Where is the year going? It seems far too early for this to be the penultimate round-up for 2018. We had a guest at Black Cat HQ for some of November: Mini was back with us for ten days while her dads had a lovely time on holiday in Cyprus. I thought about that occasionally as I trudged around in the mud and rain with three dogs.

Professional news

I applied to join the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) as a Partner Member. ALLi (pronounced like ‘ally’) is a professional association for authors who self-publish books. I’ve turned to ALLi resources and checked their Watchdog reports on many occasions. I enjoy working with independent authors, and so it seemed a natural step to become a member. As a potential Partner Member I was vetted by the Watchdog Desk, and I’m pleased to be able to say that I passed (with a lovely report summary that rather made my week). You can check out my member profile here.

What I’ve been working on

I started November with a proofread of a novel about a woman pursuing her dream of opening a bookshop. It was an interesting reflection on what is important in life and on taking risks in order to achieve what you really want. The rest of the month was taken up by a fictionalised account of the major events to befall European royal houses in the last century or so.

What I read for fun

I started Tombland by C. J. Sansom in October, but I finished it, and the devastating last act, in November. To get into the (just after) Halloween spirit, I picked up a copy of The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell. I found it genuinely creepy, and the companions are a terrifying concept, but I have some misgivings about the association of physical deformity with evil.

It’s an interesting coincidence that my next read was Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve – the themes around facial disfigurement in this are extremely powerful. I read most of Mortal Engines in one night, and I am surprised the book passed me by when it was first published and I’ve only found this world now there’s a film to be released shortly.

My last read of this month was Crime in the Community by Cecilia Peartree. It’s fast paced, funny and enjoyable – exactly what I needed after a run of fairly dark books.

Blog posts

I published one post on the Black Cat blog this month: a discussion of four punctuation problems I see in almost every manuscript I work on – four punctuation problems that have simple fixes. Sometimes it can be hard to get your head around punctuation and style rules, but these are easy wins everyone can benefit from.

As usual, I shared a few blog posts on Twitter. Perhaps the most useful for writers is Louise Harnby’s advice on presenting a story to be read, rather than as if it is to be watched.

Looking ahead

There’s one West Surrey and North Hampshire SfEP local group meeting left for 2018 – it’s a morning meeting where we will have tea/coffee and cake and celebrate the festive season.

I expect to slow down on the work front, but I will still be available by email for most of the Christmas period.