Novels Through The Years
A brief description of my journey from my first novel to now.
2009: I began writing my first novel in November 2009 for National Novel Writing Month, called VARIATIONS OF LIGHT. By the end, I was struggling for words and failing to finish the plot, thus ended up plagiarising a trilogy I’d just finished reading for ideas.
2010: In 2010, I tried to re-write the year before’s story, but it became far too complicated. I had seven women, all with families and partners and histories, set in different areas with the idea of coming together at separate points in the book. I’ve ended up with SEVEN SISTERS, a 93,000 word crumble of characters with no plot to hold them together. But I still like the idea, and one day, it may give rise to something more.
Also in 2010, I began writing RESILIENCE; my first literary piece. It’s a piece that is more fantasy than literary now, and although I still love the premise of, the beginning keeps stumping me enough to push it to one side. A couple of times a year I return to it, and try again; wondering if I’m now able to pull the strings together and make it work.
2011: In November 2011, I wrote FIREFLY, and again, scrabbled for extra words and lost the end of the plot in the midst of trying to reach 50,000 words by the 30-day deadline.
2012: But when 2012 came around, I was ready to embrace the narratives inside me. I saw a girl holding a falcon; and spent 9 months on and off writing WINGS OF SKELL. This was later renamed PLANES SHIFTER. For National Novel Writing Month 2012, I wrote a sequel; FLIGHT OF SKELL and passed 80,000 words in 27 days. This sequel was renamed PLANES WALKER.
This was what I’d been waiting for: a story that wrote itself; characters who engaged with me and a style of writing I didn’t hate.
2013: Then, in March 2013, I began my latest piece; SHADOW SIGHT, partly based on my life and work in Sussex. October then rolled around, and I began KINDLING as my NaNoWriMo novel of 2013.
You can see the status of these novels on my novels page, and keep an eye on my progress bar in the left-hand column.