Well now what have we got going on? First thing is that I have a nonfiction book out on agency submission. I have actually proposed a series, but it can be a standalone book. It’s literary self-help, a short book each time, and on each occasion an area of literature and a theme to help with a particular ill, or something we might need. Anyway, it’s called Dr Bookworm Prescribes and plays with the idea of a sort of…apothecary; a bibliotherapist. Close readings, but only short ones – ideas; all kinds of fun and consolation.

AND THEN…

On Monday night I handed my new fiction to my agent. This is a psychological drama; a novella. It’s dark and weird and, while you can tell it’s me, the style is simpler and leaner than that of previous books. I started writing this last year and put it aside for a while, and then finished it quite quickly this month. It’s called All The Days I Did Not Live. Will she like it?

AND MEANWHILE…

The judges are reading the entries for the 2025 Curae prize for unpaid carers. I have read all the entries and they are reading in batches. I feel that, across poetry, fiction and nonfiction, there are some standout entries: the ones I just cannot stop thinking about. But mine is not the only decision and, mid April, we will get together and make our list. Shortlist is published on the 1st of May.

AND AT THE SAME TIME…

My first two books are out of print and the publisher closed. I have my rights back. I am not sure what to do with the first book (auto-fiction), but U have offered the second one to a delightful indie publisher I adore TOGETHER WITH a strange little historical fiction and magical realism mash-up that my previous agency didn’t like AND a nonfiction proposal, which could be a book OR could be commuted to something essay length. We shall see.

AND I WONDER…

I always like to be working on something, but I am taking my time with this next one and, to be brutally honest, going all-out for the market by attaching the book to a known oeuvre – and that’s all I am saying other than F. Scott Fitzgerald.

AND FINALLY…

You may have been expecting the follow-up to 2023’s kindle bestseller The Alchemy…originally slated for this autumn, The Elixir has been moved, at my request, to 2025 on account of not being superhuman. I will be working on that this year, too.

NONE OF THIS IS MY DAY JOB!