Brent St. et al

Hi folks,

Here's an update on The Brent Street Haunting. The story passed 70k words today. I now have around another 5k to do. So God willing the story will be done in another week. Because of work and family committments, I was reluctant for the actual writing (the hard bit) to go on much into the New Year. So I'm pleased with the progress.
This has been a very structured project and I took the advice of a lady called Kristin Lamb, who in a very good article on writing put forward the view that thrillers should be around 75k words in length. On this basis I set out on 30 Oct.
The story has been relatively easy to write. I have stopped only about 4 or 5 times to check navigation and to read/review the road map of the tale. Nevertheless, writing fiction is one hell of a task, especially doing it in spare time, and the narrative has consumed me. I feel physically and mentally drained, and to be honest, even doing what should be the trivial task of completing the ending is a far more daunting experience than doing the first few chapters when the peak of Everest lay many thousand feet in the sky.
As a result of my preoccupation with Brent Street I have not written this blog often enough. I have hardly bothered with Twitter except for the most trite updates, and my Facebook presence remains ridiculously tenous. And most importantly I still have three completed stories to publish: Summer Soldier, Northern Star and the haunting Double.
Therefore, after completing Brent Street, I will focus on the other side of writing, namely publishing and marketing. The priorities will be to publish my existing work and to market it properly. Here I will focus my energies during 2013.
Summer Soldier and Northern Star will be available free of charge. I was going to publish Summer soldier - a Lucy Harlow series detective short story - over the festive period. But I was not happy with it, and with the all-consuming Brent Street I did not have the time or the energy to make the necessary changes, review/revise and publish. Therefore, this litte tale will be attended to in the Quarter 1, along with Northern Star - a blackmail story in the Lucy Harlow series.
Next will come the stupendous Double. This is a paranormal mystery born out of the characterisation in the Lucy Harlow series. I have high hopes for this story. I haven't even looked at it since it was drafted, reviewed and revised, in the very early summer, (June 2012 I think), but I reckon it by far and away the best story of the six I did in the first half of 2012.
During writing Double I realised what I wanted to do. A lot of my material contained a paranormal theme, but Double settled me firmly into this genre, mysteries and thrillers being my forte.
As a result, Brent Street followed. This full length novel is the best of the lot, and I have a date in the Summer of 2013 in mind for publication (after the other three).

Therefore, my resolution this year, besides losing weight and cutting down the booze, is to deliver these stories to you.

Best wishes and a Happy New Year to you all.

Saul