Five Days and More

New year, new beginnings, that’s what we all will be probably pondering over today.

I am looking back over the first year as a published writer and working my way up an enormous learning curve about this publishing business and how to get the best from your own writing.

Firstly I thank all those who stuck with me through the year. Mirador for putting my book on the shelves, my first buyers who took a chance on A Very English Revolution, my very great friends who helped me sort out the problems in the first edition and got the second edition feeling great, and my great friends at Writers Cave ( http://www.writerscave.co.uk/ ) who taught me so much, I couldn’t possibly convey it here. Also the other writing sites that helped me on my way Write and Share ( http://www.writeandshare.co.uk) Authors.com (http://www.authors.com/) with great people to learn from. Writing is a challenging business, writing well even more but the hardest part is having the confidence to get other people to take on your work. For that you need great friends working with and supporting you. I also am very grateful for my family and particularly my wife who tolerates me tapping away on the keyboard so much, or spending another Saturday afternoon walking round shopping centres whilst I sign books at the local store.

So for 2012, what can you look forward to.

Firstly the sequel to A Very English Revolution should be out. Almost finished the first write and ready to begin the painstaking editing process, which I now know from painful experience how to go about. Five Days will be a sequel in respect of the story but the pace and style will be two or three gears up on AVER. This is how the story has to work. Hopefully when I first test it out on readers they will grasp the pace and not put it down. But we’ll see.

Short story competitions abound and I have a competitive bone in me that keeps saying I have to write something of absolute quality and win one of these things. Perhaps I need some formal recognition that gives me the writer’s rubber stamp. I’m beginning to understand the formula for great writing, not that it guarantees a win but I want to bring that formula together with a story that fits me.

I will also have the day-to-day challenge of Writer's Cave which gives me an everyday reminder to write something and keep the quality bar hanging high, and just when you think you’ve reached it, the bar will move slightly higher.

So all the best for 2012 and I look forward to many more readers of my work.