Keith's March Newsletter

Hi Folks

First of all, with this being a day late, let me assure you there will be no April Fools “jokes” in this newsletter. April Fools jokes are lame and never funny.

Life On The Edge

Friends, I came very close to quitting my job this month. After several weeks of intense work something went wrong that I was technically responsible for but which I had no chance of spotting because of everything else I had to do. It was a big cock up, I could have caught a lot of flack for it, but I decided that if they tried to put all the blame on me I was done, I was going to walk out there and then. Don’t give me a wonky bicycle then get upset when I fall over.

Anyway, I didn’t get strung up as expected, but it was good to work out how much money I had and how long I could last if I jacked it all in tomorrow. That’s handy info to have in the back pocket.

Fittingly, I took this photo from work the other day after the clocks changed. Looks like a nuclear bomb just went off eh?

News From The Steam Factory

Today I finished writing Odds Bodkin and the Night Mayor of London in that I ran out of notes and wrote The End. I still have two large inserts to add, a character to seed throughout the book, several smaller changes to make, and masses of rewrites to do.

It’s currently sitting at 57k words. I think I can get it over 60k. I don’t think I can get it over 65k although there’s a chance. I’ve under written this one because of my familiarity with the setting. I think I need to add more description to keep the reader happy.

Next up I’ve got a short story I want to knock off, then I’d like to work on the Christmas story that I remember every November and promptly forget every January. I’d like to get it done because it’s good but also those Christmas sales are every year and poppa needs a new pair of shoes.

I also sent off a submission for In The Valley Of The Wind this month, which I wasn’t expecting to do. I saw an agent on social media who was open and seemed to be after what I wrote so I went for it. No idea if anything will come of it but if you don’t try you don’t get eh? I’d like to do another full round of submission on ITVOTW before I look at sending it to small presses or even self publishing. I’d like to go wide with this one, meaning a big publisher, but I can’t sit on it forever. A small audience is better than no audience at all.

When I’m Not Writing

This is a new one, only started it last night, so I can’t say much about it, but I’ve been playing Atomfall for the Playstation, and so far so good.

Atomfall is like Fallout only British. Set in the Lake District five years after a real nuclear disaster at Windscale (Sellafield) in 1957, you play someone who wakes up inside the quaratine zone who has to figure out what the hell is going on. There’s crafting, combat, a metal detector, and all sorts to keep an eye on.

I’m not sure how I’ll get on with it to be honest. There are a lot of moving parts, and resource management is not my thing, but I’ve got it on the easiest setting and it’s been fine so far, I’ve only died once. And it is very pretty. The setting is gorgeous and very familiar to me. If I can’t go for walks at the moment because of too much work at least I can meander the post nuclear country “hellscape” that is Atomfall.

And that’s it from me. A running theme of endings and nuclear disaster which I was not expecting when I started writing. But that’s the joy of writing sometimes, you never know what’s going to happen, even if you think you know what’s going to happen. Like life I suppose, except if you cock up writing you can go back and change it. When you cock up in life you just have to deal with the consequences.

Anyway, see you all next time. Be lucky, and if you can’t be lucky don’t forget your hazmat suit!

Toodle-pip for now.

Keith