2013 12 01

Yesterday, the last day of November 2013, was a fantastic day.

But not for me. For the hundred thousand people who finally signed the WOW petition, which means that it will have to be debated in Parliament.

The War On Welfare e-petition has been going on for months, and I've been promoting it much of that time. Watching it reach the magic 100k felt like watching a piece of history.

Yesterday was also the final day of NaNoWriMo 2013 - a contest I did not complete. It could not have been done, what with my gall bladder surgery knocking my creativity for six and all. Still, let's hope for next year now.

Though I'm not going to sit and wait for next year - I'm determined to write The Empty Shadow now, and make a solid go out of it so I can get it finished before Camp NaNoWriMo next year. It'll give me the opportunity to exercise my creativity to bring it back up to speed, and it'll give me something to do during Christmas and the New Year when I'll be sat on my own for what could be hours at a time.

I have no plans for the evenings of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or New Year's Eve. I never make plans for those evenings. Ever. My folks might go out for the night; my sisters might have some do to attend, with their partners - but I have nobody on this side of the pond, not even to keep me company on those nights. So there will be writing, because I really won't have anything else to do.

And so we reach the final month of 2013. Happy World AIDS Day, folks.

Writing on The Empty Shadow resumes on Monday. Also resuming on Monday - my life. No heave lifting; but that does not mean that I must be forced to stay in the flat all the time. The Doctor says I should go out and about for a bit, and there'll be a checkup later this month with the surgeon to determine whether I can get a clean bill of health and return to volunteer duties.

Between now and then ... you guessed it. I will be writing. A lot, I hope.

NaNoWriMo 2013 ... Formal Announcement

I must formally announce that I cannot continue with NaNoWriMo 2013.

The Great Hiatus took too much from me, too early. I thought it'd be a day surgery, but it turned into full surgery. I am still in recovery, and so I have no way of generating the momentum now, to writing the remaining words I'd need to win.

So as of tonight, I quit. I can't even tell you how many words I've done right now. It is nowhere near what it is meant to be.

The Empty Shadow will get written - in fact, it is now my main writing project, and so it shall get written. It just won't get written by the end of this month of November 2013.

Don't expect me to do it before the end of the year, either.

I'm disappointed, too. But I'd rather write a cracking novel in a few months than a crap one in one month.

The Empty Shadow - And So It Begins

Chapter 1

Shadow Play

Sunsday, 30th Darkness, 1453 T.

Incense hung in the air; a calming, reassuring scent as a hand, feminine fingers long and elegant, gently caressed the smooth, cool, polished wooden surface of the coffin lid. Silence also hung in the air, leaden and cold, leaving nowhere for the soul to go.

A door slamming open broke the mournful reverie. The hand retreated. The woman turned. A man had entered the almost-vacant room behind her. Tall. Slender, well-toned body. Brown leather jacket, leather trousers, boots. Shock of red hair. Green eyes.

'Where is he?'

The white-clad woman looked on as the man approached the coffin. She, too, was tall, her gentle eyes carrying a noble bearing, her long, blonde hair tied up in a braid behind her.

The woman's brow furrowed. 'This is the Temple of Repose, Hardie Camplin. Please show some respect for the dead.'

Hardie stopped in the aisle. Hastily, he rearranged his jacket and spat on his hand before running it through his hair.

'Sorry, Seren Mai.' He wiped sweat from his face. 'How's that?'

Seren Mai of Anfar maintained her composure for a moment. Her slow smile, in the gloom of the Temple, felt like a breaking dawn. 'Acceptable. Now, as you were saying ...?'

NaNoWriMo 2013

NaNoWriMo 2013 has begun.

I've started on my fourth Seren Mai novel, The Empty Shadow.