*A middle aged man with a cropped salt and pepper beard sits cross legged, a MacBook in a leather bookish case sitting in his lap. He types furiously, pausing a moment to shift back to a position of comfort and run a hand over the remaining stubble atop his bald head. His spine straightens as he realises he’s no longer alone…*

Okay, nope. I’m still alone, just a bit crazy at the moment. I was just thinking of what I’ve got going on and what I still have to do. It’s all a bit maddening, but I’ll get there. The worst of it all is that today was a low key sort of day as I was sick, yet still we managed to venture out of the house to a bookshop and enjoy the sun while it was out to play.

I picked up a book I’d never heard of before, Wonderbook by Jeff Vandermeer, and after looking into its ratings online I decided to get it. The first chapter thus far has been all about creativity and imagination, something I don’t necessarily struggle with, but it definitely sets the rest of the book up. I love the visual style of it as many of us writers sit staring at a black and white page everyday (even now, as I type this…).

That aside, it’s time to revisit where I’m at and what still has to come!

My novella, “Birthright” is coming along beautifully and I am falling in love with these two characters. The Traditional Prince, James, has been slowly falling for the Progressive Prince, Sabian, for years and now he finally makes his move. His kingdom’s stance however is less tolerant to his new found love and his father decides to “cure” him of his misguided feelings. As Sabian rescues James from his torture, he plunges the two kingdoms directly into war and it’ll be up to James to lead his love’s army against the army he lead and shaped, and the father he once loved. I’m writing this for submission to Tor at the end of the month, but I’m hoping I can keep it between 20-40k words as is their requirement. The more I fall for them though, the more I want to experience their world, which is a time before magic exists in the same form as in my other novel!

I also have been sharing my work with two other fantasy writers before I submit it for my session with Zoe Walton of Penguin Random House. I’m super nervous as I really don’t want to blow it, but I also want to remain true to the story and myself. I think the worst part has been realising that my rewrite is much better at building that sympathy for the protagonist in chapter one and my writing but my editing skills are shoddy at best. I would love to believe that this is one of those cases where I am too close to the project to have realised, but the biggest problems I’m going to have are US/UK/AU/CAN spellings and commas. Those spellings become a victim of spell check so I try and keep them all the same, but on my phone doesn’t appear to be the same spell checker. Nifty.

In the world of trying to get published, I managed to get declined by yet another agent. The good news is that she didn’t say it wasn’t ready or that it wasn’t good, just not for her. After two of these, I am beginning to wonder if this is the agent equivalent of “It’s not you, it’s me” but either way, I’m glad that neither of them were against my work and that they both took the time to get back to me! For that, I will eternally be grateful.

I’ve also submitted to the AWC’s Furious Fiction with yet another murderous story, so hopefully they don’t start to see a trend with how their prompts inspire me. I’m quickly realising I’ll never go literary sadly, as everything I appear to write takes a turn for the fantastical!

Anyway, I’m going to head back to my novella (as I left myself on a cliffhanger) but in short, here’s my next few months worth of insanity.

• Must ensure rings arrive on time for wedding (no pressure)
• Must get suit for wedding (83 days until then…)
• Must get backyard fences up! (ASAP!)
• Finish Novella “Birthright” for submission (almost there)
• Finalise edits and advice on Jefferson & The Magician’s Curse: Chapter One
• Send Chapter in for Zoe Walton to read (15 days)
• Edit Novella for submission to Tor (22 days)
• Writers’ Festival (27 days)
• Keep an eye out and submit to August Furious Fiction (28 days)
• Food tasting for Wedding (34 days)
• Writers’ Festival and Face-To-Face with editor Zoe Walton (41 days)
• #PitMad which was where I got my first request from an agent! (60 days)
• Stocktake (63 days)
• Family arrives & Wedding holidays (71 days)
• Wedding (83 days)
• Greek Islands (85 days)

So in less than three months, there’s a *few* things happening. Best part is, I’m looking forward to it all! To be honest this year has been incredible, an agent or publishing contract would be the cherry on top, but I won’t get my hopes up. After all, with everything else that has been going my way, I can’t get TOO greedy!