All right, maybe I'm not that grumpy.
I just thought I might try a little experiment.
But, just because I'm not feeling so bad, I don't want my number of hits for the week to suffer. So I thought, what if I pretend that I'm grumpy, just to get people interested, but then I write a not-so-grumpy post anyway. Will people be annoyed? Will they see it as a dirty, lowdown trick to try to get more readers? Or will they just get over it and read the post? I guess I'll find out soon enough.
Anyway, you're probably wondering what it is that's made me so not-grumpy today (assuming you've read this far).Well, the good news is I'm actually making progress on my "long-forgotten" novel. The one I started over four years ago and got more than halfway through (in one of those bursts of enthusiasm I'm prone to get) before it fell by the wayside (in one of those even longer bursts of apathy I'm even more prone to).
With the great responses I've been getting to the books I've published over the last 18 months, I figured it was time to get back to it. Reading through what I've written so far, I'm thinking that maybe it's not too bad, and has a bit of potential. It's different from the other things I've written. It's more clearly YA/MG than the others, with a teenage protagonist. Also, it's a female protagonist, which is a big departure for me. I like her a lot. She's probably the most interesting and complex main character I've done so far.
Of course, in a lot of ways, it's also a lot like other things I've written. It's set in a world that's very different from ours, though also similar in unexpected ways, and it has lots of strange made up words.
I've actually managed to write two new chapters in the last two weeks which I'm quite excited about. And I've set myself some deadlines. A first draft by the end of the year and publication by the end of next. I want to push myself, but I also want to take the time to make sure I get it just right.
Discover Fantasy Update
I can't finish this off without a mention of week three of the Discover Fantasy tour. The first two weeks have been great fun. In week three, I'll be popping over to see Karen Pokras Toz and Vixie's Stories.
Check out the schedule for full details of where you can catch me, Dave and Jeremy. And don't forget to enter the prize draw to win a $100 Amazon gift card.
You know, Jonathan, you don't do "grumpy" very well. Maybe if you get less sleep or something you'll do better next time.
ReplyDeleteHi Amanda,
ReplyDeleteYeah, I might need to make a checklist of things I can do to be more grumpy: less sleep, spend more time at work, less chocolate,more shouting at the kids, spend more time looking at my bad reviews. I'm sure that will work.
Grumpy is my default, Jonathan. Even I’ve been less grumpy of late though. I blame it on the sun, what little of it I see as I work behind closed curtains all day long to stop the sun shining on my monitor. I think part of it has been due to the fact that my wife has finally admitted that some of the jobs she’s been doing for me are getting too much for her and I can now take over them without feeling I was taking something from her. She’ll still do all my editing and deal with the printers but I’m taking on more of the online stuff. Which is fine because it means I can get on with stuff rather than waiting on her. This has also prompted me to reduce the frequency of my blogging so from August 12th I’ll only be posting once a week so that gives me an extra two days a week. Suddenly I have all this time. I’m also writing again now I’m off the aspartame—terrible stuff—but only poetry albeit some decent stuff including a masculinisation of the well-known Jenny Joseph poem ‘Warning’ (the one about the old woman who wears purple).
ReplyDeleteI do worry about being too content—happiness is a bit of a stretch—because in the past where I’ve gone through periods like this (usually involving a new woman) my creativity slumped. I’ve always been a writer who’s drawn from his negative side. Why my writing isn’t dark and depressing has always surprised me but beautiful flowers grow in shit so what do I know?
Hi Jim,
DeleteNice to hear things are going well.
Content is never going to stop me writing - busy is my major problem.