I’ve had an idea! It’s been long enough since I’ve had an idea for a fictional piece that I’m really happy with and have pondered muchly, so I’m pretty happy about this. Actually, I’m more than “pretty happy” as it turns out I have two ideas! At once! I know, bring on the trumpets.
One idea needs more time to ferment and develop, although I’m stabbing at it erratically when I feel the urge. It’s a grown up monster book and hopefully will take some more shape in my mind than the nebulous ideas I’ve jotted down. The other idea is for a children’s picture book and has nothing to do with monsters (although the two do tend to go together). It’s basically a protracted, repetitive series of gags told in rhyme, which I’ve started to draft. Ashley has felt his creative fingers itching and is going to provide the illustrations as the gags have a strongly visual element. It’s all very exciting as this is the first writing I’ve done collaboratively, and the first idea I’ve felt really excited about and that I think has genuine marketable potential.
There’s still a lot of work to go, of course – the first draft is always a tad shonky, but there are one or two elements I see making the final cut. It seems like all this blogging has finally had a knock-on effect and inspired a different type of writing creativity. Fingers crossed.
MOKUSKA 
[…] The Collaboration has not halted, it’s merely ticking along far more slowly than at first expected. Ashley has the harder job, from my perspective; getting the words right is a slog but one I feel sure of achieving, but the vision is something else altogether. Of course from his point of view my work is equally unfathomably hard. So we wait on each other for inspiration to strike and the next burst of development to take place. I suspect it might require me cracking the whip (at myself, apart from anything) to get it back on course. […]