Wednesday 7 May 2008

"Dark Enchantment" finished!

Well, that's it done - the first draft of my short story collection Dark Enchantment is now completed. It came in at 77,000 words - which is ever so slightly short for the new format paperbacks, I now discover, but that does give me freedom to add stuff on the re-write.

The 11 stories are:

Dishonour - a fantasy set in the same world as Divine Torment
Pique Dame - a ghost story with a provincial opera company setting
Ruby Seeds - contemporary paranormal
And Their Flying Machines - steampunk
The Lady in the Green - set in Italy during the Dark Ages
Cold Hands: Warm Heart - an Edwardian ghost story
The Chimaera - contemporary paranormal set in Turkey
Scratch - historical paranormal, set in colonial America
The Red Thread - mythic Greece setting
Janissaries - fantasy
Darkling I Listen - fantasy

There's one gang-bang, one sado-masochistic F/m tale, one cuckolding story, one minotaur, three gods, two ghosts, two evil(?) spirits, three virgins - and three deaths but one Death. Oh ... and five romantic Happy Ever Afters (but only two unhappy endings: the others are not romantic).

Between now and July I need to correct and rewrite. Wish me luck.

2 comments:

Nikki Magennis said...

Yesss! I can't wait to read this one, Janine. Good luck with the edits.

Janine Ashbless said...

Thanks!

This is the first time I've brought a book in within 2000 words of the word limit - only to be told the limit has increased by 5000! Now I feel I have to write more...