writerlywitterings

A Weekly Update

Posted by writerlywitterer on 22/03/2013 · 2 Comments 

This year has been a bit of a whirlwind (as usual), but I’m gradually getting things together.

So, what’s happening?

First, I am working on a new literary festival. No, I don’t mean I’m just attending – I’m working on the idea of a festival to help writers and readers. We had a meeting about the feasibility with friends yesterday, and I have to admit, the concepts are working very well. With luck there will be a new festival opening its doors next year in the summer. Watch this space!

Before that, I have to embark on the new story for next year’s Medieval Murderers collection. For this book, the tenth anniversary story, I’m going to be going into a favourite subject of mine – Lust! What will it entail? Well, to be honest, I haven’t a clue yet, but with luck it’ll read well when it’s on paper. The characters will please all those who like Baldwin, yes, but there’ll also be some new characters from my 2014 book, FIELDS OF BLOOD. So hopefully a fair bit for all readers to chew on.

However, I cannot start that quite yet. First, I will have to proofcheck these three manuscripts which are currently lying on my desk. One is THE LAST TEMPLAR, the second THE MERCHANT’S PARTNER, the third – you guessed it – A MOORLAND HANGING.

Proof manuscripts and assorted notepads. The lifeblood of the author!

Exeter University. This isn’t where I’ll be speaking to students!

These three are now being prepared to be reprinted in their new format. When TEMPLAR’S ACRE comes out on June 6th, these new editions will all be available at the same time. And then, every month, there will be more of the original books hitting the shelves. So get your purses ready. This could be interesting.

Except I can’t get down to that straight away.

Oh no. No, because first I have the duties of a member of the Royal Literary Fund to perform. That means that I have a number of students to talk to about their essays, but next week, for one week only, I’m going to be giving a lecture (cue scary music) on writing. It’s not going to be hard work for the audience, although it may be for me. With luck it will be a fairly light-hearted look at the sort of basic mistakes students can make. And with luck it will focus them on the areas they need to look at. It’s been great fun getting ideas down on paper and planning, and I hope it’ll be well-received.

And that all kind of leads on to my next little bit of news – of a sort. I’ve decided that with all the things going on, I need to rationalise how I plan, and one really good way to do that might be to start a diary.

So, very soon, I’ll be making a set of diary notes about what I’m doing, what is coming up, what plans I’ve got (which is going to be difficult to prevent giving away any plots!), and probably pictures of my notes and works in progress. It’ll include a lot of my handwritten jumbled notes as well as screen shots from my computer, and with luck it will build into a kind of working scheme for aspiring authors to see what writers have to get up to.

Or should avoid!

More on that next week, though. First, I have to write this lecture …