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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Wishing you all a belated Happy New Year! Friends of mine asked me about New Year’s Resolutions and I told them I didn’t have any for 2025. I have goals instead.

As we came towards the end of last year, something reminded me of the philosophy of “1% progress per day is still progress”. And I’m happy to say I’ve been trying to uphold that phrase in my ongoing projects. Not least with You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic, which, as we know, took a bit of a back seat last year.

So, to review project progress from January:

You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic

We’re back to talking about my third novel, the World War II story You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic, surrounding the staff and guests of a Berlin hotel. The goal with this: to finally finish the redraft, which I was meant to do last year. When I finished the first draft back in 2023, the novel was 220,000 words long. But so far, by reading through one, two or three chapters a day, I have already managed to cut that down to 194,000 — and counting.

I always said the book was too long. There’s too much focus on character psychology, and a great deal of  unnecessary repetition. Knowing both of these things has made cutting words rather easy. I’m nearing the halfway point of the redraft, so we’re on target so far. I’d like to get it down to 180,000 words in the end if possible. I’ll keep you all updated in future progress reports.

Silhouettes

In the meantime, let’s talk about my first short story-poem collection, Silhouettes. This was on the back burner across the Christmas break because the draft was with three beta readers. Their deadline is approaching and I’ve already received a good mix of positive feedback and constructive critique. Once I’ve received all that, I can begin reviewing and polishing everything to get it ready for release later this year!

The Dale Hurst Writing Show

I gave some mixed messages in the past couple of progress reports about the status of my podcast, The Dale Hurst Writing Show. Primarily that Season 5, to be released this year, would be the last. However, there were some developments in the lead-up to Christmas that have given me cause to think again. Especially as it’s given me new inspiration for things to do with the show, with loads of topics left to explore. I’m not in a position to reveal all yet, but it’s an exciting step in this podcast’s story.

The guests for this year’s season are already laid out on paper, and I intend to start reaching out in a couple of weeks to start production nice and early. Again, more on all this over the coming months.

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