I'm a happy little chappy this morning!

I just received an email from the CSFG 'Masques' anthology editors to tell me that my story 'The Dumbshow' has been accepted for inclusion!

I'm over the moon about this as I think it is a really fun story. I know it was lots of fun to write, as all my 'Clowntown' stories are, but this one also isn't quite as dark as I'd normally write either. It's not even set in Clowntown, but more 'Mimes do Shakespeare's The Tempest in Hicksville USA'.

I do know that the story wouldn't have been anywhere near as good as I think it is if it wasn't for the new Australian Horror Writers Association online crit-group, and the guiding editorial hand of Gillian Polack [gillpolack]. The AHWA crit group tore into the story like there was no tomorrow, and it is definitely all the better for it. Gillian offered various suggestions on the tales's depth and characterisation and really made me think about the story in some very different ways.

So, that's made me so happy I don't feel like doing any more work today. Think I'll just enjoy myself, read a book, play a PC game, or watch a DVD... at least until the boys get home, and then its good-bye quiet time. I might as well enjoy those last 2 1/2 hours while I can!

I'm definitely not committing myself to NaNoWriMo this month - I might be crazy, but I'm not insane - but today is the day I'll be starting a new novel project.

First, I have to finish some final edits on a story that has been longlisted for the CSFG 'Masques' anthology. The story is another Clowntown story (of sorts) called "The Dumbshow" [Mimes do Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' in Hicksville USA]. The editors have made some suggestions for changes and I've been working pretty steadily for the past few days in tightening, smoothing and cutting the story back to perfection... or as close to it as I can get anyway. The hard part is now done and I only have tidying up and a final read through to do before posting it back to the editors tomorrow.

Once I've finished "The Dumbshow" I have decided it is time for me to start my next brainwave. A novel, a short one I think, that won't even be Spec-Fic or Horror. I'm guessing it will all get a little weird and freaky towards the end, but probably Palahnuik or Pynchon weird rather than my usual SF/Horror weird. In the end, I'm guessing it will be more of a 'mainstream' novel than anything I've attempted before.

The novel is to be called "Help Yourself" and is going to be based somewhat on the article I posted a couple of months ago here on my LJ (Self-Help: The New Sunday Tabernacle). I haven't got a full synopsis yet - I don't write that way and probably won't have a synopsis until it is all done - but it will be contemporary, told in first person, and based largely on life experience.

It will only be a short one - about 120,000 words at the most - but it 's something I'm very much looking forward to writing. In tone it will probably be more like the mentioned LJ post, or my 'Black Roads, Dark Highways' articles for Black: Australian Dark Culture magazine. Bascially, it is a 'Novel of Anti-Self-Help' and I'm hoping to have lots of fun with the entire 'Self-help' movement in all its religio-pseudoscientific-health-fad glory.

I'll try and keep LJ updated on word counts with this one. First time I've done that, but I'm determined to keep this one rolling forward to having a first draft completed before the beginning of February.