What exactly AM I currently writing?

When I finished Spirit Rider: The Army of Bones, the second entry in the Spirit Rider Series, I decided that I wanted to branch out and try to give one of my other budding novels a chance. I went so far as to state on the Spirit Rider Facebook Page that I would begin work on the Dawn and Dusk Investigations.

This was something I did actually make a good start on. However I was short-sighted in two very important departments. Characterisation and dynamic. I spent forever trying to work out exactly how I wanted my two protagonists to act, something which I must admit, I'm still having some difficulty with now. Besides that there was also the question of how the dynamic between them would be. How would the story play out evenly? How would I utilise them both well? The one thing I have always vehemently tried to avoid was a Holmes and Watson situation.

In the end I started to realise that I was spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about writing, as opposed to actually doing much of anything. Also the first draft of chapter one, which was supposed to contain a 'logic puzzle' was full of holes and didn't give much hope for my 'clever and intellectual plot'.

So this was put to one side, whilst I moved on to the next series in line – Wonderland. A lot of thought was put into this and I actually started on the first chapter. However I was also working on my final project for university at the time. It was unusual for me in that it was not a series, but a stand-alone book called The Reverse Nativity. As I was writing the first few chapters (the criteria for the project) I realised that I was really enjoying the story and characters. In truth the idea was something that had been bubbling away since about a year prior. I was getting bogged down with the Dawn and Dusk Investigations and really wanted to write something fun. That's what The Reverse Nativity became.

In truth, if things had been slightly different, I would still have been writing it now. However, recently I've really wanted to focus on Spirit Rider again. I've been ploughing through the first book, realised that a few parts could really do with a re-write. When I've got the money I want to send it to a professional editor. I've seen a sample of what they can do – and I am thoroughly impressed. This is all in preparation for putting Spirit Rider on Amazon, where it really has the chance to reach a wider audience.

It was at this point that I thought, having two books from a series was ok, but three really is the magic number. The whole time I'd obviously wanted to be writing Spirit Rider, I just didn't want everything to be said and done, before I'd had a chance to do other things. So now I'm writing Spirit Rider: The Demon Invasion.

Will I ever get back to the Dawn and Dusk Investigations, Wonderland, and The Reverse Nativity? You can bet on it! I still absolutely believe in all of those stories, but for now, I'm returning to my first-born. Spirit Rider is once again the apple of my eye.