Are you wondering what Worlds Within Worlds is about? I'll tell you. … [Read more...]
Friday Free Web Fiction: Last days at the dance company.
Every week in Friday Free Web Fiction I post a first draft scene from my work in progress (WIP), or a short story, or an excerpt from one of my books. Today’s offering is from my Prunella Smith WIP, The Lock Smith's Secret. Today's story is a memory Prunella has of her last days as a ballet dancer. I sat with my back against the studio wall and stared at my defeated shape in the mirrors on the opposite wall. The aching in my back was still there. Still would be so long as I danced, so the physiotherapists had said. Today the truth of that had finally sunk in. All the strengthening exercises I’d been working on so hard during the last few months had not improved the dull ache that inevitably grew worse throughout a day’s work at the company. A tear or two escaped and trickled down my cheek, I bent forward, ignoring the paid that caused, and unlaced my point shoes, more to hide my misery than speed the process of getting out of here. I didn’t want to leave. Dancing was my life. But … [Read more...]
Wednesday Words: Character driven books. Another Prunella Smith book is on the way
Prunella will not let me stop writing. I thought I’d have a break after finishing Worlds Within Worlds, but no, the first scene of the next book popped into my head the day after I’d published it. Today I started writing it. Prunella Smith: Past Worlds, The Locksmith’s Secret. Who’s the locksmith? Jamie. The guy she meets at the market. What’s his secret? You’ll have to wait to find out. What else is going to happen? I have a general idea of the overall shape of the book, the main events and the end, but I’m not concerned with details at all. The basic plot is strong enough for me to know where I’m going, to know it will work, and I really liked the surprises in writing without planning that I had when writing Worlds Within Worlds. It won’t be a thriller though. It will be a multi-layered reality again and transrealist in nature, just like the last one. But it won’t be so Buddhist; I think that side of Prunella’s personality might manifest as an Italian Catholic nun. The book … [Read more...]