So it begins...

That there is my first page of research notes for Cover Him With Darkness - the new novel version (That doesn't include the notes I wrote for the proposal, which are mostly wodges of quotes from dodgy apochryphal Bible texts).
You can see I'm not a neat methodical person, can't you?

Starting with 5K of the original short story...

... I've now hit 12K and introduced the Second Male in the torrid triangle. First Male is turning out to be a bit of a scary bastard, which is exactly what I'd hoped - and I can't tell you how relieved I am that I'm starting to get a feel for him.

I've bought a bunch of books for research:

• The Devil: a biography (should be fascinating)
• The Land of the Black Mountain: the adventures of two Englishmen in Montenegro (huzzah!)
• Through the Lands of the Serb, 1908 (double huzzah!)
• The Orthodox Way (ugh ... but necessary)
• The Dawning (a turn-of-the-century novel described as "quite good for local colour")
• and three guide books to the former Yugoslavia.

 Things are feeling good. I can see where I'm going, for the moment.

“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
― E.L. Doctorow