Writing again

So I've written about another 20,000 words since the last writing update [insert: 'some of them in the right order' joke here] I was going to list (out of the five books on the go) what is now at what length, but I'm probably better off by giving a time scale when each will be finished...

Last Gang in Town - few more months as rewrites not as quick as just writing.
Sausage Roll Spy book (pie vs spy 2) - about October to November. The unstarted third spy book (working title Quiches Are Forever) should be mid next year.
Flu - part one about Christmas, the entire 1,000,000 words probably by 2020
The Bailout 2: Tracer - Yeah I started a sequel to The Bailout a few weeks ago. It's set in roughly 2018, which gives the newish dystopian Britain from The Bailout a chance to calm down and get in a routine (as Dystopia's like to). Probably ready next year sometime.
The Debt Collector book - this is the next police procedural featuring the same DI as in Last Gang in Town. Ready back end of next yearish.

That's that then.

Here's a picture of the inside of my shed featuring not only a recently put up shelf, but also a part made 'Trug' made from old pallets (it's in the lower half of the photo).

Trugs are actually quite easy to make. I saw plans for one in a gardening magazine and slightly adapted it (ie sawed the wood incorrectly) and have started collecting wood for a few others - thought I might sell them at a car boot sale or give them away for gardening relatives for xmas.

Spacey's People

I've got a short story up at Spelk today, Spacey's People.

http://spelkfiction.com/2016/02/08/spaceys-people/

The Allotment Again

So it's that time of year when the last thing any sane person is doing is digging in the allotment during a gale. Despite the fact you get cold, wet and possibly catch a cold, it can also damage the soil structure if you dig when it's too wet. Seriously, that is true.

Luckily, the allotment is on the side of a hill and so drains well, meaning I've caught up a bit on the winter digging (which is digging you're supposed to do before winter starts, not halfway through.)

Anyway, the only produce growing is sprouts, leeks and parsnips, and the 'snips are tiny this year (I'm blaming the poor summer weather), however garlic and shallots are already in and sort of growing.

Photo from last week a day or so after the snow. Have to admit the allotment looks a bit of a state in this, but it always looks worse than it really is.

The greenhouse hasn't suffered any more damage recently. Which is nice. I have been offered some glass which will fit the lower panels, so it should be back in action later in the year.

Finally, the shed. I am sort of tidying it up, but it's slow work as every time I try I have a coffee. The roof needs re-felting, part of it blew off recently and is now covered with an old compost bag weighed down with bricks.

So that's it. I've got more time this year so I'm hoping to get more grown. The seed order's just come through and I've got water melons. If they grow it'll be a miracle.

The Spy with Eczema

As I know I've said before, the problem with writing and being easily distracted is you end with loads of book starts, quite a few almost finished books and a couple of ideas that you think would make crackers.

Last count is one finished comedy spy romp book, The Spy with Eczema, one very nearly finished police procedural, Last Gang in Town, three part finished books (20,000 words of a Dystopian Epidemic series that will eventually be a million words, 10,000 into a 90s Rave culture road trip, 10,000 into a young adult time travel yarn (yep, I've no idea how I started writing that one) 10,000 into the sequel to The Spy ... , and five more around the 5,000 mark including a Debt Collector (possibly will become another police procedural) and a half arsed start on a sequel to seven daze, and also about 10 short stories I don't know what to do with.

That's a lot of books (and commas and brackets)

Luckily, there's an easy solution to clear the backlog: release them on Amazon.

Starting first..... The Spy with Eczema is now out. The others will hopefully follow by some means or other.

Amazon UK

Amazon US

The greenhouse again

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Cheap plastic sheeting from Ebay, an old wooden and half fallen down greenhouse, and a bank holiday weekend. The result was functional if not pretty.

It lasted well. All through the summer, and into autumn, we had tomato plants, cucumbers and chilies. In October, after a touch of high wind, a few cracks were revealed in the plastic (it had stretched in situ and at the cracks appeared where it met the cross beams)

I thought it might just last the winter. Sure it could need a touch of patching up in spring, but I thought it was integrally strong enough to last.


Then last week, hurricane Bob or whatever the name was struck...

Realistically, none of the top half is salvageable due to the way it's split. The lower half  is intact but probably won't be this time next week.

The door is the worst part for me. I must have spent an hour making it from a pasting table. While it should be easy to recover, it'll never be the same.

Of course, like the six million dollar man, we will rebuild it. I'll probably spend more than 11 quid on the plastic this time too.

That old spy book

Those of you that used to follow either the old blog or know me from Authonomy days will know of a certain comedy spy book that I used to punt around.

It's actually 20 years ago that I started writing parts of it, which is nice. Problem was, it got out of hand and at an unwieldy 140,000 words it was consigned to the hard drive after being finished.

However, like all good phoenixes (or phoeni as I think the plural should be), it has risen from the ashes in a rather more acceptable 87,000ish word length.

More news on what is now either called The Spy with Eczema or A Spy called Barry very soon...

Spelk

The good people at Spelk put up my flash fiction short story, Kenny, last week.

http://spelkfiction.com/2015/09/18/kenny/