Back from Hiatus & New Website

So some of my health issues have at least subsided a bit, and I’ve been back in the groove of the writing thing. I’m working on a new project, too. I wound up scrapping the young adult science fiction novel I was working on before. I’d made it to about 30,000 words (for those of you who aren’t publishing-industry-insiders, that’s a little over a hundred pages), and now I’ve started a new YA sci-fi book.

Why am I scrapping the old one? Well, quite simply, I don’t know where to go with it. Sometimes this happens with us writers. We pour loads of time and effort into a project, and it winds up just simply not working out. (Sounds like some other things in life, eh? Like my quest of beating all the cups in Mario Kart 8 on 200CC mode. Just kidding. Well…I wish I was.) I got about halfway through the story, but it was too short, and I couldn’t think of a way to extend it that’s both original and compelling enough to me personally to write. And, believe me, it’s VERY important that I find my own stories compelling enough to write hehe.

Anyway, I’ll keep the story file on my computer, of course, in case I ever have a burst of revelation in the future as to how to continue it. You know, a subconscious one that’s sure to happen when I’m eighty years old and am watering a ficus in my backyard and – BOOM! – I realize I can add a vengeful, mutated ficus into the second half of the story, woven among a brilliant plot line, of course, that’ll extend the story to a natural conclusion. OK, I’m being ridiculous, but you get the point. Maybe at some point in the future I’ll have a random light-bulb moment, and I’ll be able to continue the story. But for now, it’s in my best interest to put my efforts into a new tale, which, coincidentally, is another YA sci-fi. This one has to do with time-travel, though, whereas the one I scrapped is an alien story.

In other news, I’m planting a ficus in my backyard. Just kidding – I’m working on a new author website (a revamped version of the existing site - www.chrisvonhalle.com). It’s going very well, thanks for asking. In all seriousness, it’s going to be bigger and better and more fun. It’s not quite ready yet, but I’ll be sure to post when it is. Until then, back to watering that ficus!