Two Dogs, the sixth Mac Maguire mystery, has just been published in Amazon Books. I’ve also written a book of ghost stories 13 Ghosts of Winter so that makes seven in all. So what’s next?

I started writing seriously just over three years ago as a response to my pain issues. I’d dabbled with writing before but had never been able to stick at it long enough to come up with anything decent. I found that my work as an Audience Analyst gave me some respite during the week as it took my mind off the pain. However I then needed something to do at the weekends and so I started writing. Since then I’ve averaged a book every six months or so. I’ve now got another book nearly completed, The Black Vaults Experiment, which is a paranormal thriller and something of a new departure for me. I’ve also started on Mac 7 as I call it and, although I’ve got four or five chapters written, I’ve no idea where the story is going as yet. I always find this quite exciting as it’s almost as if I’ve got to write the story first so I can see how it all ends.

The number of pages I’ve been writing lately has gone up, as I’ve only been working three days a week, and it should go up even more as I’ll be finally retiring early next year. I am more than thankful that I’ve got writing to fall back on and I’m looking forward to the new challenge of becoming a full time author. So what’s next?

I’ll definitely be keeping up with the Mac books as I’d like to know myself what happens to some of the characters. Although each book is a stand alone story I have tried to develop Mac and some of the other characters to hopefully add some extra interest for the reader who is investing their time in the whole series. In the next book I’m hoping to more or less complete Kate Grimsson’s story but there are other characters like Leigh Marston, Chris Skorupski and, of course, Jo and Gerry Dugdale who I’d like to know more about. I’ve no idea yet where they might next appear but we’ll see.

I also really enjoyed writing The Black Vaults Experiment and I’m already thinking of a sequel to that. There’s also another ghost/horror project that I’ve already started called Tales of the Conjurer of Demons that I’m planning as being another series. I’m finding that having two books on the go at any one time is really useful as there will always be times when you get a bit stuck. Being able to turn to another project not only means that I keep myself occupied but it gives me time to let some ideas marinate while not thinking directly about the book. Often, when I return to it, the ideas flow and I’m off again.

So, in short, seven down and hopefully a lot more to go. So long as I can write, I’ll keep at it. It’s not only the best pain therapy for me but I also end up with something tangible, a book.