What have I been up to lately? Lots, as it happens.

New novel

Most of my recent writing time has been spent working on the outline, character profiles, and research for my next novel. I’m very excited about this one, as I hope it will be part of a longer series, featuring the same protagonist. It’s a supernaturally tinged whodunnit, which will come as no surprise to any of you, given that mystery horror-thrillers are my bread and butter. But this is the first time I’ve planned a series of novels in that genre. It’s a challenging project, but one I can’t wait to share with you all. I begin writing the first draft in January.

New short story: An In-Between Christmas

Outside the next novel(s), one of my recently written short stories, An In-Between Christmas, is now being serialised in Fictions on Medium (see part 1, here). As a taster, here is the logline for this bittersweet dark fairy tale: “A young woman tries to contact her comatose father on a mysterious spiritual plane between life and death.”

An In-Between Christmas is also being serialised on Substack (here). It will appear in weekly instalments, every Monday, with the final part appearing on the 23^rd of December. However, if you can’t wait that long, or if you want to read the story outside of Medium and Substack, all six instalments are available on Patreon, but at a price. I’m taking advantage of their new “buy a one-off post” scheme, so that’s available too, at a cost of £3 per instalment. I agree, that’s a bit steep, but that’s Patreon’s minimum price per post. All Patreon support is hugely appreciated, of course.

Substack or Patreon?

If you want full access to my short stories and novellas, as well as classic cinema articles, top tens, film review archive, and more, then Substack is probably a better bet at $5 per month (the free version gives you new release film reviews only, though after four weeks they disappear behind a paywall). Patreon provides more exclusive behind the scenes material, and exclusives such as video updates, story previews, deleted scenes, unseen designs, more in depth articles about my creative process, and so forth. But if you simply want to see the finished products, Substack is better value for money. Of course, if you’re on Medium, much of what I publish on Substack is there too. However, there are going to be exclusives on Substack very soon, so do bear that in mind if dithering over where best to view my work.

Subscribe to me on Substack here or support me on Patreon here.

Another new short story

Beyond all this, I’m working on yet another new short story. This time it’s a comedic detective story, the details of which I’m keeping under wraps at present. This story also has a connection to my new novel, but I’m keeping quiet on exactly how for now, except to say the light tone here will be in stark contrast to the much darker edges of the new novel.

That’s about it for now. Expect my final update for 2024 next month.