It has been a little while since I did a blog post, 2020 seems to have flown by with the blink of an eye! As you may see, this post is somewhere different from where my blog usually is, and you would be correct in thinking that! My website is offline for the time being to allow me to focus on my Master's degree I am currently on, as it is such a time consuming and life adjustment, with all the online lectures, as unlike my undergrad degree, it is only a year, and most of it is online so it is such a strange time right now! So, I decided to take it offline as it does distract me and I find myself playing around with it all the time even if I don't need to, so it will be back and my old blog will be back, but I thought I would use another platform, for now, to keep my writing brain alive!
This post doesn't really have a structure as such, when do my posts have one? It is more of a life update and some discussions about what is happening right now. The first thing I have already mentioned, but alongside my new degree, I am also very slowly getting through my fourth book. Shortly after the launch of my third book which is over two months ago now! How crazy is that? But I announced that I would be taking a break from writing. That was party true, as I did take a small break of not writing anything. Of course, I couldn’t stay away from writing for that long so I decided that I needed to work on something. At the time, it wasn’t going to be another book. I had originally planned that the books were going to rest for a while, and then focus my attention on some short stories. But an idea came to mind and I had to do it! You have to jump at the opportunity when it comes right!? I was walking through the forest near my house (the only thing you can do without coming into contact with the virus in 2020!) and it came to me. I was listening to Taylor Swifts new album Folklore, and the descriptions of the trees, the sky and especially the song ‘Invisible String’, helped me construct a story that I had never done before. I feel I have got really comfortable now when it comes to novel writing. Of course, I am by no means an expert and every time I write something new, a tackle a new skill that was lacking in the previous book, but this book is different. This book has helped me stay positive at the time when the world seems so scary and dark. A whole year of ‘don’t do this’ and ‘stay at home’ being said all around us. I am fortunate to have the love of my life with me through most of the lockdowns we have had this year, and that alone had helped me remain sane.
I think I am going to keep the plot of the book a secret for now as there is still a lot of writing to go. The story is sealed in my head and in spider-grams, but I have only just started to writing chapter three and it is just under 10,000 words in. To compare, The Enigma has 112,000 words and both of my first two books have 101,000 words. Of course, they don’t have to match, book four could have 300,000 words who knows! But there is a lot to go but something I do know and can say, is that it will come out in 2021. 2020 was the year of The Enigma, 2021 will be the year of book four.
Something else I have embarked on whilst writing more books, is a Masters degree. I never imagined doing a Masters only a year after finishing my Bachelors, but sitting in the first lockdown made me realise if I was going to go for it, and upskill, the time would be now. Business has been hit hard, and the last thing on many businesses minds is to take on a junior entry level graduate. So, the decision was made to further refine my skills with an MSc in Marketing. I am really enjoying so far, already over half way through the first of three semesters. It is a year long, and hopefully should bear some fruits early next year of a potential start to my career. Hopefully when the vaccine comes into effect and worlds starts better coping with the new bedfellow coronavirus, businesses will start seeing me as a viable candidate (finally!).
So, what else have I been up to? Nothing much, but I feel most people could say the same. Book four has really been my main concern after my masters, and seeing it flourish has been such a delight. Seeing all my books hit that milestone from tentative writing to see if the idea works, and then this point where the words keep flowing the creative juices are flowing like a river current! The cover is done, which is amazing, and for once I am happy with it! Never did I think I would ever be happy with a cover I have made this early into the writing process. Saying that, The Enigma has its cover after four months of writing and that was early for me. Typhoon got its cover two months before launch, which was the latest. If you are a diehard follower of mine you would have seen me promoting all of these paper texture designs with bright popping shapes, as that was originally the settled cover for the book, but as always, I have my last minute doubts. I would change nothing though, as I truly feel every cover is fate. I found the cover for Through my Rose Tinted Glasses by fate, and its pure simplicity has always been one of my favourites (of course, being the first always makes it that little more special). However, if I am going to end this post with some tea spilt, then I will have to say, that the cover for book four, is my favourite cover I have ever done. There, I have said it! I will show it off soon, but not yet…I want your imaginations thinking for a little longer milling over what it could be, but I am pretty sure you can tell the colour of the next era is, considering I have teased it a lot over the last few week. I can’t help it ok!
Anyways, I am rambling. It is nice to be back here, more posts will come, but writing as free as I could before it not a realistic ambition until this Masters has finished, but news is coming and I cannot wait to share it with you all, and kickstart the era of Book Four!