Keith's May Newsletter

Hello One and All

Managing to get this out on time for once, although Lord knows how? I’m in the middle of a week of nights and I am knackered.

Alright Our Kid?

It’s been a month of work all round really. As well as my usual shifts I’ve done a bunch of overtime, which means I haven’t had much time for anything else. I’ve done so much I’m at the “I don’t know why I do it?” phase, which comes around often. I know food, shelter, and all that, but really… why?

The only thing I’ve done this month that wasn’t work was work related. I went to Manchester to check out the operation there, as that’s where things are going some time next year. I was uninspired. Nothing about my visit made me want to go there. Unfortunately there aren’t many other options, unless I’m willing to take a pay cut, and after the pension review I just had that ain’t gonna happen. I need a new plan.

News From The Steam Factory

I have managed to do some writing this month. I spent the entire time working on The Journeyman, and I’m glad to say that it is finally done.

My thanks to Matt W and Annalisa W for there feedback on The Journeyman. I’m glad to say there weren’t too many changes that needed making, although it did go from 56,080 words to 54,557 words which hurt quite a bit, but you can bet your ass I'‘ll be querying it as “approx 55k words” lol.

I have two weeks off coming up after these nights, during which I’ll be sorting out a query package and researching agents to send it to. I also hope to start/continue on book three of the Hammersmyth Tales, but I’m not going to stress about that. If it happens it happens.

May was also Glunda The Veg Witch month over here at the Steam Factory. As well as booking her in for an edit in June, I also submitted the novella to Uncanny magazine for possible publication. Now those two things might seem mutually exclusive, why do an edit for self publishing if someone else is going to publish it, but the chances of Uncanny magazine saying yes are slim to nothing, so I decided to carry on regardless. If they say yes great, I’ll happily take the hit on the edit deposit if it means I reach a wider audience, and if they say no then I’m good to go for publication in time for Halloween (it is a witch story after all).

I also may have lined up a cover artist although I’m still thinking about that. Maybe by next month I’ll have some more news on that front.

When I’m Not Writing

I paid for a month of Prime in May so I could watch Vox Machina 2 and Picard 3. Vox Machina I really enjoyed, as expected. Picard I had a little more trouble with.

Picard has always flirted with the fact that it was nostalgia porn, but at least it was for the most part modern, future stories not entirely about the past. Picard 3 wasn’t that unfortunately.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD.

The entire thread of season 3 was about how the mistakes of the past had caused the problems of the future, but rather than have the people of the future fix them they dragged up basically the entire Next Generation crew instead. And, worse than that, all the young characters they introduced were completely sidelined at the end, infected by a virus that turned them into mindless slaves, with only their geriatric ancestors able to save them from themselves. It wasn’t good to say the least.

All throughout the last episode I couldn’t help but feel like this was a conservative boomer’s wet dream. The young are infected by a ‘woke mind virus’ from which only the old people can save them. Never mind that the old people caused all the problems in the first place, only they can be the heroes, and the young, with their ideas of collective harmony (if you know what happened then that’s a stretch, I know, but I’m annoyed) have to be saved from themselves before the world is destroyed. It left a bad taste in my mouth, and it’s certainly not how I would have done things.

SPOILERS OVER.

It’s been an emotional week over here, as you can tell, lol. I’m looking forward to my two weeks off. I need a break from everything. I don’t have any plans, and I don’t intend on making any, although there are two things coming up in my calendar.

First, it’s International Steampunk Day on the 14th June. I don’t have anything massive organised, but I will be releasing a new Hammersmyth short story to celebrate, an Inspector Lassiter tale that I think everyone will enjoy.

Then, on the 17th June, the guys over at Northodox Press are having a writers’ event here in Leeds, just down the road from me at the Hyde Park Book Club. They have opened it up to writers other than those that they publish, and all being well I should be there, although I haven’t heard much from them about it beyond my initial contact. If all IS well, and I am there, please do pop along and say hi if you’re in the area. I’ll have books and badges to sell, but also it’ll just be nice to get dressed up and meet new people for once.

And that’s my lot for May. Have a good one everyone, enjoy the sun, and I’ll see you at the end of June.

Toodle-pip for now.

Keith