I've been very, VERY ill for the last two days. I spent most of yesterday asleep, or desperately wanting to feel better. Doing simple tasks, like fetching a glass of water, or changing a toddler's nappy seemed like gargantuan, painfully difficult tasks.

Even getting up after lying down to go for a pee seemed like too much effort for how I felt. I couldn't even think about my stories - didn't write a thing, didn't edit a thing - progress = zero.

Now this got me thinking, in all the fantasy stories I've read, the heroes never got a sick bug. I know this sounds a benign and silly topic - but what if just prior to a big battle the hero starts throwing up and feeling giddy? I can't get the idea out of my head now - I don't know where to work it in or how it will work, but I think I want to explore it. It even leads me on to the thought - what if the heroes are thrown into battle, with massive hang-overs or while they're blind drunk having spent the night in an alehouse drinking?

Haha! I feel sorry for my characters, I'm so mean to them!

I'm also proper chuffed about the last two reviews I got for Deathsworn Arc 2 : The Verkreath Horror.

One from Tiffany :-



And one from Ionia:-



I was a bit nervous about the one star review I had the other day for the same book. It just goes to show, what I've always believed - if you want anyone to love it - be prepared for some to hate it.

It's a dark book, it's a gritty book. The thing is, the hell the companions go through in book 2 really pulls them together. In book 1 they were a bunch of strangers, getting to know each other and being a bit nervous. The truth is Vashni behaves the way she does in book 1 because she's... Hmmmm, she's kind of a loner - something of a misfit. She doesn't fit in well with most Toreans because she's an elf, but she doesn't fit in well with elves because she's spent so much time around Torea.

I think this can happen in our world, when immigrants struggle to find their place both in their old communities and in their new ones. They describe some ex-pats who spend a lot of time in America as 'Mid-Atlantic' and I think this is the same sort of thing. The Film East meets west covered this well too I think.

When she suggests Brael disappears with her - it's a genuine offer. She sees him at that point as the one she's most likely to be able to form something of a companionship with.

By the time they get to Cormaroth the companions are much closer and her defences drop a little - though she still maintains her lofty opinion of her abilities, sometimes expecting to succeed with confidence, bust still failing.

When you read book 3 you might be surprised who Vashni seems to enjoy the most companionship with. There are a lot of big reveals for Vashni, her age is finally revealed in book 3, some of her past is revealed. One of the interesting points that is revealed is exactly why she was present in Trest, attired as an assassin when the companions first encountered her.

I wish I could reveal more. The story is finally beginning to get going. I'm still intending to introduce the main villain in book 4 and I'm still intending to uphold my policy of killing off one character per book (Don't worry, it won't always be a main one ;) )