Salt and Storms
Progress on The Unspeakable Awaits continues, with just a hair until 17k words written. An uncertain start (for Marigold, not me), a chase, and a rare time for relaxation before it all goes to the pits again. It's not my usual way of starting out, with the stakes ever rising, but it is something of a false sense of security...
Within these written chapters there is a short one about drink. Specifically, Cerulean Spice. It has featured a lot within my books, but fifteen years in Traverne has not been kind to this spirit. Put simply, it is no longer the heavyweight it once was, and Marigold is more than disappointed. Fortunately The Two Kings Tavern has a few alternatives on hand.
I'm not sure I'll keep the chapter in the finished book. We'll see. It was inspired by the chill-filtered and coloured whiskies you might find that once had a little more integrity.
It was my 41st birthday at the weekend. A fairly grimdark number. When I started writing about Marigold I was 33. Marigold is somewhere between 45 and 50 (nobody knows, he can't remember how old he was at his first memory and there's nobody else that would know). It feels that before I know it I'll be older than Marigold. I wonder if that'll change how I write him? For this birthday, we took a trip to Campbeltown as the winds reach storm proportions and the sea seemed to prefer the idea of being on land. Fret and salt lashed the car and roads as we drove down the Kintyre peninsula. Afternoon sun snuck between the heavy clouds and horizon and made for a spectacular drive down, if not one we felt like exiting the car much in...
Given that Hophilmouth is a west coast settlement, and one that's an absolute pain in the arse to get to, Campbeltown made for some heady inspiration. In the grip of a storm, nobody in their right mind would step onto those rocky beaches as wave upon wave crashed over them. It was exactly what I was after.
The other element of inspiration that Campbeltown is great for is of course whisky. So few distilleries, yet an entire whisky region all by itself. It's probably fairly obvious that Cerulean Spice is based on a cask strength whisky (or at least it was). Some young and fiery spirit, barely old enough to leave the barrel and ready to fight you with near 70% abv. A veritable storm in your mouth, leaving you wondering what on earth just happened after you take but a sip. Well, I got nothing of sort down in Campbeltown, but I did manage to pick up a Springbank 15 and a cask strength Longrow, and it is these two that I'll base Marigold's future drink of choice on.
So, progress on The Unspeakable currently feels good. However, it's not all that is swirling around in my head at the moment. My recent weeks of incapability left me with a lot of time to think, and that time has resulted in a pretty large story - unrelated to Marigold - that I really think has some solid potential. So much so that is quite a struggle to not start writing it this very moment. It could even derail Summer of Blight (the follow up to Unspeakable). This time around I think I may try a first draft of the new story (each part of it has a name, I just don't want to share all of that until I'm committed to writing it) once I have put out a first draft of Unspeakable. Could spell disaster, could be a good new way that I separate myself from that draft before it comes to editing and redrafting.
Key to all of this is not being so bloody slow when it comes to getting something out. If I actually had a slew of free days I think I'd be able to write both within a month...
