LifeBlogging

Hello, everybody. This is the 1000th post on this blog (or at least it was on the old site, ahem), so I thought it would be nice to do a proper entry. So, let’s talk a bit about how things are going, a little about the future, maybe some thinking out-loud too. I’ve got a couple of topics to hit, but I’m allowing myself space to improv around the edges.

Hobson & Choi – Twenty-Five, Still Alive!

My ongoing detective serial Hobson & Choi hit twenty-fifth episodes on Thursday, and it looks like we broke the top twenty best-voted serials for the first time in July too. Exact placing still to be revealed, but thanks to anyone who did vote for us. The best is yet to come – seriously, I’ve read #26 and it’s great fun.

But aside from the broad progress update, how are things really going? I wrote a post a while back about the conflict inherent in me, a slightly awkward British man, having to aggressively plug something, and since then, I’ve played with a few strategies to get things working. I submitted an item to the EpiGuide podcast, I created the Official Hobson & Choi Twitter account, where I can ramble about the serial and play with hashtag promotion without feeling bad about infuriating old Twitter followers.

Surprisingly, we’re over 80 followers on that account, which is better than I expected it to do. People seem to be voting for the story on Jukepop, and not just the ones I force with guilt, so I gotta assume it’s going okay.

Still, there’s always more to do. In mid-August, Jukepop’s six-month exclusivity period on early H&C chapters starts to run out, and that means I’ll probably be slapping the first few episodes around other websites to try and raise awareness. May even play with formats beyond text – want to hear my beautiful authentic nasal-Essex accent reading out some Hobson & Choi? You may not have to wait long.

So in the meantime, you can read the serial on Jukepop, and if you know anywhere good I could post some Hobson & Choi in late August, let me know.

Writing About Writing More Or Less?

Not as many solid plans about getting more original content on this blog. I’m not a huge fan of declaring “tips” about writing – to be honest, I’m still learning what works for me, so although I’m happy to talk about it when I do hit on a winning strategy, they don’t come along often enough to keep this blog humming. I tried a slightly self-indulgent post about my creative process last week, and that was enjoyable enough.

And of course, there was always the Friday stories, which were fun and did get the hits/comments in, but honestly, the amount of writing time I was spending producing them was not good. Work on my non-H&C projects has sped up enormously since I cut those out.

I have a few other stories out submitted, and hopefully there will be positive news soon, but again not enough to run this blog single-handed. The TV reviews continue, though, and I might be doing some other podcasty work in that region too. Maybe. Hopefully. Anyway, enough thinking out loud for now, I think.

Thanks to everyone who’s been following the blog and/or the Twitter account for a long time, I’m aware there are some out there who read along happily and don’t say much, and your support means a lot too. Now, back to the “real” writing. I got another thousand posts to fill.