Today’s blog post will be the last of this year, so I want to take the opportunity to thank all my readers for their support through 2025. It’s been a very productive year for me, starting in March with the publication of Acts of Faith (Delamere seven), followed by Holywell Street, Snake Hill, and recently, A Depraved Indifference (Delamere 10). What next for Jack Merrit and Co.? I shall have a think while I am away on our Christmas tour of Europe.
I wasn’t only working on the Delamere series, though. I very recently launched 1893 on the world, and that is now on the Clearwater Tales series page. As that has only just come out, there are no reviews or ratings yet, but I had a lovely comment from a reader who had just read the Barrister’s Tale and described it as reminiscent of an Ealing Comedy. Brilliant! Exactly what I wanted to hear.
Also, during the year, I tried out with some moving book covers, and I continued with my promo activity, hoping to promote other indie authors while also promoting myself. Again, you are a great help with this. The more clicks my promos get, the better reputation I have in the indie community as someone willing to help promote others.
I also signed up to BookBub and Bluesky, so if you haven’t connected there, here are my profile links:
The Christmas adventure I mentioned starts next Friday. Me, husband, godson and his mum are heading off on a tour of Europe (buts of). This year, instead of spending a fortune on presents and one feast at home, we decided to spend several fortunes on a 12-day trip and have Christmas elsewhere. This isn’t a quick flight to an all-inclusive hotel somewhere, though, oh no. It’s partly ‘The Clearwater Inheritance’ and partly ‘The Larkspur Legacy’ except without the mystery or schooner. Here’s a brief itinerary:
Rhodes flight to Athens, Athens flight to Milan. Quick train to Verona for a couple of nights, so we can get it a day in Venice. (Neil as booked us half an hour with a gondolier – I think he meant gondola.) From there, to see the Tyrol and Innsbruck, then on to Salzburg, and from there to Prague for three days over Christmas. Thence, to Transylvania on an overnight train via Budapest and Vienna, for a few days in Romania (hopefully seeing the castle that’s on the front of ‘Inheritance’), and New Year’s even in Bucharest before flying back home. Phew!
For now, though, that’s it. I’m off! Thanks again, and let’s keep in touch via my Facebook and/or Bluesky. JM
Some writers sit as a tray in a shed, some writers use libraries, hotels and other public places. Then, you have writers who have garret rooms, use the kitchen table, or scribble in books when in the park. Me? I am lucky enough to have a room large enough to house a desk and a corner PC unit. I do my reading research, reading, plotting, noting and handwritten work at the old desk, and everything computer-wise in the corner.
Today, I thought I’d show you around my writing corner as I’ve not done this for a while, and recently, I have had many new readers buy and enjoy my books. So, here’s a welcome to them, and a quick tour of where the hard work happens.
First, the long shot
This is a wide-angle photo taken from my office door, to give you an idea of the layout. Just off stage to the left is a bookshelf (the contents of which could be a blog post or two on their own). The trunk I’ve had since I was eight and went to boarding school. Apparently, it was donated to my grandfather first and then to me, and it is an original Louis Vuitton from around 1912. The little case on top of it is a modern filing cabinet Neil bought me. The windows are open because it is 32° (at 3.30 in the morning – I couldn’t sleep), and the lights beyond are the masts of a ship. The fan on the trunk is already doing its work.
I will come back to the corner unit in detail in a moment. First, skip to the right and the door leads to Neil’s office/a spare room where our nephew stays when he visits. Then, we have a printer where the ink costs more than the machine, so I only use it for scanning, and have someone else print documents as and when I need them because it’s cheaper. Bottle of water? At this time of year, I get through about three of these a day, that’s 4.5 litres. The poster and pictures on the wall? The poster is all the Clearwater Mysteries front covers printed out, a gift from my PA, Jenine, and above it is a photo of Neil and me not long after we first met 27 years ago. Moving left, behind the lamp is a print of one of my mother’s paintings, and a map of Kent, my home county.
Now, Closer.
Okay, so on top of the desk, left to right, we have an old school bell I bought for a production of my musical ‘Time and Again’ back in 1997. The three photographs are 1) my godfather, whose life story you can read in my recent release ‘Bobby.’ This photo was taken in WWII, probably around 1940. 2) is a photo my cover designer, Andjela, put together for me. It’s Neil’s face on an old photo body, and I used the same image for Professor Fleet on the cover of ‘1892.’ 3) That’s our godson, Harry, the day after his 16th birthday when Neil took him SCUBA diving. (He’ll be 17 on Tuesday; tempus fugit!) The tiny image beside it is the Serbian National Theatre in Belgrade. We were there. I saw this old postcard, liked it, bought it, and then found a street artist drawing the same building, so bought that sketch too. I just liked it.
As you can see, there are several pieces of paper stuck to this corner unit. On the left, those pieces are my notes about my Book Funnel group promos, the things which are keeping us fed at the moment. There’s a banner at the bottom of this post linking to the currently running ones in case you’re looking for more good reads. These pieces of paper remind me of my dates and obligations. I have two running this month, three in September, and have lined up one for October so far. On the right, those pieces of paper are my notes for ‘A Case of Make Believe’, and they go along with the notebook that’s there beneath my arm support, currently in use because I have tennis elbow thanks to spending so long each day in repetitive typing mode.
Dotted around the desk, you can see on the left, a glow-in-the-dark model of the witch from the Aurora model kit (remake, not original). If you look closely you can see, top shelf left, my one and only remaining Dartington crystal glass beside one I bought in Prague in 1995, Bohemian crystal, and beside that, a small bear, a present from my husband. Then, I have my other glasses and some tablets, a beaker of water, and a cup of tea (must go and make another shortly).
Centre, obviously, is the computer just waking up and giving me a daily dose of how my AVG security is kind of ‘Meh,’ but it’ll do. AVG begrudgingly tells me that, and they’re doing it because I’m not giving in to their demands and buying every last and unnecessary security add-on. Then, finally, to the right of all that, my reading/writing glasses, some electrolytes because it’s summer, and some notebooks.
Perhaps not the most fascinating of writing corners, but it works for me. I can turn my head and look at the sea and sky, or I can stare straight ahead at the screen. Beyond it is a magnetic noticeboard on which is currently pinned a list of my favourite typos (to remind me to check them when an MS is complete), a certificate to say I adopted a Galapagos penguin in 2020, and out of sight (is out of mind) a reminder of what bills have to be paid when.
That’s me. That’s where I sit sometimes for eight hours a day banging our stories and researching the past. Today, I shall be doing just that and, as I have an early start, may even finish draft one of ‘A Case of Make Believe’ by the end of the working day – which will be around 10.00 a.m. as I was up at 2.00.
Here’s the link to one of the currently running promos. Feel free to give it a click and browse the books.
