I've been following this blog for years and I occasionally check the site for new chapters and book recommendations, but I had never found the podcasts.

Re. the advice to write some short stories ... erm ... could you perhaps tell the plotbunnies I took in to not bring their extended family, friends and their extended family, and turn trilogy on me? My muse is useless; he only laughs when the blasted critters scamper all over the place. :)

I did write some short stories once I realised that my excursions into fiction writing (I come from an academic non fiction background) were more than just a whim and there might be a chance to make something out of that sucky almost-novel I had scrambled together - if I could figure out how to really write. Two of those were summaries of novels, one a lovely little thing that fit nowhere, one I sold, and the other four were either genres I didn't really want to write or were not quite there. At that time the Roman plotbunnies kept coming in and I got an idea how to save that novel, but I never regretted having spent my time with those stories; they were a good way to play with styles, POVs, genres and all that.

Re. deadlines. You think anyone would notice if we ereased that word from the dictionary? :)