'Blood Secrets' - My New Novel-Length Story: Free to Read on Blog

In one of my December posts, I mentioned my current work-in-progress, which my sister had agreed to critically read.

Being patient wasn’t the easiest thing, but I was very good and managed not to harass her knowing she had other commitments as well.

She finally gave me her much-valued feedback a couple or so months ago.

I then went over the manuscript again to make sure I was as satisfied with it as I could be as it had been a while since I’d last read it.

And I’m now happy to say, the complete story is available to read on the blog.

The story is very loosely based on ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’; I guess it could be considered a retelling as there’s a character named Jack, there is a beanstalk, and a giant whom he steals from.

That fairy tale was never one of my favourites as it bothered me that Jack, essentially a thief, got rewarded while the giant, who was minding his own business and wanted to protect his own property, died.

Basically, the giant was the one who was punished, and that did not sit right with me at all.

So, when I was wondering what story to write after ‘The Spellbound Spindle’, I decided on that one.

It went through many versions as I tried to settle on a workable storyline, got fed up with it as I felt it wasn’t going anywhere, put it aside and worked on the short story collection instead, before finally going back to it.

It was only then that I came up with a plot I was happy with and, many drafts later, asked my sister if she’d read it for me, knowing she’d be honest; if she thought it was rubbish, she’d tell me.

As with the other stories, if you decide to read this, I hope you enjoy it.

If you feel so inclined, I’d appreciate hearing your thoughts on it.

And, as always, I thank you for taking the time to read any of my posts here on my blog.