Sep 29, 2023
There are a lot of moving parts at the moment and it’s feeling hectic, but there has been a lot of progress on things as well. If you’ve been following my social media, then you might have seen the book cover for the remastered edition of Unhallowed Ground (formerly Abomination) and the pile of pages which represent about a quarter of the first draft of The Ladies Adventure Society.
The Ladies Adventure Society Book 1
Status: First Draft WIP
As of this morning, the first draft is now 30,000 words. It’s picking up steam (pardon the steampunk pun) and is a fun project to work on. It’s still on track (there’s another one) for release early next year.
Unhallowed Ground: Remastered
Status: Uploading
Most of the publishing work on this is done now, and the updated edition is being loaded into all the bookstores. If you go on Amazon, or wherever, now, you could buy a copy and read it immediately, but if you wait a couple of days, I am planning to do a sale for the first week of October. I’m very pleased with how it has come out, and I think the new title and cover are great.
The Vampire Next Door: Remastered
Status: Editing WIP
After finishing the remaster of City in the Fire this morning, I moved straight onto this one. So far, only the first chapter is finished.
Social Media
Status: New Accounts everywhere
This week, in addition to the Instagram account that I already had, I have created and started using a Twitter account and a Facebook account. So far, I am still enjoying Instagram most, but you can reach out and talk to me on Twitter or Facebook as well now.
On Hold
The Ghouls: Remastered
The remaster is complete from my side of things. Once I have finished all the publishing work related to Unhallowed Ground, I will pick this back up and get the new cover done.
City in the Fire: Remastered
I finished the remastered edit on Friday morning. It is now in the queue to be published after The Ghouls.
The Shadow Walker
No updates on this one. The first draft is complete. I am not sure that I will publish it because the way I originally planned it to interact with The Ladies Adventure Society is no longer possible. I likely won’t look at it again until there is some breathing room next year.
And that’s a wrap. A few more bits of work to do here, then I am off to the theater to watch Miriam Margolyes’ new show Oh Miriam!
Sep 22, 2023
A weekly update on the projects I am currently working on.
The Ladies Adventure Society Book 1
Status: First Draft WIP
I started working on this book in August under the series title Twilight of the Angels. A few thousand words into that draft and something didn’t feel right. Rather than force my way through, which I could have done, I took some time away from it to come up with a solution. The Ladies Adventure Society had always been another title for the series, but the title didn’t quite fit with the book. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that was the series I wanted to write. So a bit of reworking later, that’s where I am. The new draft started last Friday and as of today it currently stands at 18,000 words. Or about a fifth of the way through the first draft. Best guess is that I will publish the book sometime next year.
Abomination: Remastered
Status: Cover and Formatting WIP
The re-edited edition is finished, and my designer is working on the new cover. The new-edition contains a lot of updates and corrections that should bring it in line with my original intention. Over the course of the next year, I am going to be doing remasters of all my old work. This one is the first and should be available from the first week of October, all things going well.
The Ghouls: Remastered
Status: Editing WIP
I started the re-edit of this on Thursday. It’s a more recent book than Abomination, and I’m finding there is a lot less to fix. So work is going quickly, and it looks as if it will also be available in October.
Social Media
Status: New Instagram Account
One thing that I have never done a good job at is social media. I am going to be using it a lot more this week and have set up a new Instagram account you can find by clicking here.
The Shadow Walker
Status: On Hold
The first draft is finished. While I work on the remastered editions, this will remain on hold. Hoping that I will release it in the next twelve months.
Aug 30, 2023
I have Covid again. It’s my second time. Not sure how I got it. I had a great weekend and felt fine, but on Monday I woke up at 4:30 in the morning feeling terrible and the thought popped into my head that it was Covid. I went back to sleep, but when I woke up, I took a test and here I am on Wednesday.
Luckily Tamzin and Oscar don’t have it. Although that means that I am in isolation, stuck in a bedroom, feeling sorry for myself.
It’s not as bad as the first time I got it, which was about a year ago.
Still not sure how I could have got it. When we went to London a week ago, we were the only ones on the underground wearing masks. It seems like that was too long ago to be the time. It also seems like too little time between seeing people on Friday and getting it on Monday. The line on my test was really strong, so I guess I’d had it for a few days before showing any symptoms.
I am still doing some things. I got a bit of writing done yesterday, although I didn’t feel like I could write a blog post afterwards, which is my usual way of doing things.
As well as reading, I have watched some films and TV. Yesterday I watched a few episodes of For All Mankind, the new episode of Futurama and Ready Player One. I started watching The Man of Steel in the evening but fell asleep halfway through.
Today I am writing this blog post first. Later on, I will do some more writing. At the moment, I am only aiming for 1,000 words a day to keep my head in the story. It’s slow progress this way, but things will pick up when I feel better and Oscar goes back to school.
This is all to explain why there hasn’t been a new blog post from me for a few days.
