The road less travelled...

Greetings all!

I thought those people who enjoy my writing might appreciate an explanation for my long delay in posting anything Doctor Who-related, those who are curious about my other writing would appreciate an update on that, and those who are just sticky-noses might like an update on my life in general.

As many of you will know, I am currently writing my PhD. (Procrastination is a wonderful thing. ;-) I have to submit in August 2011 and have a number of dates for things to be due before then. The first major one is to have a draft of the entire critical section of the thesis complete by early December, which is (dear God!) about four weeks away. I'm sure you can understand this is putting rather more constraints on my time than I would usually have.

Naturally, I am not spending all my time on my thesis. However, as well as the critical element, there is also a creative section, which is a diary set during World War II in Berlin. This has been slowly coming together over the past two years or so, but is a long time from being ready. Luckily I will have about six months early next year when my critical supervisor is away to work on it.

What this means, though, is that while I was writing that work, I found it very difficult to work on the Chalet School book I have been plowing through since 2005. Being set in a similar era, but with such dramatically different style and voice, focusing on one makes it hard to get back into the mindset of the other. In fact, until August, I'd done nothing on Muellers for more than 12 months. However, now that my creative thesis story is on the back-burner, I have begun a reread of the Chalet School series and have also returned to working on Muellers. I am now half-way through chapter 7 and am aiming to get a first draft complete by the end of the year. This will mean, while I shift focus back to my creative piece for my thesis, those responsible for helping me knock Muellers into shape for publication can work on it.

The nett result of this, though, is that I have had to shelve my Doctor Who writing for now. I have similar problems with Chalet School and DW in that their extreme differences in terms of style, voice and tone make it hard to jump from one to another. While I can promise that I will have the Secret Santa fic ready, I'm not sure how much else I will manage. I'm sorry to those who enjoy my writing, but I will return in the New Year with a vengeance!

I will also do my best to read and comment on as many fics as possible, but I hope you will forgive any absences.