author honesty

In the past few weeks, I’ve been in touch with fellow authors and bloggers I haven’t heard from in a long time. I drifted away from regular blogging several years ago, after spending a while receiving unexpected, but welcomed accolades for my ‘regular and interesting’ posts. I regret the loss of many international ‘friends’, but abandoning the twice-weekly articles and the many regular mutual visits left me more time for my first love–storytelling. Those recent contacts reminded me that my blogging days gave my brand a much-needed boost in the early years.

I didn’t produce an end of year blog in 2023, although I did publish Crusader. That one title felt like an accomplishment because, when only partially through writing the story, a secondary character often took centre stage. I was compelled to remove a sizeable chunk of the story to allow the primary character his own space.

The chapters I’d removed but saved from Crusader, became the foundation of my next story. Earlier this year, I published Constance, and I’m pleased to report that she has appealed to many readers. When I first attempted writing strong female characters I wasn’t sure if I’d be capable, but as their numbers increase, so has my confidence.

I set A Taste of Honey in the USA, aiming to attract more readers there, which worked. Knowing that my readers mainly hail from Europe, it was logical to set the sequel on this side of the pond. I’ve learned a lot since writing the first book, which has now been revised twice. Before going too far with the second part of Honey’s story, I reread the first to absorb the heroine’s mindset. By then, I felt comfortable with the continuing story, moving the character and the action to places more familiar to me.

I published Another Taste of Honey earlier this month as an eBook and it’s had good reviews so far. I’m hopeful that these will continue and the sequel will be as successful as the first part of the story. As with all of my work, I enjoyed living in the adventure and felt comfortable travelling from one location to another in Europe. Amsterdam, Cologne and Berlin all feature as Honey gives chase, and as you might expect, she continues to serve her own style of justice. The paperback will be available in early January 2025.

In November, I published my first anthology of short stories in four years.

Harriet: and Other Stories is a mixed-genre and mixed-theme collection. Five of the tales are sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal, and once again, there are no erotica stories included. Several of the stories were written as submissions for the quarterly Connections-eMagazine published by Melanie P. Smith.

I’ll post again in January to give a foretaste of my aims for next year. In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful festive break, and thank you for your interest and any comments.

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Having now written books on various topics, it occurred to me recently that I’ve often referred to my time in retail and said, ‘I could write a book about it.’ It was, after all, my second career, which is why I’ve already used A Life of Choice as the title, with The Retail Years as a sub-title.

In less time than it took to drink a cup of coffee, I recalled the handful of companies I worked for, and each was different. Within the hour, I was strolling through the nearby woodland, my favourite place to free up my imagination. An abundance of anecdotes surfaced for each company.

Considering such a story is one thing, but would it a viable project?

My job title changed as I moved from one company to another, and with each title came authority and responsibilities. During my 23-year military career, I was no stranger to such things, and, of course, I understood organisation and the need for an established hierarchy. As much as I tried, nothing could have prepared me for the reality of working in ‘Civvy Street’.

Over the coming weeks I’ll create a framework for the story, and while it may cover a similar length of time to my military career, it will be compiled as one, or at most, two, volumes. The content will cover such things as Training, Customer Service, Staff Training, Discipline and the occasional foray into company and workplace politics.

The preparation will be my background project while I continue to work on my latest novel, Another Taste of Honey, and Harriet, a collection of short stories.

Like any author, I don’t know if an idea will work until I try it. As always, I’m open to feedback, so please let me know if you think the idea has any promise.