Martin Livings

It's time.

I promised myself that the first half of the year would be for short stories. I've done that, and pretty successfully too. And there's still a few loose ends to tie up in that regard, including the story for Haunted Legends that I'm still struggling with (I think it's turned into a one-act, one-room, two character play!). But on the whole, it's done. It's July.

It's time.

I promised myself that the second half of the year would be for working on novels. I was going to work on the follow-up to The Changeling Child, but since that's the pitch of my grant for next year, it would be inappropriate to do so, at least until October when I know if I got the cash or not. So I have to work on something else.

It's time.

I've dug Skinsongs out of the figurative bottom drawer, where it's sat since October 2006. It was meant to be in there for six months, instead it spent the better part of two years there. It's much-maligned, especially by me (well, exclusively, since no-one else has read it!). It's bound to be a mess. But it's a full-length manuscript that's begging for a good edit, and who knows, maybe it wasn't as bad as I remember it. Right?

Right?

Sigh.

It's time.

I haven't posted about this for a while, I've been too busy going over the draft of Skinsongs and cleaning up a few of the major mistakes I made. Mainly:

1. Writing the first half of the novel in third person, and the second half in first person... which, on average, makes it second person!
2. Having technology at the start of the novel (ie, the plastech autosurgeon) that is completely inappropriate for the technology level of the rest of the book... so out it goes, kill your darlings and all that, and...
3. Having the main character hate skinsongs and her flatmate love skinsongs for the first half of the novel, then swap that for the second half, so rejig huge amounts of stuff early on in the book.

So that's what I've been doing. And it's nearly done.

Skinsongs

Projected number of chapters left to revise for October 25th, 2006:
Four

Actual number of chapters left to revise for October 25th, 2006:
One

Current word status:
Three chapters ahead!

I should finish this tomorrow easily, and give myself Friday off. And then it's all over red rover, put it away in a drawer, don't look at it again until I'm back in Australia, and preferably not until 2008. It's gonna need a LOT of work.

Of course, if anyone wants to read an eighty-odd thousand word first draft manuscript that's a complete dog's breakfast and give their input, speak up and I'll send it your way once it's done. :)

It's a little early for Thanksgiving, but it seems appropriate somehow.

• Thanks to all who visited the Horror Day Anthology and made it such a huge success. And thanks to those who wrote to us and told us how much they liked it, it made it all worthwhile. Incidentally, in the 48 hours or so the site was up, it got over 650 hits, which is pretty bloody spectacular. In contrast, the web site for my novel Carnies has received around half that in five months or so!
  
  
• Thanks to all those who publicised the anthology, the word really spread far and wide, an impressive achievement for something so short notice and, let's face it, half-arsed. ;)
  
  
• Big thanks to the thirteen authors who so generously donated their stories, without whom it might have ended up being an unmitigated disaster, and probably deservedly so, considering how little thought and preparation went into it.
  
  
• Special thanks to azhure, who really did most of the work on it, and got precious little mention in the process. I don't think it would have happened without you, despite my grand intentions. Next time you can host it. ;)
  
  
• Thanks to everyone who congratulated me on "finishing" a draft of Skinsongs. It's weird to look at it and think "I wrote this entire novel in London, from beginning to end". In fact, 99% of it was written sitting at this exact desk, looking out at the trees and terrace houses behind us. It's making me start to regret how soon we're coming home. But only a little.

That's about it, I think? If I've forgotten anything or anyone, let me know.

Next on the agenda - consistantising (???) Skinsongs for two weeks. And finishing off the story for Gastronomicon 2 (I have a draft, but it was twice as long as it was meant to be, so now I'm just cutting every second word out of it!).

And Dirk, if you're reading this, I haven't forgotten your project. In fact, I'm travelling to Canterbury next weekend to research it. :)

This might take a battering tomorrow... if anyone actually submits any stories to my quick anthology (hasn't happened yet!). ;)

Skinsongs

Projected word count for Octber 11th, 2006:
77000

Actual word count for October 11th, 2006:
76886

Current word status:
114 words behind

No writing today, due to the fact that I realised my planned ending to the novel wasn't going to work. So, rethinking and readying myself for a writing spike tomorrow. Maybe. :)

Skinsongs

Projected word count for October 9th, 2006:
EDIT: 74000 (oops, can't count!)

Actual word count for October 9th, 2006:
72500

Current word status:
1500 words behind

I'm in the home stretch now, not too far to go. Who knows, maybe I'll finish it on time after all? Stranger things have happened, though off the top of my head I can't think of any!

Skinsongs

Projected word count for October 5th, 2006:
71000

Actual word count for September 13th, 2006:
71342

Current word status:
342 words ahead

Skinsongs

Projected word count for October 3rd, 2006:
68000

Actual word count for September 13th, 2006:
67757

Current word status:
243 words behind

Skinsongs

Projected word count for September 29th, 2006:
65000

Actual word count for September 13th, 2006:
63781

Current word status:
1219 words behind

You know what that means... I either do some work on it on the weekend (ie, when Izz is in the shower or talking to her family on the phone), or... NO FIVE POONDS! AAAGH!

No writing today. Played poker instead. Sue me.

Skinsongs

Projected word count for September 27th, 2006:
62000

Actual word count for September 27th, 2006:
60500

Current word status:
1500 words behind

Skinsongs

Projected word count for September 25th, 2006:
59000

Actual word count for September 25th, 2006:
59000

Current word status:
On target