I am yet to be eaten by a bear. Some consider this inevitable and I am glad to have been able to prove them wrong again. That said, no promises for February.

Frankly, I understand if you want to side with the bear on this one.

Writing is going reasonably well, I’m completely re-cutting and redrafting my novel Unquiet Nights to deal with its pacing issues. They weren’t bad, but they did slow things down in critical places. I hope (and I have hoped in vain before) that I’ll be finished by March, but we’ll see.

I plan on entering the Fantasy Faction short story contest and I think you should too.  It’s got very favorable terms and there’s no entry charge. However, and this is perhaps the most important thing, you get to keep the rights to your story.

That is awesome.

I’m trying to blog every weekday. While I don’t want to promise I will always be able to do that, it’s been good for me to put my thoughts on writing down each day. The site is getting correspondingly more hits and I’m glad to be talking to so many people.

On the health front I’ve lost twelve kilos since November and I intend to keep going. It’s nice to feel like myself again.

By the way, I’m getting married in two weeks! That’s right on February 4th my long-suffering fiancée and I are getting hitched. She’s been an incredible supporter of my writing and she’s been an invaluable editor of my stuff. That I can even write a coherent sentence is often down to her.

Things are good.

Even to reach this I’ve had to count everything I;ve written this month, including the words I’ve deleted.

It still counts.

Quick Tip:

Stuck for story idas? Look through the Google search terms people used to find your blog. My favorite so far is “freaky mace games.” If that was you, why?

You also inspired a short story, thanks.

But really, mace games?