Countdowns & Kittens

Hello, dear reader!

And sorry for the short delay in this week’s offering.

This was due to a confluence of two separate, although not entirely unconnected events.

Allow me to explain.

Cat Calling
You see, I made a promise to a lady.

When my debut novel, The Heart That Died (available 4th of May!), was set for release , I told Tina, my super-special spouse, I would make good on my long term commitment to get a kitten.

This is something that has been on the cards since we lost the matriarch of our little tribe of felines, Maggie.

The Right Time
Maggie was the leader of the pack. She was the mother of our second cat, Sunny, and the grandmother of our third, Giles. She was also the first pet that Tina and I took on as a couple. Losing her, at the tender age of fifteen, was understandably a wrench and Tina would have been quite happy to rush out, there and then, to fill the void her passing left.

But that would have been getting a kitten for the wrong and far too emotional reason.

No, we needed to build a little distance between events. The desire to boost the numbers back to what they were still persisted, but we needed to make the decision with clear heads and healed hearts.

But when?

Well, as Maggie’s passing closed in on being a full year ago, and, as my concentration on the writing, design, and editing of my novel drew to a close, the time seemed more and more right.

And so it was decided. Tina saw Mabel, our new addition advertised on Gumtree, and last Friday we travelled over to Leeds to pick her and a decent haul of accompaniments up.

Since then life has been somewhat… interesting.

The Midnight Hour
A kitten is a small thing, but Mabel makes up for that with a huge character full of play and mischief.

She’s contributed to many a full day of scratched hands, nibbled fingers, moments of panic birthed by her misplaced bravery, tendency to explore, and ability to go completely missing from view.

She also contributed to me running just a tad late on my last typo hunt of the paperback version of my novel.

The release date of said novel is the 4th of May and, for five days previous to this date the title is locked for editing. This meant that, as of 12am on the 29th of April, I would be powerless to make any changes, or hunt down any surviving typos (and my word did I find some typos).

Easy, right?

Well, as it turns out not so much, no.

Golden Tickets
You see, Tina, partially as a reward for me, and partially as a reward for her own support and patience, booked us two tickets to go see a live action stage retelling of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory.

Both being big kids and long term fans of both the original book (although I may just prefer Charlie & the Great Glass Elevator, if pressed) this seemed like a really good idea.

It’s just a shame the only available date was the 28th of April—editing D-day!

Now, I know there are some who will say I was guilty of leaving things too late, and those people do have a point, but, in my defence, I was awaiting the final proof copy arriving before doing that final typo hunt (different formats of a far too familiar work being good for stopping the eye glazing over well known text). Regardless, as the appointed hour approached I still had two chapters left to run through, something I managed to do with a hair’s breadth to spare and quite a bit of imaginative swearing when I couldn’t locate the right file to upload to KDP.

So, yesterday saw a particularly worn out me. A factor not helped by the commute to take Tina to her work, or the pre-arranged kitten play date with Tina’s brother and sister-in-law.

Save The Date
Of course I wouldn’t have cancelled or rearranged any of that, but it meant something, somewhere had to give, and, with that something threatening to be me, I made the executive decision to wait a further 24 hours before disappointing you with this week’s most humble offering.

As a last thought before I leave you to deal with the small ball of trouble currently asleep on my ankles I should probably mention that my debut novel, The Heart That Died will be available to buy as both a paperback and e-book on Amazon here (link also included below) from Monday the 4th of May 2026 (that’s this approaching Monday) and all fans of noir mystery-thrillers, vampires, and stories of redemption, power, and friendship set in post-prohibition America should probably consider giving it a look-see.

Oh, and if you like what you look-see, a nice, positive review would also be most welcome. 

 Until next time!

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Hey, there! If you enjoyed reading any of the above, why not take a look at some of my published work? Below you’ll find links to a number of short stories I’m lucky enough to have included in anthologies. I’d love to know what you think. My debut novel, The Heart That Died is also due to be published on the 4th of May so I’m adding the link to that, too.



The Heart That Died




New Tales Of Old



Death Ship



Pestilence: Drabbles 1



Reaperman: Drabbles 3





The Musketeers Vs Cthulhu





Eldritch Investigations