If you follow me on Twitter, you might already be aware that I enrolled both But By Degrees and Valerie into Kindle Unlimited earlier this month. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while, so I finally took the plunge. With any luck, some KU readers who might not have considered trying one of my books will now give me a shot. Of course, if you wanted to encourage your KU friends, there’d be no arguing from me!
So, what else is going on? Well, I’m getting bits and bobs written. My next release is in a resting phase at the moment, so I’m hunkering down on a second draft of something that epitomises the darkness within humanity. It seems to be one of those stories I need to write, but who knows when it’ll see the light of day?
I’ve also been supplementing my writing with painting and photography. The perk of having a wife who’s a camera obsessive is that you get her cast-offs. I’ve now acquired my own camera and I’m getting to grips with it. Just like when I’m painting, I’m finding the time spent practising photography to be a nice way of completely switching off. That’s never been something I’ve found easy, but when I come back to the computer screen after some time spent with a brush in my hand or a camera wedged around my neck I’m refreshed.
Wakefield’s annual music festival is next weekend and the wife has wangled herself press accreditation. Last year was my first Long Division festival, despite living in Wakefield most of my life. I’d never felt it was the kind of thing I wanted to do, yet I really enjoyed the exhaustion of last year. Traipsing back and forth between venues and getting to the point where even the bouncers are laughing at you boomeranging around is fun.
There’s also an art display by one of my friends as part of the festival which I’m greatly looking forward to checking out. Helen Thomas was commissioned to create Mappa Music, with streets of our city transformed by the names of musical legends from the past and present. It’s going to be brilliant and you can check out her process and progress here.
All in all, life is pretty good. Now, if only the rain will have the courtesy to go away before we go to the coast on Bank Holiday Monday…
P.S: Both But By Degrees and Valerie are in the I Heart Lesfic sale which runs from Monday 27 May through to Friday 31 May. That means they’re already discounted in preparation. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
