Authors Update - 4 September 2025

So it's been a little while since my last Author's Update, and in that time a lot has been happening.

First up, a little on the Other household.  Beth and I have been addressing several issues that have arisen since the business transition.  I’ve had to try to wind up the company, and we’ve been threatened with being sued.  In trying to do the right thing by everyone, we’re hurting financially as over half of my paycheck is going to try and shut things down.  It's funny moving into my late 40s with a business I ran for 16+ years.  I would have thought we would be financially set.  Yet here we are with no money, paying the bills, paying debts, but there is not much left over.

If you’re thinking it, yep.  It’s an inspiring story.  I’ve seen the broad outline, but it's still developing in my subconscious!

But I have to give a big shout-out to all of you, my subscribers, as well. Through your generosity in supporting my writing, you have also given Beth and me a couple of meals when we planned to go without, so thank you.

And yes, earlier this month, I had a couple of really bad days working on the books when I realised that over the past two and a half years, we have lost just under $12 million, which really hurts.  That was the day I realised I had fallen.  I couldn’t hold it together, and it was dark and ugly, and while I would not do it.  Some pretty horrid thoughts entered my brain.

However!

In the midst of it, there is creativity, and I’ve had the opportunity to go back over a few concepts and a few drafts. Words have flowed and thoughts expounded upon.  I’ve got a couple of outlines that I will post to the Full Monty page over the next week.

Now enough about me, let's chat stories…

The Nuclear Family – This week, we enter into one of my favourite chapters in Part I, so if you have never read the story, make sure you don’t miss Part 9, where the family reunites.  I’m also working through Part II at the moment. I’m a little behind where I want to be, but I'm getting there. After the completion of Part I, I plan to begin posting Part II about two weeks later, giving me just a little buffer to stay ahead of the weekly chapter release.

If you haven’t had a chance, check out ‘A Flash before my eyes’, it's not quite in its final state, however, it's not far off, and what I enjoy is that it features a certain pub, which you may have noticed before and will feature in a few more upcoming stories.

Disrespect and DNA – Thank you, Full Monty crowd, for all the feedback and edits.   I have now posted the updated versions of both parts and will open that up to the Raw and Ready and Story Access crews over the coming week.

I’m also getting closer to having the edits complete for entanglement, though it will likely be a couple more weeks yet, as it’s been a little more of a background task.

For the Full Monty crowd, I have posted a draft of ‘On the Streets’, and thank you to those who have already given me feedback.  Your notes have been great, and there are a few changes I am going to make and a couple of additional scenes I want to add in the closing chapters of the story.

I’ve also been working on two other stories this week, firstly, Heartbeat.  I am enjoying writing the layering on this one, and I believe I have a couple of cool sci-fi concepts to introduce.  I’m hoping to have the draft complete by the end of the year.

And speaking of Sci-Fi, early October, I am working towards the draft release of Shimmer, Part 1.  Some of you may have seen a very early partial draft. However, this will be the entire part 1 of this new three-part series.

Outline-wise, I have a couple of outlines to share for your comments. I am working on the way to post them that makes sense.  These are really raw versions of my writer's notes, and while I am keen for comments, I want to present them in a way that can help get feedback so my stories make sense.

For this coming week, I am working on completing the next four chapters of The White Suit. For those of you who enjoyed the first book, I have just finished Dominic’s first fight with a group of Moon Rabbits, the main antagonists of the book.  However, I am also enjoying a couple of the subtle plot lines that I started in Book 1, and a couple of them won’t be complete until Book 4.  It is taking more time than I thought, but that is because the details have to be right since this is a multi-book series. I'm really hoping this goes well, as I am really, really excited about Book 3 as we get into some serious good vs evil plotlines!

Now, lastly, I would like to begin highlighting some of my fellow authors in my author posts.  I think it's important that we support each other and work to build more stories, more entertainment, and uplift each other. 

For this update, I would like to focus on Adam Stephenson. His first story, The Theory of Love, has a great mix of emotions, pain, angst, and romance.  He’s also been giving me a lot of support in both my personal journey and my stories.  He’s one of our team, so make sure to say hi!

So as we move deeper into September, and begin looking towards the end of the year, even as the world keeps getting a little crazy around us.  I hope that one of my stories can help you find a few moments of peace and relaxation.

See you in the stories

John Other