Frustrating February

Whilst January 2025 seemed to last 80 days, Febbray seems like it lasted just 8 days. But what a frustrating 8 days they were.

The month started out well with Familiar, my last novel, getting published within the first week of February. Unfortunately, things kind of went downhill after that. 

Whilst I managed to complete one more creative project this month - the update and reissue of Guy N. Smith - 50 years of Pulp horror, it was not an easy edit and took three weeks of nightly configuration to get my original word doc aligning properly on the final book proof.

So, what is in store for March? 

March will (hopefully) see the republishing of x2 Explore Gower books, namely The Verry Volk and Gower Ghosts. It may also see me start work on the second edition of the Guy N. Smith zine. At the moment, I still don't know whether this volume will see the light of day as I don't think I have received enough content for it as of yet. With the deadline for contributions being the close of March, there is still time for an avalanche of contributions to reach me though. 

Whether the second Guy N Smith zine goes ahead or not, I will continue to get as much work done on my first ghost story, which was originally intended for that zine.

March will also see my first field trip of 2025. I won't be heading out far, just Parkmill, or more specifically, a field near the village where I have spotted some trees that have grown into and have been mutated by metal bars placed around their girths to protect them as saplings. These should hopefully provide for some interesting photography. 

So, by the end of the forthcoming month, The Verry Volk + Gower Ghosts should be be back on sale in superior manifestations, the bones of my first Christmas ghost story should be assembled, and I should have produced some nice pics of characteristic Gower trees. 

Watch this space to keep up with my progress on these and maybe other creative projects as we finally say goodbye to winter and take a welcoming step into the early Spring...

Familiar for sale!

 Familiar, my 9th and final novel has just been published - you can get your early copy right now here.

Familar End.

 Well, I finally competed my 9th and final horror novel, Familiar yesterday. I just have some grafting to do on the typesetting, writing the book's blurb etc. to do now, but I am hoping to get the beast published before the dawning of next week.

Making the most of what spare time I have before heading home for the evening to work on the aforementioned, I manage to progress my Guy N Smith ghost story a little after I finished at the office for the day:

Up Early

Up early to continue work on my final draft of Familiar...

 

Familiarr. Draft 2 complete

The 2nd draft of my final novel is now complete.

Familiar Update

Familiar. Part One. 2nd Draft. Completed.

Familiar - Draft 1 Completed

It has been a busy and very productive month. I'm really enjoying my day jobs - probably the first time I have ever enjoyed my paid employment. I've applied to help out at the local cat sanctuary. The 1st draft of my next book is complete. I have even got the cover for it sorted after my Canva course at Gower College last week! The year is definitely ending way better than it began. And, best of all, my daughter is coming home for a few days next month, so I have something very special to look forward to... 🙂

Storm Bert

A really atmospheric storm bludgeoned the house all day, conjuring just the right mood to add a big chunk of writing to the novel I'm currently writing, Familiar.

Three Quarters...

As things stand, I am about 3/4 through my 9th and final novel(la). Whilst I am no longer aiming to reach the word count set by Nanowrimo, I am on target to complete thecfirst draft of the book, which is a massive takeaway for me from the project. 

Part 3 Begings...

Needs Must

 

Catch Up

After a cheeky day of Nanowrimo yesterday, it's time to catch up on my writing...

Another UnXpected Turn

I've reached a decent stage of my novel, Familiar. So much so that I no longer feel it necessary to reach my daily word count for Nanowrimo. 

I have now reached the stage of the book where I am happy just to write one scene of the book a day. I think this will be sufficient to finish the novel(la) by the end of the month. 🙂

UnXpected Turn

Piling on the word count as the story takes an unexpected turn!

Cracking On.

I woke up this morning feeling quite concerned that on Day 10 of Nanowrimo, I would fail to meet my minimum word quota for the day.  At circa 17k words, I literaly had no idea what would happen next in the novel. 

It's a difficult task completing Nanowrimo - its targets are ruthless, especially when you are holding down a full-time job. Forcing the narrative,  conjuring the plot from the ether can take time, you'd naturally think. But the way this novel clicked together today, really made me appreciate that my muse really rewards the hard graft of daily writing.

When you're fingers bleed,

you're muse will lead.

Critical Cat

fudjcat critiquing my writing this morning:

8.25

My 9th and final novel reaches the quarter way mark.

This is the End

The Nanowrimo pain continues...

I have wanted to be a published author for as long as I can remember, certainly since I was 7 or 8 years old. Whilst having articles published in newspapers since the 1990s, my first novel, Crawley, was not published until May 2017. Edn™ followed in May of the following year. My third novel, Lore, hit the Amazon shelves just 3 short months later.

Pixie-Led & Berserk! were added to my oeuvre in 2019, followed by Solstice in 2022 and Vampires from Hell in 2023.

Earlier this year I published Cold Comfort, the first draft of which was written back in 1997, before being locked away in a drawer, not quite forgotten, for over a quarter of a century. 

Familiar will be my 9th novel and will be published in May 2025. This will mark the 8th anniversary of the publication of my first novel. It will end a busy 8 years of my life writing creative fiction.

As you may or may not (probably the latter) be aware, I have become less enamoured with novel writing of late. To be honest, it takes a lot of work to write a novel, and unless you are one of the Stephen Kings or Graham Mastertons of the world, the monetary returns are not worth the blood, sweat and tears that come with the business.

As such, in May next year, my novel-writing days will officially lie behind me. Having 9 novels to your name is something to be proud of. And I am. But I am 59 next year, and my heart is set on retiring from the full-time cut and thrust of employment as soon as possible. To do so, however, I need to make all my creative endeavours earn me some serious coin. More of which soon (more likely than not in my New Year's Resolution 2025 post)...

7k into Nano

7k words into Nanowrimo and still going strong...

Balancing Act

A day off work to work on my new novel. Typing can be a bit of a balancing act with the fudjcat fighting for dominance of my lap though.