Checking In

Well, it's been a little while since I blogged - mostly because I've been wrestling intensely with that story which wanted to be a novel. In refusing to allow that, and trying to keep it to novella length, I'm very much afraid that I've actually killed it. I've stuck midway, and looking at it now I find that all my enthusiasm is gone.

After a couple of weeks of struggling I suddenly remembered that I'm not contracted on this story, that there's no advance paid and no deadline, and that since I'm writing m/m stories mostly for the sheer fun of it, I really don't have to do what I would normally do and force myself onwards despite hating every second of it. I can stop if I want and just let it go. Cue huge relief and a weight falling off my shoulders. I've put the story away. I may get it out and give it another try one day in the future, or I may not. The relief comes from knowing that it doesn't much matter either way.

So I'm now probably going to start looking at my next print novel under my other name (which is contracted and has had an advance paid) which might mean a little gap in m/m stories. But since I've decided to view m/m writing as a lovely, fun hobby, I might well carry on scribbling on the side, just a lot more slowly and with less pressure. I have an idea for a story I'm pretty sure might end up as novel length, which will require a little planning, and that's the next m/m story I'll probably work on, if I find that I have time around working on the print novel.

In other news, I've had an email from Torquere Press saying that they want Ruby Slippers (which is the last novella length story I wrote) as a High Ball. I've emailed back accepting. This means that I've just got one short story at Dreamspinner now that I've not heard back on, but that was for an anthology and the deadline isn't until today anyway, so hopefully I might hear soon. Good stuff.