Hello, all. It’s been a bit. My bad. I hope you all had a good spooky seasons! š
Shortly after deciding to pursue writing seriously once more, and creating this website, life intervened. I had just gotten my Master’s in Special Education, and started working full time in that capacity. As some of you may know, teaching can be a time-intensive occupation ā teaching, lesson planning, parent contact, after school activities, IEPs… and all of it while settling into a new position, a new curriculum, getting to know a new school and 100 or more new students.
But this year is my second at my current school. Now that Iāve settled in, Iāve found time to get back to writing in earnest! Which is what brings me here.Ā
In the Works
The Woman of Bones: This has been my main work in progress since I returned to writing. It is a YA book of southern gothic fantasy. Mel, a 15 year old bayou girl who can she can see, talk to, and bind the spirits of the dead; and Dahlia, a girl of similar age from the nearby (but culturally remote) city of Nouvelle… and she is dead, visible only to Mel and people like her. The story follows them out of the bayou and into the city, where Mel is a stranger, and Dahlia has only the severed ends of a life cut short. Together they will learn why Dahlia died, and face dangers from both the demon-filled city and from a forgotten evil of Melās own blood.
The writing on this picked up in September and October, and I’ve started to look deeper into the characters. This has improved their dynamic and personal character arcs in ways that Iām very happy with ā but it will require revision to the text so far. So I donāt expect it to be done before summer.Ā
She Cuts Herself: Iām pleased to announce that Iāve just completed the draft of this story, which has been almost complete since December. It is one of the most experimental stories Iāve ever written: a nested story in 7 parts, originally intended to be a short story, but itās grown into a kind of a novella.Ā
How it goes
I donāt really have a writing process, as such. Each story takes on its own life, and is written in its own way. Usually, they start with an image, and I ask myself, āWhatās this about?ā The Woman of Bones began with an idea for a fantasy RPG character: a woman who wears her fatherās bones as armor so that he can protect her, even in death. That got whittled down, but the seed is there: Melās hair clatters with beads carved from the bones of her ancestors, whom she can speak with by holding them. Mel started all but speaking through me, and I mostly just typed what she said.
Then, just about a year ago, I was half-asleep on a bus commute when I half-dreamed a simple image ā a line drawing itself, and something periodically coming out of it only to become the line. It woke me up and stuck with me, eventually becoming She Cuts Herself. Unlike Mel, this character changed frequently, and though each section came as easily, between sections I spent many hours just sitting and looking at the page, asking myself, āWhat happens now?ā I had an idea of the shape of where it had to go, but as I wrote, it stretched, never reaching the end. At last, I had to decide, āAlright. next section ends it.ā And then it sat for 9 months, untouched, because I had no idea how it ended. Until now!
And onward
That brings us up to date. Next newsletter, I plan to have completed the final editing on She Cuts Herself and will be deciding what to do with it. Other than that, the only writing on my table is Woman of Bones,Ā but I wonāt make any promises about where Iāll be until I see how quickly I get there.
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