A Juggling Act - BOTD 2/The Flash Mob/A New Novel

For the last month or so, I’ve been doing edits on Blog of the Dead 2 – or as one author friend, Caroline Smailes calls it, the Make It Better stage. While being mentored by JoJo Moyes, I asked her when do you stop editing? I mean, the editing process could go on and on and on … When do you say enough’s enough and press that publish button? JoJo gave me a great piece of advice, which was along the lines of – When you get to the stage during edits where you are so sick of looking at your work that you would rather smash your head into the computer screen than read it again, leave it for 6-8 weeks, then edit some more! Reason being, you get the chance to distance yourself from your work and view it with ‘fresh eyes’.

I took this advice while editing Blog of the Dead – Sophie and when I went back to the manuscript after my 6 week break, I was surprised by how much I noticed when reading through it with my ‘fresh eyes’. I am now at the Put-It-Away-For-6-Weeks stage with Blog of the Dead 2. The novel has been sent off to my beta readers (nervous, me? Um, yeah ...terrified!), and I know it needs more work to develop and polish it further BUT if I read it one more time right now, I’ll be picking bits of my computer screen out of my fringe for weeks to come. 

So, what to do during the next 6 weeks … twiddle my thumbs … start my Christmas shopping … get me one of them there social lives I’ve heard folks talk about …? Hell no! I use the time to work on other projects … 

This is the perfect opportunity to mention The Flash Mob, a collection of flash fiction that I have been working on with 3 writer friends. I met Cathy White, Jack Stephens and Sarah Kay Hair while studying a Creative and Professional Writing degree at Canterbury Christ Church University, and we decided to collaborate on an anthology of our work. The short stories are a mix of Sci Fi, Horror and dark humour that work very well together. The Flash Mob will be released Friday 29^th November and will be on sale for just 77p, so I hope you’ll grab a copy!

I have great pleasure in revealing the front cover, designed by the very talented Kirsty Jordan http://carloscrabtastic.wordpress.com

'The Flash Mob present a collection of flash fiction to really sink your teeth into. Join Cassie, who inherits a curious ‘gift’ when she has a motorbike accident. Meanwhile, somewhere in suburbia, a dying man has plenty of time to take in the view. Then there’s the time traveller who returns to the nightmare world of 2084. And not forgetting Alex who goes shopping with her bonne les filles to passered a bit of bonne argenta. Meet a stalker and her stalkee, the ‘pale man’, Reptile girl, a zombie or two and many more weird and wonderful characters.

Quirky, chilling and funny, this collection offers something for everyone with its mix of Sci-Fi, Horror and dark humour.'

Available to download from Amazon Friday 29th November!

Once The Flash Mob is released into the world, I’ll be starting work on a new zombie novel that I hope to publish towards the end of next year. This one – with no title as of yet – will have nothing to do with Sophie and her gang and I’m really excited about writing something with new characters and new settings. Then, when my 6 weeks are up, I’ll put this new project to the side while I finish the final edits for Blog of the Dead 2, ready for release February/March 2014. Then back to the new project. And expect Blog of the Dead 3 to be published early 2015 … A writer’s work is never done!