Very much as I thought

Strange shift of gears

Well, I've sent the manuscript of False Colors to the publishers. So keep your fingers crossed that they like it and don't decide it's unpublishable and they want their advance back!

Anyway, I thought 'well, there's two more weeks to the summer holidays. I can get in some work on something else' and tried to write some more of 'Away With the Faeries'. That is a strange gear shift! I've been revising, editing, re-writing and polishing for so long, I'd almost forgotten what it's like doing a first draft.

Considering the fact that the first chapter flowed out in one of those rare and glorious bursts of inspiration, it's disappointing to go back to it only to have to struggle and sweat and be content with rubbish again. But that seems to be my process. Bursts of inspiration aside, the first draft is like slogging through mud, with nothing but dirt to show for it. (Second draft leaves me with a pile of mud bricks, and the third, if I'm lucky, ends in a house ;) )

Oh, and friends of galadhir might like to know that she's back under a new name at potboy