Over the next few weeks on the blog, I’m delving into the seven short stories and novellas contained within my recently released Love and Other Punishments dystopian sci-fi anthology.
This week: Sweet Dreams
Ali, a young journalist, investigates tech company Astral, which manufactures nightmare-suppressing nanotech for children. “Sweet Dreams” is the name of the software, which is injected into babies at birth, and is now as commonplace as routine vaccinations. A generation has grown up since parents started implanting Sweet Dreams into their children. As a result, teenagers now expect nightmares at the onset of puberty, along with other bodily changes, as the nanotech is programmed to disintegrate at that time.
However, in a small handful of cases, the nanotech remains in operation, as nightmares are not forthcoming. Ali is one such person, as she has never had a nightmare. By contrast, her boyfriend Malcolm is an “anti-Sweet”: a child raised without Sweet Dreams nanotech by parents who had scruples about the software. Such people are a tiny minority, but with an apparent rise in suicides among those who failed to get nightmares at puberty has led to political controversy, hence Ali’s investigation into Astral.
Murder and more murder soon follow, with Ali realising she may be in over her head in a web of paranoia, conspiracy, and cover-ups. But how high up does the conspiracy go? Who can she trust?
Themes of playing God and the dangers of mollycoddling are inherent in the subject matter, but quite honestly Sweet Dreams isn’t meant to be terribly deep. My main motivation in writing was to create a gripping tech-murder mystery novella. One thing I will add is that this absolutely and emphatically is not intended as an anti-vaccination metaphor, however much some readers may be determined to read that into it.
That said, the prospect of putting nanotech and microchips in our brains is another matter entirely. It does alarm me when I read of people who’d be quite willing to embrace such technology without any qualms. Also, what parents do in this story, attempting in a very literal sense to protect their children from bad dreams, perhaps drew inspiration from overprotective parents I’ve encountered in real life. When they don’t let their children read scary books or see scary films (despite children’s inherent curiosity about such things), I think this can be developmentally stifling and potentially unhealthy. Then again, you’d doubtless expect nothing less than an opinion like this from a parent like me, given the nature of some of my writing (including my children’s novels). My views on such matters are well-documented.
To order a copy of the Love and Other Punishments anthology, click here (for Amazon in the US), or here (for Amazon in the UK). Digital versions are also available from Smashwords (and their various outlets) here.
Over the next few weeks on the blog, I’m delving into the seven short stories and novellas contained within my recently released Love and Other Punishments dystopian sci-fi anthology.
This week: The Traffic Warden
Do you know anyone who is a traffic warden? Or anyone who will admit to being one? Some years ago, I had a highly amusing speculative conversation at my former workplace, with colleagues who proposed wildly imaginative theories about whether traffic wardens were genetically engineered, or androids, or even aliens, since no one knew or knew of anyone who knew a traffic warden. Are those in this much-loathed profession cloaked in a veil of secrecy? Could someone you know secretly be a traffic warden?
When I contributed to this debate with my own darkly absurd theory on the origins of traffic wardens, it was suggested to me that I turn this into a short story. I did, never intending it for publication. It was meant as mere blackly comic whimsy and a joke for my colleagues (who all read the story). However, it did take some inspiration from genuine traffic warden behaviour I’d witnessed.
For example, I have seen traffic wardens lurking in wait for persecuted parents trying to drop their children at school having parked in a perfectly safe fashion (but on double yellow lines) and running to slap tickets on their cars for the few seconds whilst they are escorting the children inside. These parents really did have nowhere else to park, and once the council added the double yellow lines (I suspect not for safety reasons, but to raise cash), these parents were rather stuffed. Many of them were forced to add parking fines into their monthly budgeting (as was reported in a news broadcast at the time).
On another occasion, I’ll never forget the diabolical behaviour I witnessed from traffic wardens outside Kings Cross station in London, as they circled parked cars like vultures, awaiting the seconds to tick down to 7am when parking restrictions came into force. I daresay they are paid on commission, which encourages this lunacy. One particularly overzealous warden placed a ticket on a parked car at 6:57am, just as the owner came to collect it. A furious argument ensued, in which all manner of officious nonsense about not being able to withdraw the ticket once it had been issued was spouted, that the time on the ticket read 7:01am, and that if the car owner wanted to lodge a protest and argue the toss, he’d have to go through official channels. I was so incensed at this traffic warden’s bureaucratic cruelty that I offered to be a witness if required, as I had seen the car owner return to his vehicle before 7am, as I had done.
I’d even heard on the news (though not personally witnessed) how another driver had purchased a permit to park in a restricted space, clearly displayed it in his windscreen, only for a traffic warden to ticket him anyway, as overnight frost had covered the car windows. In such circumstances, traffic wardens damn well ought to give the benefit of the doubt, but of course, that would require a scenario in which they aren’t operating due to hypnotic conditioning and brainwashing, as per my short story.
The Traffic Warden is very short and intended as little more than a palate cleanser between Bleed with Me and the next novella in the volume, Sweet Dreams. Because it is so slight and whimsical, I almost didn’t include it. But on reflection, I decided it was needed to provide a brief chuckle after the melancholia of Bleed with Me, and before the dark mystery at the heart of Sweet Dreams.
To order a copy of the Love and Other Punishments anthology, click here (for Amazon in the US), or here (for Amazon in the UK). Digital versions are also available from Smashwords (and their various outlets) here.
Over the next few weeks on the blog, I’m delving into the seven short stories and novellas contained within my recently released Love and Other Punishments dystopian sci-fi anthology.
This week: Bleed with Me
In a near future, when Hadron Collider experiments and the like are in full swing, ghostly apparitions of people who suffered violent or sudden deaths are increasingly common. These are scientifically explained as “memory bleeds” or “quantum contamination”: Images from the past bleeding through into the present. Scott Murray is a qualified quantum contamination cleaner who uses scientific apparatus to locate the source of the contamination and neutralise the quantum particles. He is often used as a police consultant in murder cases when quantum contamination offers clues.
One such case particularly interests Scott. Police were unable to find the killer of Judy Armstrong, but he purchased the house in which she lived, without cleaning the quantum contamination. Every day, he watches her regular ghostly appearances, trying to put together what happened, becoming increasingly obsessed. Then, in a peculiar twist of fate, he encounters another young woman, Lena Meadow, who is the spitting image of Judy. There doesn’t seem to be a connection between the two, but Scott is determined to find one, believing they must be long-lost twins. Are they? Or is there an even more unsettling explanation?
I think Bleed with Me could well be my favourite story in this volume. It’s a 20,000-word novella in seven parts, and although it sounds like a ghost story, it’s firmly planted in the science fiction tradition of something like Minority Report rather than anything in the horror genre. That said, it has been influenced by classic mystery films such as Otto Preminger’s film noir Laura, and Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Vertigo, in its musings on obsession and how sometimes, it is better not to know the truth (another idea explored quite a lot in my writing).
Bleed with Me is a brooding, melancholy tale, which also explores self-fulfilling prophecies, and the dangers of accepting our projections of who we think a person is. What inspired it? I’m honestly not sure. It just occurred to me in a sudden download of inspiration one morning. Not for the first time, as I outlined the story, something seemed to take over, as though I were getting the story from something outside of myself. I know other writers claim similar things happen to them, so at least I’m not alone in sounding a little bonkers.
To order an ebook or paperback of the Love and Other Punishments anthology, click here (for Amazon in the US), or here (for Amazon in the UK). Digital versions are also available from Smashwords (and their various outlets) here.
Over the next few weeks on the blog, I’m delving into the seven short stories and novellas contained within my recently released Love and Other Punishments dystopian sci-fi anthology.
This week: Driverless
Linda Wheeler is a civil servant working at the central headquarters of the Driverless Vehicle Network in London. One morning, she is summoned to an emergency confidential briefing to learn terrorists have hacked their systems. They have already demonstrated their power by causing one crash, and are threatening to crash many more vehicles, with increasing severity, unless their demands are met. As the staff at the DVN try to regain control of their systems, Linda finds a rabbit trail of evidence and begins to suspect an insider may have assisted the terrorists in their attack. But who can be trusted? Nail-biting shenanigans ensue.
I intended Driverless as nothing more than an old-fashioned thriller with dystopian sci-fi trimmings. There’s lots of page-turning suspense, and I was influenced by everyone from Michael Crichton to Alfred Hitchcock. Of all the short stories in this volume, this is the one I most hope makes it to the big screen one day, as I reckon it could be expanded in a number of fascinating ways, including beyond the ending. But I rather like it in this shorter, tighter form too.
It’s worth adding that the previous novella The Thought Improvement Plan is referenced in an “Easter egg” during Driverless. As you may recall, Belinda Barrymore’s mother Jackie is hit by what appears to be a malfunctioning driverless car in The Thought Improvement Plan, causing her to wind up in hospital during the latter part of that story. Here, Jackie is namedropped again during the initial briefing, only it is revealed the malfunctioning car in question was deliberately crashed by the terrorists. So yes, this story takes place in the same universe in a concurrent time frame.
What inspired Driverless? Just how appalled I am at the whole idea of it, to be honest. Driverless vehicles are so rife with the potential for disaster (not just potential terrorist hackers) that I can’t understand why anyone would be crazy enough to get into one of those things. Call me a Luddite if you like, but there it is. Still, perhaps it will never come to pass in the ways we might fear. As former Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May once pointed out, the idea of driverless cars on some of the world’s most dangerous roads – including Bolivia’s notorious “Death Road” through the mountains – is utterly preposterous.
To order an ebook or paperback of the Love and Other Punishments anthology, click here (for Amazon in the US), or here (for Amazon in the UK). Digital versions are also available from Smashwords (and their various outlets) here.
Over the next seven weeks on the blog, I’m delving into the seven short stories and novellas contained within my recently released Love and Other Punishments dystopian sci-fi anthology.
First up: The Thought Improvement Plan
The plot involves a world where thought-monitoring brain implants are standard employment practice. Here a man and woman conduct a secret workplace romance against company policy. Together they find devious ways to fool their thought supervisor by providing false brain metrics.
In a sense, this is a futuristic romantic comedy. The future in which it is set is certainly dystopian. It is also alarmingly plausible considering what is being discussed at the World Economic Forum, regarding potential brain monitoring for employees. However, whilst this story is set in a world where such abhorrent practices are in place, the focus is more on the central couple, Andy and Belinda. They meet one another at work, are mutually attracted, and desperately want to indulge in an old-school workplace flirtation, even though workplace flirtation is considered the height of political incorrectness, and indeed is strictly forbidden.
Andy and Belinda both have a rebellious streak, especially Belinda who is revealed to have significant criminal connections. But her criminality is not violent, nor is she interested in overthrowing their political oppressors through direct activism. Instead, she calls herself an “inactivist”, finding cunning ways to fool the thought monitors, and essentially covertly sticking two fingers up to the system. Andy is swept off his feet by Belinda, but in true rom-com style, their relationship gradually becomes more serious, and is ultimately put to the test.
The inspiration for this story came from the aforementioned horrors at the World Economic Forum. A few minor elements, such as the lab-grown food, also have their origins in real-world scientific research (in the story, only the mega-rich can afford real vegetables or meat, whereas every else is forced to eat lab-grown food). More than anything, the inspiration came from my wife, whom I initially met through a workplace flirtation. Perhaps these days, such a flirtation would be frowned upon. Had corporate thought monitoring software in place, it would have been impossible. I daresay I would have been fired – unless of course, we’d been as devious as Andy and Belinda.
The Thought Improvement Programme is probably the lightest of the stories in this volume, and as such I think the novella is a fine opener for the collection. You can read the first of the six chapters here, as a taster.
To order an ebook or paperback of the Love and Other Punishments anthology, click here (for Amazon in the US), or here (for Amazon in the UK). Digital versions are also available from Smashwords (and their various outlets) here.
I’m thrilled to announce that Love and Other Punishments, my new dystopian sci-fi anthology, is now available in ebook and paperback. To whet your appetite, here’s the blurb from the back of the book.
From the author of Children of the Folded Valley and Peaceful Quiet Lives, a gripping selection of dystopian science fiction novellas and short stories.
A journalist investigates a company manufacturing nightmare suppressing nanotech for children.
A civil servant suspects terrorists hacking the Driverless Vehicle Network and crashing vehicles may be an inside job.
A man and woman conduct an illegal workplace affair, finding ingenious ways to fool corporate brain monitoring.
All these stories and more in this compelling collection of futuristic satire, technological speculation, alternative realities, and melancholy obsessions. Includes The Thought Improvement Programme, Driverless, Bleed with Me, The Traffic Warden, Sweet Dreams, Apocalypse 1983, and Love and Other Punishments.
Some of these stories had previously been available on Medium (all except one are now removed), but three are brand new and exclusive to this volume. Two never-before-seen novellas of about 20,000 and 18,000 words each, and one new short story at around 12,000 words, have been added to the other earlier novellas and stories earmarked for inclusion. The total word count for the volume is around 85,000 words.
For the most part, each story explores one aspect of futuristic technology (for example, nightmare-suppressing brain implants for children), but is otherwise set in a relatable contemporary-ish setting, just a little way into the future. The stories aren’t bogged down in scientific theory but are much more about the potential repercussions of these speculations on humans.
Here is the complete rundown of titles, plus a little about each story.
Sweet Dreams
A journalist investigates a tech company manufacturing nightmare suppressing nanotech for children. “Sweet Dreams” refers to the technology involved, which the journalist comes to believe may be linked to an increase in suicidal tendencies among young people. Her investigations uncover conspiracies, cover-ups, and eventually murder.
If you want a taster of this collection, all five parts of Sweet Dreams are currently available on Medium, beginning here (each instalment contains a link to subsequent parts).
The Thought Improvement Plan
In a world where thought monitoring brain implants are standard employment practice, a man and woman conduct a secret workplace romance against company policy. Together they find devious ways to fool their thought supervisor by providing false brain metrics. New and exclusive to this volume.
Driverless
When terrorists hack the Driverless Vehicle Network, threatening to crash cars unless their demands are met by the British government, a civil servant begins to suspect there may have been an inside job. New and exclusive to this volume.
Bleed with Me
In the not-too-distant future, ghost sightings are found to be “quantum contamination” or “memory bleeds” that can be easily disposed of via scientific means. A quantum contamination cleaner becomes secretly obsessed with the unsolved murder of a young woman whose memory bleeds occupy his home. New and exclusive to this volume.
The Traffic Warden
A curious IT technician discovers a surreal, sinister truth about traffic wardens. I almost left this darkly comic tale out of the volume, but ultimately felt it made a nice a palate cleanser following the emotionally intense finale of Bleed with Me. Exclusive to this volume, previously available on Medium.
Apocalypse 1983
In a parallel universe, a Soviet Air Force officer holds the fate of the world in his hands. Inspired by the real-life 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident, in which Stanislav Petrov essentially saved the world from nuclear annihilation. Exclusive to this volume, previously available on Medium.
Love and Other Punishments
In a fascistic future London, a widowed salesman begins to suspect he has repressed memories when he encounters a mysterious woman. Exclusive to this volume, previously available on Medium.
To order a copy of the Love and Other Punishments anthology, click here (for Amazon in the US), or here (for Amazon in the UK). If you have scruples about Amazon, digital versions are also available from Smashwords here.
Here is the cover for my new dystopian sci-fi anthology, Love and Other Punishments, which is out this Friday (2nd June).
I’ll say more about the novellas and short stories in this compelling collection this Friday. In the meantime, to pre-order a copy of the Love and Other Punishments anthology, click here (for Amazon in the US), or here (for Amazon in the UK). If you have scruples about Amazon, digital versions are also available from Smashwords here.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been polishing short stories and novellas to include in a planned new anthology release. Akin to my earlier collection, Infestation: A Horror Anthology, this one won’t be horror but dystopian science fiction. The anthology will be entitled Love and Other Punishments, after one of the stories, previously published on Medium.
The volume is about 80,000 words long. Over half (around 50,000 words) will be new, exclusive material, consisting of two novellas and a short story never seen before. The remaining short stories and novellas have previously been available to Medium subscribers.
Most of these novellas or short stories explore one aspect of futuristic technology, but otherwise takes place in relatable settings a short way into the future. The stories aren’t bogged down in scientific theory but are much more about the potential repercussions of these speculations on humans. Some of them are akin to potential technologies presently being discussed in places like the World Economic Forum.
Here are the titles, plus a little about each story.
The Thought Improvement Plan (exclusive to this volume) – In a world where brain monitoring implants are standard employment practice, a man and woman conduct a secret workplace romance against company policy, finding devious ways to fool their thought supervisor by providing false brain metrics.
Driverless (exclusive to this volume) – When terrorists hack the Driverless Vehicle Network, threatening to crash cars unless their demands are met by the British government, a civil servant begins to suspect there may have been an inside job.
The Traffic Warden (previously available on Medium) – A curious IT technician discovers the truth about traffic wardens in this surreal, sinister, darkly comic conspiracy thriller.
Bleed With Me (exclusive to this volume) – In a world where ghost sightings are found to be “quantum contamination” or “memory bleeds” that can be easily disposed of via scientific means, a quantum contamination cleaner becomes secretly obsessed with the unsolved murder of a young woman whose memory bleeds occupy his home.
Sweet Dreams (previously available on Medium) – A journalist investigates a tech company manufacturing nightmare suppressing nanotech for children. “Sweet Dreams” refers to the technology involved, which the journalist comes to believe may be linked to an increase in suicidal tendencies among young people. Her investigations uncover conspiracies, cover-ups, and eventually murder.
Apocalypse 1983 (previously available on Medium) – In a parallel universe, a Soviet Air Force officer holds the fate of the world in his hands.
Love and Other Punishments (previously available on Medium) – In a fascistic future London, a widowed salesman begins to suspect he has repressed memories when he encounters a mysterious woman.
I shall be announcing a publication date and revealing a cover image very soon. Watch this space.
Happy New Year from the Dillon Empire. I hope you’re enjoying your holiday. Time to reveal some of what I have planned for 2023, writing-wise.
Firstly, I’m penning another gothic mystery novel. This one involves a young woman caught in a web of blackmail, but that noir-ish opening gradually gives way to potentially supernatural horror elements that creep into the narrative. I don’t want to say too much more at this stage, but I’ve already written chapter one, and I hope to have a first draft within the next three months. The finished novel should sit nicely alongside my previous gothic horror-thrillers, including Spectre of Springwell Forest, The Irresistible Summons, and Phantom Audition.
Secondly, I plan to make good on one of my unrealised goals of 2022 and publish an overdue second volume of short stories. This one will probably stay away from horror, but it will contain romance, science fiction, fantasy, dark comedy, and various other genres. Most of the stories have been previously published on Medium and one or two other places, but at least two stories will be exclusive to this volume.
Thirdly, I plan to revise and polish The Hobbford Giant, so it is ready to show to agents and publishers, should the need arise. I wrote this novel last year, so I’m ready to take another look at it, having given a decent interval of time for the dust to settle on my objectivity. I have a good feeling about this one, so watch this space.
Fourthly, I shall continue pushing my gothic mystery The White Nest (real title still redacted for now) with literary agents, in the hope of securing mainstream publication. I’ve had some encouraging noises on that front, but nothing certain yet. It would be great to get to the end of 2023 with something concrete.
On top of this, I plan to continue writing on Medium and Patreon, and I have one or two other platform launches I’m planning for 2023, which I’ll keep quiet about for now. As ever, watch this space. Thank you for all your support of my writing endeavours, and once again, Happy New Year.
This year has been an exciting one, as I continue to make sense of my new profession: Full-time writer. Some of what that has meant I won’t bore you with. The duller freelance assignments are hardly worth mentioning, though they help pay the bills. However, in this piece, I will review the goals from my New Year post and see how they compare with what I actually achieved.
This gothic mystery novel was top of my year’s writing goals, and I’m pleased to say I now have a first draft. Next year, I will look at the manuscript with a more critical eye, having had a bit of distance from it, and start to polish it up.
A dark and sinister tale to sit alongside the likes of Spectre of Springwell Forest, The Irresistible Summons, The Thistlewood Curse, Phantom Audition, and The Birds Began to Sing, The Hobbford Giant is set in 1997, and concerns a young woman, Mira, who gets a job as a journalist at a local newspaper in the (fictional) town of Hobbford in southwest England. Years earlier, a huge abuse scandal caused the closure of the local orphanage where her parents grew up, revolving around the man in charge, Gregory Barry. Although he was due to be put on trial, Gregory Barry vanished without a trace before he could be prosecuted.
Mira stays with her reclusive uncle Artemis (her mother’s older brother), until she can find a place of her own. Art is a therapist to rich clients. He lives in a large house and seems to have done very well for himself, but for reasons I won’t get into here, he is estranged from Mira’s parents, who are less than keen on her staying with him. Once in Hobbford, Mira reports on an archaeological dig investigating a local legend about a giant buried in a nearby hillside. What took place in the Hobbford orphanage rears its ugly head as the plot thickens, and Mira soon discovers she has a highly personal connection to the mystery.
For this story, I was somewhat inspired by the real-life Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset, and the legends surrounding it. In my story, local legend states this giant was sent by a witch to take revenge, after the witch in question was persecuted. The giant was slain, and the body supposedly buried inside the hill. What bearing this has on the main narrative has to remain under wraps for the time being.
Another writing goal this year was simply to continue with my Medium output. This I have also achieved, having published well over a hundred exclusive-to-Medium articles. Here’s a sample of some of my favourites.
Once again, I set myself the goal of restarting this film podcast series. And once again, this didn’t happen. My producer and co-presenter Samantha Stephen also wants to restart this, but our paths in life have rather diverged of late. Samantha is busy pursuing her academic goals with great aplomb (currently working on her Masters) and no longer lives nearby, so that’s part of the reason we’ve not yet pulled our fingers out on this one.
Has The Tangent Tree had its day? I don’t know. I hope not. I’ll talk to Samantha again and if there is any news, I shall announce it here. But I don’t think it’s fair to include this on my annual goals list next year when a new series failed to materialise two years in a row.
My writing goals for 2022 also included releasing another short stories anthology. This didn’t happen either, but I still plan to do this, ideally early next year. On a more positive note, I wrote a handful of new short stories this year, some of which I’m holding on to for the time being, as they might wind up as exclusives for the aforementioned anthology. Three others were published in Medium publication Fictions.
In-Between
Originally conceived as a supernatural satire, this evolved into something far more personal. It concerns a recently deceased man whose attempts to haunt his family are constantly interrupted by ghost politicians attempting to secure his vote in an afterlife by-election. Check it out in full here.
Sweet Dreams
A science fiction thriller set in the near future, about a journalist investigating a tech company that manufactures nightmare-suppressing nanotech for children. Check out part one here. (NOTE: Links to subsequent parts are included at the end of each instalment.)
Vindicta
A spine-tingling ghost story set shortly after the end of World War II, concerning a jewel thief and murderer whose past catches up with him whilst fleeing for South America. Check out part one here. (NOTE: Links to subsequent parts are included at the end of each instalment.)
The final goal in this year’s list was to keep pursuing mainstream publication. This I did for my grown-up fantasy novel Ravenseed; an epic set mostly in the Dark Ages. Alas, this full-blooded tale of love, lust, betrayal, and vengeance didn’t get any bites. I’m hanging on to the manuscript for now, as I’m hopeful I may be able to generate interest in the future.
However, more hopefully, I have had a certain amount of interest shown by literary agents in my gothic mystery The White Nest (not the real title – I’m keeping that a secret for now). Here’s a snippet of my agent pitch, to give you a taste of the plot.
A widower fears his young son is cursed when he shows disturbing behaviour akin to that of his younger brother, before he vanished without a trace twenty years previously. Gnawing dread that history will repeat itself is inherent in (title redacted), my 99,000-word modern gothic mystery novel. It’s also a coming-of-age romance with hints of the supernatural, exploring traumatic sibling relationships, parental worries, false guilt, and the misleading nature of memory.
After his young son Ben writes a disturbing story about murdering a boy in a forest, widower Nick Unwin is alarmed by eerie parallels between his son’s behaviour and that of his younger brother Jason, prior to his inexplicable disappearance twenty years previously. This tragic past returns to haunt Nick when he sees an image of his long-lost brother in a newly released film. Fearing a repeat of history, Nick decides to investigate, along with Tanith, an old flame from his early teenage years, with dark secrets of her own connected to Jason’s disappearance. But as they delve deeper into the labyrinthine mysteries of their past, long-buried memories resurface. Nick is forced to face the terrible fear that has plagued him for decades: Was he responsible for the death of his brother?
As I said, I’m hearing positive noises, and have good feedback post-full manuscript requests, but certain details need to be ironed out. I’ll keep you updated once I have definitive news, so watch this space.
Other Achievements This Year
One of the reasons I didn’t publish a short story anthology this year is because I chose instead to focus on the rewrite, retitling, and rerelease of The George Hughes Trilogy. As I’ve explained elsewhere on my blog, this trilogy of sci-fi adventure novels were originally titled George Goes to Mars, George Goes to Titan, and George Goes to Neptune, but I decided to withdraw them because I felt the titles didn’t do them justice (they sounded too much like picture books for very young children). I also wanted to polish the manuscripts up to my current standards, as the first novel, in particular, needed a shakedown, having been written well over fifteen years ago (I’ve improved a lot as a writer since then).
I rolled my sleeves up and did a big push on rewrites. The new titles are The Martian Inheritance, The Titan War, and The Neptune Conspiracy, each of which I much prefer. I’m enormously proud of these three stories, and always have been (the stories themselves haven’t changed). I designed new covers too. As a result, I’m doing a big push on these stories at the moment, as you’ve probably noticed. I have also released all three novels in a special omnibus volume that’s three for the price of two.
Finally, I decided to launch a Patreon page this year, to help with funding my writing endeavours. I offer people the chance to support me at four different levels (Ally of the Dillon Empire, Free Citizen of the Dillon Empire, Knight of the Dillon Empire, and General of the Dillon Empire), and so far, I’ve had over ten supporters. I post exclusive material for supporters, including exclusive sneak peeks at covers, images, title announcements, and so on, plus early access to short stories and novel samples, writing updates, video updates, film of the month recommendations, interesting deleted segments, and more. At present, for Knight of the Dillon Empire support level and higher, I’m serialising the draft version of my thriller novel The Balliol Conspiracy (the title may change if it is ever released).
Please have a look at my Patreon page here and consider supporting me. If nothing else, check out the hilariously awkward video of me at the edge of Wistman’s wood on Dartmoor last September, in desperate need of a haircut.
As you can see, I’ve certainly been busy during the last twelve months. I’m taking it a bit easier throughout the rest of December, as I’ve been rather flat out this year and could do with the break. What are my goals for 2023? I shall expound on that further on New Year’s Day. Watch this space.
It only remains for me to wish you all a Merry Christmas.
Simon Dillon Books 
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