Writing Review of 2019

As usual, I’m jumping on the bandwagon alongside nearly every other writer to do a review of my 2019 writing year.

In terms of publications, I’ve had three.  That’s a personal best for numbers, but balanced by all three being shorter stories.  They are:

• ‘Football Fantasy’, an erotic novelette;
• ‘Sunshine & Ice Cream’, an erotic short;
• ‘The Bathtub’, a violent horror novelette which also made it into a horror anthology.

As usual, I’m grateful to my publishers for having me and to my editors for turning my drafts into something readable.

Despite the publications, the year has been dominated by my relocation which has kept writing time to a minimum.  I’ve not managed to update my blog much this year, again due to my move and settling into a new routine.  I hope to be more active in 2020.

I’ve got a few projects planned for next year:

• A horror novel based around a heavy metal band.  I’m about half way through the first draft;
• A horror/fantasy novel set during the English Civil War (the 1640s).  It’s a new period for me so I’m having to do research.  My background is in history so looking everything up is fun, not a chore;
• I’ve got a handful of completed horror novels hanging around which I’m happy with and which I’ll try to place.  These are all centred around Celtic myth;
• Some more erotic shorts, mostly including Kerry-Jane and Amy, my favourite PhD students.

I’d really like to do a retelling of ‘Peredur Son of Efrawg’ which is a traditional Welsh/Arthurian story partly set in the time and place I’m most interested in (north-west Wales (where I live now) in the fifth and sixth centuries).  The original is a convoluted tale with a lot of unusual elements and I’m struggling to give it a decent structure and historical context.

Finally, a big, big thank you to everyone who has been involved in my writing in 2019, particularly Philip.