Small Print I have finished working on my short story collections called Small Print. My plan was to reboot these by designing new covers and adding in some other stories I had lying around looking for a home. I’m pleased to announce I completed this project and I think the new look covers fit with … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 21
First Drafts As noted the other week, I spent September writing out the first draft of a sequel to The Kill Chain, called The Kill Switch. Since then I’ve sent taken a break and have been working on a new short story which I will submit for a new anthology by the end of this … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 20
Dark Venice I’m excited to announce that on the 1st October a short story of mine was published in the Dark Venice Anthology from Darkstroke Publishing. It’s called The Inference Engine. Here’s the blurb: While in Venice celebrating their twentieth wedding anniversary, Greg leaves Sally to spend an afternoon by herself in the Leonardo Da … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 19
NaNoWriMo Completed Having decided to do NaNoWriMo during September, I managed to finish the draft by the 27th. I’m very pleased with how it’s gone. Fatigue was setting in after three weeks, and a migraine at the weekend there put paid to my word count. However, I picked it back up the last two days, … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 18
NaNoWriMo Mid Term Report As I noted in part 16, I’m doing National Novel Writing Month in September. It’s now fifteen days in, halfway there, and 30,000 words written. It’s going well and I’m bang on target. It’s not been without its moments of drama and periods of self-doubt, but I’ve kept on top of … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 17
NaNoWriMo I’m doing NaNoWriMo this month. It stands for National Novel Writing Month and is an event run in November for those wanting to try their hand at drafting a novel in a month. It’s not for me. I find November to be a busy month and the timing is all wrong. So I’m doing … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 16
Best Seller It’s been a surreal couple of days, pushing out promotional messages, and watching the rankings fluctuate, but my book, The Kill Chain, has been updated with the Best Seller sticker. Six months after being offered a publishing deal and a month after publication, I’m now officially an Amazon Best Seller! First reviews have … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 15
Publication Day My novel The Kill Chain was published on July 16th 2022 by Darkstroke, and it effectively marked the closing of one chapter and the start of another. I’ve blogged earlier about my writing journey and the books I’ve written here and reading back, I’m astonished I have managed to write what I have, … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 14
The Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas I’m taking part again this year at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas (CODI) which is believed to be the oldest and most successful academic public engagement forum in the world. There is nothing else quite like it. Now in its tenth year, academics from The … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 13
Dark Venice I’m excited to announce that the short story I was working on last month has been accepted for the anthology, Dark Venice and I’ve signed another contract to that effect. It was an interesting brief and a challenge to come up with something within the timescale. I didn’t want to write a story … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 12
The Fiction Factory 