Playing Catch-Up - A Promise To Do Better

I’ve just bought a new computer. Its predecessor, ‘Old Faithful’, was well past its sell-by date and was proving not to be as faithful as one would like. The crunch came one morning a week or so ago when This page has become unresponsive appeared for the umpteenth time and it took over forty minutes to open my email account. Time to act.

So, a couple of days to set up the new one and a look round my various accounts to make sure everything was functioning correctly. Imagine my horror when I discovered that the last update to my website was over a month ago and the last serious post in this column was dated January. What had I been doing? Had I been too busy to attend to it or had I simply fallen out of the habit? Busy, certainly. A change of habits? Well maybe, but no justification and either way it was time to catch up.

So what have I been doing since January? Looking back at the post I made then it would appear that little has changed and that there’s simply been more of it. If you’ve visited the website at all you will have noticed that the Winter Tour of Yorkshire’s bookshops has moved on and become the Spring Tour. Since mid-December I’ve completed a total of 16 book signings yielding sales of over 430 books. Compared to a figure of around 130 in the first 11 months of 2014, it’s easy to see why I’ve continued with it. My target of 1000 copies of BIRDS OF THE NILE is now well within sight and a Summer Tour is being planned.

But before I embark on that, I’m awarding myself a short break and at the end of next week I’m off on my annual bird-watching expedition. Last year it was Morocco, this year it’s Estonia and provided Mr Putin doesn’t do something silly, I shall enjoy a few days away looking for the likes of Hazel Grouse, Nutcracker and Black Woodpecker. And as is usual on these jaunts, we will be completely out of touch with current affairs in the UK. When I went to Northern Greece in 2010, skilfully dodging the ash clouds from the Icelandic volcano, we missed the drama that followed the General Election. This year looks like being much the same. A shame, as I would have liked to have seen how things unfold.

So I will be returning to a new government and the challenge of launching my new novel. THE BURDEN has already been published but I have held off promoting it while I still have unfinished business with BIRDS OF THE NILE. I hope to have that complete by the end of June and 2 July sees the formal launch of THE BURDEN with a York Lit Fest backed event at Waterstones. Festival Director, Miles Salter, has not only contributed a helpful endorsement but will also be conducting an interview on the night. If you find that of interest at all, please keep the date free in your diary.

All this sounds tremendously positive – and so it is. The fly in the writing ointment has been my current work in progress, MÄLAREN. Despite getting the year off to a flying start with a first draft of 94000 words, the re-write has been painfully slow and I have to admit to suffering a case of writers block. As a result I’ve decided to take a break from that too and hope to return from Estonia both physically and mentally refreshed.

But let me go back to politics for just a moment. I’ve spent the last few weeks listening to innumerable promises being made by politicians from all sides. They can’t surely all be kept and I’ve become increasingly sceptical. This makes me wary of making promises of my own but I am resolved to do better in terms of this column and my website in general. So I’m giving an undertaking to give it more attention than I have done in recent months and keep it updated on a regular basis. And if it comes down to a question of trust between me and the next government, let’s see who breaks first.