Right, for a start there will be no mention of illness in this blog post. I don’t know about you but I’m getting heartily sick of talking about my various ailments and it’s time I shifted focus a bit.

So I’m going to talk about the progress of my next novel, whose name I won’t reveal yet.

Well, it’s about half way there; the first draft that is. It’s somewhere in the region of 40,000 words and I’m aiming for around 80,000 for the finished book. When it will be finished is rather hard to say. You see, I have been dragging my heels a bit with this one.

Not in the same way that Vole dragged it’s heels, no, that one was caused by it’s own bizarre and fruity nuances. I’m dragging this one out for other reasons. Which I have identified as thus:

1. Poor planning – yes, I’ve got to admit that there is a fair amount of pantsing going on with this one and I think I need a day or two, or even a week, to put the brakes on, get out the old exercise book and make the plan a damn sight more cohesive. I planned my first four novels to a T and I think the effort shows. But with the other two and this one I seem to have taken on a different approach. I got away with it on Hot Eire and Vole but I’ve hit a bit of an impasse on this one and it is slowing me down considerably.

2. My amazing wife and greatest supporter, Ange, had a heart attack at the end of January this year and has been off work for five months. That has given us the opportunity to spend a great deal more time together and therefore less time at the laptop for me. I’m not complaining, believe me, there’s nothing like a cardiac event to make you appreciate your loved ones more and we’ve appreciated the time that we’ve had. I think anyone who is in love will agree that it is time well spent. Thankfully, Ange is fully recovered and is returning to work this week on a part-time basis. Ergo, when she is working, I’ll be working and progress on the next novel will, hopefully, gather pace.

3. Ok, yes, my health has got in the way. Damn! I didn’t want to mention that.

4. Other irons in the fire – For example this here blog and the podcast eat into my time, but we live in an age where a good online presence is vital to the independent artiste and so I find myself having to spend a fair portion of my week working on those things.

But pushing the negatives aside what I can say is that despite all of that the novel so far promises to be a corker.

It’s a Joe Wilkie/Blessham novel and I know from the feedback that I receive just how much love there is out there for that quirky little character. And, as you’d expect, he gets himself into all sorts of scrapes and adventures in the book. There’s the usual outpouring of unbridled wrath from Lady Stark-Raven, a host of zany characters both old and new, tons of Wilkie wordplay and an antagonist like you haven’t seen before – he’s a far more subtle opponent for our Joe is this one.

And this novel is played purely for laughs, a bit like The Pheasants Revolt, although there was a touch of schmaltz in that one. This time there is no love interest for Joe and no emotional heartstrings played anywhere. It’s a straight ahead, riotous, ribald, countryside comedy with no punches pulled. Actually, there are a few punches thrown here and there but that’s by the by, you’ll have to read it to find out. And in any case, it wouldn’t be a Blessham book without at least one rollicking good punch-up, would it?

Now, regarding a publication date. Well, I don’t really want to commit to one at this stage. I’d rather focus on getting that first draft done and dusted and then take it from there. The last thing I’d want to do is make any rash promises and then break them. So all I will say on the matter is that I sincerely hope it will be out before Christmas. If it isn’t then I will say some very harsh words to myself, the likes of which you will not see between the pages of scripture.

So bear with me all you Wilkie fans. It’ll be worth the wait of that I’m sure and when it does finally appear don’t forget that a well worded review on either Amazon or Goodreads is all I ask in return for about seven and a half hours worth of well-written entertainment that has taken me an eon to produce.