Editing is hell. I love writing – the feeling of words flowing onto the page, some of which might even be good. Editing, on the other hand, is a long slog for me.

Take my forthcoming debut novel, The Wolf of Wistman’s Wood. In April last year, I mentioned that I had reached page 33 of 211 in my final edit. Well, 11 months on and I’m currently on page 154 (of 208 – I like to trim as I go).

Even allowing for all my usual excuses about work, kids and life getting in the way, that’s SLOW progress. But crossing page 150 gave me a first glimpse of the finish line. I’m not promising a sprint, but I won’t stop now. The plan is to edit at least one page per day, however busy I may be. So – barring disasters – I’ll be done before I send my May newsletter.

Only once the edit is completed will I allow myself to do the fun stuff like getting a designer to make me a cover. After so long working on this book, that will be an amazing moment.

Even better, once the book is done, I can stop editing and go back to writing. I might make the next one a thousand-page epic – thereby delaying the day when I start editing again (and making it far worse when that time comes).

Comfort Fiction

World events remain a bit… um… bleak, so how about this timeless wisdom from Charles Dickens (in the novel David Copperfield): “There never were greed and cunning in the world yet, that did not do too much, and overreach themselves. It is as certain as death.”

Bit grim at first reading, maybe, but a reminder that the really bad people always bring about their own downfall. Speaking of which, plenty of bad people feature in the new series of Mothership…

Dicing with Death

It’s almost time for series two of our Mothership show: Darkstar. Charlie’s back in the GM hotseat, and resumes the role of Darkstar’s creepy AI “helper”, Halia. The four players – or “assets” – awake to instant horror, and the chaos never eases from that moment on. I once again play Kenneth, the true hero of series one*. We’re trying something new with this mini-series, releasing all five episodes at once tomorrow (March 21) for Patreon subscribers, or one per day from March 23 for everyone else. Please subscribe, enjoy, review and recommend!

Thanks for reading.

Alex

*OK, many people would say true villain of series one.