Happy New Year.

As the clock strikes midnight, and we all move from one year into another, I guess I will not be that sad to see 2017 end, its not be the easiest of years.

2017 has felt like the popular theme of my HTTK work, I have faced some pretty overwhelming odds and had to fight my way through. The year began in what for me is a creative frenzy, and I was inspired and working really well, but unfortunately it was not long before life began to tap me on the shoulder, and point out that things were occurring which required a great deal of my attention.

This country has seen some pretty major upheavals in recent years, and the most significant being the Brexit vote, at first I was not overly concerned, but after several years of Austerity cuts in this country, it became very clear that the book market was suffering, as people had less and less for a luxury product such as books.

A great deal of my attention was switched to promotion, as I had to don my VCP hat, and do what I could to help bolster the promotions, to try and find new audiences for not just myself, but the other authors I represent, and that at times has meant prioritising their work over my own. It has been a long and hard struggle to get the word out this year, especially against the bigger publishers who were feeling the same bite, and pushed more of their resources into promotion on levels I could not possibly compete with. It’s been a creative year there is no doubt, as VCP has expanded in many more ways on social media and networking, to find audiences with more disposable income. It has felt like a long hard struggle, and at times I cannot deny it has been exhausting.

My greatest set back has been in the form of simple life, events and growing issues around family have diverted a great deal of my attention away from writing into dealing with day to day life. Emotionally this has been the toughest year I have had for some years, and it has been hard to focus on writing in the small amounts of down time I have had between drama and the problems around me. I have felt very frustrated for a great deal of the year, and torn between VCP, HTTK and Family, not the best recipe for focused writing.

It’s not all grim news, HTTK is alive and well, and even though I started out 2017 with an ambitious project of getting two books ready for print, I have completed a considerable amount of my goal, and both stories have had a significant amount done on them. My aim for the quieter moments of 2018 is to start and get them finished ASAP. HTTK eight is my priority, which will then be followed up later with a related story, which will take the story right back to the start of everything, and open up the back story of how the Merle worked its way into the line of the Dark One. Both are in good shape and just need to be completed, I have written a huge amount on the back story, which has allowed me to weave elements of it into the final book of the HTTK series, and as I start this new year, the last HTTK edition and getting it finished is my priority.

I am feeling the pressure to get more readers, and finish the book, and also to make this a book worth reading.

To all of you who have shown such great loyalty to my work, I wish you every happiness for this New Year. I hope that the paths you walk are greener and shaded from the brightness of distraction, and the focus of your lives this year is peaceful, safe, and productive.

Happy New Year to you all.