writing on thin ink

Well, it’s been months since I’ve heard from Cold Moon Press – I’m beginning to think they’ve been abducted by marauding faeries! So I’ve no idea if the anthology will go forward or not, which is a shame as I was really looking forward to that one in particular.

Things with knowonder! are on hold for a little longer, so I expect I’ll have new story links to post perhaps by the end of February. But I’ve been so inspired by them and the idea of having so many children’s stories that there is now a backlog of stories in my brain and I can’t seem to get them out fast enough.

Lillia and Rose is the temporary title of a children’s book I’m working on now. It’s really Lillia’s tale – she’s ten and always wanted to be stolen by the fey, or to discover that she’s got magic faerie powers. On the day her parents convince her to keep her feet on the ground, she meets her twin brother… in the woods. He’s got pointed ears, teeth, and talks in an unusual dialect. Yup, he’s fey (that means faerie for all my non-fantasy readers). And Lillia finds that not only is she from the woods she’s always loved, but her real family had put her in hiding. To confuse matters more, her human ‘sister’ Rose turns out to have magic too and is also part of an intricate prophesy of the children to free Wildwoods from the darkness of troll-law.

The Rabbits of Carrot Wood is the other book I’ve started – it was meant to be a children’s book, but the characters have hijacked it and now it’s an unusual tale of a pagan tribe of intelligent rabbits. It has an odd feel of Native American/Celtic tribal origin myth and it’s been a joy to write so far. It’s unusual, as I said, so it’s not the sort of thing I can imagine an agent slapping a contract on, but it wants to come out and won’t take no as an answer.

Blood Tide is still in the mill – I think I want to give it another polish before I put it up for sale on Create Space. It is extremely pedantic fine-tuning, but as it’s historical fiction, I’d rather have it absolutely right.

Aside from the big projects, small tales for knowonder! are seeping out of my typing fingers (here’s hoping that they are good enough).

So that’s the writing side of things. There is still so much more work to do with Seadrake Creations, especially the website which looks a real mess at the moment. I’m happy with the sidebar and one photograph… the rest is rubbish! I think once I get some more professional-looking photos and get used to the web programme (things keep hopping to different areas when I’m not looking) it may be much nicer. Or maybe I just keep comparing it to high quality professional websites that I’ll never be able to afford.

The really lovely thing is that my silver leaves have been landing more contracts. I’ve got two sets in the VIC and having finished one commission, I’ve been asked to do another, which is very nice :)

I also want to start workshops as it’s covered in my PLI.

That’s the light side of life. Then there is Claudia starting to walk and using me as a walking frame, which is hilarious, but pretty time-consuming. And with having three books to edit for publication this year with Wyvern Publications means that every minute of my day needs to be accounted for. I do feel a bit exhausted and spread a bit thin.

Alright, as I said, spread a bit thin… I’d better be getting back to work now. The allotment needs digging over today.