So, here it is. My ninth published novel, and the sixth in the DI Bliss series. Early reviews are wonderful, and I can only hope the bloggers on my tour agree. But it’s you, my readers, who are the most important people of all. Without you there would be no need for me, or reviews. So, I hold my breath in anticipation of your response to Endless Silent Scream. I do hope you like Molly, who features heavily in this story. She emerged pretty much fully formed after I watched a news item on TV. The item mentioned the number of young county lines drugs couriers caught up in a terrible cycle of abuse, violence and addiction. It intrigued me so much that I immediately knew this was an area I had to explore in my fiction.
There’s no rest, of course. I finished ESS back in November, since when I have written the first draft of Bliss #7, Slow Slicing, and have now started work on a novella which takes us back to Bliss’s first major case as a detective, plus a new piece which I hope to develop over time. That’ll be it for 2020. No plan makes it past first contact unscathed, so although this is likely to change, I’m currently looking at 2021 as a Bliss-free year. I’m interested in writing a third and final book in my Mike Lynch series, also strongly looking at writing a sequel to Degrees of Darkness, and have to make a final decision about the publication of a standalone novel I’ve been sitting on for the best part of a year now called Fifteen Coffins. However, if the story I have in mind for the DoD sequel doesn’t quite work for those existing characters, I may well launch a brand new crime series which takes a darker path than I usually travel with Jimmy Bliss.
It all seems a long way off, so for now I’m going to wait anxiously for those blogger reviews to come in, check in on my sales, respond to social media, and hope for a great launch for my new book. If you do read it, please spare a few minutes for the acknowledgements, as many people played a vital role in helping me reach this point.
Thank you.
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