I’m a happy writer today, gentle reader. In fact, I can honestly say that I am feeling positively smug about myself. Smug! Now, there’s a word you don’t hear too often these days, but I can use it freely today because that’s exactly how I’m feeling.

And what could possibly be the cause of such unbridled self-satisfaction? I hear you ask. Why, it was only this time last week that you were belly-aching like a big cry-baby that needs a nappy change and a bottle of milk, Stevenson, because you’d done a little water based exercise and buggered yourself up. What’s changed?

Well, to keep a long story short, I wrote almost 3500 words yesterday.

Big deal! Some may say.

Really? You have a go at it then. See how many words, lines, paragraphs and chapters you can churn out in a single day? Actually if the answer is considerably more than 3500 words then fair play to you and I’ll shut the heck up.

The thing is that a target of 3-4000 used to be something that I would reach easily, each and every day. Whereas, as documented on this very blog recently, I’ve been hitting nowhere near that. That is why I am so happy and utterly smug with myself this sunny day (well, it’s sunny where I am).

Plus, I can really see the end of the new novel in sight now. Yes really. Like travelling through a long, dark, slimy tunnel of grammar and punctuation, I have been squinting to see the light at the end. I’ve slipped and fell a few times as I stumbled through it; tripping over gaping plot holes, stepping over stagnant puddles of rewrites and looking over my shoulder in terror listening to the scurrying of colloquial slang in the darkness behind me, as I made my slow progress though the murk.

Now, I feel invigorated! Well, in mind if not exactly in body; I’m still burning in every single muscle group, including a few I wasn’t even aware that I had, after last week’s arduous aquatic adventure. But my mind is buzzing with ideas and excitement as I plough headlong into the final third of the book.

My goal today is to beat yesterday’s word count and I honestly think I can do it. I’ve done over 500 already and I’m planning to work until four o’clock, by which time I will be thoroughly exhausted, so yes, I do believe it is possible. Although, I am a firm believer in the old saying about not counting your chickens until the eggs have hatched. So we’ll see how it pans out.

I am really eager to get this new book out asap. It’s quite different to anything I’ve done before yet still instantly recognisable as an Ingleby novel. Eagle-eyed readers might even recognise a few names here and there from previous IN’s (Ingleby Novels) and the familiarity of that fictitious, yet factually based, town is evident.

So will this new burst of inspiration and high word counts lead to a pre-Christmas publication? That’s what everybody wants to know.

Never say never (wasn’t that a Bond film?) I always say. I’d like to think so, but with less than five weeks to go to the big spend-fest itself it seems unlikely. However, chins up. You can always read my five other books again to tide you over until that great and glorious day when I proudly announce ‘I have a new novel!’

Until then, get out that dog-eared copy of The Pheasants Revolt and have a guffaw or two.