Keith's October Newsletter

Keith's October Newsletter

October 01, 2021

Howdy Folks, and welcome to October. Amazing how time flies eh. Seems like only last week I was sending out a newsletter promising a new cover for Dexter and Sinister. Um... I confess that has yet to happen, but with good reason. See below for details.

Do Not Fret Over That Which Is Beyond Your Control

I've been getting philosophical this month, as evidenced by my latest blog post;

. It's basically a musing on how we approach life, and what we can do to influence the world we live in (rather than let it influence us).

Should be interesting for anyone who likes that kind of thing. It's certainly not challenging to read at any road.

Maybe it's such musings that have caught the eye of

on Twitter. They've asked me to contribute a letter to my 16 year-old self which I am very keen to do, because 'If I knew then what I know now' has always been of great interest to me.

It won't be too serious though. Expect lots of things like, "Never take an idiot on a long journey. You'll always find one along the way," and "When someone shows you who they are, believe them."

When not being philosophical I've been getting out and about in Leeds... and getting rained on.

Golden Acre park is nice, and not too far away, with some nice countryside around to walk through and a good little cafe to end your day in. It's not a proper walk unless you can finish up with a nice bit of cake, I reckon.

News from the Steam Factory

As mentioned, I've no new cover for Dexter & Sinister. I can't get my software to play nice with the font I bought to use on the original cover. I need to either work out how to get everything to play nice or pay someone else to do it for me, and right now I'm leaning towards the latter. But I've got a week off coming up, so who knows what I'll figure out then.

In the meantime, here's a sketch I did of the airship The Dragonfly, which unsurprisingly features heavily in The Dragonfly Delivery Company.

There is progress elsewhere in the Steam Factory though, let me assure you. Book two is with my excellent editor Jess as we speak, and should be finished before the end of the month. Feedback from readers has been good so far, so much so I'm tempted to query a few agents, see what happens (although quite whether I am willing to go through all that again remains to be seen).

I've also been, um, messing about with book one. I was curious, knowing what I know now, just how much I could cut out of book one and have it still make sense. So far I've gotten rid of ten thousand words or so, and y'know what, I kind of like it. It's cleaner, simpler, faster paced, and possibly a little harder to figure out, all good things in a book IMHO.

There may well be an abridged version of Dexter & Sinister in my future, meaning any copies of the book on sale at the moment will be collectors items one day, so

before they are withdrawn from sale forever!

When I'm Not Writing

I've been on a TV kick this month, binge watching the Murdoch Mysteries.

Set in 1900s Toronto, Detective Murdoch is a sort of forensic Sherlock Holmes, in that he uses all sorts of "new-fangled" technologies like UV lights and "finger marks" to catch criminals. The series has a strong steampunk element (the last episode I watched had a rocket and flying wingsuits in it) with lots of beautiful design work and outfits, and a great cast of characters who are all interesting and well rounded, often having intricate side stories of their own.

They're a good, non-offensive watch, very much a sci-fi Death In Paradise, if you can imagine such a thing, and with about a dozen series (all of which are available on Sky in the UK) there is plenty for you to watch.

And there you have it, another month in the life of a would-be author. In signing off, let me leave you with this picture of a bell pepper with googly eyes.

Toodle-pip for now.

Keith