Work in progress
Another tough patch hacked and blasted through with the new novel. What’s helped is taking time out from sitting in front of a computer. Morning sessions sitting in the Boston Tea Party (cafe) with an Americano stained with milk until it’s the colour of mud, pen in hand, and leather-bound paper notebook from Santiago. Letting the ideas percolate through skull and emerge as scribblings of hand. Random lines of thought staining the notepaper with ink, eyes scanning, absorbing, feedback loop to brain and so progress made.
This recent part of the novel required me to describe a character rapidly going mad and losing touch with reality because of his isolated existence, surrounded by strange goings-on. A combination of Mythos episode and ghostly haunting. I’m thinking that some part of this process – having to immerse my brain in that state of mind to capture the essence of it – caused me to feel pretty rubbish the past two weeks. I’ve certainly been feeling a little “off”.
Possibly also down to the fact I’m writing a book without a solid plan; if I finish, as hoped, in the next couple of weeks it’ll be the fastest novel I’ve ever written. The last one, Living in Flames, only took 3 months. This one could come in at 8 weeks. Fingers crossed. Although I’ve still got to come up with the ending – and judging by recent experience, I’m liable to go mad during the process.
*grits teeth, sets jaw at determined angle, marches forward with pen poised*
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The Black Lake. A post-apocalyptic ghost story. A consortium of private businesses put together an expedition to a remote Scottish island in the sub-Arctic. Five men leave Malta to undertake scientific observations of a strange and alien meteorological phenomenon that followed the event known as Yellow Dawn. It’s a story of escape, wonder and terror.
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