Been ages since my last report, but I couldn’t talk about a couple of the things I wanted to mention in February. Now, however, I don’t have to keep it a secret anymore.
As you can imagine, a lot has happened in the best part of two months. We push on with two books. Plus, developments with the podcast that I can now reveal in detail. Without further ado:
Silhouettes
First up, my upcoming short story and poetry collection, Silhouettes. I probably owe regular visitors an in-depth look into this new book, so keep your eye out for that in the near future. For now, I’ll focus on the latest developments. The most exciting of which is I’ve just commissioned the cover! I’m reuniting with my old friend Michal Musialek, who designed the cover for Sin & Secrecy, to put a face (or faces) on Silhouettes. I had a rough idea, but I’ve left it in his capable hands to make it outstanding as always.
My second read-through and re-draft are complete. There was one story in particular that needed considerable changes following some brilliant feedback from one of my friends. I made those changes — hopefully for the better. It’s back with the friend in question for another round of beta reading to see if the story has improved. Once I get that back at the end of March, it’ll be reading through again, re-drafting again, polishing all the way up until release.
Speaking of which, while I haven’t settled on an exact release date for Silhouettes yet, all being well, it’ll come out in September. So, keep a space on your reading lists for Silhouettes for the autumn.
You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic
I might have reached the stage where I’m sick to death of writing about this book. My third full-length novel, the war story You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic — we battle on with the re-draft. I have now passed beyond the point I got up to last year, when I was attempting to re-draft. So, now is when it gets challenging. There are more re-writes, more killing one’s darlings, more taking chunks out and adding new bits in. The old chess game, where any mistake I make now could really mess things up later on.
Not to jinx anything, but so far, so good. I’m working around the hurdles that keep popping up. Chopin is my main priority while Silhouettes is still in the second round of beta reading. Hopefully, there’ll be a new completed draft ready for the next step (i.e. querying agents), by the end of the summer. Providing I stick to it!
The Dale Hurst Writing Show
This is the news I needed to wait for the right moment to give. Despite what I reported a few months ago, I have decided not to stop my podcast, The Dale Hurst Writing Show, after all. Why the change of mind? To cut a long story short, I have since partnered the show with a new literary journal.
The Bournemouth Journal has been created by my alma mater, Bournemouth University, and is being run by the staff and alumni of the MA Creative Writing and Publishing course. They were kind enough to invite me to join the staff as Podcast Host and showcase my show on their website. Where, I hope, it can now serve as a resource for education and entertainment for all writers, both aspiring ones and those who have a practice already!
Production on Season 5 is now underway, with the first recording session conducted earlier this month. A few more exciting discussions lined up for April, which I’m looking forward to unveiling in the near future.
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