Swelling wordcounts

I've never written a novel.

This is sometimes a shock even to me. I've translated novels, and I've been self-publishing those translations, along with my shorter fiction, since 2012. But I've never actually completed a novel.*

Then somewhere along the way, those short stories began to get longer. I'd long stopped submitting to the sort of magazines who insist on 2,000 - 3,000 word limits, and was writing fiction with a view to submitting to small press anthologies or, well, self-publishing, which pushed me towards 5,000 - 6,000 words.

My first novella was in 2015, scraping over the line for novella status at 17,000 words. I then spent most of 2016 buried in short story writing for collections including Summer's End and A Treasury of Brenda and Effie.

This year, I've completed three full-length novellas. Apocalypse Barnes, my comedy zombie tale, came out in July and has done very well. Zip! Zap! Boing! is my first foray into space opera, and will be out in early November, in the anthology - ahem - Pew! Pew! Bite My Shiny Metal Pew! My mother is so proud of me...

Rounding off this mid-length trilogy is Street Shamans: Rudy on Rails. No precise release date just yet, but hopefully this will be landing early in the New Year. The Street Shamans series is a cyberpunk series, with shades of urban fantasy and comedy (some are more overtly humorous than others).

While Rudy on Rails may, after editing, just scrape over the 40K mark that seems to be the bare minimum accepted length for a novel, this does rather point out an obvious next step in my career.

2018 will be the year I finally get a novel out there.

Watch this space.


*Well I have, but you're never going to see it.