Here are some photos of my talk at Book To The Future 2018. This was the fifth year of the University of Birmingham's free literary festival. The first year inspired me to write The Sheriff and I have spoken about self-publishing at every event since. Great photos from the event photographer, although I do look like I'm about to sneeze in a few of them!

The fourth and final quarter of 2018 was a mixed bag. It included some brilliant profile-raising moments for myself. I delivered two talks on self-publishing and attended the writing festival Sledge-Lit. However, my writing flow was heavily derailed by a very busy period at work. Overall, I feel like I'm ending the year in a strong place to spring forward in 2019. New year, new moleskine, new start.

Highlight
Sledge-Lit! This is the Winter version of literary festival Edge-Lit which I attended back in July. Much like its Summer cousin, I spent the day meeting fellow writers and readers, hearing from accomplished authors, and ending the day making friends over beers. 

Lowlight
Crashing out of NaNoWriMo, despite having a strong idea, due to an intense few months at the office. I should have followed my own advice on how to win NaNoWriMo.

I have read...

• Blood of Assassins by RJ Barker
• The Girl with all the Gifts by M R Carey

I have blogged...

• Book To The Future 2018 - My Photo Album
• My Top 5 Tips for Sledge-Lit 2018
• My Top 5 Tips for Winning NaNoWriMo 
• 18 Things I Learnt at Sledge-Lit 2018

I have written...

• A poem called The Wee Wise Weevil, which has a Julia Donaldson vibe.
• A short story called The Nuthatch, best described as a fantasy horror.
• 14,859 words towards a novella called The Maria Compass, a contemporary re-telling of A Christmas Carol. This was my NaNoWriMo project. I hope to finish this in January.

Biggest excuses for not writing...

• Very busy at work!

I have submitted...

• An entry for the Birmingham Writers' Group annual winter competition. The theme was Frozen Wastes and I wrote a short story called The Nuthatch. I didn't win but the story will feature in my third short story collection.

Out and about

• I spoke about self-publishing at Book To The Future, the University of Birmingham's literary festival.
• I spoke about self-publishing to the first-year Creative Writing students at the University of Birmingham.
• I attended Sledge-Lit 2018. It was awesome.

Dates to remember

• 1 October - National Coffee Day
• 4 October - National Poetry Day
• 6 October - National Bookshop Day
• 26 October - Four-year anniversary of Breadcrumbs.
• 29 October - Three-year anniversary of The Curse of Besti Bori.
• ​25 November - Four-year anniversary of Circ.

AOB

• I had a brilliant Christmas with lots of writing presents: a new Moleskine, the Emotion Thesaurus, and a set of storytelling dice!
• I was blown away by Black Mirror episode Bandersnatch. Now I want to write a Choose Your Own Adventure novel.
• Bring on 2019. I will try very hard to finish The Maria Compass, my next short story collection, and Nephos 3.

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The third quarter of this year was revolutionary. It kicked off with my first ever attendance at a national literary festival, the highly-popular Edge-Lit, and ended with plenty more words stored safely on my Dropbox. I also returned to the Birmingham Writers' Group after a six-month absence with fresh stories in hand.

Highlight
Edge-Lit! It was the happiest day of my life. Talking to writers about other writers and writing in general, all with a fantasy, sci-fi and horror focus... bliss! There were so many things I learnt at Edge-Lit which will help me become a better writer. I left energised, motivated and a tiny bit drunk.

Lowlight
It looks like I won't complete Nephos 3 before the end of the year. It's 80% finished but I ran out of steam, so I'm taking another break. Still, more time to spend on short stories.

I have read...

• The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso
• The End of the World Running Club by Adrian Walker
• The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay
• Ravencry by Ed McDonald
• King of Assassins by RJ Barker
• Darksoul by Anna Stephens

I have blogged...

• 18 Things I Learnt at Edge-Lit 2018
• My Edge-Lit Photo Album​
• The Virtual Reality Book Trailer

I have written...

• Another 20,372 words towards Nephos 3, meaning the total word count is now 197,266 words.
• A short story called Once in a Blue Moon about the University of Birmingham's iconic clock tower, Old Joe.
• A poem called The Pen and the Sword, inspired by my visit to Man Mo Temple.

Biggest excuses for not writing...

• Work trip to Hong Kong.
• Work trip to Switzerland.

I have submitted...

• Two entries to The Emma Press in response to their call for night-time stories.
• Two entries to The Emma Press in response to their call for children's insect poems.

Out and about

• I attended Edge-Lit 2018, as mentioned above.
• I also returned to the Birmingham Writers' Group after missing many months of meetings. I submitted an extract from Nephos 3 which was met with positive comments.

Dates to remember

• 9 September - the two-year anniversary of Festive Treats, a festive anthology in which I feature.
• 27 September - the two-year anniversary of my story being performed on the Tall Tales radio show.

AOB

• Book To The Future is back! This October marks the fifth year of the University of Birmingham's literary festival.
• Edge-Lit's winter spin-off, Sledge-Lit, is taking place in November. See you there!

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