I recently finished the first draft of ‘Richmond’s Podcast Crisis’ (I was going to call it ‘Richmond’s Pandemic Podcast Crisis’ but it was just too long winded and I would’ve struggled to fit that on the cover), and now, while I leave it to brew for a bit, I’m working on a children’s novel which I started a long time ago called ‘The Badger Helper Watcher’. Once I’ve finally finished it, it’ll be part of a trilogy. Each book will star Sam and Sally, two friends who meet in the first book in Valleyvale. The first book is a kind of a 1984 meets Charlie and The Chocolate Factory conspircy thriller. The second one is going to be based around an alien invasion with a twist, and the third one will be centred around one of my favourite sci-fi subgenres: Time Travel. Part of the reason why it’s taken me so long to write the first book is that I kept coming up with new ideas which could only work in different stories, so I got distracted. Now that I know what I’m doing (at least, I think I do) I’m confident that I can finally finish ‘The Misadventures of Sam and Sally Or The Badger Helper Watcher’ as the first book is now known.
Blog
My first story
I’m A Goodreads Author
I’ve just become a Goodreads author, and if I’ve done it right, you should be able to read this on my official Goodreads page. I’ll keep you updated on all my on going projects via this blog.
New Ongoing Fantasy Project
I’ve always fancied the idea of writing a fantasy epic of some sort, but I’ve got so many other writing projects on the go (that sequel to Bright Future, my choose your own adventure book, and of course, The Badger Helper Watcher) I’m not sure where or when I’ll have time for it. Well, I’ve had a thought about that. What if I just wrote a little bit at a time right here on my website, at least once a week. I’ve not really had any major thoughts about it, but that’s the beauty of it: gone will be the pressures of keeping to a story plan and theme. I’ll be pretty much making it up as I go along. The idea is to have a full first draft novel by the end of it, ready for tweaking, poking and prodding and eventually publishing. I’m excited about this, because even though I’ve read plenty of fantasy, I’ve never even so much as written a fantasy short story. So, watch this space…
A Random Bit of Writing About The Rain
The rain pelted down in constant and orderly lines, filling every hole, every space it came into contact with. This felt like end-of-the-world weather. I focussed on one section of the garden which seemed to have sunk quicker than anywhere else. Ringlets of raindrops in the dirty brown water were constantly renewing themselves. A few stray strands of grass were attempting to resist, but every second they were being forced down by relentless raindrops, and it was only so long before they would disappear under the weight of the water. A blackbird had somehow managed to spot a worm in one of the only patches of grass left relatively unscathed by the maelstrom, and the worm was doing the dance of the almost dead, its two halves spiralling around like two armless drunks. The bird had already managed to cut it in two and it was now considering which one to go for first. That decision was about to be narrowed down considerably, because just then the light from the street lamp, which always seemed brighter than the sun, disappeared for a split second, almost like a camera flash going off. The bird of prey that I’d seen hovering around Briar Lane for the past week had finally found something worth diving for. In one clean and graceful motion she landed right behind the blackbird (it jumped in shock and tried to cover it up by swiftly flying off) and gripped what seemed to be a shrew in its beak.
