I'm not dead

I'm just resting

OK, so you could be forgiven for thinking that I was deader than a Norwegian Blue since some time around Christmas. I’ve made the odd post on social media, but not that often and the last post on my Substack was entitled “It’s almost 2024”.

It’s been 2024 for a while now. You don’t need to tell me. I’ve noticed.

When you’re an indie writer, you don’t have an editor or a publisher chasing you to hit your deadlines. You’re in charge of your own schedule, your own timelines. You can do what you want, when you want. That’s the upside. The downside? Nobody’s watching when you’re not doing anything.

For an arch procrastinator with a hectic “real life”, that can be a dangerous situation. At least, it is if you’re also trying to write books amongst all that “real life” nonsense.

If you’re wondering where the next Neverbury book is though, I’m happy to say I’m already half way through it. I had planned to be much further through it by now but… please see above. Terms and Conditions apply.

It was also my birthday…

The stories in the second book are coming out a little longer than the stories in the first. Neverbury has started to live and breathe a lot more and without the constraints of trying to write the whole book in a month, that gives me room to explore it in more depth. From the best, or maybe worst, second-hand bookstore in the world to the depths of the Neverbury woods, the town is growing in new and unexpected ways.

Return to Neverbury will be a larger book than “Welcome” was, and hopefully even better for it. In my head, right now, it’s the last book of Neverbury short stories before I embark on a full-length Neverbury novel.

(And if you’re wondering, that one will be called… The Sheriff of Neverbury)