![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.theycrawl.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Blarg1.jpg\" "\\"Blarg\\"")
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Bad<\/strong> first, because that’s generally the way around that I prefer: I’ve had to put a bullet in the head of my haunted house project<\/strong>.<\/p>\n It was a grim decision after six months’ work, but a rational one I think. Do you know the moment in the film Apollo 13<\/em> when the near-despairing ground-crew chief played by Ed Harris asks ‘What have we got on the space-craft that’s good?’ Well: after careful examination of the haunted house<\/strong> <\/a>zero draft<\/strong><\/a> I concluded that there simply wasn’t enough there to justify what it would take to turn it into a functioning book I could be proud of.<\/p>\n I won’t lie to you: there has been some wailing and gnashing of teeth going on over here. As any long-term followers of this blog will know, this is not the first<\/a> <\/strong>project I’ve had to abandon recently. I can see I’ve got into some bad mental habits about the way I’ve been going about longer-form stories. I’m reassessing my methods. More on this in a second.<\/p>\n Now the good<\/strong> news. Opinions are in about The Last Duel<\/strong> (my latest short story) from my agent and the person who is going to illustrate it. Both (to my delight!) were very positive<\/strong>. The next bit of sinister masterplan<\/strong> therefore looks something like this…<\/p>\n –Line edits for my upcoming book for Barrington Stoke<\/strong><\/a><\/span>. It’s now been tested by young consultant readers<\/strong><\/a>, and their notes are about to arrive. This part of the process was my main reason for writing something for Barrington Stoke in the first place, so (though I hear it’s going to be intense!) I can’t wait. Bring it on. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n –More short stories<\/span>: Jethro<\/strong>, Family<\/strong> and now The Last Duel<\/strong> makes three. That’s a decent start towards a collection, but still only a start. ;D<\/p>\n –A new novel<\/span>. I’ve already begun drawing ideas together for a completely new long project – something epic<\/strong>, wild<\/strong> and properly awesome<\/strong>. But this will take time<\/strong> – possibly a long<\/strong> time (reminder: The Black Tattoo<\/a> <\/strong>took me five years). Everyone will have to be ok with that<\/strong> – and in that ‘everyone,’ I include (since one of the aforementioned bad habits that I most need to break is impatience<\/em>) me<\/strong>.<\/p>\n I’m feeling hopeful. I’ll keep you posted.<\/p>\n Sam<\/p>\n PS: The sweetly smiling green dude at the top of this post is the star of a new Portuguese short horror film called Blarghaaahrgarg<\/strong>. You can watch the whole thing at Twitch<\/strong>, here.<\/a><\/p>\n