AUGUST

So, here we are in August.

The weather here in Scotland has been incredibly hot, although thankfully not as hot as down south. We reached the early 30 degrees, which was more than I could bear and more than the dogs could cope with. We’ve had fans on all night in the bedroom, and throughout the day 4 fans at full blast in the lounge/diner, where the dogs spend most of their time – and even then, some days it was far too hot for them.

I have a trip down south coming up later this month for a family funeral, and I’m hoping for some cooler weather. As I type this, black clouds are rolling in outside, so we are probably going to enjoy some more lovely cooling rain – despite the heat, this past week has been a bit wet on and off, which has been something of a relief. The garden has enjoyed it almost as much as I have!

Writing, once again, has been going very well.

I have so far also completed the first drafts of three more Gertrude Harrington novels – Book 8: Village of the Damned, Book 9: The Art of Murder and Book 10: Murder by Design, and I am currently eight chapters into Book 11: Mortal Peril. Once I have finished Book 11, I will be concentrating on editing Books 8 and 9, the former of which at least will be published next year. Each first draft takes me about 2 months. I could write more quickly if I spent more time on it, but at the moment I write for only a couple of hours a day, but I do try to make sure I write every day.

Death on the Tracks, the 7th Gertrude Harrington Mystery is ready to go, and will be published in paperback, hardback and kindle e-book on October 1st.

Last month I released all of the previous 6 Gertrude Harrington Mysteries in luxury hardcover editions with lovely new covers. These are all available through Amazon along with the existing paperback and kindle editions. All future Gertrude Harrington novels will be published in all three formats.

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the summer. Look out for Death on the Tracks on October 1st, and if you haven’t read all of the previous Gertrude Harrington Mysteries, summer is the perfect time to pick one up for a holiday read!

That’s all for the moment. Back to the writing.