They’re not, although I did slip when I was hiking and landed on my wrist. Thought I’d re-fractured a bone in my hand but it was just a bad sprain. Feels fine now, thankfully.
Anyway, this week’s song is A Girl Like You by Edwin Collins. He’d found a moderate level of success with Orange Juice (Rip It Up is a genuine stone-cold classic), but floundered a bit afterwards. This song took a few attempts to become a hit, but a hit it became. That’s persistence for you.
It still sounds fresh today. So much darkness in it. Glad to see Collins is still fighting fit after his health issues in 2005.
Anyway. In dog news, Bessi met her dog cousin yesterday. Milo, my bother’s pooch, graciously allowed her into his house only to get into a wee shouting match. They soon settled down enough for Bessi to think that eating his food was totally okay. Poor wee chap had his “operation” last week so couldn’t even join us on a walk, which ended just after the start of the latest brutal storm to hit Scotland this half-year. Shaking the house it was, last night and Friday night. She’s getting on a bit better with other dogs, but it’s going to be a long time before I can think about letting her off the lead.
Last week
Well, the good news is I finished writing SCI-FI PROJECT PREQUEL (PART 2) and I’m now editing it.
Bad news is it’s seriously growing arms and legs. And it’s already got a lot of limbs. I’m currently editing it and a 30,000 word novella is now over 57,000 words and heading for about 65k the way things are looking with this edit.
But I’ve enjoyed writing it so much that I’ve decided to scrap it as a prequel project to be used as an incentive to sign up for a mailing list, so it’ll be a full-blown novel and officially SCI-FI PROJECT BOOK 1. Means I can flip between scifi and crime still, but it’s less of an overhead to getting started on the books.
This week
First task is to finish editing SCI-FI PROJECT BOOK 1, which will take me longer than I expect it to. Always does. I’ve done over a third of it, but it’s taking on a lot of ballast as I go through the story. I added in two new chapters yesterday morning, for instance, and I’ve changed one character’s fate. Instead of her disappearing halfway through, she’s going to get a lot more screen time in the second half.
Once that’s done, I’ll put it away for a couple of weeks. Needs another pass to focus on the writing quality a bit more, but I’m already fairly happy with where I’ve got it to with it.
Once that’s done, it’ll be back to LOST CAUSE. Yay, you cry! A Scottish crime book! What I read this drivel to know more about! There’s a big chunk of editing to be done on it, but I’m confident the whole thing will be ready to release by 1st May, so I’ll contact the usuals to get them lined up. This is the first book I’m going to try and do a simultaneous release in Kindle, paperback and audiobook. Audio is the tricky one, but I’m starting to enjoy seeing the sales come through.
Other thing I’m focusing on is, well, April is going to be ten years since the release of the first Cullen novel, so I’m thinking about how to mark that. Watch this space, but it won’t be a new book! Special hardback editions of the books, something like that. Maybe an exclusive short story or two. We shall see.
Anyway, hope this week is good to you.
Cheers,
Ed
My hands are bleeding and my knees are raw
Really enjoyed the DI Fenchurch books, but, also absolutely loving DI Cullen. A little late joining in with the DI Cullen novels, 10 years later, but, have read 5 since 1st January 2022. Book 6 here we come.