Pictures and postcards from the desk of an Authoress

Today has been spent back working on the new book. I like to keep regular progress up. It is one big thing that I have often noticed that if I do not make myself stick to my daily schedule, it quickly becomes easy to slip far, far behind. I don’t want to take a day or two off and suddenly find that several months have disappeared without trace without doing much. It does happen, I assure you!

I’ve done the writing quota, and I am getting quite pleased even if I admit myself. I’ve tied off a couple of loose plot ends, and really have only the end of one chapter and a tiny linking chapter to do. I’ve also spent a little time reading back through and doing a spot of editing. This has led me to believe that actually there isn’t really as much editing as I was fearing to do.

I took a break and started picking out pictures for the cover artwork. Zoë Robinson is going to be the cover artist for this book, as the previous cover artist who did a wonderful job on the cover of ‘Syndicate Dawn’ is unable to do this one due to work commitments. I will be using a couple of spare pictures from one of Sarah’s photoshoots though. All the other pictures come from the Westwood picture library, which is a photo library that I put together whilst briefly working at an ad agency in Manchester in the late 1990s. You would not believe what Hulton and Getty picture libraries were charging for random pictures of stuff™ so I took the decision to go out with a camera at the time over several weeks and make my own. Pictures from this library can be seen forming the basis of my first four books, as well as in the photographs section of my website.

I’ve begun development of a new book idea. Yes, I know I said I was going to stick to short stories for a while rather than books, but this one is screaming out to me. I may start it as a short story that I can develop later and try and get the short version into something like Interzone or Asimovs. Watch this space, though no promises on timescales.