I’ve not done any updates for a while, but I have been working on stuff. I’ve mainly been typing up ‘The Badger Helper Watcher’. I know it’s a weird title, but I’ve been using it for so long now, I don’t think I could stand to change it. It does have a subtitle now: The Misadventures of Sam and Sally. I will finish that episodic story ‘Good Neighbour’ very soon, but so much has been going on in my real world, that the made-up ones have had to take second place for the moment.
Author: John Payne
I write novels and short stories and draw and write cartoons. The main cartoon I'm working on at the moment is Still Life. It's about a man who sits at home on his sofa all day and yet bizarre things still happen to him. At the moment him and his sofa are stuck on a desert island. Check out Still Life Series Five: Beyond the Sofa on this site.
My debut novel is out now. It's called 'A Fifth Visitor', and it's a very unofficial sequel to 'A Christmas Carol'. The story picks up five years after the events of Dickens' classic, and we see how Scrooge is getting on with his promise to always keep Christmas. A new spirit pays him a visit and convinces Scrooge that he's not doing enough to redeem himself, so they both travel to the future to save a young nurse called Grace, but there's something big that this new spirit is keeping to himself. I'm developing a website dedicated to my writing, so watch this space. One of my short stories is available on amazon kindle. If you want to check it out, it's called 'Richmond's Rarity'. It's about a late night hospital radio DJ. I've written it under my author name of John D Payne.
Some Comfort
I’ve been working on an old short story called “The Ice Cream Obligation”. A few days ago, I got the shocking and sad news that an old friend of mine passed away. There’s a bit in the story that brought back a flood of memories from when we used to hang out in Safeway café after work, drinking coffee through straws (rock ‘n’ roll). It was nice to come across that at this awful time. It brought a small amount of comfort. I’ll post the story on here soon.
Regularish Routine Return
It’s been a really tough few weeks, but some semblance of normality seems to be on the horizon, so I’ll get back to my regularish writing routine soon. I’m hoping to finish ‘Good Neighbour’ soon and release it on this site, and I need to start drawing up the roughs for the next series of ‘Still Life’ if I’m to release it later on in the year. As always, I’ll keep you posted.
Normal Service Will Resume Soon
I’m in the process of moving house at the moment, so that’s why I’ve not posted for a while. Thank you, as always, for checking out my posts. As soon as we’re settled, I will finish ‘Good Neighbour’ and post it here. It might be in 6 parts now, but you’ll be the first to know when I know more. Thanks again.
An Interesting and Unexpected Twist
I was pleasantly surprised when I was writing the end of part 4 of ‘Good Neighbour’ when one of the characters (the protagonist’s neighbour) said something completely unexpected, even to me. I had no idea that that was where the story was headed, but it seems things are out of my hands now. I’ll just have to go along for the ride and see where it all ends.
