Keith's November Newsletter

Hello One and All

December is here. It's getting cold. Soon it'll be Christmas, and then 2023! Where does the time go?

Let's find out shall we...

Many Things Have Happened

Quite a month here at the Steam Factory. Hot on the heels of finding out I'll be getting made redundant (maybe) at some point, I have to find somewhere new to live for the indeterminate amount of time I have left working in Leeds. It's a situation I could certainly do without (and that's the polite way of putting it).

As well as the unwelcome surprises, November was the month in which I went up to Edinburgh for a few days, to see Sigur Ros in concert.

One of my favourite bands, I bought the ticket when I had covid, in an attempt to cheer myself up. I'm glad I did, the gig was excellent, but boy was I not in the mood for a few days away. My foot hurt, my back hurt, and it rained most of the time I was there. Maybe it's a consequence of it getting dark early all of a sudden, but I am very much moving into hibernation mode over here.

Of course I wasn't going to let rain and pure laziness get in the way of a good time, so I still went out to things like the Writer's Museum and the National Museum of Scotland, both well worth a visit if you're in the area. But I also had to accede that my back was not going to play ball, so I definitely spent a bit of time lying in the apartment I rented eating cake and watching Enola Homes 2, which is very good BTW.

Life is tricky, you do what you can, and when you can't do that, do nothing instead. Or, to quote the Tao Te Chi, "A wise man knows when to advance, when to retreat, and when to stand still."

News From The Steam Factory

The Steam Factory has been producing mostly sunshine this month. I tried to do NaNoWriMo, in an attempt to start of The Cunning Cogitations of Monsieur Leclair, but I was doing so well on The Journeyman, my solarpunk YA novel, that I wanted to finish that first. Well, it's now the end of the month, and whilst The Journeyman is "finished", I still have several thousand words to add. It landed at 42k words, which is far too short. I've got it up to 45k, with a couple of big sections to add, so I should be able to get it into the late 50s. I would like to crack 60k, to make it a more enticing prospect to publish, but we'll have to see about that. Thankfully it's terribly under written, so, like my stretchy jeans, there's a surprising amount of room for expansion.

When I'm Not Writing

Apart from Enola Homes 2, and a bunch of Dimension 20 D&D campaigns, this month I've been reading The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean.

I know Sunyi through Twitter, she's the one who put my on to the Lindisfarne Prize, which I got shortlisted for, and that's why I gave her book a try. Chances are I would not have come across it otherwise, which would have been a shame. It's a very good book, well written, with an interesting premise, a relatable main character, and a concept, that of a mother doing everything she can to protect her child, that we don't see enough in stories these days.

Semi-vampirish, semi-horror, it's not gruesome or anything like that. Despite the underworldy/otherworldy setting, it's about the characters, and the world they inhabit. Vividly drawn, with plenty of feels, there's a reason it's a Sunday Times Bestseller.

So there you go, a roller coaster month for me. Some highs, some lows, and a lot of work in between.

I'm hoping to finish The Journeyman before the end of the year, mainly because there's a prize I want to put it forward for. I also want to get it out to agents so that I can start on Leclair, as well as the next Hammersmyth Tales novel. I've very aware that book three is taking longer to come out than I would like. Annoyingly I'm having trouble pinning down the middle of the plot. The complications are proving a little too complicated, for now.

Take care, have fun, and see you at the end of the year.

Toodle-pip for now, and Merry Christmas!

Keith