A Peek At My Week! #57

Before I jump into my updates for the past week, I’d like to begin by wishing all the dads out there a happy Father’s Day for yesterday, and also a happy Juneteenth to my American friends!

With that matter concluded, here are some things that happened in my life this past week:

News About Writing & Publishing:

Score: Publishing 0, Writing 1

Last time I mentioned the two obstacles currently preventing me from completing the process of republishing all my books via my KDP account: number one is the removal of the books on Moon Books Publishing’s KDP account; and number two is a letter (on a Moon Books Letterhead) clarifying that I have ownership and control over my books. I have to supply this letter to KDP for the titles they deem “duplicates” and which they’ve flagged and put on hold. Unfortunately, weeks and weeks later, I still can’t tell which books have been taken down, and I’m still waiting for the letter to turn up in my in box.I also haven’t had any royalty payments since at least December.

Until this is sorted out, there’s not much I can do with the existing books via KDP. I’m effectively held hostage by these circumstances – the death of my previous publisher and subsequent delays on the part of his widow (who, understandably, suffers from ill health, financial problems, technophobia and problems of her own) – but nevertheless the end result is the same for me, and while I feel no animosity towards anyone involved, I am extremely frustrated. Honestly, at times it’s difficult to not become so discouraged as to just chuck it all in the air, hang up my writer’s hat, and walk away.

…But it’s not that simple. Writing is in my blood. It’s my nature to write, and to tell stories.

So you see, in the meantime, I’ve continued to write. I’ve been working on “The Song of the Drillipede”, the final story for the next Panic! Horror In Space volume, “We All Fall Down”, which will contain three episodes of PHIS; “Dust“, “The Song of the Drillipede”, and “Hotel No-tell”. “We All Fall Down” will also replace the standalone version of “Dust” released two years ago as the third installment in the series.

Let me remind you that as a creative writer, I could make up a dozen reasons why I’ve decided to do this, but the brutal truth is that at one stage I thought I should just release the individual stories in Panic! as standalones, but once I’d released “Dust” I changed my mind shortly afterwards. There you have it in a nut-shell.

The title “We All Fall Down” alludes to the children’s rhyme “ring a rosie”, which has some bearing to the stories in this volume. As soon as I’ve finished “The Song of the Drillipede”, I’ll let you know when to keep your peepers open for “We All Fall Down”!

In the meantime, while writing, I’ve also done some fascinating research on the fear of mimes! Although not quite the same thing as clowns, many people experience a fear of these strange creatures, which can be debilitating!

What I Got Up To This Weekend

The tacky old 70’s light fitting I replaced on the parlor ceiling wound up on Faceblock marketplace for a few days, but then I decided to use it in a DIY project instead. A few hours on Sunday morning resulted in a revamped standing lamp for the parlor. I think it turned out really nice – what do you think? I might use it in another DIY article soon.

That’s all for this week!

With that, I’m all out of news. As always, I’ll keep you posted about any further developments.

Thanks a lot for all your friendship and support, I hope you know it is all deeply appreciated. Until next time, keep reading!