I feel quite rejuvinated

I've made lots of progress in my plans for Book 4. I've gone into far more detail than I have for any of my other books - which is probably a good thing. And I feel very excited about it all.

I've also written down brief outlines for Nathaniel Rane Books 2 - 4 at my wife's behest. Up until now, I've had the vague ideas locked away in my brain but she (quite rightly) felt it would be better to have them on paper ready for as and when I need them. The idea behind HWF was always a series that could grow like Richard Sharpe or Jack Reacher - continuing adventures that also work as stand alone books, easy to pick up and get into. (One of my biggest frustrations with modern fantasy is how difficult some can be to get into. Complicated casts with a million things going on - they suffer with the Game Of Thrones disease. You almost need to reread all the previous books every time a new one comes out. I was glad to hear though that Elsbeth Cooper has written a What's Gone On Before section for the final book in her series - more authors should do that.) I do love Rane as a character so if HWF is picked up, again I'd love to continue in his world.

My wife thinks I should just start writing the next Rane book anyway but this is a point that I don't agree with. Unless HWF is sold, I don't want to invest a year of my time on something that will be even harder to sell (if not impossible) because HWF went nowhere.

The current situation with HWF is that the full manuscript is with two of the UK's biggest literary agencies and now it's just a case of waiting to see if either of them are interested. So much of this writing/publishing lark is about waiting/patience and all that stuff I'm not too good at!

However, I do want the right agent. I had a great experience with Rob and then a not great experience with the chap who nearly became my agent when SWITCH/BLADE nearly got picked up - I'm just glad I didn't sign anything at that point.

Things always happen for a reason.

For now I'm just excited that the fact that the ideas are flowing again and I've rediscovered the ability to write again!