Update

Yes, I am still alive and working on my manuscript. Through some tough edits, cutting many of the passages I loved dearly, but didn't quite fit the feel of those around them, adding new material where it was needed and creating a depth of character the story lacked in the early drafts, I feel I finally have something to be proud of. I think this may be *it* for me, the one that gets me published and on the road to successful authordom.

I thought all authors shared a certain sense of self-doubt. I certainly have it in abundance, maybe I'll feel different when I'm published, but I doubt it. So I was surprised to hear today that V.H. Naipaul (Nobel and Booker Prize winner) told an interviewer at The Guardian "I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not. I think [it is] unequal to me." and added "And inevitably for a woman, she is not a complete master of a house, so that comes over in her writing too."

On the other hand perhaps that only speaks to how deep his own doubts lie. He doth protest too much.

Anyhow, enjoy the Kate Bush video, I was reminded of it today and thought I'd share. It was my favourite video at the time (I know, dating myself here). It's interesting as I look back how many times an affinity for steampunk shows up in my history that I was unaware of before I started writing.