Misty Muse

Very misty day today. And it aroused my muse, which is already slowly drip-feeding me a short ghost story set in a fog bound office block...

Familar End.

 Well, I finally competed my 9th and final horror novel, Familiar yesterday. I just have some grafting to do on the typesetting, writing the book's blurb etc. to do now, but I am hoping to get the beast published before the dawning of next week.

Making the most of what spare time I have before heading home for the evening to work on the aforementioned, I manage to progress my Guy N Smith ghost story a little after I finished at the office for the day:

Starting work on GNS2

I completed the final edit Part 2 of my next novel early and so I got to start work on the second issue of the Guy N. Smith zine a little before its scheduled time:

🙂

Conjuring ghosts from the page

 Sometimes all I want to do during these cold, dark and miserable winter months is to hibernate until the clocks go forward an hour and the warm of spring awakens the countryside. For now, my best escape from the harsh inconviences of earning a crust and battling the afflictions and ailments of increasing age and ill health as to sit in a quiet place, away from the bustle of every life and create places, people and circumstances of my own. Let an imagined protagonist face a happenstance far more worthy of anxiety than my own petty concerns and lose myself in his actions and thoughts for awhile. And so I take a second sojourn to a andventure I'd hope never to endure in the real world.

Continuing my ghost story for GNS Zine 2

Knock Knock

I had a couple of hours spare today and taking advantage of a creative urge, I opened up my Scribe 2 and turned my mind to the next Guy N Smith zine. Unlike the 1st issue, which was a solo effort, my work on the 2nd issue is going to be more of a compiler and design role. That said, I had promised to add something of my own to the project, and a promise is a promise.

I had thought of getting out my box of Lego and recreating a few more GNS Lego book cover recreations. But I haven't been in the mood to work with them for many a moon now. However, over the last few weeks a single scene of a ghost story has been running through my mind. And as I sat there today, ready to kill a couple of hours, I realised I could deal with two birds at the same time if I wrote up this story.

As regular followers of my socials, currently confined to this blog and Bluesky, I plan on writing a series of ghost stories - a genre I particularly favour but have never attempted before. I also need to produce content for the next GNS zine. The ghostly scene that had been haunting my mind of late ia based on a door. Whilst this door was an ordinary front door in my musings, I suddenly realised I could easily change it to a particular door owned by my favourite author, the great scribbler himself. I had seen pictures of it on a GNS forum, and had read a short story Guy himself had written about it. And then, as if by some alchemical mind-magic, my fingers began to scratch the surface of my Scribe 2, and before I knew it I had a good few pages of the short story written. I am rather pleased with it too. 🙂

 

Up Early

Up early to continue work on my final draft of Familiar...

 

Merry Crimbo 🎄

Planning next year's goals on my suprise present - an Amazon Scribe!

Pwscat ready for her crimbo dinner:

Pwscat on the prowl:

Familiarr. Draft 2 complete

The 2nd draft of my final novel is now complete.

Familiar Update

Familiar. Part One. 2nd Draft. Completed.

Familiar - Draft 1 Completed

It has been a busy and very productive month. I'm really enjoying my day jobs - probably the first time I have ever enjoyed my paid employment. I've applied to help out at the local cat sanctuary. The 1st draft of my next book is complete. I have even got the cover for it sorted after my Canva course at Gower College last week! The year is definitely ending way better than it began. And, best of all, my daughter is coming home for a few days next month, so I have something very special to look forward to... 🙂

Storm Bert

A really atmospheric storm bludgeoned the house all day, conjuring just the right mood to add a big chunk of writing to the novel I'm currently writing, Familiar.

Three Quarters...

As things stand, I am about 3/4 through my 9th and final novel(la). Whilst I am no longer aiming to reach the word count set by Nanowrimo, I am on target to complete thecfirst draft of the book, which is a massive takeaway for me from the project. 

Part 3 Begings...

Needs Must

 

Catch Up

After a cheeky day of Nanowrimo yesterday, it's time to catch up on my writing...

Another UnXpected Turn

I've reached a decent stage of my novel, Familiar. So much so that I no longer feel it necessary to reach my daily word count for Nanowrimo. 

I have now reached the stage of the book where I am happy just to write one scene of the book a day. I think this will be sufficient to finish the novel(la) by the end of the month. 🙂

UnXpected Turn

Piling on the word count as the story takes an unexpected turn!

Cracking On.

I woke up this morning feeling quite concerned that on Day 10 of Nanowrimo, I would fail to meet my minimum word quota for the day.  At circa 17k words, I literaly had no idea what would happen next in the novel. 

It's a difficult task completing Nanowrimo - its targets are ruthless, especially when you are holding down a full-time job. Forcing the narrative,  conjuring the plot from the ether can take time, you'd naturally think. But the way this novel clicked together today, really made me appreciate that my muse really rewards the hard graft of daily writing.

When you're fingers bleed,

you're muse will lead.

Critical Cat

fudjcat critiquing my writing this morning:

8.25

My 9th and final novel reaches the quarter way mark.