing neither warmth nor sleep nor food nor love.
Denied all that makes life precious,
Persevered from death until they can make good
Their fall and once more roar in union together.

Feeling overwhelmed

33 days to go until I fly out to New Zealand and I am feeling totally overwhelmed with work. I want to plan out what I'm taking to New Zealand and get the trip in order, I want to get all my Christmas presents (bought and made) sorted before I go away, I have 3 friends birthdays this month and two family and there is Lily's baptism of course. I have paintings to finish and my art work to promote and sell and last, but by no means least, I have my writing to do. Til the Moon Fails has to be finished, The Mark of the Wolf has to be edited, and there are a couple of other projects that need my attention. Whether or not all these things are humanly possible, I don't know, but I will never get them done while I am stuck in this brain freeze of overwhelmdom. I've tried blocking things out, and even letting things go, but I am still buckling under the pressure of this self imposed burden. You know the old saying, 'You are your own worst enemy'? Isn't it funny that even when you know all the things you are doing wrong, it is really hard to stop doing them and change your behaviour.

Houston we have a problem

There I was, sitting at my notebook, getting ready to write the last two hundred or so words of Til the Moon Fails, when it hit me - the reason why I've been finding it so hard to finish the last section. I know the first draft didn't go so well, but since I've started it again I have been happy with it and the progress has been good. Until I got to the last section and things started to drag again. I thought it was because I didn't want to say goodbye to Hans and Janna, but reading what I have written of the section, I realise where I have gone wrong. It is just too depressing! This isn't how I want to end the trilogy - on a down note. So, much as I want to type 'The End', I think I'm going to have to start the last section again.

This is a WRITING blog!

Ok, I know I haven't posted a lot about writing recently, I do apologise, but it is because I have been working hard (although not hard enough) on getting Til The Moon Fails finished and every time I finish a section I keep on meaning to publish a picture (remember how Mulder used to announce the news?) but then I forget and then I've finished another section and it seems too late to post about it... anyway -

News on Til The Moon Fails - I hope to finish it this week (before Sunday 8th July). I've heard that before, I hear you groan. Yes, I know, the deadline for this book keeps on stretching and stretching, and the weird thing is I have only about 3/4K more words to write. I just don't want to say goodbye to these characters, it is so hard wrapping up their story.

Once I've finished Til The Moon Fails, I am going to tackle The Mark of the Wolf with a vengeance. I want to have it all shiny and ready for publication before the end of August so that I can start sending it out to agents again. I might get a professional editor to look it over before I do that, but either way I want it to be finished before September. It would be great to have it sent out to a few agencies before I go away in November.

As regards other writing - at the moment I have my hands full with these two projects. I know I can be more prolific, but at the moment I'm struggling to get the energy to drag myself from my bed to my writing chair.

So, when it comes to this blog, I will try to bring it back to being strictly about writing. If I have any random thoughts on TV programmes and movie stars, I will try to keep it to another blog (possibly my myspace blog - and yes, I have way too many blogs to keep track of!).

Writing Update

This is meant to be a writing blog and recently my writing posts have been few and far between. So here is an update:-

The Moonwolf Chronicles:- Til the Moon Fails is still being written. I wasn't happy with the first draft so I have started it again from scratch. It is coming along well, but there is a lot still to be written.
- The Mark of the Wolf. I have notes on the rewrite and on what I want to change and improve and highlight, but as yet no work has been done on it.
- In Search of the Moon is in editing limbo.

Iserie Valult books:- Valerie and I have had some very productive meetings about our joint trilogy of science fiction books, which have taken Biff and co into interesting and new territory. However, it has not progressed any further than that.

The WB: - No further work done.

7 Days in Hell:- Has been submitted for a second time.

Short stories, flash fiction, other work:- Nothing to report.

Books: - 28/48

Submissions:- 7 Days in Hell - 2 Other - 0

Plans for February

My plans for February are as follows: -

1. Write 50K words of Til the Moon Fails
2. Complete and submit assignments 4 and 5 for the Writers Bureau
3. Read 12 books
4. Start rewriting The Mark of the Wolf
5. Edit and submit zombie flash fiction Deadly


Book Pledge: 9/150
Submission Pledge: 0/30

Review of January

My goals for January were as follows: -

1. Write 50K words on Til the Moon Fails.
Something about the Til the Moon Fails has been bugging me since I started it, and this month I realised what that was. So, I have gone back to the start to rectify the problem. This means I didn't get as much done on furthering the book as I had wished, however I hope that it will continue to flow quicker and stronger from now on.

2. Start to edit The Mark of the Wolf.
I read The Mark of the Wolf and took copious notes and I realised that editing was really a euphemism for rewriting it. The writing is good and there is a story there, but everything is layered with mounds of historical/big house drama that are unnecessary and slow the writing down. I gave myself two months for this job, which I now realise is foolishly optimistic, but I'm looking forward to starting working on the next draft come Feb.

3. Send Assignments 2 and 3 to the Writers Bureau.
Yup. Assignment 2 submitted and completed and, as of today, assignment 3 submitted.

4. Two meetings with Valpot about our joint books.
Yup again. Had two very productive meetings about Ely, its origins, its people and its mores.

Book Pledge: 9/150
Submission Pledge: 0/30

Back to work

Started back to work today. Things haven't gone exactly to plan, but I am working around it and the day is still going well. Mungo started his new book today. He didn't write as much as he would like to, but he is pleased with what he has written and I know he will pick up the pace during the week. I was meant to work on assignment 2 for the Writers Bureau this morning, but got distracted by other work. I'm not worried about it because I have given the mornings of the week over to it (discounting Wednesday, that is three more mornings to finish it in - eek!). I'm about to start work on Til the Moon Fails now. More copies of 7 Days in Hell and Leaf arrived in the post, so that was an exciting diversion. Looked up my writing for last year. Wrote roughly two hundred thousand words (well, between 200K and 300K). I want to break that total this year and sending it flying!

Book pledge: 3.5/150

I've gone Beta!

Finally I've updated to the beta version of blogger. Don't know if you will notice any difference, but it is a bit cooler to use. I know it is a while since I last posted. I've written loads of posts in my head, but I never got around to typing them up. I should have scribbled them down somewhere, so I could put them up here later, but I forgot about it and now they have been neatly filed away at the back of my mind.

I'm busy getting ready for Christmas. Sometimes, in all the hustle and bustle, late nights, early mornings and busy foodless days, I wonder what it is all about. I've lost track of the real meaning of Christmas, the reason why I celebrate the great feast, and got lost in a wash of hollow (yet pleasant) commercialism. At such times, I say to myself - don't worry about presents, they aren't really important and everyone will understand. Spend time on thinking about God and the light of the world that came to us on the 25th of December. For a few moments, I fully intend to concentrate on Christmas in a spiritual sense and spread peace and joy. Then something sets me off about presents again and I plunge once more into the elf factory.

Anyway, enough of that. What about writing, I hear you cry! 7 Days in Hell is finally finished and the Christmas orders are in from lulu.com. I'm dying to hear what other people think (although a little nervous as well). I still hope to get Til the Moon Fails finished before the Christmas holidays (Dec 23rd), but it is playing second place to the Christmas gifts that have to be made.