Richard Wright

Well, so far 2007 is turning into a very splendid year, as you’ll see in a moment or two. As such, I felt it was time for a change of online wardrobe. If you’re reading this on Myspace, pop over to my website proper and have a look around. There’s a whole new look, and lots of structural things that make me very happy indeed. For a start, my journal (which I copy and paste into my Myspace page) is now a built-in part of my website, instead of sitting awkwardly to the side. If you’re an RSS reader, you can now subscribe via a link on the front page to everything that happens on the site – the journal, news, and more to come. You can also comment all over the place, not just in the journal itself, subscribe to a comments feed to keep up to date with what everybody else is saying, and click on tags all over the place to narrow down on stuff you’re interested in. Have a poke around, and see what you think. Comments are welcome…

This urge to reinvent is brought on by satisfying bursts of both productivity and sales on the writing front. At the moment, 2007 is shaping up to be the best year of publishing I’ve had for ages (and, touch wood, we’re only a month in). Some things I can talk about, and some things I need by a little obtuse regarding just now. I learned a long time ago that announcing projects before contracts are signed can leave this writer with egg on his face…

• Choices – the book that kicked off this little run. Okay, so technically it was published 31st December 2006, but I’ll count it as the start of my 2007 publishing calendar. So far, informal opinion on the book has been excellent, and the reviews recieved thus far have matched that. Fingers crossed that word spreads. Novelettes are an underpublished form of fiction, despite being incredibly satisfying for a reader (long enough for unrushed plot and character development, short enough to devour in a sitting), and Pendragon Press were brave in committing to the book and seeking out the best work they could. As well as hoping I does well for myself and the other writers, I really hope it rewards the publisher.
• Tattered Souls. You go years without making a novelette sale, and then two come along at once. I hinted at this sale a couple of weeks back, but at the time no contracts had been signed, and the book did not yet have a name. Details are still sketchy, but I can tell you that the book features my story Other People, a story that will push you on a journey through the psyches of several tormented characters, and hopefully leave you reeling. I can also say that the publisher is aiming to launch the book at the World Horror Convention in Toronto at the end of March, and that I believe the other stories in the book are also novelette length. I can also tell you that I’m frantically struggling through line edits as we speak, so that the good folks at Cutting Edge can keep the book on schedule.
• Super Secret Project. That would be a charming name for a book, wouldn’t it? All I’ll tell you about this right now is that the first stage of work is just about done, and the second is about to begin. Oh, and it’s a bloody extraordinary project, and that isn’t hyperbole (well, all right, it is, but it’s entirely justified in this case). When announcements are made on the coming months, you may well soil yourselves with anticipation. I did, just thinking about it, and I’m not remotely embarrassed about it.
• Mystery Short Story Sale. While the above project is genuinely hush-hush right now, this one is obtuse only because contracts are yet to be sent out, and so forth. The sale is to a magazine, nationally distributed in the US, and the short story is a chilling puzzle which you will have to be more than usually on your toes to solve.
• Miscellany. Things too ephemeral to discuss right now, that I’m trying not to let myself get excited about until they firm up. They include a novella in which there is interest, a book length project that I have been approached about (and which will blow your mind and my own if it goes through), and several smaller bits and pieces, including the usual raft of submissions I’m waiting to hear back about.

With all of that happening, the old website was beginning to feel rather tired and clumsy, and much insomnia later, is revived for your pleasure.

Anyway, as January is closing, it’s time for me to update you as to progress in the actual writing, rather than merely the sales that follow. If you remember, my goal at the start of the year was to complete four novels, twelve novellas, and twenty-six short stories. By close of play today, I’ll have managed two of the short stories, most of a novella, and am about three quarters of the way through the novel. The novella would have had a good chance of being entirely complete, were the line edits on Other People not the more urgent priority. Fingers crossed, I’ll have it complete by the weekend.

Not a bad start, indeed.