Mick’s Musings: Strange and exciting things are a happening!

Published March 17, 2016 | By Mick Arnold

You may recall my telling you about my ‘current WIP’ and a certain feline that was in the process of taking over the story? That’s still ongoing, but I haven’t actually added to the word count since the middle of January – naughty Mick. But, I have an excuse and it’s a good one, but not so good in that I’ve had to put a temporary halt to this story. So, please put on your ‘understanding-type’ hats.

In the middle of January, I was driving back from a hospital appointment, the radio was on and as I hadn’t dropped dead from the tests, it was turning out to be a pretty good day. Then IT happened again. There was an interview being broadcast and two lines embedded themselves in my mind. Ah! There’s a good idea for a short story, I thought. So, quickly pulling over, I entered the lines into my phone and set off back for home.

Upon arrival, I kissed the Lady Wife hello, snaffled a hug off her and then, upon doing the husbandly checks to see if there was anything I could do, booted up the laptop, brought up a fresh page in Word, and scribbled down the two lines. They were perfect for the opening hook (well, in my humble opinion anyway) and then, I started to hammer out what I envisioned as a short story of about 2,000 words…and typed…and typed…and…you get the picture.

Suffice to say, that apart from that first couple of hours, I’ve only managed to get in an hour’s work at lunchtimes and maybe a couple each weekend. My other WIP is something like 37,000 words, but since the middle of January, only doing the above, this one is already over 22,000 words. I can’t stop writing! True, it would be nice to know where it’s going to go and end, but I’ve simply decided to go with the flow here and see what happens.

Yes, there is a cat in it, but not as savvy as HRT from the other one. More in the role of the ‘amusing sidekick’.

The other WIP will be picked up again as, with that one, I do have it pretty much planned out, but I have a feeling that if I can keep going at this rate, the first draft of ‘Three Little Words’ (title will likely be changed as I know there are other books out there with the same title) may only take another couple of months – fingers-crossed.

My other ‘writing-related’ bit of news is that I’ve decided to get out my finished MS to the RNA NWS scheme from two years ago back out there. I’d only done around 6 -7 submissions to agents, but I’d never been that happy with either the Synopsis or Covering Letter. Without naming names, a good friend (believe I’m right in describing her thusly) has taken a look at both and given me detailed notes on what changes she would advise. So, I have to take some time to get that done this weekend.

I shall now bid you adieu and wish you all happy reading and writing.