The illness of doom™ is finally abating, however I’m still left with that ol’ chestnut the tickly chest cough. I’ve finally managed to overcome the inertia that the illness brought on and start working on new writing projects. Some of you who have followed my work may remember the novella ‘The long summer of war’ that was serialised in six parts on the internet last year. Much the same way that BHTS started out as a long short story, this one too showed a lot of potential in my mind.

In the latter days of writing BHTS2, I was thinking a lot about expanding this into a book of its own. I had originally tried to keep the story brief, but it grew from a short story into a novella. Today I have finally sat down and begun work on expanding it to something better. I don’t like short stories, or even novellas. They are the banana republic of literature, making me – the reader – feel short changed so often. I’m not sure how long this will take; I’m more likely to dip in and out of it over several months. I haven’t heared back from the agent. I’ll work on LSOW until I get around to revisiting BHTS2 and doing a second draft.

I find that leaving a project to one side for a while is the best thing to do after completing any written project. It gives time for the writer to dissasociate a little from the creative process and see it in a new and objective light. That’s the theory at least. I feel guilty for what would otherwise be a month off, so LSOW will provide something productive to do. I’ve also got some plans on magazine articles too. Incidentally, the last article I wrote is now scheduled for a May issue of the magazine (watch this space) which should be out towards the end of April.

I’m sure I had something meaningful to type. The feeling will probably pass. I’ve had cabin fever for the last week or so, not really being able to do an awful lot because of illness. Being ill sucks big time.