I try to post news regularly, but I’m a firm believer in not boring folks with unnecessary updates. The main purpose of this site is to tell you about things that are happening with my books and films, but I think it’s also important to share when things aren’t going so well. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy and there’s a lot of good stuff in the pipeline (I’ll summarise the positives at the end of this post), but not everything has gone to plan recently.
I can trace it back to the death of my agent SCOTT MILLER at the end of April. It was desperately sudden and sad, and I’m well aware that the impact on me was microscopic in comparison to the effect it will have had on his friends and family. That said, it’s really knocked me off course.
If you’re a writer or someone who creates in another way, you might be able to identify with this. Unexpected developments can really fuck up the creative process. My plans for 2025 and beyond were built on my assumed foundation of having the same level of literary representation I’ve enjoyed for the last 17 years or so. It’s felt particularly disproportionate, I think, because Scott had been so enthusiastic about my next novel, DIRTY DAY. Losing his guidance and support so suddenly and at what felt like a critical moment has been wildly disorientating and, if I’m being completely honest, it’s taken until now to get myself back on track. I think it’s also been all the more impacting because I’m between projects. Had I been knee deep in another book, I don’t think I’d have lost my focus so badly.
Anyway, I’m not looking for sympathy here, I just wanted to explain the scarcity of news. I’ve been torn between four fairly well-advanced projects for my next book (the first SPACES BETWEEN novel, a sequel to Dirty Day, a science-fiction book, and a standalone apocalyptic folk horror novel). It’s been a struggle to get traction on any of them, but I think I know now which one I’m going to work on first. I’m going to spend the next few weeks on prep, then dive in.
As I mentioned, there are plenty of things happening behind the scenes. Here’s that pipeline bullet list I mentioned:
- The LAST OF THE LIVING reissue is moving along nicely for release at the end of September. I’m currently working on a brand new short for the collection: ZERO-SUM
- I’ve wrangled back the rights to some of my earlier books that have never been available as audiobooks – I’ll tell you more about this next week
- KEMBERTON is almost complete. 29 chapters have been posted, 39 have been written. There are probably another 5 or 6 chapters left to write. I’m planning to have the entire novel available online for mailing list subscribers at www.theinfected.co.uk by the end of this year
- There have been positive movements on the film adaptation of a certain one of my books. As usual, that’s all I’m going to say, but I’m hopeful we may finally get some kind of announcement before the end of 2025.
And in other good news, 28 YEARS LATER hits the screens in a couple of days! I’ve got tickets booked for midday Friday. Bring it on!
