Besides the enormous gratification of helping my wife to look after our grandson every Tuesday, I’ve had my nose to the keyboard so much I have a permanent smell of plastic in my head. This month I’ve somehow managed to: Finish another edit of the second volume of my SF trilogy, Left Luggage. It’s with Rebecca Pratt, my US agent to tease publishers.

I’ve written a new short story, The Future and Up One, and had it critiqued at the BSFA Orbiters – thanks guys and gals for tough, fair and favoured notes. In return I’ve been critiquing their stories — inspirational, every one.

I’ve started content-editing a fascinating novel based in China and New Zealand by Michael S Fletcher.  Michael, like me was a former client of the sham literary agent, Christopher Hill. We Beyond Hill writers like to help each other out.

My nephew, Ben Bamber, wrote an insightful futuristic thriller a few years ago and available on the web – The Vast And Gruesome Clutch of Our Law. Great title, and now he’s transposed it into a screenplay, and I’ve been editing that. Brian Withecombe, another former Hill agent, has also given advice on it based on his own experience of writiing screenplays. 

I’ve read and advised on a synopsis and first three chapters of a hilarious chicklit novel, Babes and Balls by Kate McCann  – another survivor of shamed literary agent, Christopher Hill. Kate isn’t the same woman whose daughter was tragically abducted in Portugal, but a writer living in the Wirral, not far from me in Chester.

Now I have a small window to write an article for Kalkion, an online SF and horror ezine who have been serializing my SF novel – Exit, Pursued by a Bee at http://kalkion.com/node/645

Good job it’s quiet Friday!