Read 2020 - 61 - A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge

Oh my! Frances Hardinge is one of the best writers working today. She is also an absolutely delightful person and I declared, after finishing A Skinful of Shadows that I'd like to live under her hat. I'm aware that I wouldn't actually fit. This beautiful hardback is going on my forever shelf - most of my books either go to dust-hell ie the Bestwick's study or to the charity shop. This was a Christmas present from my Bestwick.

Lord Fellmotte was not a man. He was an ancient committee. A parliament of deathly rooks in a dying tree.

Sent to live with her father's family as a servant, a house haunted by the Fellmotte ancestors, Makepiece finds she has a half-brother, James, and over the years they try to escape the family and its estate. This is a richly beautiful book full of intrigue and danger, adventure and plots and both nasty and loving ghosts. Most of all we have Bear. By page 26, Hardinge had already broken my heart.

Read it.

Five million stars.

Read 2020 - 57 - The Migration by Helen Marshall

Just after finishing my read of The Migration by Helen Marshall, I read on social media that the film/TV rights had just sold. Exciting news and I look forward to the finished piece. I picked up this book in Waterstones' just after its release. It's shameful that it took me this long to read it, but, like many of my friends, we have a shit-ton of books on our to-read piles*

A new disease transforming young people, a quest for a new identity, the changes in adolescence, with parallels of previous plagues. Will pass this book onto my niece and nephew.

*I have been working hard on reducing my to-read stack this year and have gotten it down to 63. Now I'm panicking I don't have enough books.

30 Days of Writing Questions - Part Four

16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing?

Romance has been lacking in my fiction lately (if you discount the girl who sorta dissolved). I desperately tried to shoe-horn a romance (and failed) into my YA 'Grim Glass Vein'. My first books though were all about the kissing and other things. Oh yes, once upon a time my characters went far.

17. Favorite protagonist and why!

Right now, Meg (from 'The Museum of Impossible Artefacts') because she's awesome and so much braver than me.

18. Favorite antagonist and why!

Right now, Derek Winters (from 'The Museum of Impossible Artefacts') because he's despicable.

19. Favorite minor that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!

Serena Tierney in 'The Maiden Phoenix' (how embarrassing - another unpublished novel). One minute she was a small love-interest part slated to die, the next she was doing the killing (and enjoying it).

20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?

I love it when they're verbally sparring with a tinge of sarcasm in the air.


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In other news, Poe Little Thing have accepted my story 'The Quiet of the Hour Glass'. And it's pro-pay. So happy. Ignoring the fact my book, 'Theatre of Curious Acts' was accepted in July by Hadley Rille (because that's a book not a short story) and that in the meantime I've placed stories with two markets where I was invited to submit (Spectral Press and Red Penny Papers), I haven't had an actual slush pile sale since May 8th. Me, panic? You betcha.

NaNoWriMo Catch up:

Yesterday's word count: 1711
Today's word count: 2047
Total Word Count: 36,297 + 3350 (other projects)

Fun Times: Meg and Jake (though in this draft I'm still referring to him as Ben - don't ask) are at the wall at the end of the world. It's mighty high and mighty wide and if they linger there too long, they'll end too.

Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, June

Sales: 4 (sort of) - 3 were sales, and one was a FTL reprint, but I'm counting it (especially as so many wonderful people read it).
Publications: 3 (Necrotic Tissue, Sand & Flashes in the Dark)
Approx Word Count: (note to self - where's my calculator) 3066 words ahem! Excuse imminent
Total Word Count 2009: 122,961 words
Stories out in submission land: No comment
WIP: The Drawing of Dolls - 11,611 words (not counted in months count), The Horrifiques - 1045 words.

One flash story - Playing Card Walls - and one short story - Empty Box Motel - this month. I completed a rewrite of my first MG, 'Lucy Baxter and the Evil Emporium' and then upon finishing decided I hated it. There was no stomping on the manuscript only a hurricane enducing sigh. I then settled down (again) to work on my YA, The Horrifiques, only for Lucy Baxter to persuade me ,with a new title and an even darker, creepier slant, she would work well as a YA/novella, so I'm currently 11,611 words into that. We still don't know if we're YA, horror novella, or weird-unpublishable time waster, and Lucy insists her name is really Claudia.


In other news, check out Stuart Neville's fantastic competition to win a signed copy of his debut novel, The Twelve along with a limited edition signed copy of his short story collection, The Six. I'm in.

WIP Wednesday

My second WIP Wednesday post, I guess it's lucky I finally have a WIP to write about. Or rather, why have one WIP when you can have two.

I've spent the past week (and most of the month) avoiding working on anything. Yesterday I sat down and decided to finally start work on my YA 'The Horrifiques'. I re-read the outline (impressed and left wondering why I'd delayed working on it), and then within the space of a day, I decided to pick-up my MG, 'Lucy Baxter & The Evil Emporium', again!!! I did this about a month ago - edited the manuscript, decided I hated it. I've given the manuscript a name change - The Drawing of Dolls - and I've started work on it hoping to turn it into a novella or maybe a short YA novel. Oh, and I've promised myself I will work on both (because I'm sure it's a delaying tactic to save the hard slog of writing a proper first draft).

So, here's where my WIP's stand - the estimated end figure is of course estimated:

The Horrifiques (YA) 1st Draft
1045 / 45,000 (2%)

The Drawing of Dolls
878 / 30,000 (3%)

Anyone else up for the WIP Wednesday challenge?

Hair-Pulling Nail-Biting Frenzy!!!

I've gone a whole week (plus one day) without working on a short story. YAY! As I have 25 stories out with editors, plus two waiting in the wings for submission dates to open, I knocked myself on the head (HARD!) and settled down to work on the second book in my 'The Poisoned Apple' series. Check out the meter to the right for the current word count.

My other MG book 'Matchsticks, Moths & Machinations' is in hibernation because a) it doesn't want to be an MG, and b) can't decide if it wants to be YA or Adult. It's based on a 3,500 short story I wrote that came back from critique with demands the readers wanted a back story and more! more! more! I was also writing it with my typical MG humorous slant but I think this is a story that needs to be darker and the humor trimmed back. I'm hoping to get the first draft of TPA II' finished by the 16th August (that's only just over 1200 words a day so it should be doable if I give up the constant internet surfing), then I'll set it aside and get to work on Matchsticks during my 2 weeks off work. YAY! Sorry, I get excited at the idea of not having to get up at 5:20 Monday thru Friday.

Okay, so back to the short stories. Of the above 25 submissions those I am most anxious about are (drum roll please):

Dwelling - at the Harvest Hill anthology
Frog & The Mail-Order Bride - at Andromeda Spaceways
The Graveyard of Dead Vehicles - at the Wolfsongs anthology
Flying Dutchmen - at the From the Asylum anthology
PlasticineCoffins.com - at the Ghosts in the Machine anthology
Treading the Regolith - my attempt at sci-fi at the Return to Luna anthology
Sneakers on Asphalt - at the Terrifying Toys competition
Cold Coffee Cups & Curious Things - Malpractice anthology
The Flat-Packed Golfer - at Stymie

Ooh, and my wee 100 worder (which I wouldn't normally stress about) 'Halloween Watch' which is submitted to Necrotic Tissue's BITE contest. We are supposed to hear next week (August 1st) if we've made it or not.


Oh, and very, very, very excited, stressed, excited, excited, excited about The Poisoned Apple. Please don't let me jinx myself.


And the ones I am not nervous about/given up on:

The Last Motel Room - which has been out with Horror d'oeuvres since last October.
Yee-Haw! - the OMG! anthology

Have a good word-filled weekend!