A Few Bits And Pieces

Well, I'm getting ready to start work on 'Ghost Ship' tomorrow, having decided just a few moments ago that the outline I had didn't quite work – so I'll be going without one for a while, this time, amusingly enough. This has happened a few times. Sometimes it helps just to start work, get down the first few chapters – which I have got down pretty well – and then outline the rest from there. I usually re-outline four or five times over the course of a book anyway, as the characters spin off in weird and wonderful directions. I'm looking forward to getting back to Spitfire Station again, as well; it's been longer than I had originally planned, but at least I'm going to get a second one done this year, and I was beginning to wonder if I'd manage it. Lots of stuff to fit into this one, it's a big deal with the ongoing arc of the setting as well as anything else. Loose threads from several Alamo books to tie up in this one, especially from Fermi's War, if you can remember that far back! A couple of old characters making a return in this one, as well. Lots of bits and pieces here this time. I've started the preparation for the Mercian Trilogy – and it is really beginning to dawn on me that I'm going to have to outline this one more than normally. Which could be a problem in that for me, over-outlining usually means that the novel never actually gets written. What is more accurate to say is that I'm going to need more involved notes than I usually make, maybe try and throw up a Power Matrix or something like that. Needless to say, I'll be giving more details as I go. I've commissioned the cover art – Keith Draws, of course...and that always helps me work.