The best thing about writing (and reading) your second book of a series is that you know the worlds the stories inhabit. This leaves you free – as a writer – to dig deeper into your character’s personalities and motivations and to ponder if they are creatures of free will... I noticed that, since I finished writing The Malign Alliance and got it out there as an e-book and a print book, friends and colleagues have often made the same comment. ‘How do you do it?’ or ‘What makes you do it?’ or ‘So where do the stories/characters come from?’... Self-publishing It’s exciting to want to get onto the self-publishing bandwagon. I mean, everyone’s doing it these days. But, I have to be honest and say that it’s not easy or straightforward to publish your own books. Essentially you have to put on a whole heap of hats which starts... EDITING I took the advice of other writers and found a wonderful editor. How? I went to the webpage of Institute of Professional Editors and selected five editors who posted that they had experience in my field (science-fiction/fantasy). I then wrote a brief half-page synopsis of my book with a... Friday morning: Overslept… doh! Make a cuppa. Turn on radio. Trump recommends injecting oneself with disinfectant to cure Covid. He’s probably already done this to himself, which explains so much. This prompts me to wash hands, face and all other body parts that may have been exposed to deadly virus...