Just a minute or two ago, I wrote “-oOo-” at the bottom of the fourth Matilda Hale story and sent a copy to my long-suffering friend and copy editor, Chris Archer.
Now, ordinarily I’d post a teaser taken from the beginning of the book, to pique your interest. Perhaps I still will, in some future post, but for now I’ve decided to do the opposite, and reveal the ending.
So: I can now reveal that the final five words in ‘A Questionable Cure for Loneliness’ are…
“polar bear in a coalmine.”
(At least in the current draft.) Soon, it’ll be time to send copies to Tanya and Angela, in order to receive suiable words of encouragement, such as “Now go away and do it properly.”
In the TG fiction community, we value feedback to an almost ridiculous degree. It provides validation, I suppose – but there’s no feedback like that you get from fellow writers while there’s still time to change things. TransScripts has been amazing, for me, in terms of building my confidence but also telling me when I’m wrong. A plot hole pointed out, or a question about a character’s motivation is worth a hundred ‘attagirls’… if it’s timely.
I never publish stories chapter-by-chapter because I’m not interested in design by committee, but the alternative is the unpleasant business of getting a fifty-plus thousand word project over the line in one heave. Thank goodness (or, in a Lovecraftian vein, thank Providence) that I have my small circle of readers who aren’t afraid to chew over my plot ideas and tell me if I’ve missed the mark.
Let’s see what they make of ‘A Questionable Cure for Loneliness’.
For now, as you can see from the banner image, which shows the results of my most recent delve into esoteric materials at the Orne Library, I’ve gotta run!
Sugar and Spiiice 