Category: Fiction

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.

Moss Piglet is now to be distributed via IngramSpark as well as available directly through Amazon. Hopefully, that means it will soon be availabe in bookshops worldwide. I can but hope…

In the meantime, I’ll be getting my marketing operation up and running.

For the first few weeks, anyone who buys the book and leaves me reviews on Amazon and Goodreads can qualify for a refund – email me for details.

Buy Moss Piglet

I’m delighted to have the new cover ready for Moss Piglet. Many thanks to Steve West at Steve West Design for his work on developing this.

Steve produced a number of designs for me to look at, but I liked the way this one captures the mood of the story. I am particularly keen on the roots extending down from the house. If you read Moss Piglet, you’ll see that roots such as this feature in the story. The dark figure captures the feeling of Margar, the disembodied spirit, and the main action is centred around a cottage in the Scottish countryside.

The overcast skies and crows add to the overall feel.

I now have all the typesetting complete and I hope to have Moss Piglet published via my publishing arm, Maroon Pig Publishing, later this week or early next week.

Just waiting on Nielsen to add the imprint for Maroon Pig Publishing.

Watch this space.