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Year of the Rat




I hope you’ve all had a very good start to your New Year. Many are asking what the year of the Rat holds for us. For myself I’m hoping the rat’s aptitude for survival and its prodigious breeding capacity bodes well. I’ve thankfully survived the bad bout of migraines brought on by my Lupus last year. It made me reassess my needs and how I want to live my life going forward. I made the tough decision to give up my teaching which has provided me with the bulk of my income to date. For years I’ve wanted to concentrate solely on my writing and I think now is the time to do it, nerve-wracking though it may be. I’ve got a clutch of stories, poems and novels incubating and ready to hatch.

Those born in the Year of the Rat are said to be ‘industrious and thrifty, diligent and positive’. While I’m not a product of one of the Rat years I certainly hope the traits of this particular rodent will rub off on me. I’m going to need all these to complete and publish the projects I have in mind.

Here are my current WIPs and what I’m aiming to do with them all:

Memoirs of a Feline Familiar – Advance Reader Copies will go out to readers at the end of this month. Readers will have all of February to read, comment and suggest alterations. Depending on how many changes are needed it will then be published in March or April. If you wish to join my Advance Reader Team details will follow in my next newsletter at the end of this month.

Zoo Nation – Complete the final stages of format and length of this collaborative poetry collection with my fellow poet Dr Bev Cross. Send out to Advance Readers in April and publish in May.

The Witch Adoption Project – Complete edit and send out to Advance Readers in June/July for publication in August if there are not too many revisions required.

The Prodigal Relative – Complete edit of this short story collection and send out to Advance Readers in October/November for publication at Christmas.

Too ambitious?

Not in the slightest. I was already working on these projects last year before I became ill. So this year I need to get them out to you and the world in general.

This is the Year of the Rat after all.




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