Morsels of Life
My short story collection.
Encouraged by feedback from friends both in real life and on line, I have put together a collection of fifty-five very short stories. Mostly between 500 and 1000 words, though occasionally straying beyond and beneath these limits. This is a collection of primarily feel-good stories. Some of them have been published before in a local magazine, others have never been seen before.
The collection is published by my imprint, Nordor Press, on November 30th 2023. The paperback is £9.99 and the eBook is £2.50 (other currencies as displayed by merchants).
A Collaboration
This year began with a collaboration. In January a friend, John, and I decided to write a play together. The process started slowly with discussions of possible settings and the characters that might populate them. Then the writing began.
To produce that ‘shitty first draft’ we took turns. John would write a scene, and the next week I would. It was truly dreadful by the time we got to the end. Each scene was obviously authored by one or other of us, and the entire thing was clunky and poorly timed. The scenes didn’t link and continuity in the story was noticeable by its absence,
We concluded that rewrites would have to be done collectively, so we scheduled three mornings a week when we would rewrite the whole thing, using only the best bits of our first effort. By the time we had got to version four it was impossible to tell who had written what in the play. Ideas might have been attributable to one or the other of us, but the words themselves could only be credited to us both.
Version four of the play felt, to us at least, that it was worth reading, if not yet performing. So we invited some friends to do a read through for us. Generally the feedback was positive but with some useful critique, so it was on to the next rewrite. The work has since been rewritten three times and version seven is now complete. Critique from a local writers group helped us hone style and be careful about word choice and stage direction. The next stage is to pitch the play to a local Am-Dram group and plan for a production, hopefully next Autumn. Fingers crossed.
This collaboration has been enjoyable and fruitful, to such an extent that we are keen to begin another. So now we begin the process again, talking settings, characters, and themes; before doing any actual writing.
Water and Blood
My debut novel ‘Water and Blood’ was published by my imprint ‘Nordor Press’ on 22nd March 2023. I’m pleased to say it has received a positive response with four- and five-star reviews. Printing costs have increased significantly since publication; consequently, the price of the paperback version will increase from £9.99 to £12.00 from Jan 1st 2024. The eBook will remain at £3.99. (Other currencies will also be adjusted.)
The Transaction
A Novella
I’ve been working on this novella for a couple of years now and I think it is almost finished, just a small rewrite of one of the chapters and a final run through for continuity and glaring errors. But that’s what I think. It may yet need more work. It’s about 28,000 words and is about… well, I’m not going to say right now. I’m hoping to have it published in the spring, so more details then.
My NaNoWriMo project.
After a five-year hiatus I again undertook the November NaNoWriMo challenge. This year my project has been the rewriting of a thriller I wrote a few years ago, but just was not good enough. This time it’s better and I’m hoping I will get it out sometime late next year. It will need at least two further revisions though.
For those that know me well enough to have attended some of the writing groups I go to I’ll just say that this work is about ‘Clara’.
That's all from me for now.
My best wishes go to anyone who reads this. Please feel free to comment, get in touch, or share this post.
Rik Lonsdale 27th November 2023