Good News and New Words
It's good to be back at the keyboard after an amazing family break at the House of the Mouse. Hugs from Mickey were great, even with the heat of the Florida, but coming back to the desk with some really big news has made returning to the pond so much sweeter.
Memory Letters Makes the Shortlist!
Yes, I can officially share the fantastic news. Memory Letters has been named on the recently announced ONC 2026 Shortlist!
To say I am over the moon is a such a huge understatement. From the thousands of initial entries, being narrowed down to 672 in Round 3, then 300 on the Longlist, the judges have cut the field down to just 96 stories. Knowing that Jane’s story has made it all the way into that final 96 is an amazing milestone. I know that it has taken a long time to get here, and for the ultimate winners to be announced this year, but I am doing my absolute best to practice patience.
The delay in the contest’s final stages is having a knock-on effect for the wider release of the story, including the upcoming audiobook edition. I've been assured that the audio production is now almost complete, and what I've heard so far is fantastic, but the full multi-platform rollout has to wait until the contest officially wraps up.
Across the Multiverse: Ongoing Fiction Updates
While Memory Letters sits in the shortlist spotlight, the rest of my fictional universe hasn't been standing still:
- Sanctorum’s Veil: The comprehensive rewrite and expansion of the opening chapters is coming along brilliantly. Having worked out the little plot hole in Chapter 7, the manuscript is sitting at a really solid foundation. And I'm able to push further into the narrative.
The big news here is that I've officially started Chapter 13.
Word Count Check: 17,145
- The Whisper in the Margins: My D&D-inspired wizard-archivist mystery with Rollo Whitglade is gathering pace. Chapter 3 is fully underway. Blending urban fantasy with magical record-keeping is proving to be a blast to write, but I'm really enjoying the story as it develops.
Word Count Check: 4,007
- The Voidborne Saga: The foundational world-building for this HFY sci-fi series is taking root in my brain. I’ve been fleshing out characters and creating alien languages (like the untranslatable title 'Stoth') while I continue hunting for human-crafted, non-AI artwork for the cover of The Void Between.
- Forever Jupiter: The blueprint for expanding this 2022 novella into a full-length novel, and hopefully setting up a multi-book series following James Hamlin’s immortal Roman, is now mapped out and ready for the next writing sprint.
What's Coming to the YouTube Channel
Speaking of audio and covers, I’m planning a bit of a refresh for my YouTube channel.
I'm hoping to begin posting more of my stories in audio format, including some of my flash fiction tales. Also, I’m going to start creating practical 'how-to' videos for fellow writers and indie creators. My main focus to start with will be practical, zero-budget author skills. My first one is going to be something on how to design book covers without using GenAI. Learning how to manipulate typography and clean, human-made imagery on a shoestring budget is a crucial skill for indies, and I’m looking forward to sharing all the tips I've learned.
Short Reads and Polish: A New Kindle Focus
Looking ahead on the publishing front, I am planning a new initiative for my digital shelf. This will be a dedicated set of Kindle Short Reads.
I’ll be kicking this off by dusting off some of my older short stories, giving them a thorough polish, before releasing them on a reasonably regular basis. Depending on how those go, I'm also considering a curated collection, bundling these shorter reads into one book.
A Line in the Sand: AI in the Publishing Pipeline
There’s been a lot of chatter in the writing community lately about traditional publishers adopting "AI detection checks" to screen submissions. The irony, of course, means they are feeding manuscripts into an AI tools to do the scanning. Thus compounding the AI issue.
As someone who prides themselves on human-crafted storytelling and transparent, non-AI cover design, this is a concern. These AI detectors are notoriously unreliable and frequently flag legitimate human prose (notably Mary Shelly's Frankenstein).
Currently I'm fully committed to remaining self-published, but I’ll say this plain and clear:
If I ever decide to change my approach in the future, I will not query any publisher or agency that claims to use AI to detect AI.
The human element of storytelling needs to be respected at every stage of the process.
Recent Rhymes
Finally, my brain dipped into verse, rather than prose, over the last few weeks. My recent trip (and a contest I saw hosted by The Failing Writers Podcast) inspired me to write some really bad poems. They're all really poor attempts at humour, and I'm not lighting up the poetry world here, but I’ve included a couple below for your reading pleasure:
A Spin on the Rides
The Invisible Man
We also went to Epic Universe for a day, and I met The Invisible Man!
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