So, after all those days of eating and partying (in that order), we're back to "normal". I had great holidays and I hope the same was for you. My vacations came and went without me noticing it and not much writing was accomplished but a few new ideas came to mind that I have put them in rough, so there was something; but really 2011 has started in the best of ways. First: ISOLATION: AN ANTHOLOGY OF NEW HORROR FICTION is already selling through amazon. As you know this contains my first story to be published and I'm beyond excited to see my name next to the word "Author". The other amazing news is that Post Mortem Press decided to go ahead and publish my other story: PERPETUAL NIGHT as a stand-alone short novel which is great! Remember I thought that story would go nowhere? Well, this was a surprise.
As you may have noticed, short stories don't delve too much into interactions between characters or background stories as the writer has to watch his wordage; it is a 'story-driven' genre. Novels on the other hand, depend greatly on the development of their characters and interactions between them to generate a bond between the reader and the protagonist that will keep you, the reader, invested in the story. Novels are 'character-driven' stories. This means that, in order to make PERPETUAL NIGHT available to be published as a short novel, some transformations had to take place. I increased the wordage, obviously, but the most important thing was to develop the characters and give them more background explaining more about their motivations and the consequences of their acts. These changes turned out to be a little complicated as new story lines appeared and I had to make them fit into a series of actions already written; I re-read the story a hundred more times and ended a bit tired of going back to the same pages to tune up details that now didn't seem natural. It also made me realize how complicated it must be to go through the task of editing and re-editing a WHOLE novel, I mean a normal one with 150 000 words. Boy, that's scary!
All in all, I am really happy of being able to start the year in such a happy note but more than ever I know how far I am from mastering the tools I need to complete my novel. It's overwhelming but I also feel more confident in my ability and know that with the help of some good courses in Creative Writing in some reputable University I'll be able to sort my way.
Have an amazing weekend, everybody, and don't forget to buy the book! Here are the links were you can find it and wait for PERPETUAL NIGHT in late february or early March.
www.postmortem-press.com/
www.amazon.com/Isolation-Anthology-New-Horror-Fiction
