I think I’ve said before that if asked, I wouldn’t describe myself as a creative person. Which is quite contrary to the truth when I look at the novels I’ve written, the badly drawn comic I work on almost weekly, and the years I spent making YouTube videos. I’ve never understood why I don’t feel like a creative type.

I think it’s because writing novels takes so long that sharing a finished product is infrequent — giving imposter syndrome a long time to settle in.

Despite all that, I thought I’d give my tens of followers a little update on what I’m working on. I’m hoping I can remember to make this a semi-regular thing — maybe every other month, depending on how the projects are going.

There are three creative projects currently in the works, and they are…

Writing Project 1: The Eternal Blonde

The Eternal Blonde is the working title for a short novella about a planet called Myth, which houses some odd secrets and a strange curse. It’s a science fiction story, but the planet itself has a fantasy-like feel thanks to lost civilisations, evil computers, and possibly even Olympian deities.

The story follows the adventures of an officer named Frank Krank, who arrives to take over the mining operations at a single, small outpost on the planet.

The project is about 20,000 words long so far, I’m intending to finish at 60,000. I’m aiming to present it in a similar style to The Chronicles of Ned — and, like Chronicles of Ned, it’s intended to be a setting I can return to for short- to medium-length stories that entertain without overstaying their welcome.

This project is expected to be released mid-year ‘25.

Writing Project 2: Denouement 3 - A Thousand years north

Denouement, Part Three has the working title ‘A Thousand Years North,’ and is intended to be the concluding chapter of the Denouement series I started a few years ago. While it’s the third numbered instalment, there have actually been two more releases set in the same universe (Week and Of Gods and Vampires).

I have to admit I’ve been putting off actually finishing it, because I don’t intend to write in this setting again after this release — or, at least, not for a long time. I’ve grown quite attached to these characters, and I think the idea of letting them go feels a little bittersweet, especially since I know not all of them are going to get a happy ending.

Still, the project is currently at 55,000 words — just under halfway done. Since it’s the final entry, I also plan to bundle it with a short story called Epistles, which will be formatted as a script rather than prose. Epistles will serve as the definitive final point in the universe’s timeline — the last thing I ever intend to write in this setting.

Drawing Project: Niceferatu

As many regular readers here may know, I started working on Niceferatu almost a year ago. It began as a one-off doodle, but over the following months, it evolved into a setting for random thoughts — really, a platform to learn how to draw. Eventually, it evolved again, and for a while now, I’ve been semi-regular in my output. (Okay, not that regular, but I’ve tried.)

Niceferatu is currently available on its own website, which you can find by clicking COMIC on the header of this page or by going to https://niceferatu.net.

I still consider this a long-term investment of time — both to learn Clip Studio Pro (my app of choice for comic book creation) and to improve my drawing skills. I’m hoping that by sticking with regular releases (and I am trying to make it weekly, going forward,) I’ll keep getting better at art. Now and then, I watch tutorials on webcomics in the hopes of picking up a tip or two.

I have two ideas for other comics that I’d love to produce and release in a more long-form format. One is about a teenager from the south of England whose friend invents anti-gravity technology, and together they become superheroes (I know, silly, but dang it, it’ll be fun!) The other — which is no secret — is that I want to adapt my Denouement books into a graphic novel.

Anyway, those projects are far off in the future. For now, Niceferatu is weekly.

Blog/website Project: Well, you are looking at it

I’ve already spoken about how I switched my public-facing websites over to Micro.Blog and discussed at length why I did it. There’s really nothing else to add. The current platform is sustainable, reasonably priced, and seemingly very reliable. I’m planning to stay here for a long while, at least.

It’s the content I post — rather than the platform — that I intend to refine. The more astute among you may have noticed that I’ve been working hard to improve the quality of my posts. This has been helped by a little bit of proofreading from Apple Intelligence’s Writing Tools. Writing Tools is a locally processed, context-aware grammar checker — and it’s surprisingly good at picking out issues. I still rely heavily on Pro Writing Aid (PWA) for spelling, flow, and style checks, though.

I intend to offer more book reports going forward, as well as the usual personal updates. I may even branch out a bit and talk about my experience learning to properly play chess.

I also have some Christian-themed ramblings planned. The issue is that while I’m well-versed in the Bible and Pentecostal Christianity, I’m not a scholar or theologian — just an attentive reader. I’ll present my Christianity/Bible posts as such, but I’m always aware of the risk of leading people to incorrect conclusions through bad writing. That’s something I’ll carefully consider before publishing any Christian-tagged posts.

That’s it! We’ve reached the end of all the updates I wanted to share. I sincerely hope you continue reading here — and don’t forget, you can get all of my books by clicking the BOOKS button in the header of this site. They’re available for free in PDF and ePub format, but I’m happy to provide other formats on request.

If you enjoyed this and want to shoot me an email or leave a comment, you’re most welcome to do so. I read all comments and reply to all sincerely written emails.

And remember the most important advice I have to offer you: no human should be on social media. Please don’t link my articles on X/Twitter!