I have three exciting updates this month. Firstly, and most importantly, the first draft of my next novel is now complete. Book two in the supernatural mystery thriller series I started last year clocked in at 110,000 words. I daresay some of that will be shaved off in the rewriting/editing stages, but either way, it’s a little bit longer than the first instalment. I’m going back through it at present, tweaking minor elements, and adding a few tiny details here and there. Once that is done, it will sit on the shelf for a while until I can review it again with fresh eyes.

Secondly, I have a new short story that I’m serialising exclusively for paying readers on Substack. Having finished serialising my previous dystopian horror tale, Surrogate Sensor (part one is available as a free taster here), I’m now moving on to a more traditional, bone-chilling ghost story entitled Margaret Ursula Moore. It concerns a recently bereaved, recently divorced, overprotective mother of a young son. Her new house is directly opposite the school where her boy attends pre-school. When watching the school whilst her son is there, she begins to see peculiar things. I won’t spoil what, exactly, but instead will point you in the direction of part one, which can be read as a taster for free, here.

Finally, with immense reluctance, I’m finally on TikTok promoting my novels. This is something I’m doing with immense reluctance, as I’m not a fan of social media at the best of times. For that reason, I chose my opening salvo of videos to be a reflection of that reluctance, entitled “Petulant Promotions”. In the first few videos, I sit in sulky silence, whilst my “social media manager” gets increasingly irked by said sulk. Eventually, I start talking and promoting some of my novels with a suitably petulant attitude. It’s a running gag that’s probably not very funny, but the little insert of my “social media manager” reacting to my behaviour makes it a little smirk-worthy, I think. At any rate, I plan to post fairly regularly there now, not so petulantly once I get the hang of the platform a little more. If you’re on TikTok, please check out my page here, like, follow, and by all means, leave petulant responses to my petulant videos.

(Header image created by author in Canva.)