The Whole Gamut Publishing

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Working from home? No change there then... How is the writing going? I have, of late, become a little distracted.  O ver Christmas, I  discovered I have prostate cancer and recently had my surgery cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak - this has  somewhat  affected my level of focus. But don't worry, prostate cancer is something you usually die with rather than from, so I'm in no imminent danger - it will get sorted when things return to normal.

To finish the third novel Some of you may have seen from Twitter and Facebook that I've gone to France for a month or so to finish the third instalment in the Shaun Young series. 

... this Friday 26th October 2018 I'm so pleased to announce that I've finally finished The Nor'easter . My editor, Janet Laurence, returned her review of my 147,500 word first draft at the end of August and I completed the re-work at the end of September.  I went through it again to clean and tighten, reducing the words from 142,00 t0 134,940. John Holland then performed a final proofread and here we are.

What am I up to now? With the second book in the series,  The Nor'easter , safely in the hands of my editor, Janet Laurence, I have about four weeks before I receive her full assessment.  I have picked up writing on the third book in the Shaun Young series, The Whistle Blower  (if you click on the cover pages graphic above, a larger version appears - it's pleasing to see them lined up as a series)

Welcome back! Hello everyone - it's been a while since my last update, but thought it was worth breaking radio silence to let you know how things are going with the follow-up to The Pink Herring.

... and I'm falling helplessly down it . So, I published The Pink Herring at the end of March intending to spend a small proportion of my time on marketing activity - the majority devoted to working on the next book. Two months on and guess what? I have managed the exact opposite of that proportion...

Before I started writing in earnest, I did some research   on how others approach writing fiction, hoping to find a magic bullet technique that I could use. However, the more I looked, the more varied the methods of writing I found and the less convinced I became that I would ever find one which would make my task any easier...

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 ...

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...

Having sorted out what I need to re-write , I decided to head down to France. Mum and Dave were back in the UK leaving the house in Beaulieu empty and ready for a writer in residence. I drove down on the 23rd August into blisteringly hot weather. After about 12 hours I reached the house, via the local Super U to pick up some food and drink, and the temperature was still in the high 30's. Mum and Dave's place is in central France, in the middle of a rural district. It's picturesque and quiet, apart from the odd tractor trundling by. The silence is uncanny. Nothing, no sound at all. After the first day I realised that this was not true. There were no artificial sounds, just the glorious sound of nature.  The view from the back porch is stunning - vast open skies that seem to go on forever. If I can't get inspired to work here it will be because I'm simply overwhelmed by the stunning beauty of the place. I soon found a routine. I rise...

With The Pink Herring now away at the editors , I started work on the next Shaun Young book today - working title The Elusive MacGuffin. It is set some six months after The Pink Herring and begins with an elderly man arriving on steam train at Sheringham station, the end of the line.