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Last day of this half term--over a week of freedom before me. Seeing as autumn is fully on its way, I'm going to be doing a few treks over the old pathways; the Sudbourne Estate route, perhaps, and maybe the southern coastal route too. I haven't visited those regions for well over a year.
I'm also well into The Twilight Trilogy now, and I'm beginning to seriously believe that 50,000 words next month is not impossible. All I need to do is devote every spare moment to writing ... *gulps*

Another 'I can't believe it' post: nearly a tenth of The Twilight Trilogy: Shadows over Voril has been completed. I started it on Wednesday, and I've already got practically 10,000 words done. How is that possible? Well, personally I'm not complaining. If I get anything like 50,000 words done next month, I'll have broken the back of part 1. Woot!

I can't believe it--I just signed up for NaNoWriMo. 50,000 words next month? No way is that possible for me. Even so, I seem to be attracted to mad things these days. Maybe it will give The Twilight Trilogy a kick in the behind to get it started.

I've really got started on the Twilight Trilogy now. I wrote a gorgeous scene today, the one in which Rhys and Cathany meet again for the first time in years. I'm setting up things for some lovely conflict between these two--they're going to be torturing each other before things finally settle down. Muahahah.

Two or three weeks, did I say? I finished it yesterday, and boy was it a wonderful feeling. I felt as if destiny, or even history, was being made. Sudden inspiration--that's the only way to describe it. I left the library yesterday lunchtime feeling as if I'd just fulfilled my life's ambition.
So here's the stats.
Length in Standard Sides: 473
Length in words: 95,708
So now I have a month of rest before starting the revisions, and then the fun will really start.

Another fun weekend. I'm just getting settled with my new computer, and I've managed to write a good amount of DITF: 95,000 words in total now, and I'm well into the climax. I predict two or three weeks before completion of R1 (first draft).

My brand new iBook has finally arrived, along with a wonderful optical trackball to save my wrists in the future. This is definitely the best investment I've ever made: now I can take my computer up to the summerhouse and write in blessed peace. The days of writing in the midst of chaos are AT AN END!

Confrontation has been sent off today. I wanted to submit it to the Maelstrom magazine first, but I saw an offer that I just couldn't resist on the Historical Novel website. Their magazine, Solander, publishes only two short stories a year, but they pay a hundred quid for each one they publish. I sent it to them first. Once I've received my rejection I can send it to Maelstrom. Hey, you know what they say: nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I've only got about two chapters of DITF to go before I'm at the end of Revision One. It's going to be finished in a week of so! Amazing! Oh yes, and the article I submitted to Vision has been put on the editing list, so I should know one way or another by the end of next week.

I've finally motivated myself to get Confrontation, my WWII short story, out of the door. I'm going to be sending it off to several story-publishing magazines, and if I'm lucky, that'll be another publication under my belt. Wish me luck!
I'm also hankering after the idea of a ghost story, something I've been wanting to do for ages. If it gets done, this will be short story number 6.

Wow; that was one hell of a busy weekend. I attended the open day to the University of East Anglia (Norwich) on Friday, followed immediately by the Anglia Polytechnic University (Cambridge) open day on Saturday. I liked UEA better, although the Computer Science course at APU seemed more interesting to me. I'm more into the programming side of things: knowledge that has practical value in the real world. The CS course at UEA was more orientated towards research in nebulous, emerging fields. It still sounds fun, it's just that the course at APU may be more useful. But APU is located in a particularly crummy region of Cambridge--an area I know too well for comfort already.
I've also passed the 90,000 word mark on DITF (92,412 words, actually), which means that I'm only four days behind schedule. Things are looking up for the future. It's entirely possible that Revision 1 may be completed by the end of the month; after all, I've probably only got a couple of chapters to go. I'm still thinking about whether I want to add in the section in the 'altered' 20th Century. It may add a nice end shock, or it may not be necessary. I'll see when I get there.

I've submitted another article for publication in Holly Lisle's e-zine, Vision. It's slightly more general, this time; an article about essential equipment for writers. If this one gets in it will be my SECOND PUBLICATION!
I keep on reminding myself to finish Confrontation properly so that I can send it on the rounds. And I keep on forgetting. I've got enough crit material to fully edit the thing and yet I never seem to find time. If I were to just get it out of the door, I would have passed a significant landmark. I will make myself find time!

Well, it looks like I've failed to meet my September deadline, if only by 6 pages. It hardly matters, but it gets a bit frustrating when I keep missing my deadline by only a few sides. Perhaps I should move the goalposts ... ?
I'll soon be including a new (and exciting!) section to my website, including hikes in the Suffolk Sandlings, the Yorkshire Dales, and the Cumbrian Mountains. I really like the site design, which is imo much better than the old one. Hopefully I can get loads of pictures to put up, but at the moment my brother's being a bit irritating about letting me use his photographs. The annoying thing is, he's taken most of them, and now he's claiming 'rights' to the photos. Maybe I should just copy them without his knowing, or something. I certainly can't go and take them all again.