Getting just something, anything, written on these crime novels is a small triumph. So it is, with the greatest pleasure, I'm able to say I just wrote a 2000 word short story called The Queue (2135 words, in its current state), starring our protagonist. I read it to Hev who, of course, was able to immediately rip it to shreds and characterise my writing as too funny, and not what we're trying to achieve. But it's the most I've written all month, and I'm happy with it.
At the end of December I completed the first draft of Dead Man's Jest. Clocking in at just 56,500 words I know it needs a lot of work still. But printing it out as a dummy as I did (above) enabled Hev to read it. Now, with her notes, I can begin rewriting it.
Meanwhile I've been looking at To Slay The Dane, and struggled with rewriting that. Rewriting is harder than writing, full stop. So I've printed out a dummy of that which should arrive next week. Hopefully Hev can read that, give me more notes, and I can get some proper rewriting done. I really want to get the books out there so I can find out if you can actually earn money from the damn things, but after 4 months of writing (Sept to Dec, January doesn't count) I still have two first drafts only, and each is only about 50,000 words long.
So, a lot of work to do. But dammit I am going to do it, and so is Hev. The worst thing is I have no excuse for not having written this month. I only had two days of schools (that changes next week when I have 3 days in Dublin, which unfortunately means being there for 5 nights, because of flights and no schools working Wednesdays).
Also this month I've had three visits to Clevedon (one Doctor visit, then one X Ray, and one blood tests, all three taking much much longer in travel time than in actual execution. The X ray took 30 seconds. The blood test took nearly twice as long). I've also been busy getting all my books back onto Amazon, either via Lulu or Blurb, or directly. Yes that does take time, actually. Days in fact.
Then there was a Society Of Artists meeting one Friday, that took out a day's writing. The roofer came one day, the plasterer came to quote another, we went to the tip on another, and.. oh I have no excuses. January is a month where I am maybe not as productive as later in the year.
(He tells himself, then consults his blog to see Jan 2022 - did Britain's Got Talent and a comic strip for the Goes Wrong Show, Jan 2021 did tons of Socks Zoom shows, Jan 2020 - finished Findlay Macbeth, my debut graphic novel, Jan 2019 - did Mum's funeral, stuck tons of comics on eBay, and made lots of Socks videos, Jan 2018 - did loads of classes... OK, let's face it January 2022 has been my least productive in years.
Now February, that'll be a different kettle of fish...
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy
Midsummer Nights Dream Team - Amazon - Etsy
Doctor Who Colouring - Amazon - Lulu - Etsy
Punk Colouring - Amazon - Lulu - Etsy
70s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon - Lulu - Etsy
60s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon - Lulu - Etsy
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