Busy? Moi?

Wow, has it really been this long since I posted?

In my defence, I've been busy. Trying to write aside - and I really have put in some time there, I've been doing what I think is the final edit for Ashamet, working with my Editor Edwina, who makes it fun not work. It's been such fun I've been driven to contemplating writing a sequel too, something I wasn't at all sure I would do.

We've also managed to come up with a 'blurb' that might suit for back cover use and the like, one that has actually passed muster by all the parties involved. It's a novel thought [sorry, no pun originally intended] that in a sense Ashamet has now become a join project, after so long solely in my grip. It would in fact be frightening, if I didn't feel a real level of trust in those I'm currently working with. I can't imagine what it might be like otherwise, and it's at least taught me a valuable lesson: to question if it's worth the risk of ever working with someone I'm not sure I can relate to. I can now see exactly why editors say they have to love a book to promote it and publish it.

So writing the blurb was an interesting experience in itself, and involved quite a bit of discussion for such a small number of words.

 Well, different people, I discovered, have different ideas of what's most striking about the book, even what's most important. Who knew?

Where for me the impact on a society is at the core of the book, for someone else it was the exact physical/genetic makeup of the characters that came first. So suddenly you find you're looking again at things you have taken for granted, and you have to question your own assumptions - even about your own writing. Weird.

It reminded me of a recent true story about a spec-fic writer - much more established that me - whose work became a set text for school exams - whereupon he discovered he couldn't answer the questions on his own work! These included such staples as 'Why did the author use this word or phrase?'  I doubt his answer ['Because it rhymed!'] would have got very high marks.

No wonder I find writing synopses so very hard. Now if someone else would do those...

Ah well, back to work. When I have another minute I'll come back and scribble something about Worldcon, London, or Loncon as it's so originally titled. Well worth a scribble in anyone's language.