Status Update

So regular readers will know that I've been working on my Banshee novel for a little while now.
I'm starting to pull together my pitch and marketing ideas now, and for those of you who don't know, the premise of the story is that Caoimhe is a "normal" maths student, living with her best friend in London, until she is involved in a mugging that goes horribly wrong and she transforms into a banshee, keening a soul into the afterlife. You see, banshees in my mythology are actually more similar to grim reapers than flyer ghostly hags, and when they sing, it opens a portal to the otherworld. Hearing a banshee's song can kill a human or drive them insane, hence the bad press I suppose. Anyway, so now Caoimhe isn't who she thinks she is and has to work out why she is a banshee in exile, as well as deal with the new threat posed from this undercover community (someone's not too happy with her transformation), and to add complexity to the situation, she also has to try to save her best friend's arrogant boyfriend from becoming her next "victim".

As for the novel itself, I am about four chapters away from finishing this current draft, and have had to make a few changes. One of my characters was supposed to die at the end, but after the death of my grandmother in May, I just couldn't do it. Before you start telling me to "kill my babies" and all of that, actually this decision has led on to a healthy sub-plot for the sequel, so it's rather enhanced my story than diminished it.
After this draft is finished, I owe the manuscript another edit for language, consistency and grammar, and then I hope it'll be in a fit state to show the world. Hooray!

Banshee - Editing Update

Happy Almost the End of January! Officially it's the saddest month, simply because it's been sooo long since pay day and the weather is simply awful.
I'm in the midst of editing and revising Banshee (book 1) and it's going pretty well so far. After the first draft, the two main issues to fix for draft 2 are:
1) The character of Tom is very passive, one-dimensional, which = boring.
and:
2) The first three chapters don't work!
So, I've been fixing 2) first, as in doing so, I've been able to make Tom much more exciting and not so much of a wuss. Huzzah!
I have to say, I'm really loving working on Banshee right now. I think the thing that makes it interesting to me is here is a story about a girl who had everything, who was powerful and successful in practically every way, and she gave it all up for the love of her life - who turned out to be a dick. It's not one of those stories where a girl bends over backwards (!) to conform to her lover's ideal. She's already done that before the story started, and so is completely lost at the beginning but doesn't even realise it. Sigh.
Thanks to a link from Zoe Marriott's blog to Azaleasdolls.com, I've even been able to create a cartoon version of what my banshee, Caiomhe, looks like. Ta-da:

Now, even procrastination can count as work!
I hope to have at least the beginning of Banshee in some sort of shape where I can post a little bit on here over the next month or two, so would love to hear what you guys think.
Here's hoping February is productive.