An update on Jonathan Hatfull's activities and current thinking.

Hi there.

No story today, or for the last couple of weeks. You may have noticed. If you're saying "What short stories? What period of absence? Who is this Hatfull?", that's fine too.

I have been shockingly unproductive over the past couple of weeks. Heinously so. But, in my defence, I've had my reasons. Real life did that irritating thing of poking its grotesquely misshapen nose into my affairs and messing things around a bit. I didn't get something that I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get anyway but I did want, actually, and had been working on for several months. As you can imagine, that was a kick in the gonads. I'm also trying to sort general life things out a bit. Work, money, living situations, whether or not to shave my scraggly winter beard. All these things weigh heavy on the mind of someone who spends most of his time daydreaming and thinking how awesome it would be if there was a film in which Tilda Swinton and Isabelle Huppert played lecturers at a prestigious Swiss university who go on an icily detached, gory killing spree through the Alps. I have a tendency to get grumpy and indulge on a bit of self-pity, which is far less productive than you might think. Plus it was my birthday last week and I was busy catching up with lovely people and having fun. So, there. A combination of being kicked in the gonads and being warmed to the cockles of my heart.

So essentially I have been doing little of late. A few months ago I was putting up a short story every week. Madness, given that they were of varying quality and that I should have been spacing them out with some blog posts about writing, which is what I said I would do.

But this period of non-productivity has ended. I have decided this. This has been decided, by me.

So what am I doing? How about an update on my projects?

1. Lovely Creatures, or, The Book That Nobody Wanted: It's had about five edits now, and I'm waiting to do my final edit, I think. I've been deliberately leaving it for a bit. I have a tendency to declare things finished when they're anything but, and this needs to be definitively finished before I wade out into the murky world of self-publishing.

2. That other, earlier novel that I occasionally refer to that was originally called Lovely Creatures: I can't remember how much I've talked about this, but this was something I wrote before my writing course started. It's set in the same universe as the finished novel, but much shorter, over a single weekend, and more straightforwardly unpleasant. I have decided to give it a tentative second draft to see if its worth rescuing. I like the characters, but the writing needs a lot of work. It's interesting to see ideas that still work (I think) but expressed badly. (Sorry, younger me) If it works

3. The sequel to Lovely Creatures that I posted character prequel chapters for: Right, this is stewing in my brain, to put it simply. I'm enjoying thinking about it but I want to get editing done properly on the outstanding writing before I commit to writing this. If I'm writing something new, I want to just be thinking about that, especially when I've got:

4. The script-thing: First draft is done. Second draft has begun. Don't really want to say anything about it yet.

5. Other things: There are things that I want to get finished, bits and pieces of writing that I'd like to complete. Hopefully over the next couple of months I'll have time to get to them.

So there's quite a lot, really. This is going to require some planning and time management. These are two things which I am going to learn how to do.

I am also planning to write a bit more non-fiction on here. I have some ideas about horror and horror writing that I'd like to explore with you, as well as chatting about the writing process. I always wanted this blog to be a combination of actual fiction and talking about fiction, not a diary. I hope that you'll be interested in reading it.

And that's another thing. I'd like to know what people would like to read on this blog. Writing about films, which I do elsewhere, is great because it's specific. It's for people who want to know about that particular thing. With fiction, I'm writing it for me and I'm putting it out for anyone who cares to read it. Which is fine. And it's nice that some stories seem to have entertained people. But if there's anything specific that you'd  like to see, please let me know. There will come a time when I will actually have to decide whether to self publish or not and then that will be a whole other kettle of self-promoting fish but, for now, I just want to make this fun to read.

Anyway, if you've read all of this, I hope you'll continue to come back. Blog updates will be more frequent from now on, although there will be more non-fiction than before. Thanks for reading, everyone. I'm always surprised and grateful that you do. Here, listen to Swans by Camera Obscura.

Oh while you're here, listen to Camera Obscura's cover of Abba's Super Trouper. I love it. I saw them do it live once and it was lovely.