Keith's September Newsletter

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A belated hello to you all

This newsletter is a month late, in that I completely forgot to put one out for the month of August. My apologies for that. I wish I knew why I forgot, it's always good to know how your brain works (even when it doesn't) but I don't, although I strongly suspect is has something to do with the following...

You Thought You Had Plans? Ha ha! Think Again.

I found out at the end of August that I'm going to be made redundant. It's not going to happen until late 2023/early 2024, but it is going to happen. They're moving everything from Leeds to Manchester, and having no desire to live in Manchester, it is unlikely I'll be going with them.

It's a bit of a kick in the teeth to be honest. You start thinking about things like buying a house and saving for the future and then this happens (not to mention everything else that's happening right now thanks to our new Prime Minister that nobody voted for). It's making me revaluate everything, including whether I even want to stay in this country or not? I could go anywhere and do anything. Of course the problem with that is too many choices. When you can do anything how do you start to narrow it down?

For the moment I've settled for buying Sigur Ros tickets to see them in concert in Edinburgh in November. After covid and the redundancy news I needed something to cheer myself up. Will have a few days away. Maybe a new place will help bring some clarity to what I want out of life (yeah, even I don't believe that one).

News From The Steam Factory

There is much writing and many plans going on at the Steam Factory this month. I am working at pace on my solarpunk YA novel, The Journeyman. I still say novel because I am determined for it not to become a novella, and hence be very difficult to place. I'm still sitting on Glunda the Veg Witch (if you'll pardon the expression) because at 36,000 words it's hard to find anyone who wants to publish it.

The Journeyman is currently at 20,000 words, with 25 of my 46 original plot points already used. I'd like to get to 50,000 but that might be a stretch. Over 40,000 would be good, but over 45,000 would be better. It all depends on how much story I get out of notes like: 37. They stop in a village. Children excited. Get Miss Frieda to tell them a story. She tells them about the eagle that thought it was a duck. They're delighted. Give Miss Frieda gifts.

One of the few joys unique to a self published author is getting a notification from the British Library that your novel is now part of the National Archive. I got that for the revised edition of Dexter & Sinister the other day. It'll be a long time before I get the same for The Dragonfly Delivery Company, mainly because I haven't sent it off yet.

Speaking of TDDC, if you're a Kindle Unlimited subscriber you can now

read it for free

. Dexter & Sinister has been on there for months, and keeps getting consistent reads, so I though I'd try with book two as well, see how that goes. You sign up for ninety days at a time, which means by Christmas I'll have to decide whether to keep it on there or not.

I'll let you know how it goes, but so far there's been just one page read after one day lol.

I need to start working on book three in the series, Attack Mars!!, but this whole redundancy thing has made me think maybe I need to work on something more commercial to make a bit of money. I have a Poirot parody that could fit the bill, called The Cunning Cogitations of Monsieur Leclair, I'm just having a hard time fleshing it out. I know the beginning, and I know the end, it's all the stuff in the middle I'm having trouble with.

When I'm Not Writing

Apart from trying to finish

Horizon: Forbidden West

, I've mostly been catching up on all the good TV that is out.

She Hulk

on Disney+ is okay, although some of the tropes are a little tired/insulting to the character. I've yet to start on

The Rings Of Power

, although I've heard good things, or

Andor

, which people aren't so enamoured of apparently. But the one thing I have completed is

The Sandman

on Netflix.

I was a big fan of the comics, so I was intrigued to see them brought to life. And it's fair to say Netflix have spent A LOT on this series. The effects are excellent, everything is really well put together, and for the most part they've remained as faithful to the comics as I think you can be with something like this. Certain parts were a bit too horror-ey for me, but when it was written that was Gaiman's thing. He figured Pratchett had Fantasy, Adams had Sci Fi, so to stand out he needed to become the go-to guy for UK Horror.

If you're not a horror fan you can skip episode five, the one in the diner, or fast forward through a lot of it like I did, but otherwise The Sandman is definitely worth your attention. There are lots of clever ideas, and interesting storylines, and the characters don't always do what you think they're going to do, which makes for a refreshing change.

I mentioned at the end of the last newsletter that I might have airship badges to show you, and I do, but I'll save them for next month if that's okay? I've covered a lot of ground with this newsletter already.

I did manage to do a blog post in August, in the midst of everything. It's about writer's block and how it doesn't exist. Except it does, kind of, but it's not what you think it is. Anyway, if you're creative, or even if you're not, and you're looking for a hot take on the subject, do check out

Writer's Block Doesn't Exist.

And that's it from me. Have a wonderful October everyone. see you in thirty-one days time... if I don't forget again that is.

Toodle-pip for now.

Keith