Well Hello February
Here we are, already a month of 2023 completed. I’m welcoming the slightly lighter mornings and the ever so fractionally longer days. I find myself looking forward to seeing daylight when my alarm goes off in the morning, which admittedly might be a while as it’s set for 6.02am
January heralded more change for me that simply a new year. I’m 3 and a bit weeks into my new day job and I’m pleased to say it’s going well, a lovely team who’ve made me feel very welcome and a job I think I’m really going to enjoy. So far so good.
In writing terms this has left me looking for a new routine for me and my books. So far I’m managing to carve out space from a couple of evenings and a bit at the weekend. I suspect it may take a little while for everything to fall into place, but I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.
So where am I? I mentioned at the end of 2022 that I had some pretty stretching goals for 2023 and I’m still confident that they’ll be met. Book 4 is back from my editor and I’m working through their notes. I haven’t got a publication date yet but I do have a front cover. I’m not planning sharing this with the wider world yet but you lot are special so here’s a sneak peek.
I have to tell you I’m super happy with it, the covers for this series are making me very happy.
January was a great sales and KU page read month for me - so if you haven’t yet bought my books (honestly what are you waiting for) then check below for the links
I started writing book 6 before Christmas and then got stuck, then stuck again, thought I’d figured it out only to hit another brick wall. All of which led to me making the decision to scrap this version of book 6, sending myself back to the drawing board. Now that might seem a bit drastic, but I’d known for a little while that something was off and I’d got to the point where I was just adding words to something that was never going to work out.
Whilst I think about what book 6 should be about, I’ve headed back to book 5 to begin the second draft/first self edit. This is an exciting time in a books evolution and before long I’ll be reaching out to my trusty beta readers .
It would be easy to be worried after scrapping 6000 words and start to panic about finding another idea. But I know an idea will come and when it does I’ll be ready to write it.
What Have I Been Reading/Watching
I’ve decided to include watching this year because sometimes I’ll find some great programmes I really enjoy. And just to complicate things further I’ll also throw in some Podcast mentions for good measure.
In January I read:
Killing Trail (A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery) by Margaret Mizushima. Something a bit different for me, but I enjoyed the change of location and having the K-9 element was interesting. I’ll probably check out the rest of the series at some point.
Silent Voices (Vera) by Ann Cleeves. I generally like Vera and Ann Cleeves, however I struggled to get engaged with this one at the beginning - read through to the end though and happy I did. Perhaps not my favourite read of this series but still enjoyable
Currently reading Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson part of the Truly Devious series. I thoroughly enjoyed the previous four books so I’m looking forward to getting my teeth fully into this one.
And in the land of television I’m delighted that I’ve got a new series of Death In Paradise and Vera to enjoy.
Now as they say in the cartoons That’s All Folks.