Sunday 11 January 2015

In the darkest reaches of the Hebrides, buried in the frozen peat it lay. My novel stirs, takes shape and prepares to rise.

It's been far too long since I posted anything on my blog, this is partly due to the excesses of the festive period, my own engagement to my now fiancée, and extensive research and planning of my first novel.

I've written many short stories; both flash fiction horror and longer stories, but the business of writing a novel really is something else. It's both incredibly daunting and intimidating, but also tremendously exciting. It has given me a sense of freedom I've never experienced creating short works of fiction; the possibilities are literally infinite. Where do I take these characters, what drives them? How deep into the world of the occult and supernatural do I want this novel to go? Am I writing a horror novel or a fantasy novel, and does it matter? These are all questions I'm currently asking myself, and at the moment, changing my answers on a daily basis. Slowly but surely though, I'm whittling down the possibilities, like a sculptor watching a piece of rock gradually take place.

All I can really reveal at this stage is that it will be a gothic horror tale set in the Highlands of Scotland, set partly in the modern day and partly at the time of the tragic 19th century Highland clearances.

I hope people will like it. I do anyway, so that's something.