Hey all:

It’s been a bit quiet around here of late, so just a quick update for you . Partly it’s been a bit quiet because my job has just gone mental as well as the fact that it’s house-moving season again, so all the usual time-consuming housey stuff is going on.  However, I haven’t stopped my writing (I am constitutionally incapable of doing so for more than a couple of weeks at a stretch) so I thought I’d give you all a little taste of what’s coming up in the second half of the year.

So: of my own stuff, there are a few main bits that have been keeping me busy:

a)       Inputting the last corrections to the proof copy of the paperback so I can finally, finally hit that “Publish” button. Currently about halfway through it – I’ll need to get another proof to check I haven’t missed anything but only a few steps away now! Exciting!

b)      Writing a short story for a Christmas anthology, currently titled The Locket. If you ever wondered what Nereia was like as a little girl, or wanted to know a bit more about her parents, you should enjoy this.

c)       Adding to the Parallels series of related shorts. You know when you get an idea and you think it’s going to be maybe five thousand words and then you hit twenty five thousand and wonder how that happened? This was one of those. Twenty seven centuries before Nereia and Mary’s time, there was a terrible war that raged across the world. Great armies swept across one country after the next, killing and burning everything in their path. Who was the uncanny leader who did not lust so much for world domination as absolute destruction? The Making of the Circle will explain.

d)      Expanding and editing a short from last year’s Christmas Lites anthology to release as a separate. My current intention is that the royalties from the separate will also go to the charity NCADV but the story will be available on Amazon.co.uk and the rest (which the anthology isn’t) and I’ll put a link in the back to the anthology’s Createspace page, which hopefully might spark a few more sales from this side of the water.

So that’s what’s lined up for my lunchtimes and commutes for the foreseeable. After that, there may well be a few guest blogs on the way. I’m currently working with a few other first-time authors so that they don’t have to make the mistakes that I already did!

Watch this space for more about:

–         J. Lee Dean, with historical fiction novels “The Turncoat” and “The Way Home”.

–         Jo Edwards, author of “Work-Wife Balance” which tells of the mishaps of a woman trying to hold down a job and family

–         Dulcie Feenan, whose stories describe the ups and downs of life in a small village in England

and none other than my own Mum, whose short story has just come out of editing and is due for release as soon as I can format it!

Busy busy! But it’s all good. And once my various bits of writing are out I’ll be getting on with the last part of Book 3, which is currently at 90k words and has a while more to go. (You see, you lot said you wanted longer texts and that’s just what you’ll get – no idea how long it will be at the current time but I’m aiming at somewhere between 100k-150k, depending on when I get to a sensible stopping place).

So that’s this year and probably at least a part of next year sorted… Have I mention how much I love this publishing lark??

< pipedream >

Now all I need to do is earn enough to go part-time and I’ll be firing books out so fast my editors will beg for mercy!

< / pipedream >

Probably the readers too, alas….

Anyhow, enough listing of stuff and more doing of work, methinks! I’ll finish for now but do watch this space – soon as I have the last proof sorted and checked through I’ll be talking launch dates, and unless we’re moving house at that time there will be online contrafibularities involved (and possibly a crafty pint for anyone local enough to get to London and interested enough to partake)!

Have a good one, peeps, and will catch up with you later;

JAC