Today I welcome back Matthew Drzymala to my blog. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since I last invited him here in (eek! It can’t be that long ago) December 2014. He has just released a new novel, ‘The Fantastical Gregory Shortbread’, and it’s set in his fictional village of Bumpkinton – …
Déjà vu all over again
This post will have a certain ring of familiarity about it, as I attempt to explain why I'm not yet writing 'Pitkirtly XVI' but instead getting caught up in all kinds of other stuff, some of it to do with writing and some not! First of all, thanks again to everyone who has so far …
Seasons Greetings and…
First of all, the very best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to anyone reading this. Thank you as well to anyone who has sampled any of my books. I hope there will be more of them during 2018 for your amusement. I recently asked for opinions on Facebook about a cover for the …
Things to do in December
As usual, there is plenty to do in December, and not really enough energy on my part left to do it. Now that NaNoWriMo is over, and we have even had the TGIO party to prove it, I am left with two full length novels cluttering up my computer, and no idea which of them …
Plotting and Planning
Thanks to everyone who has bought ‘Promenade with Death’. I am pleased with the good start it has had, though I feel quite disloyal to it now that I have jumped straight back into writing another novel. Although my plans don’t always come to fruition, and certainly not as quickly as I would like, I …
Progress
This afternoon I've just passed the 20,000 word mark in my first draft of 'Pitkirtly XIV' - it now has an almost definite title but I had better not reveal it until it's 100% definite. Originally it was supposed to have the word 'witch' somewhere in it, because I hope to release it round about …
Almost There
First of all, thank you again to anyone who has bought a copy of 'Unpredictable Events', which I am happy to say is still doing quite well and has had some lovely reviews. I wouldn't exactly say that last night I dreamed I went to Pitkirtly again, but I can't help looking forward to writing …
Planning Ahead
I was going to illustrate this post with a picture of my plan for the month, which now includes a mini-plan for the rest of the year as well, but I realised just in time that I'd scrawled an idea for Pitkirtly XIV on the corner of the page in my planning notebook. Some people …
Berlin Background
I was just wondering whether to share some of my background research for 'A Quest in Berlin' when I suddenly remembered my Pinterest board. I am never quite sure about Pinterest as I've struggled to find a use for it in the past and my first few boards had clunky titles like 'Places where I …
Hello again, Berlin!
I've spent the past few weeks, or at least the parts of them that haven't been taken up with going for therapeutic walks followed by even more therapeutic lie-downs, finding excuses to go out to lunch, and emergency vet's appointments, editing 'A Quest in Berlin', the next novel in the Quest series. Today, to the …