Author: Adrian

I am delighted to say I have completed the first draft of the second in the Brendan Murphy series, Hen Bane. While it’s a great milestone, there is much work to be done. First, I need to read it and check the story and plot are what I intended. Because I am so close to it, I shall have to set it aside for a couple of weeks before reading it. That done, I need the first edit during which I will have someone check my female characters work. When that’s done, it will be off to the professional editor to be pulled apart.

I’ll also need to get a cover designed – what you see to the left is just something I knocked up for the drafts.

Beyond that, a few rewrites, check for typos and then publish. No publish date yet, I’ll have a ponder on that and set a target date in due course.

The second novel in the Brendan Murphy series now has a draft title, ‘Hen Bane’. Hen bane is a poisonous plant and the name means ‘killer of hens’. Like all my favourite titles, it’s a play on words (much like Iain M Bank’s Surface Detail, for example). ‘Hen’ is a colloquial term in Scotland for a woman, ‘bane’ means cause of great distress (the bane of my life). It fits the  story well and also continues the natural history theme of titles that I started with ‘Moss Piglet’.

I am, as of today, up to 40,000 words written. Much writing and editing still to do, but I am excited about this story.