I don’t really talk about this much, even on here, arguably a platform entirely made for my writing, to be viewed by people who came here for my writing but here it goes…

I have had many ideas for stories over the years but there is one in particular that has always stuck in my head. I mapped the whole thing out in 2017 and started writing it in earnest, then got a horrible job, lost all ability to do anything but survive and its taken me a really long time to get back into it because of the good old panny-d. In fact, apart from this blog, I really haven’t done much extra writing, which is a shame because it is the thing I love most.

Imposter syndrome and the voice in my head of the person who told me the fact I wrote creatively was ’embarrassing’ means that I hardly mention it. It’s not a thing a consciously do but a habit. Now, this story is too precious to me and I know I am not tough enough to handle criticism on it and that’s okay.

I finally started sharing excerpts from it over the last year or two, you can read the opening scene here and a random scene cut from near the beginning, with no context. I did this because it’s time to put on my big girl pants and get the fuck over myself. That’s part of the reason I am posting this blog, I’m going to start doing regular updates to hold myself accountable.

Anyway, cut to this year and suddenly I got this big bucket load of creative energy (despite it being a spectacularly shitty year). There were a couple plot holes in my story that I hadn’t been able to think past, which magically cured themselves. Plus, I’ve really delved back into my love of reading thanks to Booktok and my podcast that I host with a friend, which really immersed me in good, enjoyable books.

So, instead of trucking along with the manuscript that had been stuck at 50,000 word for forever, I started re-writing again from scratch. I’m now back up to over 20,000 words!

Who knows if it’s any good but I love my story. Editing is a real pain because I get caught up in reading it. I have put everything I love about the fantasy genre into it, I love the characters and I love the relationships (romantic or otherwise). Sometimes I read it and marvel this came out of my brain, that this is my story.

So, here is the first post of many. I will share more excerpts if you would be willing to read them. Hopefully, sometime in the not-to- distant future I will finally have a complete book to show you.