Hello from the North West of England! Spring is definitely in the air now! And spring is a time for change - starting with how I write to you. I've decided to send out a monthly newsletter, beginning now. Hopefully you'll find it interesting.
What I've Been Reading
To my shame - the answer is, not very much. For the last six months I've been spending a lot of time marketing and promoting, what little's left is taken up with writing and editing. So, frankly, I've been rubbish. Over Christmas I tackled Lee Child's latest (generally I find his works not so good now as they were for the first dozen or so) and a Bernard Cornwell from the Uhtred series. Since then I've picked up and put books down, nothing has held my attention. So, if you've a suggestion that'll knock my socks off, I'd love hear it.
What I've Been Watching
Nina, my wife, is obsessed with Chateau DIY (for those who haven't seen it, the content is about Brits buying a French chateau and doing it up - guess who's the most romantic of the pair of us?!).
We've also invested in Netflix and rattled through The Good Place before moving onto Once Upon A Time. The primary reason we picked this is because of Robert Carlyle who plays Mr Gold / Rumpelstiltskin. We used to watch a quirky crime series set in a remote Scottish village and starring Mr Carlyle, called Hamish Macbeth. The programme is based on books written by MC Beaton (she also wrote the Agatha Raisin series currently on TV too).
Otherwise, I've been having a bash at The Punisher (as I'm a bit of a comic book fan) after, much to my surprise, struggling with Better Call Saul. We're looking forward to the final GoT series, Stranger Things and the upcoming The Good Place.
What about you? Anything of interest, particularly crime related, to watch?
Writing
Hmm, this has been a bit of a struggle recently, I lost half of January and February battling away with a new, and as yet untitled, Gray (probably out in June). I tend to write early in the morning before everybody is up and try to produce a minimum of 1,000 words. I work from an outline - a breakdown of each chapter - but I have a tendency to be evolutionary too; the story shifts and changes over time, meaning I can end up in a writing cul de sac. Exactly what happened this time.
However, I'm through that now and belting away at the keyboard. The plan is to have a first draft by the end of the month before submitting to my editors (I use two - for the story and copy) at the end of March.
Then it's onto planning the next books (more on those in a subsequent letter). Speaking of which...
The Nudge Man
This is a totally new crime / black comedy novel and series due for release on April 2nd (which happens to be a milestone birthday I've not been looking forward to for quite a while!). It'll be out for pre-release at a special price seven days before launch date. If the book is received well then I'll write more in the series. I'm looking forward to seeing what you think to this one.
Newly Released Books
In case you missed it I've recently released two box sets, one consisting of the four Gray novels so far, the other containing three Konstantin's. You can find them here, if you wish. These are universal book links so you can choose the store you want:
Konstantin Box Set
Gray Box Set
Future Content
Finally, if there's anything you'd like to hear about in subsequent letters, just let me know, I'm always happy to talk. And if you receive more than one copy, please drop me a line and I'll deal with it. I've run several free book promotions so it's entirely feasible and the last thing I want to do is hassle you.
Speaking of promos there's one over at Bookfunnel called Great British Crime. There's a button below of you're interested.
I'll send these notes out monthly with the occasional note in between if there's something of value to say (!).
The Dog
And, just for the hell of it, here's a picture of the latest addition to our house (we got him in April!), a wire fox terrier called Mack. He's a massive handful...
All the best.
Keith
March Newsletter
