PERSONAL UPDATE

It’s been a topsy-turvy week for me, what with a funeral on Wednesday and a late dental appointment and still being mad busy at work, but at least I’ve managed to keep up my writing. After three weeks of fun but crazy weekends, I’m looking forward to a nice relaxed weekend at home with the family, with no plans whatsoever!

One of my writer friends has just had a turning point in his life. After coming into a modest amount of money, enough for a new kitchen or a car, he’s ditched his day job that he hated and decided to take a year to see if his writing can support him. He has an established back catalogue of work and I think if he embraces the marketing side then he should do fine. Despite making me jealous, I know I couldn’t handle taking the risk. I’d need to be sure before I took the plunge.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Out of the Blue – A Carrie Harris Action Thriller Short Story – This is the new title for what I’d been calling Life’s a Beach. It fits nicely in so many ways. I’ve also come up with a cover which you can check out below. Feel free to let me know your thoughts. The manuscript itself is still with the editor. The only thing left to produce is a short blurb.

Agent Carrie Harris Zombie Crossover Short Story – This is progressing on the current revision pass which I hope to have completed by the end of the weekend, then it’s just a few quick polishing passes and I’ll send it out for beta read. I need to think of a title, or working title for this one shortly.

Scarlet Rain – Weather Apocalypse Thriller – I’m now 65,000 words in, and the total is down to 98,000 words, so everything is progressing nicely. At this rate it’s going to be the end of April before I finish this pass and the editing becomes much more about just polishing. Perhaps I will have something to beta read (either fan based or professional) by the end of June.

Marketing and Promotion

Despite not doing any promotion other than through my mailing list, I’m still making the lower end of three figures a month, which looking back I didn’t always achieve when I was advertising in the early days. I currently have no plans to change this approach as I’m concentrating more on writing than promotion.

With my first event of the season just over a week away I can’t wait to test all of the preparation I’ve been making over the winter. Here’s one of the photos I love to take, and they get better the more I release!

That’s it for this week. Comments and suggestions welcomed as always!