December Writing Update

Some old business first. 

Life - yes, that "life" - has reared its unwelcomed head, and together with the holidays, has resulted in my wife not yet getting around to reading the manuscript of The Idle House Ghost and Nine Again. This is not a major problem, since it being the busiest time of the year for many people anyways, I likely would not have plagued my beta readers with it until after the first of the year, in any event. And though it will not go out until after the first of the year it's target publication date in February has not changed. Much. I won't set an actual date until she had completed her read through.

As for writing fiction...

I have not been actually been doing much of that since my last report, for several reasons. First, of course "life" again had me doing and thinking of other things. Early on I did spend time early thinking about new angles and making revisions to reflect those thoughts for the first part of that Lorrian novel I had started, before setting it aside last spring to write The Founders' Tribunal, The Ilse House Ghost and Nine Again. However, I have to admit that it still fails to excite my interest. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I haven't found that something to make it sparkle. And if it fails to excite my interest, I have good reason to believe it will fail to excite the interest of most of my readers as well. Especially since most of my long time readers who are still with me, found my books while looking for science fiction, and that's not what I'm writing these days. While I won't say never, unless I can find someway, and some character, to spark my interest in the story, I may well leave this one in "the trunk." 

But if not that, what?

Looking ahead I see: {Blank}

I have no idea for a new novel.

What I do have is a gnawing sense that I need to write one more Red Wine story. A novella will do. A novella would be ideal. I rather like novellas these days. 

The premise of these stories is that they are prequels to the Red Wine Agency thriller novels of intrigue written by the fictional character, Tarashay Clare. in my story Chateau Clare. Which is to say, a fictional character of a fictional character. Since I don't think writing true thrillers is in my wheelhouse, I wrote these lighter stories with more modest stakes and set them prior to those novels, recounting the time when he is being  slowly drawn into the bare knuckle world of Great House intrigues. Given that premise, I feel I need to write one more story that would fully draw Red Hu into the Great Game as the mysterious Red Wine of the Red Wine Agency. And given the feeling that just one more story would wrap this series up, that is what I am hoping to write.

If I can come up with the story. Always a big if.

I am, however, happy to report that ideas are coming right and left, though I haven't a clear idea of the story yet. I have a premise and am running variations of some early scenes in my head during idle times which change daily as a new idea appears in the middle of the night. All these ideas have to be rustled together into a story. Given that task, I doubt that I'll be ready to pull all the loose ends together into a story that can be put into words on a screen much before the release of The Isle House Ghost and Nine Again. 

Not, mind you, that there is any urgency to get this story out. In my one novel a year project, this story would either be my 2028c project or my 2029a project. Either way I care to look upon it, I am far ahead of the pace I set for myself. And given the inexplicable burst of creativity that has seen the rapid writing of three novels and three shorter works in the last two plus years, I don't feel any urgency to get something out on any sort of schedule. That said, by nature, I hate putting things off, so if I am able to put together a story, it will out sometime in the late spring or early summer of 2026. It is, however, still very much a bird in the bush. We'll just have to see if I can get it in hand. Stay tuned.