My new novel, Winterwood, is due very soon. Publication date is Tuesday 2nd February. I don't have actual copies of the mass market paperback yet, but I have copies of the Advance Reading Copy, a trade-paperback size. If anyone here would like a copy to review, please email me direct via my website at http://www.jaceybedford.co.uk. Unlike my first two books, this one is historical fantasy.

I've been delighted to get a few good reviews already, including ones from Publishers Weekly. It was also a Top Pick at RT where their reviewer said: "seamlessly blends history, magical lore, high seas adventure and romance into one fantastic story" . The latest review today at the Bibliosanctum, which said lovely things like: "The best thing about Winterwood is its many fascinating components, which Jacey Bedford weaves into one amazing story of magic and adventure. Rollicking action is expertly balanced with passionate romance in this novel which will leave you salivating for more, and I loved every moment!" - Well, I can live with that.

So here's the rundown...

WINTERWOOD

It's 1800. Mad King George is on the British throne, and Bonaparte is hammering at the door. Magic is strictly controlled by the Mysterium, but despite severe penalties, not all magic users have registered. Integral to many genteel households is an uncomplaining army of rowankind bondservants, so commonplace that no one recalls where they came from.

Ross Tremayne, widowed, cross-dressing privateer captain and unregistered witch, likes her life on the high seas, accompanied by a boatload of swashbuckling, barely-reformed pirates and the jealous ghost of her late husband, Will. When she pays a bitter deathbed visit to her long-estranged mother she inherits a half-brother she didn't know about, and a magical winterwood box containing task she doesn't want. Depending on who you believe it could right a terrible wrong or it could bring about the downfall of Britain. There's a man - a deadly government agent - willing to use all his considerable powers to prevent Ross from opening the box.
Enter Corwen. He's handsome, sexy, clever and capable, and Ross really doesn't like him; neither does Will's ghost. Can he be trusted? Whose side is he on?

Unable to chart a course to her future until she's unravelled the mysteries of the past, Ross has to avoid the not altogether unwelcome attentions of a dashing but dangerous pirate; evade a ruthless government agent who fights magic with darker magic; and brave the hitherto hidden Fae. Only then can she open the magical winterwood box and solve the problem. Unfortunately success may prove fatal to both Ross and her new brother, and disastrous for the country. By doing the 'right' thing is Ross going to unleash a terrible evil? Is her enemy the real hero and Ross the villain? Should she open the box or let sleeping magic lie.

Whichever choice Ross makes it's going to reverberate down the centuries.

I have a new post up on my Wordpress Blog about editing Winterwood, my upcoming third book. Please swing by and take a look. There's a partial of one of the potential cover images.

There's a meme going round writers at the moment to recast the opening lines of your novel as poetry. I'm not sure any of these really work. The first one is the opening of 'The Winterwood Choice' currently with my agent.

The stuffy bedroom smelled
of sickness,
old lady, stale urine
and unwashed clothes,
poorly disguised
with attar of roses.

I'd never thought to stand
here again
in Plymouth,
in the house I'd once called home;
a house
with memories so bitter
that I'd scoured them from my mind
with salt water
and blood.

-o0o-

And Empire of Dust is just plain weird as poetry:

Cora
glanced into the tray
of delicate components
on the slowly moving belt
and thumbed the pad.
All present.
Tick.
Next one.
Yes.
Tick.
And again.
Tick.
She stifled
a yawn.

“Hey, Carlinni, I got one.”
On the other line
Bergman
punched the air
and grinned.

-o0o-

But Spider on the Web works slightly better, I think:

The Wavel Bell tolled
the death knell of a king.
It sounded
from high on the Gora
and echoed
across the city of Biela Miasto.

Hari Faron
felt the sound
in the back of his skull.
He leaped to his feet
clattered a flagon to the floor
swayed unsteadily and
flattened his large square hands
on the wet wooden tabletop
trying to sober up
between one breath
and the next.
And failing miserably.

-o0o-

But what do i know? i'm rubbish at poetry

'Between Wind and Water' is finished - at least for the time being and for a certain value of 'finished'. I've edited it down to 100k which feels about right. Big thanks to brownnicky for a swift kick up the edit and making me see some of the bloat that needed removing. And to everyone else who contributed critiques at earlier stages.

I'm going to take the last 9.1K or so - the final action set pieces - as one of my submissions to Milford this year (starts on 17th September), but apart from that it's ready for Agent Beth.

Now all I have to do is decide on my second sub for Milford - I have a couple of different pieces I can take. i doubt if I'll be able to write a new short in time, which is what I'd been hoping to do. I've got 5.9k words to play with.

Though I do have another children's book idea I'm keen to make a start on.

Had an odd couple of days for reasons I'll not bore you with, but I have managed to chop quite a few more words out of 'Between Wind and Water'. I'm now down to 109,000. Yay! Smaller is better unless I chuck out the baby with the bathwater. Thanks to brownnicky for a read-through and a kick up the focus,

In other news, son J managed to survive Hurricane Irene as it passed over his head in Princeton with only a power cut to show for it. In sympathy we were also without power for eleven hours on Sunday due to an underground fault. Workmen spent hours down a succession of holes in the road, shaking their heads and sucking air through their teeth in best garage mechanic style. At one time I was despairing for the freezers, but 11 hours is just about do-able if you don't open the damn things up while the power's off.

No film of the week this week as H is rehearsing today. No big deal. We've seen everything we really wanted to watch until the next batch of releases, and it would have had to be Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Unfortunately I've seen the trailer so many times in the last few weeks that I feel as though I've seen the movie already. Happy to give it a miss unless nothing else comes along.

Between Wind and Water
1,401 words cut today and this revision's finished - or at least this phase is. Total word count is now 115,983 and that's close enough. brownnicky has offered to take a look and then I think it's ready for Agent Beth.
Phew!
I had a big moment of stuckness in the middle of this revision, but I just tried to keep writing a little bit every day until it suddenly started to come together. Thank goodness it did.

As I thought, general tightening up is working well so far. Words cut: 4916. Current total 117,384 words. This is without losing any specific scenes. It's like I've put the whole thing through the washing machine and tumble dried it on high heat so it's shrunk overall. The fabric has tightened up.

For the week from 14th August: 10,574 new words and a some futzing around with old ones.


Now I'm going out to dinner with my Best Beloved for our wedding anniversary. 40 years. I was a child bride.

:-)

Between Wind and Water
1,062 new words added. 3,109 old words cut.


The good news is that it's finished.
The bad news is that it's still 123,013 words long.
Bummer.


I don't know where to cut, or even if I should cut. I think I have to let Agent Beth have the final word. Thanks to brownnicky for offering help. I'm sending it today.

611 new words, plus a few fill-in bits, but 2,772 words deleted, so a total of minus 2,161 words today. That's going in the right direction. Total now stands at 125.461. Target 112,000 but I'll settle for 115,000.



Going out to a BBQ at H & M' house now. Maybe I'll get a bit more done later tonight, depending on what time we get home.

Minus 757 words, painfully excised in occasional clauses and the odd sentence. Still 15k words over target and about to start rewriting the finale.

128133 / 110000 words. 116.5% done!

Only 558 words today but I've joined up the new bit with an old bit that I think is a keeper.

Intrigued by the new word meter that desperance  has found, I tested it out. Yes it does let me admit that I'm 18,000 words over my target. Oops. I sense some snippage to come.

Another 3.335 words today on the 'Between Wind and Water' rewrite. I almost wish I'd stopped two words earlier.

One younger brother rescued, but is everything quite what it seems? One injury which is rapidly turning bad due to either infection or magic or both. One big decision still to be made and no nearer to making it. Hmmm... I need to make the decision before my characters can.

I need to take care that I don't start adding to the total word count. What goes in at one end must come out at the other otherwise bloat ensues.

3478 words today. Whew!

I've been stalled on the rewrite of Between Wind and Water. While jealously watching la_marquise_de_  and desperance  racing each other and clocking up a couple of thousand words each on an almost daily basis, I've been struggling with the build up to a set piece which involves my characters escaping from the main antagonist by shooting the 'rapids' under Old London Bridge. I'd had the river sequence in my head for weeks, but I couldn't get the build up sorted out. Thursday - only 536 words, Friday - even worse - only 322. This evening the floodwaters broke the dam. 3476 words in five hours.

There had to be a confrontation with the bad guy - and since he's a dark magic user of unknown ability it couldn't be straightforward, but I didn't know what he was going to do to give my guys a hard time. Sometimes you just have to write it to find out. Today I got that far and finally found out what he was up to. And pretty nasty it was, too.

Did the good guys win? At the moment they think so... but...

Anyhow I can now move on to the next bit of plot! Yay!

Of course, now I'm going to have to delete 2,600 words written over the last couple of weeks because what I've done today has eliminated the need for it, but that's fine. It was boring.