Over a year ago I started blogging - it was a voyage of discovery as I hadn't really looked at blogs myself up until that point and I freely admitted that I didn't understand the attraction. Look back on my blog list to 'The Inaugural Blog' if you need reminding. My rationale was that all the advice to self publishers at that time was that you needed to maintain a public presence using blogs and social media to let people know about your books. BTW, I didn't understand the social media bit either.
So I created this blog and initially posted intermittently. Then, over a meal in the Lake District while on holiday with my wife last September, while regaling gags I'd made in the 'Da Dan Brown Code' that I'd been playing with for a few years, on and off, I decided I'd publish it on the blog over a period of months. This was probably a brave (for that, read foolish) idea as I hadn't actually completed the story at that time. However I started posting 'Da Dan Brown Code' twice a week initially and for some, unexplained reason I haven't worked out to date, I determined to blog daily seven days a week. I guess it seemed a good idea at the time.
Anyhow, I finished 'Da Dan Brown Code', now published and available for free through Smashwords, Apple, Kobo, WH Smith and other good eBook storees (but $0.99 on Amazon for technical reasons that provide you with a way to recompense me, should you ever feel the need, and embarked on serialising another comedic book I'd started some time ago, Project: Evil. Now that book is twice the length it was when I started blogging it and it is almost finished. Which strictly means it isn't finished.
I've also noticed that the daily blogging is putting a strain on my writing. Project: Evil isn't finished and although I know the way forward, I have other pressures on my time (I hate to mention that I have a day job as the handful of eBooks sold so far do not allow me to live off my writing). For one, I want to finish the sequel to The Journeymen. Apart from a sense of completion, I'd love to know how the story ends up - that's how I write stories of the sort that I enjoy reading, I write them without knowing the ending until, well, the end. In addition I have another book, currently titled 'Assassin' that looks at a future UK following the worst terrorist atrocity to hit the UK mainland. It's been in production for five years and is so dark that I can only write a thousand words at a time before putting it aside.
So I'm taking a break from the blog, which won't affect the millions of blog readers assiduously avoiding it, however it may affect the small but dedicated number of readers who have tuned in on a regular basis (thanks for your patronage). If I stumble across an eBook related story that needs pushing out further, then I may write an occasional blog, but otherwise I don't intend posting again until after the summer, perhaps the autumn. I will post the end of Project: Evil on the blog before publishing the story on Amazon, Smashwords etc. Promise. Just not promising when. Most of the remainder is already written, including a very funny part where Bund attacks the secret facility, but I'm afraid you'll have to wait for that. I could post what is written already, but as I'm in the final stages of the story, it will make more sense to post it as a final set of posts.
So, for my regular readers, au revoir. For anyone else stumbling across this blog - welcome, see you in the fall.
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