Yesterday I wrote the word “END” on page 156 of the novel I have been working on for the past two years. (This may be my excuse for not having published a blog for weeks – apologies to you!). So how does it feel?

How does it feel to stop smoking? To stop kicking oneself in the face? To stop sex? How does it feel to leave an asylum where one has so many friends, all eccentric and delightful?  Some lethally so. Into the utterly drab world of normality, of Sainsbury’s and to discover that Brexit and Trump still rule the media?

Finishing a novel does feel like jumping off a cliff. I mean, it was great up there – warm, lots of playmates, relatively safe. But everything ends. The fat lady sang. Everybody died. Nothing else to do than juuuuump!

I don’t know what I’m for any more.

What is the meaning of me.

And why.

Was it worth it?

I think this novel is fucking awesome actually, dear friends. I’ll tell you why

1. It’s structured like a Baroque opera, in Acts and Scenes, with backstories as arias,
2. Lots of sex even though
3. the hero is a castrato.
4. It’s based on a life-or death bet between two millionaires who should know better.
5. Full of death a serial killer stalks the pages, slitting his way to fame with an antique Samurai knife.
6. It’s satirical and hilarious, and horrifying at the same time
7. It’s delicious, tasty, self-indulgent and pretty as a stuffed cockatoo.
8. It contains a number of web addresses, with which the reader can verify the truth and truths behind and beneath the narrative.
9. It’s the best book I have ever read.

Sure there’s much rubbish in there, and that’s where the editing process comes in. With the help of my Beta Readers’ Group and a good editor, there is still another six months at least before it will be ready to be offered to a publisher. Tempted as I am to self-publish, I will make some offers first. I don’t know why, as few traditional publishers do much work for their authors.

The title of my new novel? Either: The Ragazzo. Or Castrato, or Killer Voice or Opera or maybe The Ragamuffin or Urchin or… let the Beta Group decide. If YOU have any ideas, let me know!

All of which is to tell you that between editing, this blog is back! I will continue to confuse, infuriate, entertain all two of my devoted readers about once a week if I can. So don’t go away…and in the meanwhile, there’s plenty of my short stories, poems, satirical pieces, thought-provokers on this website for you to wander through. And of course, all my books on Amazon and all good online booksellers.

Love to you all!