This week’s work-in-progress news is that I have almost finished the first draft of ‘Grave Developments’, the next Delamere Files mystery. This one has taken a long time to put down, mainly because of a physical hurdle, the dodgy arm thing. However, on days when I have not been able to type for long, I have read back and made alterations, edits, and improvements to existing chapters. This isn’t my usual way of working, but it actually works really well. I’ve now almost completed the second or even third draft for about 80% of the book, and with only another 10% to write and 10% to improve, it’s almost there. So, later this week, I will start on the cover and the illustration, the blurb and everything else, ahead of releasing the book in, let’s say, mid-December.
Talking of the illustration, I asked on my Facebook page who readers would like to see an illustration of, and through FB and emails, the winner was Benjamin Baxter. I am now on the lookout for an image of a 19/20-year-old man with blond hair and a ponytail, wearing a late 19th-century groom’s uniform. A bit specific, so I’m actually looking for a photo of a bloke from then (or now) whose face seems right to me, and then I’ll ask Daz to put him in the right garb. I found this chap, who may be a TV star (I don’t recognise him), but he’s slightly too old – he looks more like 25 + to me, but I may be wrong.
(I just noticed the watermark. it’s an AI image generator. I went to it and tried asking for a ’19 year old blond man’ and it told me off for trying to generate an NSFW image! The hunt continues elsewhere. Anyway, that’s where we are with the next Delamere. Not too long to go now, I hope. In the meantime, your support is always greatly appreciated, with buying and reading the books, leaving reviews, mentioning the books on social media and following the promos. I have to say, most of my income these days comes via the readership of the ‘Mayhem & Motives’ promos arranged by BookMojo, so this week, it’s their turn to have some Jackson publicity. I have earmarked a couple from this month’s list, and I’ll get to them after I have finished my current read, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, by Dickens. Take a look, and see what you fancy:
