We’re just over a month into the new year and I’ve been giving all my commitments for the year the side-eye!
Please understand that I am very very very excited about every single one of these projects! And I’m going to list them here in the hopes that it keeps my honest and also perky when the work gets hard (as it inevitably does; writing isn’t all champagne and inspiration: mostly it’s too much coffee and making words happen even when you’re feeling far from inspired).
So what’s going on? What isn’t?!
Anthologies
I so loved the process of editing my first anthology – The Only One in the World – that I asked my publisher if I could do it again! She said yes, and I’m about to start reviewing the curated submissions.
Then two other editors suggested two other anthologies and invited me to co-edit, and I said yes there too, so during the year I will be editing/co-editing THREE anthologies. Count ’em! THREE!! Can’t wait to share them with you in due course.
Novels
A few of the novels that are likely to come out in 2022-3 are mentioned under the Patreon title, but another one I’ve decided to work on is a crime novel set in Melbourne. I haven’t yet begun it, but the plan is to have it ready for submission by the end of the year.
Short Stories
I’ve already written a short story due for publicatoin in a crime anthology later this year – a story that is set in the same universe as the previously mentioned novel!
I have also been invited to submit short stories to a few other anthologies this year – all of which look to be great fun, so I’m looking forward to those!
Songs
I’m continuing with my music project, which is funded both by my Patreon and by the things I make and sell at Dangerous Charm. You can hear the three songs to date, all from the Duo Ex Machina crime series – at The Song Project.
Currenty, the producer, Josh King, and I are working on two songs inspired by some Sherlockian themes, but the long term plan is to do an album’s worth of the Duo Ex Machina songs, an album of Sherlock-inspired songs, and an album of Kitty and Cadaver-inspired songs. We won’t get to them all this year, but I’m going to have a ball doing as many as possible!
As an adjunct to this, I’ll continue to craft things to support the costs of studio time and singers! (Some of my Patreon supporters also get bling in the post a few times a year).
Patreon
The She Wolf of Baker Street reached the end of its serialisation on my Patreon – and now all I need is the time to edit it properly, get someone else to review and edit it, and organise the publication in partnership with Clan Destine Press. This may take a little while, but when it comes together, all my Patreon supporters will get the ebook! And then it will be available to all.
What is it? Why, it’s a contemporary take on Baker Street, focused on a werewolf Mrs Hudson, several other werewolves, a plot against the supernatural heart of the United Kingdom, two non-supernatural flatmates falling in love, and Sherlock trying to work out whether discovering the supernatural will break him or change him.
With so many other projects on this year (read on for those) I’ve decided the next books to be serialised are the currently out of print Vampires of Melbourne books – The Opposite of Life begins this month, and when that has run its course, it’ll be followed by Walking Shadows. The aim is that by the time the latter is near the end, I’ll have written the third and final book in the series, Beyond Redemption, which I will then serialise. So that’s a lot of Melborne Vampire Action coming up.
In between I’ll be posting about my library, my research, my city and the occasional flash fiction. More Holmesian fiction will pop up early this year, as I write stories for prompts suggested by my Booked out supporters! I’m particularly looking forward to completing the Sherlock Holmes In Space story that one of them asked for!
I’m also sporadically writing and posting a series of 221B ficlets called The Haunting of Baker Street – set in the present day where the current tenants of Baker Street are being gently haunted by a pair of famous Victorian Husbands!
And let’s not forget the aforementioned bling!
*stops to breathe*
So that’s it! A packed year of editing, short fiction, long fiction, songwriting and crafting ahead of me.
Possibly followed by a year of sitting quietly in a cupboard.
If you want to support me or any of my projects, you can buy or even review my books (or ask your library to get them in!)
You can also support me on Patreon, buy things (or gift cards) from Dangerous Charm or just listen to any of the songs on on Apple Music, Soundcloud, Amazon Music, Spotify or YouTube.
Or just follow me on Twitter and laugh quietly to yourself as I try to keep up with my commitments!