Monthly Archives: February 2025

Back to Acts of Faith

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Hello everyone, I am back from my travels and I have started back to work on ‘Acts of Faith’, the Delamere Files book seven.

We had a great time away, despite Neil going down with the flu and me having a dodgy allergic reaction to something I ate in London. We caught up with my old cabaret partner, had lunch in Garrick Street, went to see ‘The Book of Mormon,’ surprised my nephew on his 30th birthday, Neil’s sister too, and my brother, I called in on my mother and stepfamily, and we stayed overnight in a pod in Gatwick airport. Now, we’re back, and both have colds, but we’re battling on.

I have some photos of Clearwater-related places in London that I took while I was there, and I will share them with you in time.

Today though, as my Wednesday work-in-progress blog, I wanted to run by you the first draft of the blurb for the next book. This, like the 1st draft, is still a work in progress, but this should be enough to give you the gist of the story and whet your appetite to know more. As for the writing, I am at 75% and am coming up to the smoking gun realisation, crisis and climax. It’s all in my head. It’s just a case of getting it down. So, here’s the blurb – and I’ll be back on Saturday.

Acts of Faith

The Delamere Files Book Seven

Jackson Marsh

When the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police assigns a personal case, failure is not an option. However, what starts out as a simple mystery soon turns into something far more complicated. An opera singer dead in her bath, a Smithfield butcher skinned alive, an unknown man found locked inside a steam locomotive… What is the connection?

With Benny Baxter’s help, the Clearwater detectives begin investigating the gruesome and seemingly unrelated murders, fully aware that failure could spell disaster for the agency.

Bringing in a handsome young constable seems to do little to aid the investigation, but Baxter recognizes in PC Inning a man trapped in a loveless marriage, with desires that lie elsewhere. As Baxter strives to prove his worth both in the case and in winning Inning’s affection, his search for a better life and love takes a chilling turn. He makes a horrifying discovery: the killer may be far closer than he ever imagined.

Benjamin Baxter, 1893

Update and Off

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I have to take a week off to rest my arm again, but before I do, I wanted to update you on what’s what and where I am, and remind you of the MM Romance, thriller and mystery promos I am taking part in (links below).

Currently, as you might know, I am writing the seventh instalment of the Delamere Files, ‘Acts of Faith.’ This will be the 26th book set in the Clearwater world, and I think lord Clearwater may very well make an appearance if only for half a scene. The book is coming along gradually because I’m unable to type as much, but also because it’s taking a fair amount of research. I can’t tell you all the details of that without giving things away, but I can tell you this:

Yesterday, I was at the Criterion Restaurant, Piccadilly. Except I wasn’t. Baxter and another character were, and the date was March 1893.

‘Acts of Faith’ centres around Baxter and his desire to move up from being a groom to a detective. It will also see him maturing in certain ways, and shaving his privates in the bath.

What? Yes, well… It’s Baxter ain’t it? Jack also appears a fair amount, because Baxter is his assistant, and Will and Ned are around in the background. There’s a new character who gets involved in the mystery, but more about him at a later date, and I reckon you’re going to have great fun working out a) what’s going on, b) what went on in the past, c) What’s going to happen, and d) to whom, by whom, how and when. I will be commissioning a cover and an illustration later this month.

The Criterion Restaurant (Wiki)

All will be revealed in time.

I’ll be back with you in a week or so.

Meanwhile, here’s the reminder of the various promos if you want to click over to any and have a free browse.

Discover New Crime Series

Here, you can find 34 titles, some of which are mine: Deviant Desire, Guardians of the poor etc. Also, though, you will see The Saddling, The Witchling and The Easting, three in a series of books also by me. The main character of these three goes on a journey of self-discovery in a place that hasn’t changed for hundreds of years and yet exists in the 20th century… I don’t want to give too much away, but think ‘The Wicker Man’ meets ‘Witness’ but gay…

https://books.bookfunnel.com/crimeseriespagefeb2025/hl4zk6n3nl

LGBTQI + Romance Sales

I’m not 100% sure about this one, tbh. The header tells us you can find free books and ARCs at this promo, but mine aren’t being given away for free. Maybe I’m in the wrong group for this one, but take a look and see what you can come up with. There are 47 titles, including Banyak & Fecks and the Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/bfhostlbtqiarombooks/ipn9p050q5

First In Crime Series

Find some series starters in the crime genre with this promo where there are over 60 titles to explore, each with blurbs and links to where you can download or order them. Again, my usual suspects are in there, but this is one of the promos that does me well, so I’m staying right there.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/firstinseriesKUfeb2025/pxp5mlbvc5

Mayhem & Motives (From February 8th)

This is where I find most of my new readers these days, I’m sure of it. I work with Book Mojo from time to time and they do me well, so I like to support them back. In this case, they have 35 titles on offer. https://books.bookfunnel.com/crimeseriespagefeb2025/hl4zk6n3nl

https://books.bookfunnel.com/crimeseriespagefeb2025/hl4zk6n3nl

No spam, simply Jackson’s update.

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Hi all, and welcome to February.

I have some new promos to share with you, plus some news on what I am up to. Let’s start with me. I am now over halfway through writing the first draft of ‘Acts of Faith’ the next book in the Delamere Files series (book number seven). I am aiming to finish the first draft by the end of this month, so, all being well, you might expect the book out in March. Maybe on Clearwater’s (and my) birthday on the 26th, we will see.

I am pleased to report that my three 19th century mystery series have been doing well, with some rising up and down various charts and reaching lofty heights (usually after a new release). My other books are doing okay too, but don’t get as much publicity as the Clearwater, Larkspur and Delamere collection, and that’s why I have some others in a promo this month, and they are ones you may not have heard of.

Here are the details of what you can find after February 1st (and, in the case of one, after February 8th, but I’ll remind you about that later too).

Discover New Crime Series

Here, you can find 34 titles, some of which are mine: Deviant Desire, Guardians of the poor etc. Also, though, you will see The Saddling, The Witchling and The Easting, three in a series of books also by me. The main character of these three goes on a journey of self-discovery in a place that hasn’t changed for hundreds of years and yet exists in the 20th century… I don’t want to give too much away, but think ‘The Wicker Man’ meets ‘Witness’ but gay…

https://books.bookfunnel.com/crimeseriespagefeb2025/hl4zk6n3nl

LGBTQI + Romance Sales

I’m not 100% sure about this one, tbh. The header tells us you can find free books and ARCs at this promo, but mine aren’t being given away for free. Maybe I’m in the wrong group for this one, but take a look and see what you can come up with. There are 47 titles, including Banyak & Fecks and the Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/bfhostlbtqiarombooks/ipn9p050q5

First In Crime Series

Find some series starters in the crime genre with this promo where there are over 60 titles to explore, each with blurbs and links to where you can download or order them. Again, my usual suspects are in there, but this is one of the promos that does me well, so I’m staying right there.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/firstinseriesKUfeb2025/pxp5mlbvc5

Mayhem & Motives (From February 8th)

This is where I find most of my new readers these days, I’m sure of it. I work with Book Mojo from time to time and they do me well, so I like to support them back. In this case, they have 35 titles on offer.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/crimeseriespagefeb2025/hl4zk6n3nl

There, that’s what’s happening with my self-promo this month. Feel free to throw those links around to all and sundry and do your bit to support indie authors.

Smithfield Market, London, 1838

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It was market morning. The ground was covered nearly ankle deep with filth and mire; and a thick steam perpetually rising from the reeking bodies of the cattle, and mingling with the fog, which seemed to rest upon the chimney tops, hung heavily above…

Not my writing, I’m afraid, but Dickens (Oliver Twist, 1838). I am currently researching Smithfield Market because two of my investigators will be going there later today, and I want to give an accurate picture of what one of London’s most famous markets was like in 1893. However, so far, I have only found accounts from earlier in the century and passages from authors such as Dickens. Having said that, I have not yet read everything on my go-to website, the Dictionary of Victorian London.

One of my challenges is to describe the same thing again and use accurate facts without sounding like a lecture. This is where Will Merrit comes in. I have fallen on this handy tool of using him to provide Jack and Baxter with background information about destinations they visit. It’s happened in previous novels, and there’s a little bit of it happening in the next one, ‘Acts of Faith,’ which is ticking along nicely in first draft form (see Wednesday’s blog for updates). So, to let readers know the facts of a place, I might slip in a snippet like this:

In form, the Meat Market is a parallelogram. It is 631 feet long, and 246 feet wide. It covers 3½ acres of ground. The architectural style of the building is Italian. The external walls of the market are 32 feet high, and for the purposes for which it was erected it is both in appearance and arrangements a model market.

That’s actually from John Fletcher Porter, London Pictorially Described, [1890], and thanks again to the Dictionary and its compiler, Dr Lee Jackson. Click that link and you will find all his books about Victorian London. I have a few of them and have read others. They are fascinating, though not necessarily my period of late 19th century.

So, my workload today includes writing chapter 18 and making sure there is a PoC (Point of Chapter) so that the story moves or the characters develop and we don’t end up with a shoe leather chapter where you get fab description but no story movement.

I also have to put out the month’s newsletter which will contain this month’s promotions for new books from many authors. (Sign up for the monthly newsletter from the link at the top of this page.)

I’d also like to get to the bottom of why, in my new PC, my autocorrect options sometimes use ‘straight quotes’ and other times use ‘curly quotes,’ there seems to be no rhyme or reason for it. The problem is the straight ones in words like don’t, come out as reversed curly quotes in the final printing of the book and look odd. (A minor niggle, but a niggle all the same.)

I also have some other bits and pieces to take care of so this Saturday looks to be already filled up with work and typing, just as I like it.