Over the last month, most of my fiction writing activities have centred around short stories. The first of these, a new fantasy tale presently untitled, is set at Christmas and concerns a young woman with a father in a coma. At the hospital, She meets a mysterious man who transports her to another dimension where she might be able to contact her father, if she undertakes a perilous journey. That’s all I’m going to say about the plot for now (I’m being deliberately vague on details) but I hope it will run on Medium and Substack this December.

The second short story is about a private detective investigating the murder of a much-loathed man involved in an online scam. However, this story might not see the light of day, because I wrote it mainly as an exercise in getting to know the protagonist of my next novel. I may write two or three more short stories involving this character in other cases, and might publish them further down the line, if all goes well with the novel, and if the short stories are compelling enough in their own right.

All of which brings me to the next novel. The preparations for writing the manuscript in earnest are presently underway. I’m preparing plot outlines, character profiles, undertaking research, and generally getting ready for the big push to write the first draft, early next year. Hence, the short stories being centred on the private detective protagonist.

That’s pretty much all I can say at present about my fiction writing. I’ll keep you updated with further news when I have it. However, if you are a Medium subscriber, or if you subscribe to me on Substack, do check out my ghost story presently being serialised on both platforms: Rachael.

A spooky, supernatural horror tale, Rachael is in five parts, the first four of which are now available to read. Here’s the subheading I’ve used: “At a private girls school, an English teacher fond of shoplifting and married men stages a cursed play linked to a centuries-old ghost story.”

Check out part one here (on Medium) or here (on Substack). The end of each instalment features links to subsequent parts, of the final part will be published on the 31st of October.