The following is the opening of the first draft of the final version of Curse of the Other World. If I cannot complete this story with this attempt, I will abandon it and move on to other projects. This version has a full story outline worked out and tested with various people as a wide range test audience. They all liked it. I like it. If I can’t write this version, I’ll never write the story.

Here is the opening. There’s not a lot here but the main characters are introduced. Nothing of the story is spoiled, so don’t worry. Please tell me what you think about the writing style.

Chapter One

Peter wiped the blood and vomit from his unconscious friend’s mouth and knew that today was not going to be a good day. There were certain things he would do for a friend but cleaning them up after a night of abusing themselves was not on his list. Nevertheless, he cradled Kate’s head in his arm and checked her pulse. It was slow and weak but steady. She would live long enough for him to lecture her about irresponsibility.

The bathroom floor was not the place for a woman as ill as Kate was to be sleeping so Peter scooped her up in his arms and carried her through to the bedroom. It was a short walk since despite all her family’s wealth, she lived in a tiny flat over a Post Office that had been closed for two years. She might be a callous bitch with no regard for her physical wellbeing, or the wellbeing of anyone else for that matter, but if there was one thing she did well, it was stubbornly refuse to spend more money than she actually needed to.

The bedroom was small, perhaps twelve feet square, and dominated by a double bed with deep purple sheets. The wall opposite the window was taken up by a fitted wardrobe, the wall with the door in it was lined entirely with bookshelves. Peter ignored the books for the time being, knowing their contents were not to his tastes, and laid Kate on the bedsheets. Her eyes flickered behind closed lids, but she made no efforts to open them.

‘Get some rest,’ he told her.

‘Where am I?’ she asked. Her voice was dry and little more than a whisper.

‘You’re in bed. Get some rest.’

‘I’ve got something I need to show you,’ she said.

‘Later,’ he replied but he may as well have held his tongue. Kate’s breathing was slow and regular and she lay perfectly still on the bed. She was asleep.

Peter pulled a blanket from the wardrobe and covered her with it, having decided this was the better option to waking her by pulling out the duvet she was laid on top of. Then he pulled a second blanket out for himself, closed the wardrobe and walked to the small lounge to settle down on the sofa for a few hours’ rest.

So now it’s December. What a month November turned out to be! I said in an earlier missive that I would keep you posted on how I got on. Well, now everything is over and done with I can do just that.

Firstly, let’s cover the 30 Characters Challenge. I did not manage to post thirty characters onto the site in 30 days. I did draw thirty characters during this time, I just didn’t have the time to finish them off and get them online. It’s one of those unfortunate results: you have the time to do the main bulk of the work, just not to finish it all off to the point where it is publishable within the time limit.

Next year, I’ll be more prepared for these eventualities and I’ll actually finish on time.

Yay!

NaNoWriMo was a much better result for me. I have been working on a novel, Curse of the Other World, for years. You can actually find part of one version of it here on this site. This year, I set myself a challenge: either I get through NaNoWriMo and earn the right to complete this novel, or I give it up as a non-starter and move on to other things.

I’m glad to say that although it meant taking 3 days off from my business at the end of November in order to play catch-up, I did make it. You can see from my stats that I actually wrote 37 000 words in the last three days of the contest, with 19 000 of those being written on the last day, in order to win this year. Nevertheless, win I did. The book will be finished and, time permitting, will be ready to consider publication later next year.

In other news, All over the house has continued without disruption during this month and I’ve been working hard to get the word out on Jenny Kirk’s phenomenal novel, Bringing Home the Stars; which represents the first foray into prose publication for my publishing company, All Mouse Media. If you’re not familiar with Jenny’s work, I recommend clicking on that link because there’s a sample of the story available on the All Mouse Media website. You won’t be disappointed, I’m sure!

So that’s November. Lots of work, lots of joy from that work. Overall, I’m satisfied. Here’s to December!

So the creative month of November is upon us once more. This year, I have decided that not only am I partaking of the madness that is NaNoWriMo but I am also going to attempt the 30 Characters Challenge. This should ensure that my creative juices are well and truly flowing by the end of the month; or possibly that I’ve totally burned out by the middle of the first week and I don’t do anything else for the rest of the year. Only time will tell.

For NaNo, I’m trying my hand at a horror novel; just like I’ve done for the past three years. In fact, it is the same horror novel. I never get to the end of it (I actually won NaNo in my first year but didn’t finish the novel) and restart it every year. This year will be the last time I do that, I swear. If I don’t finish the book this time, I’m going to have to face up to the fact that I never will. Then it will be time to move on to something else.

I’m semi-pantsing it this year, as usual. I have no plot outline, just an idea of where the story is going and who will be in it. The actual minutiae are not set in stone though, so with any luck I’ll enjoy ploughing through to see where the thing goes as much as any potential reader will.

As for the 30 Character Challenge, I intend to use this as a way of getting a host of characters prepared for use in Ink Proof Cannon when it launches in January. For those of you who don’t know what that is (and there will be many, I’m sure), Ink Proof Cannon is my new anthology webcomic. I have a friend interested in producing the art for one of the stories (a science fiction story involving bounty hunters, revenge tales and lots of mutants) but I’m doing the rest myself. I’ll therefore need to get my act together if I’m going to have these characters designed in time, and a 30 Characters in 30 Days style challenge seems like just what the doctor ordered.

I’ll keep you posted on how I get on.