That time of year again.

 Going to be a quiet holiday this year. Found out at the last second we've got that gift that keeps on giving in the family. Yep, covid in da house. So, it'll have to be a postponed family get-together this year. Le sigh.

In other news: there's a new story in the story section. Stand in Stone Circles has a few pages started. It's a v1, so there will be revisions and errors will abound. And I do have minor updates for Borderlines, but that will be posted later.  I do want to use the holiday season to do some cover artwork for LIRL and also do more work on Borderlines.

Anyway, these words are boring. More interesting ones in story section. Merry etc etc.

Sept 29

 Just letting people know I'm still here. And still writing.

Things have been a bit busy, with work and life and cancer in the family and all the horrible shit that goes along with that. I've been writing where I can, and have made some progress. The next chapter in the Life of Riley series is underway and is currently titled Stand in Stone Circles. There's also been progress on Borderlines, although that's slow going. I know where I want to go with the story and how it's going to end, it's just that writing two completely different styles of books requires different mindsets for each, and switching from one to another sometimes doesn't come easily.

And I keep thinking 'I'll just polish this chapter up then post it', and that chapter becomes another and then another and next thing I know another month has gone by. And I've still got to work on the epub and cover art for Lies in Red Leaves. And, yes, I have looked at some of the AI options popping up out there, and can safely say they won't be replacing artists yet. They can make pretty pictures, but getting a specific image rendered out the way the artist imagines it, that they can't do. Yet. Could be handy for layout and viz work though.

But I will get something posted. Soon. Just have to get this chapter finished... 

 That took longer than I wanted.

I''ve been poking and prodding at Lies in Red Leaves for a couple of months, trying to polish the ending to a suitable standard. Still not quite there, I think, but I wanted to get this out before Christmas. So... Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and enjoy the final part of the penultimate installment of the Life of Riley, now available in the local stories section. There's one book left to come, tentatively titled Stand in Endless Circle, but that might be... some time away. In the meantime, I want to catch up on some unfinished business in some different universes.

Update time.

The long-awaited update to Lies in Red Leaves is available in the Stories section. Just be aware that Google has recently made some changes to Google Drive shares. This shouldn't affect the links for these documents, but if something isn't working just let me know. I've tested it and it seems to be okay, but these are the days of miracles and wonders.

And following this post there should be one more chapter in LiRL, and it'll be done. I do want to do some proofreading (and work on the cover) before posting to Amazon, so it will be while before it turns up there. And the next work in the pipeline will be... I'm not exactly sure. There's one more book in the Life of Riley to go, but there's also the end of Borderlines screaming for attention.

May the best man win.

Okay. Not Dead. Yay.

Just putting that out there. I was thinking I might be able to get Lies in Red Leaves finished off with one more post. That didn't quite work out: there's more to close off than I initially figured. So there will be a penultimate update coming Very Soon™, and then a final one after that. Not an entire year after it - the timeframe should be more reasonable.

November 2020

 An end-of-the-month update is here. There's another installment of Lies in red Leaves over in the stories section. Now, I won't tell you how much more there is to go, but this installment is in the denouement. The next book is in the planning stages, I know where I want to go with it, and that will probably be the end of this story arc. After that? No idea yet. Perhaps Catch the Knife. But I do want to get Borderlines finished up before then. And I do have to get some of those other old stories into formats that can be stored on this site. Yes, Godsend, I'm looking at you, you crusty old thing, you.

I'll see if I can get another update done before Christmas. Until then, stay safe and wear your damn mask.

July Update

The update to Lies in Red Leaves is up over in the story section. A little bit late as I wasn't happy with some aspects of it but couldn't figure out how to fix it. I think I got the worst of it, but I'll always be going back and polishing rough bits that stand out.

And thanks for the well-wishing. At the moment this country is relatively COVID-free, despite the best efforts of economists and marketroids who seem to know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. It's still  not over, and until a tried and tested vaccine is found, it won't be. That's still a long way off, and it's presupposing the virus won't mutate, or that another interesting bug won't come along to join the party. What was considered normal six months ago probably won't be back any time soon. If ever. But we have been taught some painful lessons and it'd be unspeakably wasteful not to take them to heart and learn from them. We can come through this better. So hang on in there and stay safe peoples.