Critical Death Theory is finished!
This is publishing, so when I say “finished,” I mean finished for now. The manuscript is out with my agent and others to take a look at before I submit it to the publisher. I’m crossing my fingers that no one comes back and says, “This is awful. You’ll have to start again.” I don’t think they will (???) but the thought of it is bringing me out in cold sweats. I’m hoping for some useful comments and tweaks to strengthen the final(ish) product before sending it out to Editor Rachel and her red pen. More tweaking now means less red later. That, at least, is the hope!
The fact that this project is running more or less on time is due entirely to the fact that the writers’ retreat at Moniack Mhor was a cracking success. I really got a lot done there, despite napping at least twice a day, and the company of the other writers was incredible. Which was just as well because we were basically snowed in for most of the week. It wasn’t impossible to get out, but tough enough that no one was minded to make the effort. We settled instead for a lot of writing during the day followed by red wine and convivial conversation in the evenings. Plus The Traitors, the BBC reality game show that had a solid following among my companions. I’d never seen it before. Now I’m hooked!
As is usual on the last evening, there was a mostly traditional haggis supper (prepared in theory by yours truly and others but actually by others. I simply chopped vegetables, washed dishes and took the credit). I say “mostly” because the piper was snowbound and couldn’t make it over to pipe in the haggis. You Tube and a cellphone filled in instead. After which most of us read a little of what we’d been working on, which is always a treat. It is a humbling experience to be surrounded by so much talent. Over the course of a week you start to think you’ve got at least a sense of someone, then they read out their work and it’s like, wow! There is so much more going on there.
Someone told me that the piece I read out from Critical Death Theory reminded them a little bit of Slow Horses, the Apple TV series based on Mick Herron’s Slough House novels. If so, then I’m in great company. I’ll take it!
With Critical Death Theory finished (for now), I have rewarded myself by taking the time to re-read every single one of Martha Wells’s incredible Murderbot series and doing nothing writing related at all. Now, though, my mind is turning to what’s next.
And what’s that, you might very well ask.
I haven’t quite decided.