I am really excited to be starting this blog. It will give me somewhere to write down my thoughts and may even help with the process of writing Pom Seed.

I had an amazing experience this evening. I found my first book, Children of the Shaman, mentioned on the blog of a NuYorican performance poet, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez (Click here to read it). I felt strange – one of my dreams has been to get some mainstream exposure. It was so cool and I felt really pleased. Also, out of the blue, Keigo Morita from the Celga bidding service in Japan asked me for signed copies of COTS and then sent me $100! I tried to tell him that postage to Japan doesn't cost that much and he was so charming about it, telling me I was a famous author. Oh dear! I felt such a hypocrite. Most people in the UK have never heard of me.

Anyway, I don't want to dwell on that. In a way it is more important to get feedback from people one respects – like my friend Vic. I sort of feel as if she is my "ideal reader" – and also crybabymommie from the Dollfie group. (Dollfie are amazing Japanese dolls. Ball-jointed, eerily human.).

What bothers me is that I don't yet feel the same passion for Pom Seed that I did for Shaman and its sequel. I noticed that my sister, Sarah Ash, said in her interview for The Alien Online that her books had a long gestation period. I have an uneasy feeling that I am the same. I know Caspian, my agent, wants me to churn out 50-100 pages. It shouldn't be so difficult, but the beginning is the crucial part of the book (ahem – apart from the middle and the end LOL). And the whole world of Pom Seed is really unfamiliar. I find that there are parts I am dying to write, such as what happens to Dakker and El Shur – and other parts which I have very little idea about, though they interest me.

Tim Holman counselled me that this should be High Fantasy, ie no jokes and self-parody. I find that SO difficult! Anyway at the moment I have come to rest (got stuck) at the point where the Stelarios of the Stabiline army is giving his instructions to Sacha Voinich. Sacha has to infiltrate the Imperial City and spy on the occupiers. Then he must send messages to the Stelarios who will be hiding out...well, that is the crunch. I'm not too sure where the Stelarios is hiding.

Also, according to my research, the Mongols razed to the ground any cities they conquered. They weren't interested in cities. So there has to be some reason why the Halekkai DON'T raze Stambiliya to the ground. And also why they pause there instead of galloping straight on into Rhodope. I feel I'm floundering around in a morass of details like this – of course Tim H said not to worry, it's fantasy not alternate history, but I really need to know why the Halekkai decide to stay there before crossing into Europe.

It's good to write this down instead of just niggling away at it.

Jessica, 1.20 am 1st October.

Jessica Rydill used to practice as a solicitor but never quite got the hang of it. She must be one of the few who can name the high point of their career as having worked for Lambeth Council. Now happily exiled to the sticks, she has turned her attention to writing novels that try to bring an edge to fantasy. Her hobbies include collecting dolls, which freak out her nephews, listening to obscure World Music and trying to maintain her status as a weekend hippie.

Jessica's Web Site
Jessica's Main Page at The Eternal Night