Absence makes the pen stronger

I have had some time out recently, having undergone an operation and recovery. The good news is that I’m writing this blog, which means I’m feeling a whole lot better. I won’t go so far as to say I’m back to normal but some days, yes…, I feel a bit like my old self.

I have missed the writing, and story lines and plots are beginning to swirl through my imagination. I need to get back to it, and write the next novel that has been incubating at the tip of my pen, so to speak.

Just recently I had some good news which I posted about – my horror/paranormal novel ‘Blood Visions’ was picked up by Whiskey Creek Press and, since then, I’ve been working with an editor and a cover artist to get the manuscript ready for publication. 

There are a number of possibilities for my next novel. My contract for Blood Visions gives my publisher first right of refusal on a sequel. Although I wrote this book with a sequel in mind, mainly to keep track of the main character Fortuna Cavalieri as she grows and develops into a tough warrior, I’ve also had another plot permeating for a while now.

I would like to explore obsession and what happens with obsession after death. If you believe in the after life, you’d be aware of the ‘in between’ state between earth and heaven. That is the place of transition, not entirely earthly, nor heavenly either – a place where we might learn and thus progress before we leave our earthly ties behind. But what happens when we choose not to progress and to draw the person we are obsessed with into that place. What might that look like?

Without giving too much away, some of the novel takes place in an institution for the mentally ill. Perhaps those with crippling psychosis ‘see’ and experience things those on the earthly plane cannot understand. And once in that ‘in between’ place, how do they get back when outwardly they appear insane, coupled with an entity with an obsession straight from hell? Anyway, that is the start of the story that I would like to write. And then there’s the sequel to Blood Visions…

As I sit in my chair, lazily choosing which medium to be entertained by in my recovery – internet, youtube, DVDs, television, books, magazines – I’m reminded that I can be using this time to get on with my creative fiction. So, here’s my first blog in recovery and the absence has definitely made the pen stronger.

* PICTURE: The cover art for my upcoming novel Blood Visions to be published by Whiskey Creek Press.