All Hallows greetings from the fastness of the Duskweald, in the fog of England. If there are monsters lurking outside, we have our ninja kitties on full alert – oops, make that on cat nap duty.

Our Halloween kittie, Kefira, has fur as dark, and talons and fangs as sharp, as obsidian. In the US I believe that black cats are bad luck and can fall prey to those with evil in their hearts. Would we be burnt as witches? Here in England a black cat can be as lucky as a horseshoe or shamrock; except when it crosses your path the wrong was. But that’s an old wives tale and I’m only here for trick or treat.

Halloween is a time when our world is close to the spirit world, offering a bridge both ways; and in one of my stories, it is celebrated as the Veles. Today my writing is crossing a bridge, the transition between one mystery to another journey into the unknown, albeit with a rough map.

The Last Leaf will never fall (Photo credit: Behrooz Nobakht)

Yesterday I finished another edit of Wyrm Bait, a crime mystery set against the world of computer gaming, where the monsters lurking are black hats – but not wearing witches hats. This is the realm of computer hackers and gold farmers. The edit gave me draft 2, or maybe it was 2.5 as I scribbled in red over a printed manuscript first and devised key changes like protagonist 2’s POV.

I’ll leave the draft to ‘marinade’ for about six weeks, then tackle the crucial polish-edit, honing each word and phrase into jewels fit for my beta readers.

If you would like to be a beta reader please contact me. I have some gaming experts but need the writer input.

So on to November and NaNoWriMo 2012, which will be my second attempt at the challenge having completed a 50k first draft of The Last Leaf, a fantasy mystery, last year. The theoretical strategy this time is to write the first draft of Wyrm Blood, the sequel to Wyrm Bait and again linked to cyber-crime. I have done an outline, some of the characters are the same, although the ones driving some of the main plot are newcomers. I aim to do 50k during November but the first draft will be more like 80k and take six weeks.

I’m fearful of the pressure from writing 1,600-2,000 words per day, as other priorities loom including the crucial time needed to ensure my wife gets her ILR – her leave as a US citizen to settle in the UK. There are also the vagaries of my MS (Multiple Sclerosis): although the pain of the spasms is finally under control with Gabapentin, the spasms still continue and there are days when even checking emails is impossible. But it all makes for a greater challenge.

Here’s hoping that black cats bring us all luck, and the black hats remain fictional in our books and get tackled by the gals in white; witches to those computer-challenged.

In the Lair of the White Witch 2 (Photo credit: chrisjfry)

Good writing and screaming from The Silver Scribbler.