Progress Report — June 2019

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).