Season of mists etc…
September 27th, 2009 by adminI can’t believe September has almost been and gone, but the leaves falling in the wood and the distinct nip in the morning air tell me it must be so. If I’m honest, my disbelief is rooted, in large part, in my dismay at my failure - in my own eyes - to have achieved much of anything this month, creatively speaking (let’s hope neither my agent nor my publisher are reading this…).
And yet it has been an interesting month. I was very honoured to be invited to speak at a Lord Mayor’s reception at Sheffield Town Hall, where I met the wonderfully committed team who put together the city’s annual Off the Shelf literary festival. I met a lovely bunch of people at Uppermill library near Oldham, and gave a reading at my most striking venue yet, beautiful Oakham castle. As we head into October, I’ve got a pretty full calendar of events lined up, so do check the events page; if I’m in your part of the world, it would be lovely to meet you.
I’ve put the first few words on paper for book 5 (no title as yet), but have got slightly sidetracked with a short story I’m working on. It’s been a while since I’ve done any short fiction, and I’m enjoying the mental challenge of conveying mood, setting and characters in a very limited number of words. The other ‘task’ (it’s hardly work…) I’m very happy to be engaged in is reading Chris Ewan’s new book, ‘The Good Thief’s Guide to Las Vegas’. If you haven’t read any of Chris’s books, I recommend them to you - witty, quirky and very, very pacy, all are first-class entertainment from first page to last.
I’m very pleased to report that ‘The Lady of Sorrows’ has had the stamp of approval from Helen, my lovely editor at Bloomsbury, who says the Lady is my best book yet. There’s no wonder I think she’s lovely, is there? But whilst there’ll be no resting on laurels, I can’t help wondering if my slow pace this month reflects the fact that the Deadly Sin I’ve chosen for book 5 is Sloth…