Bear and Writing Stuff

Bless - thank you. I am so proud of him.

Eileen - Thank you, especially for the encouragement.

Marjorie - thank you

I don't feel that I can take any credit for bear. He just seem to manage things by himself. Mind you, today was rough on him. The clocks went forward this weekend, so he couldn't get to sleep early enough last night, then was up for school at what his bodyclock said was 5am and we staggered out the house at 7am but it felt like 6am. Then the poor kid had his first exam which was GCSE Drama where they were filming various performances. Bear had a monologue and felt that it went quite well, but a lot of the other students had a sort of prompt that involved the word Psychotic. When he got to me in the car park around 6.30pm (I left the house at 2.30pm because we weren't sure of the timings) he said that he had spent around seven hours listening to people scream in a dark room with bright lights. He went to bed when we got home. 

I managed around 5500 steps on both Thursday and Friday. I didn't do too much over the weekend, but I think I'll reach about 5500 again today. I'll try to manage a little more tomorrow. This morning was a short walk in the park and then a dive around Aldi (I'm living on Aldi diet cola), Tesco (salad and fruit for DH) and Morrisons (snacks while waiting for bear). I'm posting pics for proof that I had a very small walk in the park.

There's lots of writing stuff going on, so if you are not interested (which is fine - no stress here) then it's good to skip after this. 

First things first. Three Furies Press is closing. It is not through any fault of the amazing people there. Rebekah, Isa and Stacey are all incredible and have done wonderful jobs. I owe them a great deal. Circumstances which have nothing to do with the publishing side of things means that it has to be closed down. I'm reeling from it, so it must be devastating for them. They have been so good to me and I'm heartbroken for them. 

This means that King's Silver, Out of the London Mist and Under the Bright Sahara Sky will be vanishing from Amazon. I'm not exactly sure what will happen next. I'm considering looking for another publisher but if needs be I may republish these myself at a later date, though I don't know when. However you have a brief window of time if you wish to get them now. There will be other opportunities, but I'm not sure when it will happen. Their website has gone, otherwise I'd point you there for a chance to see their other authors as well. The rest of my stuff will still be around, so definitely no rush there.

Bear is doing really well and is likely to need a lot of support for his studies. This means that I'm going to be thinking hard about how to make money from my writing (among other things). I have no idea where this is going to take me, but I'll share the journey. I am not adding ads to this blog.

There will still be fiction free to read on my blog (although not today as I'm in something of a tailspin still). This is likely to be taken down at intervals and turned into books, with a few exceptions. Work that has previously been free on my blog or that has been published by me for more than five years is likely to be put on sale at regular intervals. I'll always try and play fair.

Recently free for a few days as a sale

As I have already posted, I'll be taking down Dark Picture and Under Dark Hills (I really need more variety in titles) on 30th April 2023, tidying them up and making them into novels. I may put them together in one book with Across a Misty Bridge, or I may publish them as separate novellas. I'm not sure yet, but they fall under the category of 'things likely to go on sale at some time'. I'm hoping to have new covers for the White Hart series as well as I want to make myself seem like a real author. 

As I'm looking at all this 'brand' stuff, I'm going to (hopefully) organise my website. As most of my work comes under 'speculative fiction,' like fantasy and steampunk, or horror, I will also take down the more 'normal' stories that I've gathered under 'At the Fireside'. I'll be looking to make money out of them, so I may see if I can tidy some of them up and sell them to women's magazines. There are other things I can possibly do, but all that means me taking them down first and I'll do that on 30th April as well. 

I feel like my world has turned upside down in this as I had already sent in the sequel to King's Silver for editing. I've lost a lot of direction and I'm not known for my sense of purpose at the best of times. But this is why I have been so incredibly dippy recently. And the 'school run + small exercise + necessary shopping' today meant that I left the house at 7am this morning, got home at 9.30am, then left at 2.30pm and got home at 7pm. At least I got some knitting done. This is an extreme case, but it shows how fragmented my time is and how it can be limited.

And while I am in an absolute mess about it now, I'm not going to wallow in it. My writing blog is called Always Another Chapter and it is true of life. There is always another page to turn. When I was looking for a pic to put at the end, I found this. I think that this devestating news can mean the chance to start a new chapter, while still cherishing my time at the Three Furies and never forgetting just how much they helped me and how much I owe them.

Image from Unsplash, taken by Olia Gozha

Hugs and good health to all.