I stripped my novel clean of all quotes, all outside references. Below are the quotes that littered the chapters as I went.

I probably missed some...

“I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?”
-- John Lennon

“Secrets are made to be found out with time.”
-- Charles Sanford

“Every murderer is probably somebody's old friend”
-- Agatha Christie

"The miracle, or the power, that elevates the few is to be found in their industry, application, and perseverance under the promptings of a brave, determined spirit."
-- Mark Twain

“The deaths ye died I have watched beside, And the lives ye led were mine”
-- Rudyard Kipling

“Your soul will be dead even before your body: fear nothing further.”
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

"Reach out and touch faith!"
-- Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus

“Sin is whatever obscures the soul.”
-- Andre Gide

"Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray: and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into Hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen."
-- English translation of the Prayer to Saint Michael, originally by Pope Leo XIII

Night is the blotting paper for many sorrows."
-- Author Unknown

"An apology for the Devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has written all the books."
-- Samuel Butler

"All God's angels come to us disguised."
-- James Russell Lowell

"We do not remember days; we remember moments."
-- Cesare Pavese

"A brave man is a man who dares to look the Devil in the face and tell him he is a Devil."
-- James A. Garfield

"Just a reflection, it's just a glimpse, just a little reminder, of all the what about's, and all the might have, could have, been's. Another day, some other way, but not another reason to continue; and now you're one of us. The Wretched."
-- Nine Inch Nails – The Wretched

The past three hours have been spent changing the setting of my novel from USA to UK, because it just makes more sense that way.

Though it was damn hard, dammit.

"Two things that are really useful for you to have are a short synopsis of the whole story (about a page of text) and a longer, chapter-by-chapter synopsis. Sending these with your manuscript means that editors can get an idea of what kind of book it is and where it will go before reading the manuscript."

I have no time.

Today is the day an editor at Rebellion asked me to send her the first chapter and a synopsis of my novel.

Rebellion being the publishing arm of 2000AD.

This... could... be... big...

How the HELL did I manage to write an additional 10k words for my novel these past few weeks?!

I guess doing bits and pieces here and there helps, it all adds up after a while, but sonofabitch! I had kind of settled at the fact that my novel was going to meander at 75k but it looks like I'm going to get close to hitting 100k by the summer-- because I'm not fucking done yet!

From that point... I don't know what. Stuart Hill has offered to edit it again, so that's great, but do I try and get it published? Or do I publish it off my own back? I'll see what he thinks.

I see all these people I know doing print on demand runs of their work, and I think that it's cheating, perhaps because a) they've not had to be rejected, or b) because I've not done it yet. It's like masturbation. It's like squeezing one off and thinking you're God even though you've achieved something that everyone else can do.

Options, options.

Fuck.

It's coming back to me, isn't it? The flow of it all?

Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown

Watch more free documentaries

There are two major projects I've got in the forefront of my brain right now; the first is the editing, amending, continuation and improvement of my novel. If I can have this done by July, I'd be really happy, but my inspiration is running really dry, so I'm only able to snatch moments of progress here and there. But I'm getting to a place, I think, that will be brilliant. Fingers crossed. The second project is my supernatural series, of which has no name (currently). I'm still on the first episode ("Rakshasa"), though have plans for the next three stories ("Lineage", "Windows" and "Black Dog"). I'm having a problem starting projects. Plenty of ideas for continuations, but not enough inspiration to get the 'origin' off the ground. All very frustrating.

My job is killing me!

I'm great at it, don't get me wrong, but there's no time for me to do anything other than work or sleep and that won't do.

I get school holidays off, great, but what good is that when it takes half that time to get back into writing? And what's worse, the inspiration goes three days in!

I'm spent :|

"Through the warmthest cord of care your love was sent to me, I'm not sure what to do with it or where to put it."

Listening to Bjork will cheer me up!



Oh, wait, fuck, no.