The Art of Dying is moving along nicely. I've just finished writing chapter five and the word count's just slightly under 20,000 words, so expect just under 40k for the finished book. Here's a short snippet from Chapter Two - ...
"Shaw! What are you doing?” he shouted into the chatspace. “Your ship's holed! It's not going to work, you'll burn up!” There was no reply from Shaw himself or any of the crew of his ship. Street pulled up the list of members of the chatspace and noticed that Shaw himself had already 'left', along with half of his crew, then moments later, the rest of them blinked out one by one as the ship broke up in a fireball that washed around the high atmosphere to the dark side of the planet below. No one else added a comment to the fleet comms chatspace, and silence hung like a low dark cloud over the remains of the fleet.
As I said in my last post, the book will see Proctor back in space, pulling himself out of another seemingly impossible situation and once more leaving a high body count in his wake. Hopefully it will be another high-speed romp, and certainly, going on the book so far, I don't think it will disappoint.
During a break from writing, I've also designed the cover - very much in-keeping with the earlier novellas.
As I suggested in my last post, I'm looking at staying on at Mercia Marina for a while - I've applied for residential status and my name has been added to the waiting list. Apparently, I may have a two or three month wait for it to be confirmed, but in the mean time, I can stay where I am as a 'short-term moorer' for another three or four months, so hopefully availability will coincide with my longer term plans. I still plan to go out cruising when the weather is better, though I may just stick to a few local jaunts at weekends to fit cruising around my work schedule, and maybe spend a month out in the summer.
I've just come back from a week away in Torrevieja on Spain's Costa Blanca. For most of the time the weather behaved, though there were a few windy days, and as is typical for whenever I go away on holiday, I caught a cold which left me shivering despite temperatures generally in the mid-teens, occasionally reaching the twenties.
Despite the relatively poor exchange rate (1: 1.11 ish), there's plenty of wine available for less than a euro a carton, and decent lager comes in at 35c a tin, so I'm sure that those who know me personally will be aware of what I spent most of my time doing...
Reviews...
OK - I bang on about this every post, so I'll keep it short - lots of people have read my books now - if this includes you, please leave me a review, preferably on all three of amazon.co.uk, amazon.com and if you've read Night Time in Shanghai, my publisher, http://www.austinmacauley.com/book/night-time-shanghai
Signed Books...
I still have Night Time in Shanghai available in first edition, first print hardback, and second (glossy), and third (matt) print paperback and of course paperbacks of the Proctor Novellas. If you'd like any or all, please visit my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/AndyEllisWriter/ - and message me, or alternatively, leave a comment below.
Well, that will do for now - time to get back to making chapter notes on chapter three of The Art of Dying, then edit chapter four, then on with writing chapter six. Keep watching my blog and Facebook page for more updates.
Andy Ellis February 2017
