A Happy New Year to you! Once again I find I must apologise for my neglect. The last six weeks or so have been fraught with work to say nothing of a heavy cold which dragged me down for a bit. I’ve been commissioned to write FOUR books, all of which have to be finished by the end of February. Fortunately, they are all of modest length but I’m sure you can understand why I ended up neglecting my blogs and social media for a time.
Three of these are ghost books, as you might expect. The other is considerably more unusual (for me) and is presenting quite a challenge. I’ve been commissioned to write about one of the most horrific acts of terrorism on British soil: the IRA bombing in Warrington town centre in 1993. Fifty-six people were injured by the blasts and two children were killed. It’s a tricky thing to write about when one considers not only the emotion attached to the tragedy but also the complicated history of ‘The Troubles’. What’s made the project much more difficult is that I’ve been asked to write it for children aged 12 and under! I could have written twice as many words in half the time.
The commission came from Wendy and Colin Parry, the parents of one of the children who was killed. Naturally, I wanted to do the very best job I could for them. Wendy and Colin now run a charity, the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace, named after the two boys who lost their lives, which works to help British victims of terrorism and to end violent conflict of all kinds. (You can read about their important work at www.foundation4peace.com).
I completed the first draft of this book just before Christmas and hope to have their comments later this week. I’m quite nervous. I hope I haven’t let them down.
As I say, I have three other books to write, too (one is almost finished), so I’m going to be very busy but I’ll do my best not to let this blog lie fallow for so long again.
Here’s to a busy and successful year for all of us!
