Okay! It’s me! Going to try this again...

Music

This is from Johnny Cash's last few recordings, some amazing albums he recorded in Rick Rubin's garage(!). It's a cover of a Will Oldham song, in his Bonnie "Prince" Billy guise, which I prefer:

(There are other BPB versions which ... I don't...)

(And I’ve probably shared that before…)

Last (few) weeks

It’s somehow February when it still feels like the week between Xmas and New Year. So, what have I been up to?

Well, this is a year where I'm tackling TWELVE projects across the year. The size of them will vary, naturally, so it's all attainable.

Project 1: FEAR OF ANY KIND (Marshall 7) 

This was written in a fugue state in the first fortnight of the year. Admittedly, I'd written it as a screenplay based on an outline first, so it wasn't too much work. A week to convert the screenplay into a novel, then a week to tighten and tidy. But I wasn't feeling very well by the time I finished it...

While it's largely set in Hawick, I did a bit of a research trip with Mark Edwards to a wee village in the western Highlands called Applecross (in reality, it's a few villages) to cover a chunk of this book and the backstory. Despite driving through that mad storm, it was less eventful than our last research trip (no truckers tried to kill us this time) and hopefully the books will be more successful this time...

Anyway, it's being proofed just now and then it'll go to Angus King for his narration. It's on preorder now, due out 31st May!

LINK

Project 2: GHOST IN THE MACHINE (Police Scotland 2) 

Wait, what? This came out in April 2012. Ah, but I'm editing it again. Why? I haven't touched it since 2014 and boy did it need it. Angus tried recording the audio and it was taking forever because it's very clunky and rough as a badger's bum. I've edited a lot of other stuff from that era, namely PS06 (formerly Cullen 5), Fenchurch 1, Fenchurch 2, Dodds 2 (formerly Dodds 1), so I decided I needed to redo the first four books I published. That'll mean PS07 LIARS AND THIEVES is the oldest book unedited and it's FINE – Angus has recorded it so I can't touch it now.

Anyway, I've finished the first pass of GHOST, cutting it from 83k down to 64k, which I expect will rise up to roughly 70k. But it's a much, much better book now. More streamlined and everything sings that didn't sing before. All the bad stuff isn't in there anymore but all the good stuff is betterer. And there's a bit of new stuff including a pretty big change, but you'll find out later...

As part of it, there was a murder victim who always bugged me as she wasn't central to the story, so I've cut her. And you know what? That section is good stuff, but could be used in a better context. So what I'm doing is:

Project 8: THE LOST (Police Scotland 10) 

A new Police Scotland book, THE LOST, which will be revised old stuff. A new number 10 and it'll star Craig Hunter (and will probably feature Cullen). It's going to be the old stuff cut from GHOST, but tidied up and greatly expanded with new motivations and characters, but it'll be paired up with CUDDLY TOY, a novella I gave away to my mailing list but which could do with a bit more focus and attention. And print readers haven't been able to get it.

So. That's another project to add to the list, but it'll be a good one.

Next week

Next week, I'll be reading and editing GHOST, then sending it off to John for copy editing. It'll be a bloody relief!

But then I'll be moving on to:

Project 3: DEVIL IN THE DETAIL (Police Scotland 3) 

Yes. I'm doing the first four books (well, 2-5) in new editions for the audiobook stuff. This one won't be as brutal as GHOST, but it could still be a bit tasty. I've looked at FIRE and STAB and they seem okay, but I'm expecting to grind my teeth down to stumps while going through this one. And making yet more changes, no doubt, just to make the series seem all consistent and that.

I think after that I will move on to:

Project 4: REDACTED (REDACTED) 

Which will just be a week or so of editing. And an announcement will come soon.

And after that, it'll be:

Project 5: OUR DEBTS TO THE PAST (Marshall 8) 

I'll do the screenplay draft of this, to get it all nailed down first. Tentative release is 30th September but I might bring it forward...

Then 6 & 7 will be FIRE and STAB. Then back to 5 to do the novel stuff, and then I'll do 8, which is THE LOST. Then I'll have a nice little break for a bit, then I've got projects 9 to 12, one of which is:

Project 9: UNTITLED (Marshall 9)

Marshall 9! Yes! So, in amongst all that stuff, there's going to be some more of him. And it'll be a springboard for some new novels set in Edinburgh (projects 10-12) which are based on some old material but which will be vastly different.

Anyway, that's a lot!

Hope all's well. Bye!

Cheers,
Ed