Writing my novel is back on track. A couple of bits and pieces to clear up first, like a regency romance that needs a couple of thousand words before I submit it to Samhain, and an idea crying up to be written for My Weekly’s coffee break fiction. However, the important point is that my doubts about the novel’s set up have eased.

I like Jane Austen’s novels (well, not Mansfield Park) and in that style of driving interest with character relationships, I set up a conflict between the heroine and her father. Then I realised how often this tension is used. Too many urban fantasy heroines are daddy’s girls. Whether dad is alive or not, good or not, they are shaped by who he is/was. Still, the evolution of Lyn and her dad’s relationship isn’t hackneyed, and it supports the overall plot, so I’ve recovered my enthusiasm.

Amazing how fears of unoriginality daunt creativity.