Day 162

And so the glorious weather continues J

I had a bout of much welcome inspiration at the weekend when my nana asked me to drop her off at St Mary’s church in Horden, so that she could make a donation towards the new roof. I have now penned a new short story called Rooster Booster, which I will try my luck with in a competition soon. Hopefully I might also be able to use it in the Easington Writers Group Anthology, if it’s not too risqué – or indeed too strange.

I just wish inspiration would hit me like a bolt of lightning every day! With a few more horror shorts, I’m thinking of creating my own anthology for Kindle – so watch this space. So far I only have a fistful of suitable stories though, so it’ll be a little while yet.

As for Slippery Souls, I have just finished the second draft of chapter 4 – so I’m still making steady progress with it. Though I am getting to that dreaded stage of being sick to death of reading over the same stuff again and again and again – which is why I take welcome breaks in writing short stories in between, so I can go back to the novel with fresh eyes.

Speaking of breaks, I really must crack on with my Writer’s Bureau course too, only four more assignments to go and I’m suddenly dragging my heels! It’s the whole radio aspect that’s thrown me, but I’ve been listening to Rachel Cochrane’s audio play Dolly’s House, which is a gripping supernatural tale, divided into six parts. I’ve really enjoyed listening to the first two episodes and can’t wait for the next four instalments. It’s definitely inspired me to get on with my own radio play. If anybody’s interested, Rachel’s story can be found using the following link:

http://www.listenupnorth.com/

Well, I suppose that’s all of my news for now. Until next time...

Day 155

I feel all recharged and invigorated (and sunburnt) after a last-minute weekend away to make the most of the glorious, albeit strange, April weather. It was nice to just kick back and forget about writing for a couple of days.

But anyway, it’s Monday morning now – and back to work. So, let’s see, what has happened since the last blog update...

The first draft of Slippery Souls is now complete, hooray! And I’ve already started the painful task of editing. I’m completely happy with my prologue and chapter 1 – so that’s another 37 chapters left to work my way through. I’m really not sure on timescale at this point, but I’m praying this second draft won’t take forever!

I also made another trip down to the art college to speak to the student whose design I chose for my front cover. I’ve pointed out little bits and pieces that I would like tweaking – so we’ll see how we go from there.

And last, but certainly not least, a short story of mine called Dempsey’s Demons came third place in the monthly competition on Spinetingler’s e-zine, which can be found using the following link:

http://spinetinglers.co.uk/ReadStory1585.aspx

It was a welcome little boost, which was much needed at the moment – and the third place prize was £25, which is not bad either. First prize would have been better – but hey, there’s always next time J