THE ELLORY JOURNAL

LIFE HAS A WAY OF CATCHING UP WITH ME...

Apologies for my absence once again! I have posted nothing for some weeks, and though I can give all manner of reasons and explanations, it has simply been work constraints that have prevented me from attending to this matter.

So, Number 6 (tentatively called 'The Patron Saint of Thieves') was completed about two weeks ago. Spanning New York, London, Paris, Prague and Marseilles, it is - once again - a very different novel. Number 5 (A Quiet Belief in Angels) will be completed (second draft) in the next week or so and finding its way to my copy editor, the inimitable and ever-patient Robyn Karney.

I have started work (only 10,000 words or so) on Number 7, and once again find myself in the midst of an interesting collection of mental processes. Number 6 will need re-drafting once it returns from my agent; Number 5 will need a couple of weeks' work once it comes back from my editor, and yet here I am, already 10,000 words into yet another book, which - if all goes according to plan and I secure another publishing contract in the spring of 2007, will be released in 2009. I also wrote a short story (about 3,500 words, entitled 'Texas In The Fall') for the National Short Story Prize 2007. It is JFK's assassination from a first person perspective. Slightly unusual, reasonably brave, and we'll see what happens. Managing three or four different things at once is sometimes challenging, but keeps me busy!

So that's my explanation for absence. I will post again shortly, I promise, and meanwhile continue to do what I love the most!