BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS!
MEANWHILE...
I've been quiet on here as I'm actually working on FOUR books. Let's have a quick look at what's what:
1. A WRETCHED PLACE SEQUEL
Of course. The idea is to have three or four interconnected stories that follow on from, and build upon, events in A WRETCHED PLACE. One of my favourite writers/series is John Connolly and his Charlie Parker books. He regularly does interesting narrative remixes like has Parker as a side character in his own books, and that's something I'd like to try with Else and Veronica. I've started three of the stories already!
2. THIS TOWN WILL DESTROY YOU
I've had a ton of stories professionally published, but most of those publishers are either now defunct or the contracts have otherwise run out (so the rights to my stories revert back to me). I'm currently updating these and compiling a bunch into a collection, with the theme 'smalltown horror'.
3. A BIZARRO HORROR NOVEL
When I first started getting published, I got a reputation as a 'bizarro' author mainly because, despite writing purposefully pulpy stuff, the ideas and imagery were really weird. This SECRET novel is something I started around the time of A WRETCHED PLACE and is one of the few things I wrote/started writing completely off the top of my head.
It starts as a distinctly British satire that seems to be about surviving an apocalyptic event but gradually morphs into a much, much darker and weirder form of both humour and horror. The narrative is straightforward, though, as the main character relates their experience joining a society in which everyone is ostensibly the same. Taking my time with this one as I've started to plot it out and tidy it up, but I've got (checks) 23,308 words of the actual novel done and (checks again) 6,000 words of notes so far.
4. THIS VILLAGE NEVER DREAMS
I had an idea, years ago, of releasing stuff with "This [thing] [action]" as noted for point 2. THIS VILLAGE NEVER DREAMS is actually the first novel I ever wrote, back in I think 2006. The very first editor I sent it to was Anthony Nott at Bloodbound Books, who sent a letter back (an actual letter!) saying how much he liked it and would like the full manuscript.
We than spoke via email for a while, where he kept me up to date with how he was pushing for its publication but his boss didn't like it, even though other people in the company did. It was a hell of a boost to my confidence as a writer, especially considering it was the first thing I'd ever made public.
Anyway, I tried a few other publishers after that and some others also liked it but just not enough to publish it, so I decided I'd spent enough time on it, so moved onto other things.
I wrote most of it when I was living on my own for six months, with no TV (just my VHS collection) and limited torrents for new media/entertainment, which was a really enjoyable time overall. I used to set 7pm - 10pm pretty much any night I didn't have band practice, a gig, or go to the pub with my mates, as pure writing time. Something I haven't had for a while now!
ANYWAY. I'm currently tidying up/modernising this a bit. It follows a private investigator who encounters monsters, which I know now doesn't seem terribly original but back when I started it there wasn't a lot of stuff like it, save Cal McDonald comics.
However, it takes the form of short stories, with each story representing a case, chronologically presented (more or less), that build up a picture of something terrible coming. This new version literally reframes the stories as something the PI is telling a psychiatrist, which would have been a through-line for the sequel. I'm also looking at changing the ending into something either relentlessly bleak and kind of 'ah fuck it' or 'shameless tie-in/sequel tease'.
Or maybe both because why the fuck not. I can build my own shared universe if I want to, damn it!
And that's that.
Oh, I'm also working on several music projects too, because I always have a few of those on the go. More details on these next time! But a taster is HERE.
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