One MASSIVE Update

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Yes, I’ve been thinking about how quiet I’ve been recently here, and that got me thinking…. I should do a MASSIVE update, because, really, there’s a lot of stuff I need to update you about.

On the 8th October my novel, ‘Spirit Of Fire’, was submitted to Harper Voyager, the fantasy and science fiction imprint of Harper Collins. The total word count of the finished book (the sixth draft) was 136,999 words.  I started this book around 8 months ago, (February 2012), so it’s satisfying to see it finished at long last.

I found the whole process of sending it off very scary and I felt so anxious and didn’t want to click the ‘submit’ button. There was just something about the whole process that made me want to scream “Eeeeeek!” and now, I kind of feel lost without having SOF to edit or write…

The opening to draft 3 (or 4–can’t remember!) of Spirit Of Fire was critiqued by the fantastic writer Susan Kaye Quinn–free of charge too, as I won a competition! I meant to mention this AGES ago, but as usual, I forgot!  She is fab. Also, her website has a useful section on advice and information for writers. So, have a look at that.

I’ve also begun work on the sequel to ‘Spirit Of Fire’ and have come up with what I think is a wicked plot, that links perfectly into books 3 and 4. There’s a total of 6 books in this series (the Spirit Of Fire series) that I’ve planned for. The WIP title for book 2 is ‘Blood Of The Phoenix’.

Another book that I’m working on his Soul-Eaters #1: The Rogue Soul. This book is in the very early stages, and I’m still playing about with it.

I’ve been taking part in Carlie Cullen’s blog tour for her debut novel, Heart Search: Lost, so if you haven’t been following it, you can enter the giveaway for this book here. Also, check  out the interview that I did with her–she’s one funny lady! 😉

And, in case you haven’t seen this post (I blogged about it a month or so ago) about the importance of the first sentence of a book, then I’d suggest you check it out here, and have a look at this page, on Caleb Pirtle’s site, where I’m mentioned, giving an example of what I hope is a captivating first sentence. Wow, that was a long sentence.

And, I thought that I’d share with you some songs from my latest writing playlist.

Rain – Mika
Diamonds – Rihanna
Anything Could Happen – Ellie Goulding
Hall Of Fame – The Script ft. Will.I.Am
Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself) – Ne-Yo
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together – Taylor Swift
Bruises – Train & Ashley Monroe

Oh yeah, Midwest Literary Magazine had accepted three of my short stories, but unfortunately, the magazine has now folded and won’t be continuing for the near future. So, I’ll be sending those out again… in fact, I already have an eye on one place that I could send ‘The Day The Darkness Returned’ to.

So, I think that’s everything….