some short updates

Since my last post I have:

• been to (and through) the Odyssey workshop in Manchester, New Hampshire where I met loads of great writers and may even have learned something (though the proof will be in the publications);
• completed (and now, it seems, been awarded) my MA in Creative Writing from Brunel University in West London where I met loads more great writers (both on and off the teaching staff) and may well have learned something more (though, y'know, I don't think Brunel was quite as obsessed with commas as the Odyssey folk);
• picked up another Writers of the Future Honourable Mention;
• Joined the CODEX writers group;
• submitted very little to anywhere (and that has to stop. Or start. Whatever.);
• been globetrotting. Just back from Zimbabwe via Malawi. Lots of story material there.

Now I have to finish the novel I started for my MA dissertation. I'm about 50,000 words in, which is around half the novel, but I've had to put it down for a few weeks to concentrate on other things which has broken my momentum. My revised aim is to complete my first full draft by the end of January, but I need to sort out some short stories too so I'll be busy. As part of the Odyssey process we had to deliver a new story every week for six weeks for ritual sacrifice, and as a result I have some almost ready things to polish and send out. I just need to polish them and send them out!