Guest blog upcoming

This week I will be guestblogging over at the lovely Madame Guillotine‘s gaff about historical nonfiction, which is pretty much the love of my reading life. If you recommend me a biography of a city or a historical woman or, heck, even a tulip, the likelihood is that I’ll download a sample from Amazon and […]

Firebrand cover art sneak preview

Today I bought stock art for the Firebrand cover and started messing around with it. Here’s a sneak preview: Yes, it’s a headless woman, but since the book actually does involve the heroine complaining at one point that getting skirts up is easier than getting trousers down and that bustles just make everything more complicated […]

Failing to build a coherent brand

So, Firebrand is off with Team Beta and out of my headspace for the time being. Heavy Ice is still mired in the mud of ‘Why didn’t I realise two years ago that this needed a lot more worldbuilding and a villain who Kallisty would actually have problems with?’ and I have a new project. […]

Things I Already Know People Won’t Like About Firebrand

About half-way through the first round of edits on Firebrand, and then the Beta Crew can take delivery of it and I’ll kick it out of my head until it comes back red-pencilled. As is usual at this stage, I’m noticing things people won’t like about it and thinking ‘Well, I like it’. Thing the […]

Writing

So, the process of planing and sandpapering Firebrand into shape is ongoing, and it’s making me think about how much easier writing was when I had no clue at all what I was doing. I mean, when I started out it was just a matter of getting some words on a page. What do the […]

First draft!

First draft of the steampunk thing is finished, at just over 100 000 words! Next comes getting it to a state where I’m prepared to let anyone else read it…

Plot early, plot often

In the ‘good news’ category: the steampunk thing, now tentatively entitled ‘Firebrand’, is chugging closer to being finished in first draft. So then it’ll be time for the second draft and then to send it off to the various people who have very kindly offered (and in Jasmine’s case, been begged) to beta-read it, and […]