It’s been very silent around here, hasn’t it? Well, there hasn’t been much to say. Readers are still thoroughly enjoying reading these classical Greek murder mysteries, and that is great to see – but it’s been really hard to overcome the negative impact of Orion Books dumping the project so precipitously. I still have more novels I’d love to write, so if you’d like to read them, do encourage your friends to try Philocles’ adventures. It would be great if we could see sales that make a new book a viable proposition.
In the meantime, I have written a short story! Last year, the bookshop Books on the Hill funded a project through Kickstarter, aiming to publish quick reads specifically intended for dyslexic adults, to encourage them to explore and enjoy the great range of fiction available these days.
I’m delighted to say the initiative has been a great success! Alistair and Chloe are running a second Kickstarter this year, offering another tremendous selection of stories to give readers a taste of different genres. You can find Open Dyslexia: The Sequel here. You will note that names from the bestseller lists and TV adaptations such as Bernard Cornwell and Peter James are supporting this splendid initiative. I was naturally most honoured when Alistair asked me to write a short history mystery (12,000 words) for this year’s line-up.
What you may well not know – because I certainly didn’t, and yes, I am embarrassed by my ignorance – is that making a read dyslexia-friendly is a case of formatting and layout and similar. For an author, the writing process is exactly the same. I’m aiming to challenge, entertain and intrigue with this new Philocles short story in the same way that I do with anything I see published. The only difference is more people will be able to read it – and I love the thought of that.
