This is a catch-up post so I will know where I am with dates and word counts later in the year.

I started a new work (SA) on 16th January this year. I have two partials out on spec to HM&B. One (RC, 56.5k in 14 chapters) went mid-November, and the other (FAG 80K and 20 chapters) went off on 18th January, so I know it will be a long and tedious wait until I hear from them.
I'm tackling a new new time period in SA. I spent about a week reading and thinking about it before I decided I would do it. At the very least, a new time period will give the little old grey cells some healthy exercise. By 23rd January I had the synopsis done - or perhaps at this stage it would be fairer to call it a story outline.

I wrote the first 4,500 words of SA by 3rd February. I hope I'm catching the speech cadences of the time! It is quite different to writing about Vikings, so it is interesting for that reason alone. No one can draw a sword or fling an axe to settle an argument!

Around the 14th February I ran headlong into trouble with my website. I wanted to update it and succeeded in wasting a considerable amount of time trying to load pictures onto the old free GeoCities website. Seems I cannot do that any longer as my Frontpage is more recent than theirs. I upgraded to GeoCities Pro for a small fee, and wasted more time - still couldn't use Frontpage! I looked around for another host and settled on Tripod. By the 8th March I had it up and running. It handles Frontpage 5 beautifully! So my website is now: http://members.lycos.co.uk/jenblack

I still have http://www.myspace.com/jenblack1 but I forget to go over there more often than not. Made mental to visit more!

One of my publishers has set up a new website too. Give it a whirl at: http://www.triskelionpublishing.com

SA is up to Chapter Six now, progressing well at about 34k. I'm having a wonderful time researching the story! The costumes are gorgeous! It is so good to be able to describe characters in terms of silk and diamond cravat pins instead of leather and linen. I am tracing old, lost railways on current maps and constantly being surprised. Who knows what I'll discover next!