Last week did not go according to plan. Work was unexpectedly hectic with seemingly one minor drama after another until I was so tired I couldn’t sign my own name – I don’t know who that Nile guy is but his handwriting’s even worse than mine.

As you’ll know the plan was to descend on York for the viking festival but I’m afraid as soon as I stopped running around the cold I’d been fighting off for about a week kicked in. Being a man I retired to my bed. There was subsequently a dearth of viking shenanigans.

There has been rather more writing. The benefit of being sick is you get to sit on the sofa with your laptop without feeling guilty. As a result Chapter 1, draft three is more or less in the bag – a couple of minor corrections from my test reader but other than that it’s done. Meanwhile I’ve broken ground on Chapter two, where rather more structural work is required to even out the pacing and develop the themes.

I’ve also, because it’s been two weeks, dusted off the short story that I wrote in January and completed the first revision – this is now with test readers. I’ve put a lot more of me into this one than I normally do, writing it was actually quite hard and I’m not sure I’ve gone far enough in some places – we’ll see.

Forthcoming highlights include a business trip to Amsterdam on Wednesday through to Friday and the return of Columbo Villain of the Week (it’s Arnie this week). Hope your weekend was fun.

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