Whew. It’s pretty loose, but the first draft is done. That’s 6200 words today – which is more than I would normally manage on a day set aside for writing, let alone a day with fifteen dozen other things going on. So I have a full draft of The Rotated, now the real work begins as I try to knock it into shape. So good to have belted it out before 2010 starts. Gonna take a little break from it for a couple of weeks and work on some other stories, then come at it fresh. Mood, elated, exhausted.
Tag: infinite windows
Novel update
Okay, another 1500 words in the last 24 hours. It seems slow, but I feel like I’m threading a dozen needles here as I bring all the threads together in a finish that will make sense. It has diverged so much from my original outline (for the better, I think) that there are many more aspects to manage than I’d first expected. Perhaps another 3000 to finish it off? Mood, excited, tense, despondent, elated.
Novel progresses
Quick post here, in between busy-ness. I’ve moved the novel ahead by around 1000 words since my last post, and I’ll get some more done right now. It is a little slower now as I try to make sure things are really tight as they tie up.
Quiet times
No posts for a few days – I have my head down, trying to complete my novel before the new year. I’m about five or six thousand words out, but with family stuff and holidays it’s actually hard to find concentrated time work on it. December 31st feels like such a psychological point – new year, for new writing and it’s good to work to a target.
The novel is an expansion of my flash fiction story The Rotated, as published on Infinite Windows. Incisive editor Mr Tannenbaum asked me why I’d written the story as flash fiction – there seemed to be so much more to it – the concept, their relationship, why do the invaders come, etc. Sure enough, there was so much more to explore. The story is sitting at around 60,000 words right now, so it is on the shortish side for a print novel, but the plan, if the editor likes it (current signs are good) then it will be serialized on Infinite Windows. I will be making the story nicely Gordian, I hope, in the next few days. Then of course, will be spending coming months on revisions and re-writes. I just need to get the draft done by the 31st … I may not post here for a few days as I try to keep my online time to a minimum.
Two new stories in the world, then three
A good day for publishing today:
My 5000 word Science Fiction story “To a Pile of Ashes” has come out in the October issue of Infinite Windows. This is another xenoarchaeology themed story, though probably pretty stand alone, unlike the world of “Skinny Joe” (also on Infinite Windows earlier this year) which I will want to visit again.
My 1200 word entry in the Flashes In The Dark summer chiller contest “Breathe In” has been published in Flashes in the Dark. This is more of a suspense thriller than anything supernatural. Along the lines of the much shorter “Eddie’s on Fire” which came out on MicroHorror a few months back.
Also in the good news for today, my story “The Stone Goddess” has been accepted for the print anthology Horror Through the Ages. More details to come.
Two stories published now
The June issue of Infinite Windows includes my flash story The Rotated and my short story Skinny Joe.
There’s some other great stuff there too, including The Comedy Lounge by David Landrum and The Door by Joseph DeRepentigny. Check out the whole site here
Stories coming soon
Two new Sean Monaghan stories – one flash fiction, one a standard (3000 word) short story will appear in the respective sections of the June issue of the Science Fiction magazine Infinite Windows. I’ll post links when the issue is out – but check out the site now anyway; there’s some good work going on there.