30/07/2020 - Processing The Delay of Not in My Name

As mentioned earlier, the publisher and I talked about the state of the industry right now and decided to push back the launch of my political murder mystery Not In My Name back until next year. Since then, I’ve been gradually processing how that feels.

I signed two book contracts back in May: One for Three Arachnids in a Warship, and one for Not In My Name. What this meant was I more or less knew what my year was going to look like from June on – book promotion in the wake of Three Arachnids and book promotion in the run up to NIMN. I’m a very ill person, so I probably wasn’t going to have time for much else.

I was gearing up to a massive publicity push for NIMN when we decided to push it back. I’d reached out to major industry figures for endorsements (none of whom have got back to me, which is unsurprising but still disappointing), and was about to start sending the thing out to reviewers. This means a lot of the prep has been done already, I just need to start pulling the trigger.

So, when we pushed NIMN back, I felt a little like I’d been walking up stairs in the dark and had tried to keep climbing once I’d reached the top. A little surprised, a little disappointed and a little shocked by what to do next.

I’ve started writing again. I’ve written 10,000 words of a new novel over the last week, which is fast, even for me. A lot of pieces suddenly fell into place. I had a jolt of inspiration that lined up with a project I’ve been wanting to write for months but didn’t know how to start, I was coming out of a major health crash and I suddenly had a lot of free time.

So I’m back writing again, and it feels really good. I’m feeling a little sentimental because I’m listening to the Your Name soundtrack and… I want to make people feel vibrant and alive in the way I felt during and after that film. I want to excite people. I want to surprise them. I want to take them to new worlds and tell them interesting stories there.

It’s 6am. I haven’t been able to sleep since 4am. It’s time I got back to writing.