The editing of Twice the Speed of Dark is near to complete. I don't have information on when publication will be, but we are getting closer. I am looking forward to the design phase, which will start very soon.
I am also looking forward to resuming work on my second book, Wetlands. In the time I have been away from writing it, I have come to see that I need to make some significant changes; not to the underlying ideas or the main threads but I spent too much time explaining the context. Many of the 16,000 words will have to go. The advantage is that having spent too much time proving that it all worked, the author, me, now knows that it does all work and can blithly ignore all that while I concentrate on the internal worlds and connections that interest me more.
There will hopefully be qutie a lot to rescue. I think that this bit will probably stay:
The page in his hand had some text and a diagram, fig 17, Cross-Section of Dermis and Epidermis. Great shafts of hair rose like tree trunks from swampy land. Sweat glands and bulbs of sebaceous oil forced up to the surface. He looked at it, a rippling forrest of dark life. He looked down at the black hairs on his fore-arm, a scrambled softness there, furze, gorse, briar maybe. It did not look, he thought, like a forrest. But there is much to see in scrubland. Much furtive creeping, paths tunnelled by rabbits and small boys, litter left by lovers. He traced with a fingertip, slowly walking through that wastland growth. Until breakfast and the pint sized, welcome mug of hot tea in its insulated beaker arrived, he slowly grazed his finger up and down the boggy softness of his once strong arm.
Perhaps if it interests you, and perhaps if Unbound are good enough to have me back, you might become a backer, getting your name listed in the book itself as a patron. I know I love the chance to support other writers. Sometimes I wonder if I won't end up backing more than I sell! But what a joy - these book simply would not come into being if not for the support of you, of book lovers and curious readers. I love knowing that I have contributed to the publication, the existence of other people's books and am imensely grateful to all those who have done the same for mine.