RETURN TO BLOG

(Today's post title is a reference to the film Return to Oz, just in case anyone missed that. Sometimes I realise that most of you guys didn't grow up in the 80s and then I feel ooooold).

I know it's exciting that I'm back, but don't lose your head! (Also a Return to Oz joke)

Hello, hello, hello, Dear Readers! Welcome back to The Zoë-Trope after my week away. You'll be very pleased to hear (or, I hope you will, anyway) that during the hiatus I got some really good work done on Katana Book #2 (which, by the way, does have a title - I'm just being cagey about it for now) and that I also completed the passpages/copyedit for FrostFire.

Passpages basically means that they sent me loose pages which very closely resemble the finished book - the manuscript has been 'typeset' and made ready to go to the printers. So, for the first time, I got to see the internal design of the book and ZO. MIEN. GOTT. Hands up who thought the inside of Shadows on the Moon was really pretty, with the cherry blossom design? Yeah, what they've done with FrostFire is going to blow you away. I actually had to snuggle the pages. Just a little.

Okay, a lot.

So now that the copyedits are finished, the typeset manuscript goes back to my lovely, lovely editor and then on to be made into a real, honest-to-goodness book. I can't wait to hold a copy in my own sweaty, inkstained hands.

In the meantime, some thoughts about the future of the blog. We talked about me adding a permanent page in which all the writing posts would be linked according to topic (Plotting, characterisation, prose, etc.) and I haven't forgotten about that, so look for it some time...soonish. Oh, and I also realised that I'd managed to forget about my folder of reader emails again, so once again, I'll try to get to it. If you're waiting for a response, please don't give up.

The other thing I'm contemplating with regard to the blog is likely to be less popular, and I really hope you're not going to hate me when I put this forward.

I'm thinking of cutting down from three posts a week to two.

*Throws up dustbin lid to sheild self from shower of rotten vegetables*

Got that out of your system? Okay, then hear me out.

The first reason that I'm thinking about this has to do with my father. As some of you (although probably not all) will know, I'm a carer for my dad, who deals very bravely with chronic illness and serious disability. Now, we've just been told that in the next couple of weeks he's going to be moving to a new form of treatment which ought to make him more comfortable, and this is great. It means that he can spend a lot less time in the hospital. However, that also means he's going to need to have certain treatments administered to him at home by - you guessed it - me. This is likely to be two to three hours every day in addition to the time that I already spend looking after him. That's pretty much all the 'spare' time that I devote to the blog gone in one fell swoop.

I've always believed that if something is important to you, you blooming well MAKE time for it, and I fully intend to continue to do this for my Dear Readers. But at the same time, as a human being, I'm forced to acknowlege that there are actually only twenty-four hours in the day, and that writing books does need to be top priority in those ones I have left over. So that's the biggest factor.

The other factor is that I sometimes feel, these days, that at least one of my three posts each week is filler material. This is literally true at least twice a month on RetroFridays, when I'm reposting old stuff in the hopes that new readers might like it. But there isn't an indefinite archive, and I worry that soon I'm going to run out of old posts to present to you guys. It seems better to quit when I'm ahead, and instead concentrate on providing new stuff, just a little less often. That doesn't mean I won't perhaps bring out the occasional old post if I find something good when I'm wandering through the archives, but it will be a less frequent occurrence.

My plan is to move from the Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule to a Tuesday-Thursday one, just because I like things to be symmetrical. I'd also love it if people would ask more questions in the comments, whether those questions are about reading, writing, books, being a writer...whatever. Question posts are probably my favourite ones to write, and I get a lot less chance to do them these days.

Well, that's everything off my chest. What do you all think?