Another Anthology Publication and More on my Novel Journey

Since my last post, I have been lucky enough to take part in another NWS Anthology: The Light is Fading. We had another brilliant launch event in Nottingham Central Library, and I was pleased to read out my emotional short story 'The Concluding Splashes on the Canvas'. It was a bit of a tonal shift from my previous NWS story. There were so many different styles of stories read out that evening, there was something for everybody.

I have spent a lot of time at Nottingham Central Library over the last few months, attending NWS workshops, going to use the work space that NWS provides, and attending Writing East Midlands events (though a few of theirs have also been at the beautiful Justice Building).

Taken from NWS. Words by K.L Bexon image by Noah Dustin von Weissenfluh on Unsplash

I also took part in Novel November, for which I gave regular updates on YouTube and Instagram (see here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lfnpg7Hy3oM). While I never had the target of 50,000 words due to my day job, I kept to my personal goal of over 22,000. It was awfully hard work, and while I am glad I did it, I was glad when it was over. It did create a bit of burnout. But, it gave me an opportunity to get the first chunk of my second novel under my belt, which is ready waiting for me once I have finished my first round of agent queries for my first novel.

Speaking of my first novel, I plan to send out queries in a couple of weeks. The original plan of September was side lined after underestimating the difficulties of writing a solid query letter and synopsis. Not to mention that I had to get some reading done; my original comparison titles were much too old, and I needed to add something much fresher if I wanted to stand out. Additionally, I learned a valuable nugget of information at the WEM Agents Masterclass - don't submit during the month before or after the London or Frankfurt book fairs, as there's a good chance your work will go straight into the agent's slush pile. With that in mind, I have set myself a date in April.

My 1 year anniversary on YouTube is coming up in a couple of weeks and I have a few special videos planned for that, so look out for something a little different! I am very proud of the amount of video views and subscribers I have achieved in such a short space of time, for a channel that is so small. I'm going to start throwing in some different content to spice things up, so here's to a new phase of my writing journey.

Fingers crossed it all goes well!