Hello, peeps and creeps.

Forgot this blog existed? Don’t feel bad. So did I.

After a fairly half-baked promise last post to get back on the blogging track once again, I’ve come to the rather tepid conclusion that delivering content both lengthy and engaging consistently each week is probably not a realistic goal. While time, these days, sadly isn’t an issue, the amount of intellectual and emotional energy, frankly, isn’t something I can realistically see myself pulling out of my arse each week without fail.

I am going to try and get back to this again, but I think my posting will be a little more situational – I’ll blog when there’s something to blog about, instead of conjuring up a ‘reason’ each week to blog about something. It’ll be less often, but it’ll probably be better.

That said, in the coming weeks I should have more things to post about. Legion That Was is crawling ever closer to its official release, both in eBook and Dead Tree™ formats. It’s going to the copyeditor in the first week of August for one final round of editing, which should take in the region of 2-3 weeks to do, before coming back to me for the final cutting and chopping. When that happens, the page count will have inevitably changed a little once more, so I’ll once again have to talk to the wonderful folks over at Book Beaver to have the (paperback) cover resized, one last time.

Which puts the release somewhere in early/mid September.

Those of you who follow my social media will have seen the proof copy I had made from Amazon. Partly to test their printing and partly to see how the final product will look in the flesh. Amazingly, in other words.

But the main reason I’m back online today is to share the second of (hopefully) many reviews of the novel from a reviewer; in this case, the delightful Sue Bavey.

You can read the review here, as well as the novel’s review section on this very website.

As for me, personally, things are a little mixed. Physically I’m doing a little better healthwise, and was able to get out a little more than expected during the heatwave. Mentally, things are less cut and dry. I’ve had some bad days, but was finally able to spend some time with people I haven’t been with in ages. Since before Corona. But as lovely as that proved to be, to just forget eighteen months of angst and misery for a few golden days, I think it’s a mixed blessing.

Normality is still a long way off, for me personally as much as everyone else, and having a day or two that feels so wonderfully normal probably isn’t a great thing to get used to. Not least when the immediate future is looking more bleak once again. Sometimes coming into the warmth isn’t quite so appealing, not when you know it’s going to make the cold outside bite even more.

But then, you don’t come here for this sentimental crap, so there we go.

Enjoy the review, and decide if you want to buy the book or not.