Yes, I Have A Plan! (And It Might Even Work!)

 Hi Guys,

Ok, so as the title says I have a tentative plan for publishing two more books this year. 

The first is another detective - Art Mystery 101 - which is currently in the process of being edited. And I'm thinking the cover will be similar to the one above - which is another Deep Dream work. The only problem with it is that my character actually is sort of half Oriental and for unknown reasons she actually only has four fingers and thumb on her right hand! (Though ironically enough Cayllee Chambers does have badly damaged fingers on both her hands as a result of an abusive childhood. Could Deep Dream somehow be reading my thoughts?!)

Anyway, the story follows a number of the themes I've had running through my works for a couple of years now, but also takes a couple of sharp left turns. One of them being that she is an actual art forger who has been working quietly away, completely unnoticed by anyone - until an attack / fire / mass murder on the art facility where she is employed for her day drive, threatens to expose her alternative occupation, forcing her to flee.

Of course, nothing is ever what it seems!

The second book is - Good Neighbours - an urban sci fi, set in a fictitious New Zealand town, where our hero is the local vet trying to live a normal life while ignoring the fact that the town is home to an alien research base - and that some of the visitors might actually be insane!

Don't know if this will be the cover - but I love the image!

Good Neighbours is a little further off, but the first draft is complete and I'm flat out working on the edits / revisions. With luck it'll be out for Christmas. Unfortunately, one little wrinkle in my plans is that I'm due for eye surgery next month, so I don't know what that's going to do to everything. The other little wrinkle is that every time I sit down to type, the cat seems to want to sit in front of the screen and get petted!

Anyway, that's where I am at the moment, and I will do my damndest not to get sidetracked as usual. (If the cat lets me!)

Cheers for now,

Greg.

Lost in the Weeds - again!

 Hi Guys,

Just a brief note to let you know where I am these days and why I haven't posted anything for a while. And I think the title about sums it up. As you know I recently put out Freaksville, and was extremely happy to have finally got it finished after more than a year of procrastination. But after that I found myself losing focus for a time and ended up watching masses of Youtube and various telly shows. Some old ones but also some brand new.

By the way for those of you into quirky and sort of detectivy, I can't recommend the shows Deadlock and Population 11 highly enough. I don't know what is happening on the other side of the ditch, but the Australians really seem to be excelling with their offbeat characters and plots. Damn, I just wish I could write characters that completely and so hilariously off the wall! I mean years ago they put out films like Malcolm, Strictly Ballroom and Garbo, but lately they've been taking things to a whole new level. I love it!

Other than that, I've been sort of blocked in my writing, sitting at my desk and wondering how the orange trees outside the window can be fruiting when we're just starting winter, and the overnight temperature drops to damn near freezing. Most people keep telling me that oranges shouldn't grow in this climate at all! But I figure since I've also got lemons and grapefruit in my back yard, my back yard must be some sort of tropical micro-climate. Or magical!

The good news is that I'm nearly through the first draft of an urban sci fi - Good Neighbours - the story of a typical New Zealand Vet beset by aliens. The bad news is that I'm blocked again. For some reason this whole book has been like that. I write a chapter or two and then can't think where I go from there. It's like pulling teeth as they say and a lot of coffee has been drunk, a lot of swear words muttered! On the positive side I can't pull my hair out since I got stuck in with the trimmer a few weeks ago and there isn't anything long enough left to get a good solid grip on!

Anyway, that's been my life lately, that and trying to explain to the cat that no she wasn't born in a glass factory and I can't see through her when she decides to deposit herself in front of the monitor, and the reason it's been a while since I've posted. But I hope to have some better news by the next post. And in the meantime, enjoy the alien duck!

Cheers, Greg.