So, the writing life gets put on hold for a variety of reasons; paying the bills, homework, social obligations - whatever. There seem to be more excuses than ideas in my mind the past few weeks.

But I plug along nonetheless.

I have recently picked up a short story that was the result of a "just for fun" contest on the Writer's Digest forums and have begun expanding it. It's what I call an "other world fantasy" because it doesn't take place on Earth. There are no elements of science fiction.

It's the story of an eleven-year-old boy named Hadwyn and his faithful pet chinchibbit, Shanely. The boy finds out from a mysterious old woman that he truly is the great-great-grandson of Callin, the greatest sorcerer his world has ever known. (Callin was destroyed 140 years ago by the evil sorceress, Rassidam.) Armed with this knowledge, Hadwyn must now discover his destiny while evading the clutches of The Followers of Rassidam.

I'm only about 37 pages into it but it's a fun distraction from the stress of job hunting.

I've been lax about researching agents for "Light of Avondell." I really do need to make a tangible goal. Perhaps researching one agent a week would be practical right now. But before I can submit to any of them I have to finish my query letter. But I think the best approach to that is to completely overhaul it for each agent. From what I've seen so far, some prefer a "bare bones" approach while others like a more in-depth account of the book to grab their interest.

Nothing worth having is easy, right?