A little slow

I'm a little slow updating things here, I guess.

I didn't make the 100 cut in the ABNA, but neither did my hands-down favorite, Swimming in the Rainbow. Other good things didn't make it either. One I liked very much that did make it is The Raider's Wife by Cathy McCallum.

I'm glad for myself to be out of it, because now I can concentrate on my writing. I haven't stopped revising or working on new things, ever, but I'm doing much more work now that I'm not thinking about the contest 20 hours a day.

My new novel on the origins of Lord Valmur Karoli, Chancellor of Vaaseli and definitely arch-villain of the first two Alliance Chronicles books, is moving on apace. That is, I've written several scenes from throughout the story in my mind, and have completed four chapters (available to read in first draft at The Wood Beyond the World on writerscafe.org.)

I'm using a new and slower method of composition, after learning some hard lessons from my summer revisions of Of Two Minds. Writing scenes in my head is a large part of the process. Though I've always done this (usually flat on my back in the bedroom, just before dropping off for a nap) I'm doing it much more consciously now, and working on bits from throughout the story, not necessarily in chronological order. I'm planning to use only the most significant and striking of this material in the actual first draft -- though other bits will be available, of course, if my beta readers think there's something lacking.

I've realized already that this particular story has a definite operatic tone to its plot: madness, murder, rape, revenge, in an escalating spiral. I'm going with my friend Bill's advice to make language more colorful, use more simile and metaphor. Just hope I can keep it from being too potboiler, retain some literary qualities.