Hello,
I must confess a huge amount of inertia needed to be overcome before I could restart this blog. This is a consequence of my innate dislike of social media and blogs - the very things I should be using to publicise my work. So having bitten the bullet I resume on the back of a four week break from all writing activities.
This break which had long descended into stultifying boredom followed on the heels of my completing the draft of my third novel - Duisburg. Duisburg is a provisional title, taken from a fictitious city in the American deep south. The action is centred upon the local paper - The Duisburg Star - and I may settle on this as the title or even simplify it to Duisburg Star, which could also allude to the heroine - young reporter Amy Simms. Either way, the mayhem visited upon Duisburg is orchestrated by my demon - deceased African witchdoctor Mr Coates.
Mr Coates is also central to my second novel - The Brent Street Haunting - a mix of poltergeist mayhem whirling around a tale of revenge and murder. Set in the north of England I expect to publish Brent Street in September. The heroine is Evangeline Weekes and the mystery twists and turns about her until her identity and motives are revealed.
Duisburg is 93k and Brent Street 75k. Both have been written within the past nine months. The former was drafted between early April and early July 2013, the latter between end October 2012 and early Jan 2013.
As I work full time and also have a home to run you will see this is quite a workload. I think this must be the reason I shun social media etc. I simply do not have the interest in downtime to put any energy into it.
On the other hand writing for me is a chemical addiction. Probably as potent as any Class A drug. I now feel certain that the whole activity of creation and fashioning these stories has altered the chemical balance of my brain.
After I have finished a story I feel I have accomplished something that relatively few do. Therefore I feel I have earned a break. Time to put my feet up. Time to pursue those leisure activities I've been promising myself for months. However, I never do. And after a couple of weeks I sink into a terrible boredom. Then comes the depression hard on its heels. A dark state in which inertia clamps me into complete inaction. Any sort of activity is resented. It is from the shackles of this state that I now burst free.
Already I feel the warm glow of the endogenous drugs thus inspired soothing my brain. So this is the plan. Brent Street will be published this September. It needs one last review, a cover (which I now have in my mind), the blurb finalised and then the button hit. I will then review and revise the first draft of Duisburg and put it away for six months. That should bring me to mid November, by which time I will have thought of something else to write - my fourth novel.
I will put Brent Street up on the usual platforms. I will tweet about it and publicise it on Facebook. It will be available on Smashwords free for a short promotional period before reverting to the cover price - so look out for it.
I'll keep this blog up to date now, until I start writing the fourth - when I no doubt will immerse myself in that world - whatever it may be.
So bye for now
Best wishes
Saul
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