Well, here we are already over halfway through 2024. July marked five years since my first book – Know No Evil – was published by Hera Books, and now I’m currently working on the final draft my seventh book, a psychological thriller called When Bad Things Happen. The book should hopefully be out later next year, though I don’t have a confirmed publication date yet.
It’s been a dizzying time since my first book came out, and life as a published author has been a tangled mix of excitement and the odd moment of disappointment. However, I’ve certainly learned a lot about the process of writing during the past five years. A recent discussion with another writer concerned the idea of plotters versus pantsters, in other words writers who plot their books in advance (as I do) and writers who prefer wite with nothing more than an idea and a vague direction of where they want to go, in other words ‘flying by the seat of their pants’. We both agreed that writing is usually a combination of both – with plotters often changing bits of the story part of the way through a book, and sometimes characters end up dictating the direction of travel rather than going where the plot initially intended. Similarly, pantsters generally have an idea in their heads of how their story is going to pan out before they start writing. The rule seems to be to do whatever works for you as a writer.
Also this summer, I was also lucky enough to feature in a short film a neighbour of mine, Dan Crouch, has made as part of a project called Memory Tree 2024 (more details here). The film features local people who live in Hastings talking about their background and what has influenced them to do what they do. My section of the film can be seen below.
Incidentally, despite having resisted it for many years, I can now be found on Facebook, as well as Instagram and Threads.
