Progress

Made some progress in the last week on the Fergal O'Brien tale. Last week I just had a working title of the Miracle of Santa Maria and a nun with a gun. The nun has yet to appear but I've now got an opening chapter.

All the Fergal stories have started the same way (although the first bit I write often ends up being in the middle of the book or gets edited out) with a scene in which Fergal tries to sell his tonic. Fergal is a snake-oil seller who makes wild claims about his product, his potential customers don't believe him, and so with it looking as if he won't sell anything he recruits his sidekick Randolph. So Randolph poses as a customer and claims to be ill, he drinks Fergal's tonic, and is miraculously cured.

In previous books Randolph has had his bad leg cured, his deafness, and his amnesia, so this time Fergal 'cured' him of his blindness. Just writing this opening scene usually gets me in the mood to live with these people again and this time was no exception. Even better a heckler appeared out of nowhere and accidentally mentioned a hint of where the story might go. I now have around 2,500 words, three weak jokes, and a possible story, which is fine.