D______, first draft: 36,600 words
Somehow, I am 36,000 words into my new novel without having made a blog entry. How did that happen? No idea. Oh, wait. It’s been ages since my last blog entry. Too much writing, not enough blogging. Bad Adam! Bad! As ever, I don’t expect my working title to survive contact with the publishing profession, so we’ll just call it D______ for now. It’s possible, actually, that I might change the working title before I finish the first draft as I’m thinking there’s a “better” one. But, then again, what’s the point of making up two titles that will never see the light of day?
Anyway, D______ or whatever is a prequel to my first published novel, Braking Day. I don’t want to say too much more about it right now, but I’m very much enjoying writing it. Which is a relief because the outline, let me tell you, was er . . . challenging!
Rather than chat about D______, what I will be talking about — quite literally — over the next few months is Esperance. I’m going on tour! Well, not really, but I will be appearing at three UK book festivals over the summer. First up, I will be at Cymera, Edinburgh, Scotland on Saturday, June 7. Cymera, as long-time readers of this blog will know, is the first festival I ever attended as either a writer or a reader and I have been hooked ever since. I am really looking forward to going back there.
Esperance, unlike Braking Day, is not only a SF novel, it is also a murder mystery. As a consequence of that, I have had the incredible luck to be invited to the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, in Harrogate, England, which is a major, major gig on the crime writing circuit. So excited! I’m slated to appear on a panel tentatively titled, What Planet Are They On? on Saturday July 19, which should be an absolute blast. Old Peculier, by the way, is a beer. And “Peculier” is not a typo . . .
Finally, on Friday September 12, I will be appearing at the awesome Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival in Stirling, er, Scotland. Some of you may recollect that I was there in 2023 with a short (three minute!) spotlight appearance as an up-and-coming crime writer. This time I have been promoted to an actual panelist so I must be doing something “write.” (I know. I know!)
So, some fabulous things to look forward to. If you can make it to any of these, I would love to meet you!!! And in between all of that, one of my nephews is getting married and my son is graduating from college. It’s looking like it’s going to be a great summer. Even though, this being Britain, the weather will be sh . . .