Just to prove that I am not a total blight on society who sits around reading books all day, I made a proper beginning on my new novel yesterday -- while I was supposed to be doing something else, obviously.

It’s called The Creature Court, and is not comic fantasy! More the dark, sensuous, creepy kind of fantasy. At least, I hope so. It revolves around the two-sided city of Aufleur: the daylight people belong to in a world of festivals, ribbons and happy goat sacrifice (well, maybe just one goat) while the nightlife people belong to a dark world of battles, blood and black leather. Plus my heroine is a dressmaker, which means lots of frock-description.

Here’s how it opens (you have to imagine italics instead of quote marks for the thinking bits):

"This isn’t happening." Ashiol could feel his heartbeat pounding in his ears as he ran. The pressure of it made him sick and dizzy, but he only ran harder. His scars were hurting, burning in harsh lines along his face and body, just as painful as the day they had first been carved into his flesh. "After all they’ve done to me, I can’t believe I’m running to the rescue."

The city cracked open. Walls screamed, streets shuddered, glass shattered as the world broke into messy shards and crumbs. As the sky fell around him, Ashiol kept running. "I didn’t even hesitate."

I have two reading obsessions currently running side by side and feeding into each other: Dorothy L. Sayers (rediscovery) and Lois McMaster Bujold (new discovery). Am currently feeding my obsession with many crumbly paperbacks, dragged out of two separate libraries as well as a few second hand bookshops.

It does mean that I end up picturing Miles Vorkosigan with a monocle but hey, who doesn't?

It also means my last month has been incredibly unproductive because if there is an unread Sayers or Bujold in the house, I can't get anything done until I've read the damn thing!