The Malice of Fairies - Making a start

Well - I have been researching, and reading and getting involved in someone else's project, and generally being dissipated in the last two weeks - no submissions, no "progress" and I have felt thoroughly at a lose end... I realise I am happiest when I'm writing... and so, although I didn't intend to think about writing "The Malice of Fairies" for a while, I was at a thoroughly loose end this afternoon - and as a result, thought I might just try a scene - so now I have 2,500 words - which might be the beginning of the book.

I like them.  I am pleased,  starting GATD was a slow business, and no reason why this shouldn't take a while to get going either...Actually, damn it - I am really excited and happy and feel like proclaiming it to the
world....

I am also pleased that I am not repeating the mistakes of other books (writers):if at first you don't succeed, try again with something similar... I suppose my heroine Deirdre is like Anastasia a bit - not as nasty though - differently neurotic!

Very happy making - and I don't HAVE to do it, since I have the other prospect to console me - but I am not discussing that here until I know for sure.

Change of direction

Since I finished and sent Gospel According to Darren off to agents I've been feeling a bit up and down, the 2 least likely agents have already rejected it - I expect the third will shortly, and then I will just have to do a mass post out in the hope someone will like it.  I feel a bit despairing... no reason really, just that I can't quite get up too much enthusiasm for it.

The Ash Grove is still with the 2 US agents, but in the meantime two or three others have rejected it.  I am quite bored with this.

So, am I dashing ahead with Last Things?  No.  I am doing the odd desultory bit - but I am increasingly aware of two things (1) how dull I am becoming (2) how restricted my palette is... I began a little list of things I would like to be able to write about - and later in the day I had an idea... to write a book about............

FAIRIES!    Arrrrrggggghhhhh.   I suspect that this is being done by every half-witted fantasy writer - but I think I have an idea about it which could work - I mean to make it a book about belief, rationalism - understanding the irrational - and so on - as well as having a great deal of jeopardy...

The great thing is, it gives me the opportunity to research something - to have a structure with rules - the human-fairy relationship has to exist within certain bounds.  It's enjoyable to read it all up - and just spending a couple of hours on Wikipedia jogged my memory and gave me the beginnings of a bibliography!

I would illustrate this article with a picture of a Ganconagh - a womanising male fairy - but all the web images for that were unbelievably icky... still, we'll see if I can manage romance and intellect all rolled into one ball... not too much of the romance though.