Yearly roundup and a look ahead to 2020

I took a long break from writing at the start of the year. The second Buttercup book had been put back to September, there were no plans for books 3 & 4 and my other attempts at breaking into the children's market had fallen short of the mark.

But one unexpected thing that came as a result of writing Buttercup was it rekindled my love of classic horror. Horror is the one genre that has always been with me. As a kid, I loved horror movies. I'll never forget the impact Salem's Lot had on me, or the first time I saw An American Werewolf in London. For books, it started when I spotted the Eleventh Pan Book of Horror Stories in a newsagent on my way to school. I managed to get the rest from jumble sales. In my teens, I moved onto James Herbert, Stephen King and HP Lovecraft. My very first attempt at a full length novel was a terrible attempt to do Cthulhu-inspired horror. And right now, my favourite author by far is Adam Nevill. He's just incredible.


So during the summer, I decided to write something just for fun. I didn't have an agent and still wanted a break from children's but wanted to write something. So, I began playing with an idea that had been bouncing around for a few years. I also spent a lot of time studying story structure in the hope of finding where I've been going wrong in recent years.

The result is a Victorian crime-thriller with a horror twist. I spent the autumn rewriting and editing, and then the Christmas period polishing.

It still has a long way to go, and I'm not in any rush, but now as we begin 2020, I find myself in a very different, and very unexpected position. I never thought I had it in me to write adult fiction, but it's been a blast and the result is unlike anything I've read so I'm tempted to think it might even be a genuinely approach to vampire fiction.

As to what I'll do with it, I'm not quite sure. I guess I'll just have to send it out and see what happens.

Happy New Year for 2020 everyone.