Jetlagged But Happy

This is going to be a reasonably short post to update you guys on what’s going on with me and new books. I plan to write more about what’s been happening in the last couple of weeks (and a little longer) soon, but, as the title suggests, I’m jetlagged to Hell and back and I don’t know when I’m going to conk out again.

So, I’ve been having some trouble writing for a while. My concentration’s been shot and I just haven’t been able to keep my head in the game the way I’d like. I decided I needed a holiday, but this is me, so it had to be a holiday where I’d be able to gather useful writing material or do background research, or whatever. I’ve been wanting to go to Japan for a lot longer than I’ve been writing, but the fact that I tend to set stories there and I’ve never been has been getting to me. Plus, I started watching a lot of anime recently…

So, for about the last two weeks, I’ve been living out of a hotel room in Tokyo (Shinjuku to be precise). My holidays tend to be a bit weird these days. I’m sure most people go on holiday with some idea of where they’re planning to go, even if it’s just the beach. I go somewhere and wander around just looking at ordinary stuff. Yes, I did a few museums, gardens, and such, but I mostly just walked out the hotel doors and picked a direction. I was starting to get the hang of the Tokyo subway system by the time I left. I could actually navigate the streets to some extent (apparently, GPS is a godsend even to the locals as Tokyo is notoriously difficult to find your way around). I still managed to get utterly lost in Akihabara, twice.

So, expect more Japanese stuff in the near future. The next Ultrahumans book, Royal Flush, has some scenes in fictional Tokyo (expect big lizards). I’m aiming to have that out toward the end of August. After that, I think I’ll be doing the next Fox Universe book which is set almost entirely in Japan. That means that the next Twilight Empress book will be delayed, but I still hope to have that out before the end of this year.

Better yet, despite the fact that my brain and body still think I’m somewhere between England and Japan, I’ve had the most productive writing day I can think of in weeks (maybe months) today. I can’t afford trips like this too often, but it has taught me that I really do need to take more holidays than I do. Now I just need to get my body clock back on UK time. Shouldn’t take more than a couple of years…