I might have finished with Romney & Marsh. (I said might.) Acer may have come to the end of his story. (I said may have.) But Booker & Cash will likely go on a while yet.

With Cold Kills off my hands earlier this week I’m back working on B&C#3 – working title Waifs and Strays (I might need to change that because there are so many Waifs & Strays titles on Amazon 😦 ). I was 85,000 words into it when I abandoned it to run with the idea of Cold Kills and then I went home for the summer. A mistake? Yes and no. Yes, I should have finished it while I was into it. No, because it’s going to be better for the seven month break from it. Seven months!

My memory is that bad I’d forgotten a great deal of this story. I was quite excited at the prospect of going through it. At the time of writing I’m three-quarters of the way in and I’m loving it. Why the hell didn’t I finish it? I know I didn’t finish it. But I don’t know how I left it. I’m actually excited to see what happens next and I wrote the bloody thing.

I’m sitting at my desk in one of the greyest cities in the world. Inches beyond my computer screen is a plain coloured wall. No visual distractions. (I also can’t write with music playing, so it’s quiet.) And then I get into B&C#3 and I’m back on Romney Marsh with such vivid recollections it’s like a waking dream. Have I ever mentioned the building Bookers coffee shop is based in and where David and Jo live is a property I lived in for several years before coming to Turkey. Reading this story is like watching a home movie at times. In fact it doesn’t feel like reading. It feels like watching the story. Of course, there is the danger that because so much of it is familiar to me I’m not including enough description for readers with no experience of the setting to fully visualise it. It’s a difficult one.

Jo and David are perfect for each other. I adore the way they interact. I’ve remembered one thing – a reason I was happy to put this aside where it was. I was wrestling with the nature of David’s and Jo’s relationship. They are getting on well. Would it be a bad idea or a good idea for them to take their relationship further, beyond sometimes business partners, housemates and friends? If they were to become phyiscally intimate how would that affect the dynamic of their working relationship and how would such a thing impact on future books? I could not decide for a long time. It’s the toughest decision I’ve had to make for any of my characters. I remember being back in the UK and on one of my rare trips to London, a day out in the capital in the summer sunshine. I was standing in the middle of the Millennium bridge, leaning on the steel rail, staring along the Thames thinking about what would be best for these two. And I still couldn’t decide. It’s only going through it now that I think I know. For that reason alone seven months away from it has been worth it.

In other news Cold Kills went live for pre-order last week . My heartfelt and sincere thanks to all my loyal readers who have taken a chance on ordering a book that might not, at first glance, be in their usual line of reading country. I really do appricate that level of support and faith that my writing, whatever I’m writing, is going to appeal.

Here is the blurb and the Amazon links. Release date is Christmas day.

When a plane crash lands in the Alaskan wilderness the survivors must battle harsh elements, hostile geography, a hungry wolf pack and horrifying moral dilemmas if they are to live to be rescued.

Amazon UK & Amazon US