It seems a long time ago I wrote wishing my readers a happy new year.
Well, it was a long time ago! January 1st, 2012 to be precise. I haven’t posted anything else since.
Mea culpa and all that…
Anyway, happy new year once again.
Things in my life have changed a lot since a year ago.
My mother died in late March, and I’ve had to spend a lot of time sorting out legal stuff – probate, executing the will and preparing to move to the house we inherited in Wales.
Work at Worcester College of Technology got more and more intense, with fewer staff and an increased workload for those of us that remained.
I gave up smoking for six months, started again, gave up again and started again. (Have I counted those right? Stop, start, stop start… yes, I think that’s correct.)
My wife celebrated, if that’s the right word, her sixty-fifth birthday in November.
At about the same time, probate was sorted out. With some money come some options and work became intolerable.
I resigned from Worcester College of Technology in December. At the end of March this year, my wife and I will be moving to Mid Wales for good, after selling the house in Malvern. The plan is to spend six hours per day writing/editing/rewriting and submitting manuscripts. Add to that some third party editing, some website design and creating interactive educational resources and I’ll be as busy as ever. It’s just that the emphasis will have shifted much more to the writing side.
A few years ago, I wrote a post describing a production-line style of writing, applying standard times and operations for the various phases of fiction production (rewrite, line edit and so on).
It is with a degree of humility (a rare feeling for me, don’t get used to it) that I look back on the confident predictions I made at the start of last year. None of them came to pass. But now, at least, I have enough of a backlog, with the recent addition of a Nano first draft, to implement this industrial approach to the writing process.
Yes, I know I’m looking on the bright side of things. Well. why not? With such a complete change in lifestyle, location and occupation, I have to be excited. Or dead.
In various stages of completion we have:
- 6 novels
- 1 novella
- 5 screenplays
- 3 anthologies
In later posts I’ll let you know how the production cycle is working out. Right now, I’m finalising exactly how the factory process is to be put into action.
When I’ve worked out the snags and am ready to get into full flow, which should be Monday 28th Jan, one week away, I’ll share the details with you.
Yes, I know you were going to ask for the details, so I thought I’d save you the embarrassment
Till then, enjoy!
