Been a while again, I know. Bit hectic, this struggling novelist game. In short, I have had to go back to hotel work, since the copywriting business has all but fallen flat. It has, however, allowed me to focus on the only thing that really matters, which is the writing career.

I have a couple of pieces of news to give in the coming days – I won’t spoil the surprises just yet – so in the meantime, I will just give an update on what I’m working on.

Last time I wrote on this blog, I gave you a bit of info on my wartime mystery-thriller, You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic. That is still in intermittent progress, but is more on the back burner now. And that’s because I have been persuaded to put the revisions into the sequel to my first novel, The Berylford Scandals: Lust & Liberty. I said at the time, I was a bit sick of the characters and the setting and, indeed, a couple of people have told me to work on what I want to work on. But, it is otherwise just sitting there and, after a couple of months’ work, it might be ready to publish.

So, I’m hereby announcing that the sequel to Lust & Liberty, The Berylford Scandals: Sin & Secrecy is forthcoming.

It will take place twenty years after the events of the first book, showing Lady Vyrrington, Abel Stirkwhistle, Mrs Urmstone and Mrs Haffisidge et al. in their fifties and sixties (though a number of young characters will be introduced too). And the story, much of which revolves around Abel and his tyrannical sister Rebecca, is much more a mystery than the first book, with little-to-no romance involved at all. A murder in the opening chapters serves as a catalyst for Abel’s past schemes coming back to haunt him, straining his mutual loyalty to Lady Vyrrington and leading him to question just who he can really trust. All the while, protecting his secrets by any means necessary.

Sound good to you? I’d love for me to tell you your thoughts, or indeed if you’re disappointed that You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic will be taking a little longer than planned.

I’m going to be providing some in-depth profiles of some of the characters of The Berylford Scandals in upcoming posts — let me know what sort of stuff you’d like to find out!

For those of you that follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that I have been making half-decent progress on my new book, You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic. When I first announced it, I know I described it as a wartime thriller, and while I still plan for it to turn into a thriller as the story goes on, there’s currently more of a leaning towards the mystery genre. I am over 250 pages in and nowhere near even the middle of the story; needless to say it will definitely eclipse Lust & Liberty in length.

A few of my friends have asked about what the book is actually about and, now that I have it worked out, I’m happy to give a synopsis, without giving too much away.

You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic is a war story told through the eyes of Heinrich Oeunhausen, the owner and manager of the Heinrichstürme Hotel in Berlin. Running one of the last still-functioning hotels in the heart of war is hard enough, with the malevolent SS commander Leopold Upfauer (a close confidante of the Führer himself) breathing down his neck and his being pressured to become a member of the Nazi Party in his own right, but also as Heinrich is forced to protect a very precious secret — a guest with a very special connection to our hero.

This is all thrown into disarray by the arrival of the mysterious Cordelia Knesebeck, who quickly makes a nuisance of herself snooping in the hotel’s corridors, aiming to achieve her own agenda. Circumstances, plus a little meddling from an impulsive and rebellious concierge, force Heinrich and Cordelia to become allies and help one another get what they want. With SS officers, a loudmouthed reprobate sibling, morally-questionable staff members and other nosy guests milling around, will either party succeed?

You may be wondering where Chopin comes into it, but to tell you might give too much of the game away! But otherwise, what do you think to that so far? Keep up with this blog or my Instagram and you may find out more about the characters, even read some snippets from the book such as it is. The subject of hotels and high society in the Third Reich has also been a very interesting thing to research, albeit a total bitch since it’s largely unexplored! May throw some intriguing non-fiction titbits your way too as they come up. Stay tuned…