Keith's February Newsletter

Hello Friends

My apologies for the late arrival of this newsletter. As the subtitle says, it has been an arduous week. Not only did I have to fight to get the flat purchase over the line, but I’ve been working twelve hour days as well, using my lunch breaks to go into town to sort stuff out. It has been a lot! I’ve been tired and stressed and getting sick because of it, but now finally it’s all over. Which means…

Son Of A Bitch, I’m in!

This time last week I had no idea what was going on. I had the movers booked for Saturday, but didn’t know if I was going into the new place or if everything was going to go into storage? Then I got a bunch of emails, had to transfer some money, the next day had to sign more stuff, send more forms, and transfer even more money, meaning on Wednesday there was a sudden flurry of activity resulting on me going into town one last time to pick up the keys to my new flat!

Friday and Saturday were a flurry of activity as I raced to pack everything and to clean the old place, but after an hour or so of work Saturday afternoon by two lovely fellas in a Luton van I was finally in the new place. It’s still mostly boxes, as you can see above, but I at least made my bed so I’d have somewhere to crash out. Of course I don’t have an actual bed for now, that’s on the list, but it’s not the first time I’ve slept on a mattress on the floor, although hopefully it will be the last.

The best bit about the new flat is the view, especially when the sun goes down. With the trams going past and the line of apartment blocks on the other side of the river full of people going about their messy, complicated lives, it has a real city vibe to it. Very atmospheric, which I love. It’ll probably inspire a story sometime lol.

That’s my big news for this newsletter, although there is the small matter of my birthday earlier in the month. I did go to see Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - Extended Edition, in the end, as I thought I would. Much to my surprise I hadn’t seen it already, which is odd considering I’ve got the extended box set. I guess I watched the first one and thought I’d get round to the other two. I was also surprised to get an intro from Peter Jackson at the start, which to be honest was a bit rambly, but since I was there for the long haul what was another twenty minutes anyway, eh? 😂

News From The Steam Factory

Unsurpringly there hasn’t been much writing going on here at the Steam Factory this month. I’ve been kinda busy. I’ve sent in everything I needed to for this Magic Noir book bundle that’s out on the 4th of March, but unfortunately I don’t have any graphics or links to share with you at the moment (which is a little worrying as it’s in two days time).

It runs until the 2nd of April, but if I wait for April’s newsletter that’ll be a bit late so don’t be surprised if you get another missive from me in a few days with all the details. After all I wouldn’t want you to miss out. There’s going to be some quality books going at a bargain price!

As well as the book bundle I’m still waiting to hear about the solarpunk anthology I’m going to be in. Don’t know when that’ll happen but it should be some time (in the first half of?) this year. That’ll be good to get me name out there as well. I’ve been kinda quiet for too long now. People need to know I still write!

I’m still working on bringing In The Valley Of The Wind out this summer. Final edits have been typed up, I need to give it one last read through, then it can go off to my editor in April. Looking forward to that. Also I contacted an illustrator about doing a cover illustration but they were too expensive. €1000+ which is way too much for me. I’m looking to pay half that. I have to assume I’m not going to make my money back, and alongside all the other costs a thousand euros is more than I can comfortably bear.

Hopefully this month I can get back to some writing. I’m itching to crack on with Noodles & Ghosts, but I really should finish Attack Mars!! first. If I don’t do it now I’ll never do it, and I really want to get it out before the end of the year. It’s time I got some more steampunk out there!

When I’m Not Writing

With all the stress of everything I’ve been mostly comfort watching old episodes of Dimension 20: A Starstruck Odyssey, but I did finsih reading Mistorn 3, The Hero of Ages, which was good of course and a neat conclusion to the trilogy, and I’ve now started on The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin, which is a whole other kind of storytelling. Still a fantasy, but a slower pace, with words that take time to savour and digest. I like it, but when you’re tired and stressed it can be hard to focus on (and it needs focus) so I’m looking to get more into it over the coming month.

Apart from all that, and an indecent amount of furniture buying, I’ll be having a chat on Wednesday with the guy I’m hoping will illustrate the Airship Armada card game. If all goes well I’m thinking about running a Kickstarter in the month of August, announcing it on International Steampunk Day on the 14th of June, and ending it on the 31st at the Asylum Festival. It’ll be a big undertaking, but if it works I’ll have something special to share with the world. I’ll keep you posted on developments over the coming months.

And there you go. A crazy ass week for me me personally, and a crazy ass week for the world (again) unfortunately. I look at the news and I can’t help think of this Tom Gauld cartoon, which sums up the ongoing nonsense quite nicely.

Remember friends, as our noble leaders do more and more insane things to keep themselves out of jail, most of it is beyond our control. Look to your friends, look to your family, but most importantly look to yourself. Keep those around you safe and trust others to do the same. Don’t stress over the things you can’t control, take care of the things you can, and somehow, in some way, things will turn out okay in the end. And if they are not okay, then it is not the end.

Take care everyone.

Toodle-pip for now.

Keith