I haven’t really spent much time or thought on how to use this account since I set it up over a year ago. My current process is so haphazard that I’ve not felt able to commit myself to producing content with any sort of regularity, so there’s no way to incentivise people to visit, so there’s no reason to post something next week / month / whenever…

Now, as we’re staring 2025 in the face, I’ve had a couple of things happen which have caused me to re-assess things.

Firstly, I reached 100 followers on BlueSky, despite never having posted any content there which bears any relation to my profile (for comparison, in over 6 years lurking on Twitter before I made my account private, my follower count never exceeded the low 80’s).

Secondly, I found myself re-watching ‘ Derren Brown Showman’ on terrestrial TV over the weekend. In it, he speaks about the loss of his father Bob to COVID during the first lockdown in the UK – how no-one was able to be with him during the last days of his life; how there was no opportunity for a family funeral; and how Bob’s own wishes for his memorial went unsatisfied as a consequence. Derren then asked: ‘what could I do now to show him how much I love him and miss him? So I wrote a show’ – the one he was performing, which was stuffed full of references to his Dad, but also paid tribute to the different ways we choose to remember our loved ones, both living and deceased.

As the credits rolled at the end of the programme, the first message was a tribute to Derren’s father. That’s how I know his name was Bob, and learned that he was born in 1939, the same year as my late parents. Finding we have that in common set me thinking about what I might have written to celebrate my own Mum and Dad, if I’d found myself in Derren Brown’s shoes.

I was fortunate that Mum was able to experience something I’d written – she was in the audience for one of the performances when I staged my play ‘Tam Lin’ in Nottingham back in 1998. We’d lost my Dad thirteen years earlier, so there has never been the opportunity for him to share anything I’ve written since school. I didn’t write ‘Tam Lin’ for Mum, and I’ve never written anything for Dad; what would I choose to write now, after all this time, to honour their memories, the sacrifices they made?

In my next post, I’ll write about how I finally completed the first draft of my novel ‘The Price of Fire’, which I’ve been promising to my wife since we first met. We have three sons, none of whom could be described as avid readers. What could I write for them?

The eldest is a musician – an interest we have in common, although his talent far exceeds mine. Perhaps a song for him?

The elder of his twin brothers has an interest in mythology, so perhaps a re-telling of one of his favourite Norse myths? Or perhaps I should complete the novelisation of ‘Tam Lin’ in the hope that he might develop a similar interest in English folklore?

The youngest also reads the least, but is interested in video games. Perhaps a graphic novel would appeal to him?

And for my parents?

Should I complete the SF story I began for my MA dissertation for Dad, whose bookshelf introduced me to Larry Niven and Robert Heinlein? But Mum would never have read something like that…

A historical romance, after Anya Seton, Jean Plaidy and Catherine Cookson for her? There are elements of ‘The Price of Fire’ which might fall into that category, if one chose not to look too carefully, but it’s not something I feel I could carry off with any degree of authenticity.

So, then, a memoir (or possibly two, or even three). Something to celebrate them, to thank them, and also to introduce them to their three grandsons, whom they never had the chance to meet.

I’ve decided that 2025 is the year I commit to one or more of these projects.

My wife’s novel is already undergoing significant re-work as I try to turn my initial version into something which I hope will attract a literary agent. One over-long draft has become two-thirds of a trilogy of more easily-digested volumes; I have the idea for the structure of the third, and some words already in place. There are gaps which I don’t currently know how to fill, but I’m hoping that, if I can repeat last year’s February and write ever day, then I can find myself half-way home in a few months’ time.

Dad’s SF novel is 20% written, with a synopsis to help me finish it off. The novel version of ‘Tam Lin’ is in a similar state. I have structures for the volumes of my memoir with what I hope are sufficiently interesting hooks. But the song? The graphic novel? Just conceptware at the moment.

Next year will hopefully see us celebrating our silver wedding anniversary. The twins will turn twenty-one in three years’ time. Looks as though I have deadlines lining themselves up…

So I’m going to start posting here, initially on a fornightly basis. Mostly it will be stuff about my WIPs, hopefully reporting progress, together with stories about my research or the background to my writing which I hope will entertain and enlighten. I’ll let you know what I’m reading, and why. If there appears to be sufficient demand, I’ll open a mailing-list and start a newsletter to complement this blog.

See you in 2025…

• Bluesky