Between the books

Well here we are between books, sorta! Right now I am doing a learn, How to use a Computer for the over 60 and terrified. This is a Booklet, although, it is beginning to look more like a novel at the moment. Yes I have a bachelors in Software Development, so I am qualified, before anyone jumps in here with the boot.

What else, oh Yeah! I am helping Jeannie Michaud with a book for kids about Dragons. It is a lot of fun. Jeannie has been at me for a couple of years to do it. Now the third book in the Steven Gordon Series is complete and has a release date, I have a little spare time on my hand. But for how long? What many people don’t realise is that there is very little peace from the demons within for a writer. The chances are you may well have put off a book that you want to write in order to deliver one that your readers are screaming for. For me, I have had a Zombie novel bouncing around inside my head for a while now. I love Zombie movies. Now it is getting to the stage where it is screaming around inside my skull like a racing car. When that happens you just have to let the story out, or it becomes a complete distraction to everything else you are trying to do. So that’s the next project, a wee Zombie two part in the one novel. Sorry to all those who wrote to me before begging me not to write it when I mentioned it before, but it just needs to be out of my head. It’s OK though don’t worry, no one needs buy it.

At this time there are other books beginning that build up as well. I want to do an offshoot of the Steven Gordon series. There is little point in explaining it now, as no one has read the third book yet. I am also wanting to complete the third book in the Gareth Ogilvie trilogy, do a prequel to Carn Mor´, which a reader accidently triggered a week or so ago. I am also getting pressure from the ACV’s series. The third one is written, it just hasn’t been typed up yet. I think I did type up a few chapters a few years ago but got fed up and moved onto some thing new.

The longing to just get on with this is almost overwhelming, just not practical. As long as the money from the books is coming in then I have to keep getting those that have come before proofread. It is an ongoing process, but the world of books is fickle to say the least. There is no guarantee from month to month that you are even going to sell a single novel, and I have seen months like that. So in the meantime I have to keep on working fulltime, 70 hours a week, and write while I’m sitting in the car. Often dreaming of the day I can afford to tear down my old garage and have it rebuilt as an office. Yeah, work nine to five and take the weekends off. Visit family friends and even readers who have become friends over the years. Above is a picture of myself and the my wife Myra at a friends wedding recently. A well deserved day off for both of us as she has just completed her third year in beauty therapy at Moray UHI.

OK enough of this blog thing for now. I am hoping to do more of these blogs, they are good for answering readers’ questions. So if you have any, there is a link on my website contact page. Send me an email, catch me on Facebook or leave a review, I do read everyone.

See you when I get there, Jim.