The Year In Review (2023)

First, a reminder that my free book offer starts tomorrow.

I published The Revolutionary War (The Royal Sorceress V),  The Lone World (Ark Royal XIX), The Demon’s Design (Schooled in Magic XXV, The Firelighters (A Learning Experience VII),  A Hope in Hell (The Heirs of Cataclysm Book III),  The Land of Always Summer (Mystic Albion II), (Schooled in Magic  novellas), Judgement Day (Ark Royal XX), and Queenmaker (Stuck in Magic III). I also submitted novellas to  Fantastic Schools 6  and Fantastic Schools Staff (Fantastic Schools).

It’s been an interesting year, full of ups and downs. Some good things – we visited Morocco, Turkey and Malaysia – and some bad, mainly that I got less done than I wanted. I took the time to experiment with a few different ideas, two in particular, and I’m still waiting to see how well they work out. I’ll keep you updated.

(If you want to pick up any (or all) of those, please feel free to click the links.)

It was a busy time, but I got less done than I wanted. My health was, unfortunately, a major issue. I had the sinus operation early in the year and results have been decidedly mixed. I don’t have days when I cannot work any longer, thankfully, but the pain in my sinuses has not gone away completely. On the plus side, there’s no sign of the cancer reappearing.

I’ve been experimenting with Dragon dictation software, as recommended by several other writers. I found it both good and bad – there are times when it does very well, but other times when it prints out something that has absolutely no resemblance to anything I actually intended to write. Nor is it very good at picking up directions, such as which pieces of text need to be put in quotes. It also produces a number of errors, mainly missing connecting words, that are very difficult to spot because I know what it is intended to say. I wrote two full novels with the software and both of them bad more mistakes that I considered acceptable. One in particular managed to score more error reports from Amazon than any other I wrote. And then, midway through writing The First Witch’s Tale (a SIM novella you will see early next year), I just hit a point where I couldn’t do it anymore. It is still good for essays, and short pieces of work I can proofread effectively, but I’m not thrilled with it for writing actual fiction. I don’t know how David Weber does it.

But I will keep practising.

I have several plans for the coming year. I intend to write a sequel to The Firelighters, provisionally entitled The Burning World, and pick up the Zero universe with the Alchemists Secret. I hit a spot of writers block, which I hope I have overcome (let me know which one you want to see first). I also have plans for more Ark Royal and The Empire’s Core novels – I also intend to finish the next Schooled In Magic story arc (I am currently halfway through the first draft of The Apprentice Mistress, which features a character introduced in ) and possibly experiment with a few more ideas. I also need to finish the Mystic Albion trilogy.

Again, if there is anything you want to see in particular, please let me know.

Anyway, watch this space for future plans. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (and if you want to give me a gift, I like reviews).

Chris