I have a problem. . .
If you’re bad at maths, then you can skip this paragraph. Oh, all right; I’ll try to make it simple.
I write a newsletter giving news and views once a month. For some years I have been including a short story from the archives. These stories were commissioned by the Methodist Recorder three or four times a year, and once a term by our local choir for their concert. Now you can do the maths! I am using up the short stories faster than I am sending out newsletters. Get it? So I am coming to the end of stories I can re-use for you. Yes, there are still one or two out there. Today’s offering is an early Ellie Quicke, called DEATH BY CHOCOLATE. See it here.
So, what do I do next?
Well, I could include the first chapter of whatever book of mine that Joffe are currently re-issuing on Amazon. That sounds like a good idea, but – and here my brain goes whirling off into outer space – they are sometimes bringing out two books a month. Which means that I shall soon have another problem – too many books for a monthly newsletter, which is the opposite problem to the one I started off with.
So in April it was MURDER BY MISTAKE on the 3rd, and MURDER MY NEIGHBOUR on the 21st. Very nicely done, too. See the latest fliers here. On Free Friday 26th, they also brought out a freebie for the first Ellie, MURDER AT THE ALTAR. Are you confused? Yes, so am I.
Anyway, back to the book currently being written; FALSE GOLD. I am enjoying and agonising over this story in equal proportions. Do I have too much plot in this story? Are there too many characters? Am I making clear who does what to whom and when did that happen?
Oh, but I do like the ‘hero’ whom Bea stumbled on as a rough sleeper, but who was subsequently revealed to be the heir to a failing Stately home, and is now growing into his new position. To add to the general mayhem, his baby son Pip is learning to walk and to talk . . . and needs watching twenty-four seven.
Still available: the story of how some Christian writers got started in their career. You can find it in MY FIRST NOVEL . . . details to be found here.
As for the Owlets, the sun came out and went back in again. It rained. And then it cleared up, sort of. And then the cold wind blew. So they’re still indoors and getting stir crazy. See them here. In the garden I’ve got Spanish bluebells coming up where they’re not wanted, vying with roses coming out far earlier than usual. It’s a crazy spring.
A blessing on all who help the fumble-fingered and digitally challenged to survive in the present day.
Veronica Heley