The Nor'easter

Having completed nearly 40,000 words of the next book in the series, The Elusive MacGuffin, I realised that I had set the book chronologically too far from the end of The Pink Herring. I had made changes in the characters lives that needed more explanation and time to bed in. So, I temporarily stopped work on the The Elusive MacGuffin and started The Nor'easter, which develops the backstories at a steadier pace. 

This will be the next Shaun Young novel, picking up the story a few months after the dramatic ending of The Pink Herring. Helena Crowthorne eases into her promoted role as Detective Inspector, Steven Forrester takes up the acting DCS role while the formal process to replace DSC Spencer is orchestrated by Mary Hart. Shaun outsources the renovation of his canal boat to Frank Barker and his boat building business set in the Martham marina.

And they all get involved in a new mystery surrounding the unexplained death at sea of an investigative journalist who had made many enemies, professionally and personally, with her ruthless approach to work and life...

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2nd Draft Submitted

Finally, I said enough is enough and called the latest update to my manuscript Final 2nd Draft. That's it, for now...

I decided over the summer to take Tim's advice about self-publishing, having heard another horror story from a friend's wife who'd gone the traditional publishing route and desperately wishing she hadn't. By taking this decision though, means that I need to ensure the finished article is as polished as it possibly could be. To that end, I contacted Janet Laurence who did such a fantastic job the first time around and she agreed to take it on again.

The manuscript has grown in size to 125,677 words and ground an extra couple of chapters but it is far, far better read. Having acted on all the feedback I had from the first draft, The Pink Herring now reads like a professional novel and I am even more proud of it. Let's hope Janet thinks the same...