🦷 More fun than a trip to the dentist...

And far less expensive.

May 07, 2025

Greetings from Newcastle.

As I put the finishing touches to this email, I’m a bit spaced out from a root canal performed this afternoon. I’m quickly hammering out this little preface so I can hurry back to my sofa and watch a movie before bed. You see… some clever person committed to sharing this month’s promos on the wrong day - so I’ve had to give my head a shake and get it done.

I’ll be better prepared and a little more energetic next time, I promise.

For Paid subscribers, I’ll arrange a live call soon. I will try to do two in May if I can - maybe one paid, one free… let’s see. And if you want to help me figure out some themes, why not drop me a question (whether you’re a paid, Founding, or free subscriber) - was there something in In Quiet Courts you’d like to ask about? Or maybe want my top three… whatevers. Just reply to this email, or comment on the post and I’ll go from there…

🖊 Work in Progress

In my last writing update, I mentioned I was changing my approach in that I was going to develop all the scenery and locations for the story in advance, allowing me to finish one chapter or scene and move right into the next, using the ready-built locations. I’ve almost immediately scrapped that approach and gone back to how I worked on In Quiet Courts, that is to say, developing the scenery or location, writing the scene that takes place there, before creating the next location. Yeah, it’s a little more stop-start than I had hoped, but the writing of one scene might lead me somewhere else, then somewhere else… I might spend time writing up a location that never gets used, only to then have to spend time creating all-new environs in which the story unfolds.

But the good news is… writing has well and truly started on book 5 of The Victorian Vampire Chronicles. It took me a false start just to get into the swing of it, but the story’s moving along now…

🪔 Offerings

I’m participating in two BookFunnel group promos in April (and behind the scenes, my participation has opened up an interesting opportunity that I will update you on in due course if anything arises from it). In each promo you’ll find a horrible horde of free and bargain horrors. Click the links below while they’re still running and grab some great horror reads…