2023 is just about upon us. As I write this, I’m at the stage – between Christmas and New Year, where I don’t know what day of the week it is and my cheese overload alarm has gone off.
It’s time to decide what next year has in store for me, on the writing front at least.
Well, as I vaguely recall saying this time last year, I need to finish all my works in progress. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is the number, I now have more to finish than I did last December, due to several new ideas that I’ve had.
As well as writing, I need to try to sell a few more books. 2022 hasn’t been a bumper year for sales.
Apart from my NaNoWriMo project, I Remember Everything, which is just about ready for beta readers, there are three other stories that I’m getting close to finishing, Andorra Pett and the Luna Mining Conspiracy, The Safety of the Realm and My Sister Alex.
Here’s a little about each. First, the next (fifth) Andorra Pett story.
Something is wrong on the Moon. And it’s about to spread.
Andorra Pett and Cy are having a road trip, they’ve chosen Selenville, after all, the moon is a bit of a backwater these days. Nothing much ever happens there. A bit of mining and solar power and that’s about it.
Or so they thought, a chance remark leads them on the trail of an audacious plot to destabilise the solar system and give control of everything in it to a criminal syndicate. A plot so well hidden that nobody will believe it’s possible. This means that Andorra has to find proof, and the right person to show it to.
Time is of the essence; although she doesn’t know it, her world is about to change forever.
Steampunk adventure.
Following on from The Sensaurum and The Lexis.
In the second Orphan Detectives story, Jackson and Jessamine are newly-wed and on holiday, aboard the luxury liner King Leopold. Their destination, the fabled Western Isles, lands of mystery and scene of many a recent battle. It should be a time of rest and recuperation, of seeing the wonders of life in foreign parts.
They find that their voyage is filled with intrigue, everyone has a secret to hide. Life on the ocean wave is no life of leisure.
Then there is the visitor in foreign parts, with the news that they are needed to fight a new foe.
This threat is borne of a new way of waging war, against which Norlandia has no defence.
Unless the plans for the destruction of everything they hold dear can be retrieved.
A Science Fiction adventure.
You learn that your sister’s dead, half a Galaxy away. Little do you know, your problems are only just beginning.
Max Walters is an ordinary guy. A surveyor, working on the edge of exploration. When he gets the call that nobody wants, he doesn’t hesitate, he’s on the next flight home.
How could he expect what happens next? He’s come to the attention of some very bad people. They try to kill him, in the one place he should have been safe.
Then he finds himself being chased across the Galaxy.
What was Max’s sister mixed up in?
More importantly, what’s his connection to it all?
So, my initial plan is to finish the first drafts of those stories, in no particular order. In total, I need at least 100k words to get all of them to a fit state for my editor to look at. Considering I just wrote 61k in a month for NaNo, without the distraction of anything else, I should be able to get them sorted by the end of March.
As well as those, there’s another idea that’s occupying my mind at the moment, The Last Fish in the River. I think this will be a short story, who knows?
An old box, dredged up from the seabed amongst a haul of scallops and crabs, contains a secret from over four hundred years ago.
When Spain moved to invade England and restore the Papacy, they didn’t just send an Armada. Two years earlier than the fleet, the Pope sent the men of the brotherhood of San Faustina, to prepare the way for the conquering army. Their mission was to spread panic, disrupt defences and cement an alliance with the remaining English Catholics.
To do this, they possessed a fortune in Aztec gold, as well as plans for a new monarchy and social order. When the invasion failed, the brotherhood disbanded and the plot was forgotten.
The story of the last of them, Sebastian Alvarez De La Rapita, is still waiting to be told.
When news of the box’s discovery leaks, it becomes a race to uncover the whereabouts of the brotherhood’s last resting place.
And the Gold
And another one, which has just sneaked into my mind, while I was trying to relax over Christmas.
A Psychological Thriller.
He was only away for an hour, he left his wife and baby daughter in their broken-down car, parked in a layby.
When he returned, his car had moved. Now it was against a tree, a mile further down the road.
His wife had hit her head and lost her memory.
Worse than that, his one-year-old daughter was missing from the back seat.
These two new ideas have joined the pending pile. Who knows when they’ll be completed?
After that, well it’s anyone’s guess. I might even get another great idea before I’ve finished any of the above and wander off on a tangent, it’s not like it’s never happened before.
All that remains for me to do is thank you for reading my blog and wish you a very
Happy New Year.
I’d love to get your comments, please leave them below. While you’re here, why not take a look around? There are some freebies and lots more content, about me, my writing and everything else that I do. You can join my newsletter for a free novella and more news by clicking this link.
Kay Castaneda
Your plan for the coming year sounds very ambitious. The book about the missing baby seems especially interesting. Do you think having a cover image for you works in progress helps with sticking to your writing plan? I might try that. Blessings for 2023!
Richard Dee
Thank you, every year my plans are disrupted by the voices in my head, demanding that their new idea be heard first. So it’s more of an aspiration, we’ll have to see what the situation is like in twelve months’ time. The cover is vital, it’s one of the first things I do, It might change as I write but it helps crystalise my thoughts.
Kate Rigby
Happy New Year Richard! You have a lot there to keep you busy Best of luck
Richard Dee
Happy New Year to you, now I have to wait for the voices to start working their magic.