A writing update – two new quests!

Yesterday, I packed off The Borderlands: War to the editor. After spending every waking moment on it for the last four months it's wonderful to look to new horizons.

Like an adventurer leaving the comforts of the village, I'm off to find new stories!

While my manuscript gets a good going over by the editor, I'm free to start writing new stories! I love this part of the process. A blank canvas presents so many possibilities. Although, I have two canvases awaiting me, and they're not entirely blank.

Over the next few months I'll be writing two novels back to back. The first is the second book in 'The Secret Chronicles of Lost Magic' – a collection of novels rather than a series, so while some readers want to see events pick up with Iluna and Aaron from The Raven, alas, they may be a little disappointed. The next book in the 'Chronicles' will occur in another era entirely, centuries after the events in The Raven.

Once that's written, I'll swiftly move on to the third and final book in The Viscount's Son trilogy. I've got several lose threads floating around following The Earl's Daughter, and in Book Three it will be quite the task to bring them all together. What will happen to Emma, Michael, Georgette, and the mysterious gypsy woman? And will we ever see Nathaniel again?

One of my fav walks for dreaming up stories.

Let's hope the hound dog doesn't leave too many gifts!

As is usually the case, my first step is to dream up the story, and that means the dog and I need to do a lot of walking. I love this part of the process because I get to walk around botanical gardens, drinking coffee, with my head firmly planted in the clouds (I also get to pick up the dog's little gifts to nature). Once that's done I'll write down my little dreams as an outline, and then I'll get started on the writing. This time next week, I'll have the first 10 K words done (nothing like feeling like an optimist!).

Here's an interesting thing for the writers out there. This time round, I'm going to try dictation to see if it speeds up my writing process. I'll report back with the joys and pains of dictating one's novel rather than typing it. My hope is that I'll write a novel in half the time.

That's it for the latest writing update. I hope to release the next book in 'The Secret Chronicles of Lost Magic' at the end of the year. While the final book in The Viscount's Son trilogy will be released early 2017.