So close, yet so far away.

I’m starting to get nervous. My writing journey has been a long one. Twenty-two years ago I set myself a challenge. The first short story I wrote was about a woman on a bus late at night traveling home from a bad date. It was told through her inner-thoughts. It was only when the reader learnt that she had no reflection they discovered she was a vampire.

I gave my first effort to my friend Lisa at work to read. Bless her, she read it and said she wanted to know more about the character. I went away and wrote 129k word novel badly. I sent the first twenty pages as a submission to an American publisher, who were kind enough to give feedback. It was then I realised that I didn’t have the skills needed to write the novel I wanted so I focused on learning.

Last year at this same time, I started rewriting and editing that novel. It had been edited and rewritten several times and has had its title changed too. Today, as I sit here writing this blog post, Seeking the Dark has been reduced down to a novel of 74k words, and has a much stronger plot line. I’m just hoping the publisher that has shown an interest in my novel will like it. Fingers crossed 🤞

If not, I’m sure there’s a few more places I can try these days that like Vampire books and horror. Never give up on your dreams.