My Story Cup Overfloweth...

Currently, I’ve 26 solid story ideas in the writing pipeline and sometimes one of the hardest tasks is choosing which story to write next. Some stories are more straightforward than others; however, the ultimate plan is to write all the tales in the pipeline regardless of their complexity.

Some ideas develop slowly, in isolation, or, as an off shoot from other stories, but some concepts land out of the blue, a case in point is the story Cherry Pie, a heart-warming tale, which is scheduled for release in late spring.

The idea manifested in my mind roughly a week ago when I woke at around 2 AM, and from ‘somewhere’ the details crystalised as I made notes on my phone; sleep had to wait as the idea poured in from some ‘other’ dimension.

Cherry Pie involves a character I’ve already written about, Myrsa Summersby, who is the main protagonist in: A Girl Named Latchford. The tale itself is very straightforward to write and so it’ll be the final piece of fiction I compose before I take a hiatus from publishing during summer and autumn this year.

The point I’m getting at (albeit in a long-winded manner) is that my creative process doesn’t necessarily involve sitting in a locked room with a blank piece of paper and not leaving until an idea forms; in my experience, creative ideas often spawn randomly ‘out of the ether’.

My own (completely unsubstantiated) theory is that maintaining an open mind without exerting pressure on oneself allows ‘raw’ ideas to ‘arrive’ in the mind without effort. Some ideas will at first appear weak or incomplete while others appear strong—and it’s up to us storytellers to then exert effort to develop the idea further.

Roughly 48-hours after Cherry Pie entered my mind, another idea landed (also arriving during the twilight hours) with the working title ‘Lucid Blues’ and involves mushrooms; now my pipeline is 27 stories long.

Although getting a good night’s sleep is always enjoyable, I’m eternally grateful when these ideas keep me awake at night; in my opinion it’s better to have an overflowing cup than an empty one.

Ding Dong! Merrily on high...

December has been a busy month, especially for releasing paperbacks. There were three published in as many weeks, with these being:

- The Duskwood Ribticklers (single book).

- The Mayflower Collection (three stories).

- Besties Collection (three stories).

Creating a ‘collection’ is a laborious process; however, it’s one I’m keen on continuing because it gives readers better value (over purchasing single books) and full physical ownership of the stories.

The screenshot below displays the individual files created for ‘Besties – Collection 1’:

These files are then merged into a complete book. Once collated into a single PDF document, these are proofread and checked to ensure the margins and page numbering is correct before being submitted.

The Duskwood Ribticklers is likely the final single book I’ll format and publish due to the increased printing costs Amazon charge for these to be worthwhile to either reader or author. Instead, stories will be available as eBooks or grouped in paperback collections in one or more of the following categories:

- Theme-based (as per the Beasties and Besties collections).

- Character-based (as per Mayflower – Collection 1).

- Assortments (as per Fables - Collection 1).

It’s worth nothing a story can be a member of more than one category; the key for me is providing readers with a meaningful choice of options.

Early in 2026 I’ll be completing the stories Rogue Kitty and Don’t Feed the Ferrets before bringing together the paperback Fables Collection 2. Once these are published, I’m planning a break from publishing (but not story-writing or world-building).

Pausing the publishing side of things allows me more time to develop the stories I have planned without being under a shadow of an arbitrary deadline. Clearly, this means I’m not entirely sure how many stories will be released in 2026; however, I will be writing a fresh bunch.

That’s all for this year and if anyone does read this blog who also celebrates Christmas, then I’ll wish you a very merry one.

Courtesy of King's College Choir in London...

 

 

 

Bean-Grinding Adventures

My most recent story, The Duskwood Ribticklers, has been the most complex I’ve written so far. The first draft dates to January this year, and the manuscript has endured many tweaks until its publication ten months later. Even the cover took many major revisions before I was happy with it... the selected cover was version number 11.

The Duskwood Ribticklers’ complexity is due to threads linking out to other titles, including these currently available stories: Tingle Toes, The Bushgreave, The Oakmere Grynfang, Bristlewurm, and Meet Chompy.

Links to future stories include: Trembleknees, Don’t Feed the Ferrets, Rogue Kitty, and Night Strife.

Some links will be clear and obvious, others a little abstract; however, it was important for me to ensure consistency in timelines and locations before committing the final manuscript of the first edition.

The Duskwood Ribtickers centres around friendship and explores the sensitive subject of abuse and how it can manifest different symptoms within victims.

This tale is available in both e-reader and print format and will be included in the upcoming paperback ‘Mayflower - Collection One’, which includes the first three Elise Mayflower stories: Tingle Toes, The Bushgreave, and The Duskwood Ribticklers.

Elise Mayflower now gets a well-deserved rest after her three ‘bean-grinding’ adventures… but my own rest doesn’t start until next spring because I’ve two more stories to complete during the winter, and these are: Rogue Kitty and Don’t Feed the Ferrets.

New Kitty on the Block

It feels like eternity (all of two months) since my last post, and as there's far too much to cover in terms of what I've been working on, I thought I'd focus on one story inception that occurred shortly after my previous blog post.

That story inception is: Rogue Kitty.

Initially, Rogue Kitty was going to be a short story featuring Elise Mayflower (Tingle Toes and The Bushgreave) as the protagonist; however, when the story was being developed there was a greater opportunity for 'Rogue Kitty' to be a separate character and story path.

Long story short, Kitty Bakewell is now the protagonist and is set to fight tyrants with her accomplices. The first three stories planned are:

Elise Mayflower hasn't been neglected though as she's one of my favourite characters (are storytellers allowed favourites?). The Bushgreave was published at the end of September, and The Duskwood Ribticklers is due for publication next month.

With Rogue Kitty's arrival, some other stories I had planned have been pushed farther into the future, and the writing schedule has been jiggled around a bit to accommodate them.

Two months feels far too long to leave between posts, and so I'll add my next much sooner.

Focussing on the Fun Stuff

Summer is ending and autumn, my favourite season, approaches.

August has seen plenty of ice-cream (mint choc chip if you’re wondering) and summer walks; along with the following two releases:

The Promise (ebook)

Beasties - Collection One (paperback containing four monstrous stories).

After a short experiment with YouTube, I decided to pause that side-project for the foreseeable future. The amount of time spent prepping and building video files was taking far too much time away from the fun stuff of writing and developing stories, ideas, and characters.

Some excerpt videos and the welcome videos will still be visible via the website; however, I’ve hidden them from random discovery on YouTube itself. One day I may resurrect the narrated stories project and still have many audio files for several stories yet to process.

During September and October, my plan is to publish the following:

-          The Bushgreave (ebook)

-          The Duskwood Ribticklers (ebook)

-          Fables – Collection One (paperback containing five of the current stories available)

In addition to those I’ll be advancing the following story manuscripts:

-          Don’t Feed the Ferrets

-          Night Strife

-          Trundlebug

Another busy and creative period awaits and therefore my next blog entry will be posted on Sunday, October 26th just prior to one of my favourite celebrations, Halloween.

Additionally, I'm going to examine migrating blog posts to my own site as the Blogger interface (clunky and unfriendly) is driving me to the edge of insanity!

Not much time for ice cream.

 July has been a busy month, with a lot of work taking place behind the scenes. 
During the last four weeks (cutting out the boring stuff) activity has included:

• Adjustments and optimisations for the narrated version of The Oakmere Grynfang.
• Finishing touches to the narrated versions of Bristlewurm and Meet Chompy.
• The initiation of the Undelund Tales YouTube channel.
• Creation of 24 YouTube Shorts for The Oakmere Grynfang.
• Preparing ‘Beasties - Collection 1’ for release next month.
• Further writing on: The Duskwood Ribticklers, The Bushgreave, and The Promise.

Specific goals for next month include:

1. The release of the ebook version of The Promise.
2. The release of the narrated version of Bristlewurm.
3. The release of the print-only ‘Beasties – Collection 1’.
4. Release of six more YouTube shorts.

Completing goals #1 and #2 are the priority as I wanted to complete them this month; however, both are now at a late stage of development.

As a teaser, below are screen captures for the narrated version of Bristlewurm; in particular: The ‘Title’ screen and the ‘Listening Guidance’ section. This will be the first story published to the YouTube channel. These screen caps may undergo some minor adjustments prior to release.

Next month will be as busy as July has been, and I hope to see you at the end of next month for August’s update.

Best wishes.

Tim H.

A busy summer and the forthcoming YouTube channel

To give my blog posts a clear focus from this point on, they’ll comprise of two main sections. The first being updates made on various stories during the preceding month; and the second, being a focus on three specific goals for the coming month.

During the last 30 days:

• Meet Chompy has been made available via Kindle Unlimited.
• The Crossing of Crocklemell is now available as a paperback.
• The audio versions of Meet Chompy and Bristlewurm have been finalised.
• The Promise has entered the final revision stages with an expected release of the ebook for next month.
• The Bushgreave has also entered its final revision stages with an expected release of the ebook for August.
• The Duskwood Ribticklers is undergoing its final staging with an expected release for September.
• A welcome video for the forthcoming Undelund Tales YouTube channel has been created ready for publishing next month (15th July).
• 30 YouTube ‘short’ videos featuring excerpts for Bristlewurm and Meet Chompy have been created.
• Preparation for the audio version of The Oakmere Grynfang.

 

Three specific goals for next month include:

1. The first content being added to the Undelund Tales YouTube account.
2. The release of the ebook version of The Promise.
3. The release of the audio version of Bristlewurm.

While there will be plenty more development and planning activities going on, my wish is not ramble on too much.

Below are a few teaser thumbnails for three of the six YouTube Shorts being published next month; two are taken from Meet Chompy and one from Bristlewurm.

Not all stories will have videos created, but those that do will have a minimum of 12 shorts and a maximum of 24. These will be drip-fed via the channel over a twelve-month period to allow for a broader coverage.

Hope to see you next month for the next update.

Best wishes.

Tim H.