It seems that right until mid-August, I have Saturday plans nearly every weekend. That basically means, my blog posts will be fewer as will my social media updates. I'm perfectly fine, just really busy. Plus I have a novel to write and finish off some short things and I'm really hoping to return to my cut-up project. 

Obviously, while my house was being done over the winter, I stopped working on the novel and the cut-up project (which were my winter plans) to work on shorter things that still needed to be done but not right away. That was just because I knew I'd be distracted and wouldn't be able to concentrate fully on the novel (third rewrite lucky). Plus, rebuilding my skills and putting together a new portfolio. So I am super busy.

I'm also looking forward to having something resembling a life where I'm not working all the time over the summer. This is the first time this has happened since I was a child. I worked hard to get to this point and I'm going to enjoy it.

However, sacrifices need to be made. And over the next few weeks, my summer plans will come at the expense of my website. Normal posting will eventually resume. And I will still try to get selections from my books posted as and when I can. I do still hope to have extracts posted for all my books by the end of the summer. I think I have one or two free Saturdays in there. 

Having a life is something I have badly needed for many years now (like since I was 16, but the opportunity was never there and thankfully, everything that happened to me is now really fucking illegal on a domestic and family front - that includes extended family and son's relatives, so still working on making it illegal for teachers to behave in such a manner towards other people). My son's father would always go out and get wasted at my expense and then say he needed that, but not once were my needs considered (his excuse was I never left my bedroom and despite explaining to him that I wasn't allowed to and dreamed of a life where I could go out and have some fun, it didn't get through to him). It is really nice to see to some of my other needs beyond working (working in a field that I'm qualified to work in doing what I want to do was vitally important to my well-being and I'm grateful the government now recognise that) being met. None of my plans involve getting wasted as that isn't healthy in any sense, but I will be fulfilled socially and my hair will finally be done (which is really important to me). 

And on that thought, I do have some shorter things to finish up before dinner (as if by some miracle, I did all the chores yesterday and did the laundry between Friday evening, yesterday morning and then yesterday evening when I arrived home). Then after dinner, I work on my portfolio and graphic design (this is usually an every day thing, like me waking up early to write, but these past few weeks, my son has been late to leave to school so I've been getting into work late and just too tired in the evenings). 

Have a great week. As next weekend is just hair and nails and grocery shopping, I'll hopefully have the time to get up some more selections from my books. 

PS. Thanks for purchasing Stara, whoever you are. Here's some pictures of Jerk Face deciding not to hold a grudge after giving him flea drops. 

My short story Hack the Future is out now. This is the one I wrote earlier in the year when my employer decided going batshit crazy was the best response to generative AI. Rather ironically, I was already looking into and writing about AI when he decided to do that. 

Just before that occurred (bare in mind, I was already experiencing some work-related stress), I had started Hack the Future and thought it was probably going to be the best thing I've written since 56 Seconds. I know readers all have their own tastes, but Hack the Future and 56 Seconds are mine. 

​Hack the Future is about a lonely, old artist. He's employed to remove watermarks (a lot of them his own) from AI generated art. He buys old pieces of tech with his paycheques. And he spends a lot of time going into virtual sex parties. At one of these, he sees an avatar that very much resembles his favourite vocalist from his youth. He kidnaps the code and from there spends less time in the virtual world and more time with his dream woman. 

It would really mean a lot to me if you would buy this story. I really like it. I might do more with it in the future, but right now I'm still working on We Gave the World Synthpop Dreams (third rewrite lucky!). And I have other things to do to hopefully reduce my stress in the future. 

I'm still actually looking into AI and will be building a new website to focus on it. But not today. Today is filled with enough tech problems as it is and I'm still designing the logo (or figuring out Illustrator is more like it, logo is designed but not ready). That's just one of the things I'm doing right now. 

Like most creatives, I am not a fan of generative AI and just about tolerate some of the other types. As I said, I'm putting all of this stuff on a different website where you can read my rants about AI. 

​Please go pick up a copy of Unthinkable Tales Vol 5 and leave a review. 

I will very slowly over the course of the summer add excerpts for all of my books. 
So far, there's:

• 50 Shades of Gnome
• Stara
• Name Dropping with Hayden
• Ghetto Super Skank. 

And if you head on over to TBM, you can read the first part of 56 Seconds. 

I will try to get Story Time Submission details up soon. And maybe a blog post lamenting my lack of Pimms (I seldom drink and the one time I wanted something particular, everywhere was sold out). For now, I have novels and short stories to see to and I need to force through an upgrade of my operating system to get inDesign to work. 

I hope everyone is enjoying this pleasant weather and if you drink, I hope you have a bottle of Pimms to go with it.