Hello world!
So, here is the latest instalment of my totally-unintentionally-now-yearly, ‘Monthly Blog’.
Checking the date of my last one (Feb 21), I am getting steadily worse.
I can’t help thinking I am turning into my beloved, reclusive Kate Bush (without the talent or fans!) – popping back up after increasingly longer intervals, and only when a new release comes out – hint, hint, some exciting book news to follow…
So, what is the excuse this time for my tardiness? Apart from having become a far too competitive quiz addict/full-blown nerd – spending far too much time memorising random things like the Greek alphabet and all the European capitals, along with being addicted to crosswords – in all honesty, life is too busy and flashes by far too quickly.
I know it’s a cliché, but every year seems to disappear quicker and quicker. As a chef (yep, still doing the day job), it skids by in a never-ending series of use-by dates (the plague of the modern chef) – one minute you’re writing them for January, blink and you’re writing them for May. Before you know it, you’re sticking them on the turkey at Christmas again. Seriously!
It’s like with my children. It doesn’t seem five minutes since I was pushing them round in a pedal-car, now they are all driving their own real cars – with a 21-year-old son and my twin girls turning 18 next month. How did that happen?
What else has been keeping me busy? Ah, a recent house move (well, two into one actually; where’s all this stuff going to go?!) In terms of location, the lovely town of Bingham has become my new home for the past year and a half. I live there and work there – at Number Sixteen café/bistro in the square, where I’m lucky enough to have my books on display and sale. My dad is finally settled in a care home in Bingham too, bless him; he’s had Parkinson’s for 15 years’ now, which, again, can be all-consuming.
Now, onto the really exciting news I’ve been dying to share with you!
I am delighted to announce that I have a new book coming out on May 31st!!
It is called The Meddling Ghosts, and is being published by Austin Macauley – a London-based publishing company, who also have offices in New York and Sharjah (Googled it, it’s in the UAE) – so, exciting times! It will be the most backing/clout I would have had in terms of marketing and potential reach. I love the thought of overseas readers getting a taste of my fertile imagination and also a snapshot of the East-Midlands. Click Here for more information on the book 😊👻
A quick insight into how it happened… As some of you who are more familiar with my writing output might know, I penned The Meddling Ghosts some years ago now, whilst still living in Rutland – hence the setting of the book; it is part of what I call my ‘Rutland Quartet’. And as with some of my other unpublished novellas (I like to think of them as my ‘hidden gems’ that will only be discovered when I’m gone, published posthumously to much fanfare!), I never sent it out to any publishers; not until last year, that was…
Whilst penning my current novel - sorry The Caterpillar Girl fans, not the next instalment of the series - I guess I was missing the buzz of a new release (not an attention seeker in any way), and thought, just on the off-chance, I’d send The Meddling Ghosts out to a handful of publishing houses. Well, to my surprise and delight, not one, but two of them came back to me with the offer of a publishing contract; the more favourable of which being Austin Macauley. So, let’s see how it fares.
During the course of putting this blog-post together, given the chosen subject matter and my weakness for all things 80s, a certain, iconic 80s film character’s voice kept popping into my head that I couldn’t resist quoting.
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Recognise it? Answers on a postcard please…
It was of course the fabulous, irreverent Ferris Beuller.
Wise words from Ferris! And way ahead of his time, I must say.
So, heeding this advice, look where I was earlier this week on a rare, midweek day off…
Can’t keep away from the place, it seems. Like Jack himself from my books, I seem to have an internal body clock, like a bird that migrates south in winter, telling me I need to be there when a certain time of year comes round; normally when the bluebells come out. Sadly, I was too late this year, there were just a few stragglers left (climate change?), but the wood itself was just as magical as ever.
So, as I did, take Ferris’s advice; in this increasingly busy world we live in, don’t forget to stop and look around once in a while…
Oh, and keep reading.
Love Adam. x
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