Endgame

With only 4 chapters left to edit (some, admittedly, on the long-ish side), I thought it a good time for another post. I've learnt so much during this edit, mainly, my propensity to overwrite (having nearly lost 40,000 words from the draft has made that painfully clear!!!). It's an exciting feeling, approaching the end, even if I have written a novel to coincide with a worldwide recession and as far as publishing seems concerned lately, it's all doom and gloom! Onwards...

Went to see Coraline last night. A fabulous book and the film doesn't disappoint. It's very 'Burton-esque', as you'd expect, and the kid we watched it with was scared out of his wits by the end, but we did all we could to assure him that no-one was going to replace his eyes with buttons and that seemed to do the trick.




I'm very pleased to see that my upcoming mini-novella The Vampire Narcissus has appeared in the 'Coming Soon' section on the Screaming Dreams website. I'll announce its release when the time comes and I'm interested to see what readers make of this one...

Ok. that's it for now. Just a quick note to let people know I'm still alive and still on the case.

Best

JB

An Even Keel

After a very bad start to the year everything appears to be returning to an even keel and in terms of the novel, going as it should. I'm a lot happier being out of work for the now and seeing progress being made. The novel seems a lot sharper and more sure of itself, and that can only be a good thing, right?

Also, I'm really happy to have a new short story out Bordering Sunset which you can find and read for free here:

http://www.screamingdreams.com/ezine/Progress2009.pdf


It's a little black comedy, just me making light while getting through my rather dark novel.

I finished reading Nick Harkaway's Gone Away World which I heartily recommend. A really good read. Now I'm reading Matter, the new Culture book, and that's equally as cool. And looking forward to the Watchmen movie more than anything!

Ok, that's it for now, just a little post. Glad to see the back of winter and looking to the future.

JB

Halfway Between the Slush Pile and the Draft

Thought it was time for another update. Things, as they have a funny habit of doing, have happened. Firstly, I 'lost' my job. Honestly, I don't know where I put it. One day, I woke up, caught the bus, and just didn't know where I was going anymore. Go figure. But it means I now have more time to concentrate on the novel, which was taking a very small back seat in the very long limo of life. Seriously, I'm quite pleased by the situation. Just don't mention the R word, or that fast-becoming-dreadful-cliche Credit Crunch.

There is even better news too. The edit is almost halfway done and boy, have I been savage. 100K words has become 70K, to give you an idea of just how evil I'm being.
I'm going to have a new short story out in the Feb issue of the fabulous Estronomicon e-zine called Bordering Sunset and I have a rough ETA for the publication of my new e-book The Vampire Narcissus (more of a long short story really) in March. Both stories deal with the vampire myth, but from very different perspectives. The first is a snappy black comedy, the second a dark historical jaunt with a dash of homoerotica.
I'll let you know when they're available to read.




The kind editor at Screaming Dreams has nominated my short story Fibs for a Dead of Night Award 2008. More info can be found on their website www.screamingdreams.com

Ok, that's about it for now. It's good to feel that despite this beast of a book taking up so much of my time, I've still got a couple of stories bubbling out there. Thanks to everyone who's read and supported me over the last few years and ciao for now.

JB