As you may have guessed from the title of my blog post, today is Monday. Also, it’s rainy.
You’re always gonna get the truth from me, you blokes.
On this particular rainy Monday, I’m feeling very cosy and relaxed. Part of that is because of the rain: there’s nothing 
better than curling up beneath my mum-made patchwork blanket and watching the rain make a watercolour painting through my window-frame. Well, it’s always better if there’s a book, and tea, and you know what? I’ve got both.
Another facet to my contentment is the fact that Blackfoot is–more or less–done, and I now have a week off.
Last week, when I was writing the last few bits and patches to join other bits and patches together, I was feeling insanely fed up with the whole book. Being the second book in the series, it was flamin’ hard to write, and by the end, I felt as though it was complete and utter rubbish. I was disheartened, and depressed, and could only think about all those preorders going out to a general reception of “Oh my word, what is this rubbish? I’ve been waiting for this for 6 months now and it’s garbage!”
I honestly couldn’t believe the amount of work it was going to take to bring Blackfoot into publishable condition–in only two weeks! It didn’t feel possible, and mostly I just wanted to sit in the shower and cry.
I didn’t do that because a.) there’s a mushroom growing in there and I seriously don’t want to get near it, cos I read a horror story about that years ago, and b.) we would run out of hot water before I ran out of depression, and if you think being depressed in a hot shower is bad, try being depressed in a cold shower.
It’s adorable and hilarious and cringe-worthy, all at the same time…
Instead, I took a day off between writing those last words and doing my quick, pre-printed-MS run-over to catch glaring inconsistencies. I watched the latest episodes of 힘쎈 여자 도봉순 (Strong Woman Do Bong Soon)–hilarious, by the way–started to read The Eyre Affair–also excellent, though in a completely different way–and watched an insane amount of Gag Concert and Would I Lie to You?
After the last two weeks of writing 2k-5k words per day, I felt as light as a butterfly.
And I’m SO GLAD I did it, because when I went to do the pre-print run-over today, I found that Blackfoot wasn’t actually the huge train-wreck I was convinced it was. In fact, it wasn’t too bad. Maybe even good. The pacing was consistent, there were no glaring plot holes, and everything seemed to flow well, unlike the patchwork thing I’d imagined it to be.
Thus, my contentment is complete.
Also, I have tea and sticky buns and biscuits…
We’ll see how contented I am when I start final edits for Blackfoot next week, and how contented I am when I start the edits for Lady of Dreams a week or two after that…
I finished first read through of “Spindle” last week ( very impressed! I especially loved the characters and the dream/vision sequences. The writing is top notch as well!) I’m part way through “Masque” and am enjoying it as well, though I must admit I like “Spindle” more. You must have put a ton of work into writing “Spindle” as the story is so intricately woven together, to the point that I had to stop part way through and start over from the beginning. ( A good thing as it added to the pleasure of reading the book) On side note, I wonder if we have seen the last of Luck and Polly.
Thanks for all the hard work
Charles
I’m so glad that you enjoyed Spindle! I had so much fun writing (and re-writing, and RE-writing) it, so I’m happy it’s given pleasure =) As to your side note…no, you haven’t seen the last of Luck and Poly. They’ll turn up again, though briefly, in the next book in the series, Blackfoot. They’ll also turn up in the next two after that 😀