2021 Writing and Publishing Plan

I’m writing this at the end of February 2021 so I hope everyone is doing as well as they can. In the UK, the vaccination programme is going well and 21st June is the date that we hope to be able to move about freely again. Definitely something to look forward to.

2020 was a busy year for me, book wise at least, I had five stories published in anthologies, three of them in Harvey Duckman Presents books. They were Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 5, Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 6 and Harvey Duckman Presents … Special Pirates.

2021 is probably going to be a much quieter year for me. I’ve had one urban fantasy novella, The Raven King, published by Demain Publishing in January 2021, my very first novella to be published. I have, or will be, submitting a couple of short stories to anthologies but I’m planning to spend most of 2021 writing a novella or possibly a couple of novellas.

When I say writing, I really mean rewriting as there are two short novels that I completed as part of Nanowrimo that I want to look at again and see if I can turn them into novellas worth publishing. But before I do that, I’m taking part in an Imaginary Worlds worldbuilding course run by Megan Kerr of The Writers’ Greenhouse – www.thewritersgreenhouse.co.uk It’s a six week course and I’m enjoying it very much so far. It’s certainly given me some ideas for my stories.

I’m also planning to publish a print version of Quirky Christmas Stories later on in the year and perhaps a couple of Christmas themed short stories.

Busy September for Stories

September is turning out to be a busy month for me. I was very excited to be asked to support the online StopHate UK Festival celebrating the 25th anniversary of the anti hate crime charity by providing something for the festival. StopHate UK works to prevent hate crime and supports victims of hate crime. I’ve recorded myself reading my short story, “The Boom Show”. This will be screened on the Stop Hate UK channel on Youtube and on Facebook Live on Monday 21 September 2020 at 7 pm (GMT) and available to view after that. More details on www.stophateuk.org

Fantasy, SF & horror flash fiction.

“The Boom Show” is a dystopian science fiction short story that I published recently. You could call it a Hunger Games for seniors. It was chosen as the Monthly Story Project for the British Fantasy & Science Fiction society in January 2020.

Fantasy, SF and horror flash fiction.

Next, I have relaunched my collection of flash fiction with a new cover and title. I’ve also added a few new stories especially in the twiterature section. It was called Dribs and Drabbles but is now called Fantastic Flash Fiction. I decided to change the name as not many people picked up on the pun and I realised I was trying to be too clever, a no no when choosing a book title. I love the new cover and hope everyone else will too.

SF, fantasy, horror & steampunk pirate stories.

Harvey Duckman Presents… Pirates Special 2020 will be launching on 19th September 2020, National Talk Like A Pirate Day. I’m proud to say that my short story, “Tully and the Pirates” is in that select collection. This time, Tully is on the sea and encountering all sorts of interesting and terrifying people and creatures.

And last but not least, the Kickstarter campaign started today for the anthology, Fairytales Punk’d. My story, “Mirror in Her Hand” is one of them and I love the promotion material for it. Here’s one below.

A dieselpunk fairy tale.