Many huzzahs.
Firstly, thank you to Kaetrin for this lovely review of Blessed Isle
http://www.kaetrinsmusings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/blessed-isle-by-alex-beecroft.html
Their story is full of adventure on the high seas, personal sacrifice and joyful love, in a time when they could not be open about it, where, if caught, they would face death by hanging. It was bitter that they could not be free even in Rio about their relationship, but sweet that they found in each other, someone worth the risk.
I’m so glad that people are liking Harry and Garnet, and that the slightly experimental format of interactive diary-writing seems to be going down well, rather than putting people off.
Secondly, ring out those bells, ring out those celebratory bells, for the first draft of The Glass Floor is finished at a respectable 135,870 words. I know there are things to add in the second draft – how Frank’s father knew to get to Istanbul on time, why Mirela decided to go home, when Nabih got the anti-mind-control charm to the sultan, whether Frank managed to rescue Protheroe’s notes or the bandits got them, what happened when Ecaterina’s beauty spell failed the first time – so it’s probably a good thing that it’s a Fantasy, where a length of 150,000 is my upper limit.
But still, before I start on the edits, I owe it to myself to write a couple of novellas now, just to decompress with something that isn’t going to take half a lifetime to finish.
Is The Crimson Haiduc a laughable title for a future novella? I love the word ‘haiduc’ (or hajduk, or hayduck) but partly because it does sound rather ridiculous. A haiduc is a Romanian outlaw/freedom fighter with all the glamour of a Robin Hood, and somehow neither ‘bandit’ nor ‘outlaw’ has the same romance.
You could have The Crimson Haiduc as a sub-title, but I wouldn’t go with it as the main title. It’s too obscure, and people won’t be able to remember it, spell it, or search for it. (I thought it was a verse form!!) And that’s without the water-fowl jokes… Sorry to sound so negative, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.
LOL! Good points, all. And it does sound like a water-fowl reciting Japanese poetry (which would be an interesting thing to see in itself.) I’ll have to keep that as the temporary title and go for something else when I send it out. It comes from a Romanian folk story, where the hero is revealed to be “that crimson haiduc known as love.” But that’s pretty damn obscure as well.
Not to worry. I only started it today. No doubt a better title will come along soon.