Been a while since I wrote anything, but a few of you have asked me in person. How’s everything coming along? Time for the first of a (hopefully) monthly progress report…

Allow me to let you in on a little secret… I work a lot! Aside from the whole author thing, I’m also the editor of a local interest online magazine-come-tourism website called Humans of Bournemouth. I also freelance as a copywriter and proofreader, and on top of all that, I do part-time shifts behind the bar of a hotel. Primarily for research and influence purposes for my novel, You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic.

That’s the novel I’m NOT currently writing, to something of my great regret. I got 300-odd pages in and had to call a halt to progress, in order to revise and finish The Berylford Scandals: Sin & Secrecy. You will have seen a few snippets of that one dotted around here and there. Plus the video reading I did, which you can find here on YouTube.

As such, I can struggle to juggle my numerous projects. And since I have been asked by a few people how things are progressing, I thought I would give you the report.

The Berylford Scandals: Sin & Secrecy

This is the original Berylford story that I first drafted all the way back in 2008. From then, it spawned a prequel, which I published last year as The Berylford Scandals: Lust & Liberty. But I finished Sin & Secrecy countless times, and now I am going over it once more to change events, create more drama, remove things don’t quite fit. To keep it consistent with L&L, basically. It is, however, much darker in tone than its prequel, with a greater emphasis on the mystery elements. Very little romance about it.

Currently, the book is 585 pages long. However, I’m only just over 200 pages into the revisions. So, we could still be some time…

You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic

A wartime thriller set in a Berlin hotel in 1943. One of the ideas of which I am proudest. Which, apart from the odd idea or snippet, has remained virtually untouched for the past few months. On Page 323 of the first draft — nowhere near even halfway complete. But I’m happy about that. So much more to research. So many directions in which to take it. If anything, leaving it there gives me the motivation to finish Sin & Secrecy as mentioned above.

The encouraging thing is that many of you have already told me you are interested and/or excited about it. Especially male readers who weren’t so keen on the subject matter of Lust & Liberty…

Unnamed Third Project

There’s something I haven’t mentioned yet, because I want it to be a surprise when I finally release it. This is the project I have been dedicating most of my time to, since there’s a bit of a clock on it. I won’t tell you too much. Other than it’s non-fiction, and it’s very nearly finished…

Which one are you most excited for? Let me know in the comments! Or give me a message on my Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram page(s).

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!