I've been spending quite a lot of time over the past few weeks making sure I am several chapters ahead of posting. There are now only two more chapters left of 'Gone Away, Gone Ahead' before reaching the end. I have had a few comments asking if there’s going to be a sequel and over the past few days I’ve been seriously considering that. I'm still working on the prequel, 'Threadfall', and estimate there's probably another 20-30,000 words to go on that. If someone had said to me that I would manage to turn out over 200,000 words in under a year I would probably have said, 'no way'. But thanks to lockdown, work drying up and the opportunity I've managed it.

By now, I was expecting to be in the middle of moving house, but COVID and the UK stamp duty holiday has meant the property market is crazy at the moment. Both my sale and purchase are currently held up by the local authority search, which I’ve now been told won’t come back until 26th February. I’m not even going to start packing until much nearer the time, so I’ll have another few clear weeks to spend writing.

I've just finished a chapter in which I had to write a death scene. There have been quite a lot of deaths so far in 'Threadfall', and I hope it’s not depressing the readers too much, although I try to leaven it with light-hearted moments. I always knew the story would be darker in tone than 'Gone Away, Gone Ahead' and there is worse to come before the end. I know I've managed to get a scene just right if I end up crying while writing it and this one certainly made the keyboard a bit damp. My husband was looking at me as if I was mad and asking what had upset me. 'I've just killed a dragon,' I replied, sniffing. 
Anyway, regarding that sequel. I didn't actually intend to write another 'Dragonriders of Pern' fan fiction, because I have several original stories I’d like to work on and post. But as people are reading it and enjoying it, then maybe I should? I might take a break for a while before starting (and the move will certainly mean that I need to do that) but those characters are now firmly embedded in my subconscious, to the extent I sometimes dream about them and often find myself writing scenes in my head while out walking or gardening. Plus I have another six Turns to write about in the gap between 'Dragonflight' and ‘Dragonquest'.