Friday 18 July 2025: It was all going so well

Everything was going really well. I was getting through my work and I wasn’t feeling stressed. Nothing was left waiting. I was managing to shift it all.

Yesterday, the day started on time because we had to let the dog out, etc, and the poet had a long-distance trip, there and back. So I thought I’d update my publishing schedule before I got stuck into any scheduled work.

And that was it. But not just it. No, that wasn’t all. But more on that a bit later.

Words Worth Reading: Issue 4 is due out at the end of this month. Now, I don’t just write stories to fill the bookazine. The plan is to write the story and send it off as an assignment or to a challenge or as a regular submission. If I sell a licence for it to be published first, then it goes into limbo. I can’t do anything until I get the right back to publish it again. 

At the moment, I have one story in limbo: The Lost Sock. Everything else I’ve written recently is fine to be published. So it’s all okay to appear in the bookazine. Once it’s been in the bookazine it’s published as a standalone. And if it’s part of a series, or if I have several stories on the same topic, it goes into a collection.

Let’s take Elvis is Missing. I wrote it as an assignment for a WMG Publishing workshop. I rewrote it from a prompt for 12 stories in 12 months. Then I rewrote it again so it could fit in the bookazine. Elvis is Missing appeared in the April bookazine, Issue 3. Within a couple of weeks of the bookazine coming out, it should have been published as a standalone. But so far, it hasn’t. At the moment, it isn’t really part of a series and I don’t have any other stories like it. 

This story will be published as Wordsworth Short #39. When I get onto Wordsworth Shorts Collection #4, stories 31 to 40, Elvis is Missing will appear in there. And then it will appear again in the collection for stories 1 to 50, and then in the collection for stories 1 – 100. And so on.

But at the moment, it’s stuck. I haven’t done anything with it since using it in the April bookazine. But that’s okay.

If we take The Egg Thief, this is a Stevie Beck short story. I wrote it in response to a call for submission after I did a cosy mystery workshop with WMG Publishing. The workshop guest leader didn’t think it would fit the anthology they were making, but she did tell me it ought to be out there and it ought to be read, and I was grateful for her lovely comments.

The Egg Thief appeared in the January bookazine, Issue 2. Since then it has appeared as a standalone. And when I have 5 Stevie Beck stories, it will go in that collection as well as into the Wordsworth Shorts collections. 

The Egg Thief is earning its keep. Elvis is Missing is not. But it’s not the only one that isn’t earning its keep.

I sat down to see how many stories have appeared in Words Worth Reading that have yet to be published as standalones. I’m also finalising Issue 4. 

Short stories that have appeared in the bookazine but that have yet to be published as standalones are:

1. Elvis is Missing
2. The Battle of Stubbins Bridge
3. The Ace of Swords

Novellas and novelettes that have appeared in the bookazine but that have yet to be published are:

1. A Mystery at Whitehorse Farm
2. Stevie Beck and the Old Annexe

Novellas and novelettes that have been written that have yet to be published in the bookazine are:

1. Stevie Beck and the Body in the Lake
2. Stevie Beck and the Haunted House Hotel
3. Stevie Beck and the Christmas Tree Mystery
4. Catch the Rainbow
5. Over the Rainbow
6. End of the Rainbow

Now, I’m already dealing with the 3 Rainbow stories. I’m stitching them together, topping and tailing them, and giving them a bit of a polish, and those will appear in the bookazine from July in 4 parts of one novel: Catch the Rainbow.

The Body in the Lake will also be appearing in the next bookazine in its entirety as a complete novella.

I also already have the following stories lined up and already written for the next bookazine:

1. Mavis Braithwaite Strikes Again
2. Killer Queen
3. The Ace of Pentacles

And I have the following lined up for the October bookazine:

1. A Guy for Penny (not yet written)
2. Fireworks at Killiecrankie
3. Burn (previously published)
4. Trick or Treat (previously published)
5. Stevie Beck and the Haunted House Hotel

That’s a lot of short stories and short novels in there that are just languishing on my hard drives.

So I needed to do some work on the publishing schedule, and while I was doing that I realised I’ll have 2 more collections ready to go after the next bookazine:

1. I have 15 flash fiction stories, so I can publish the first collection of 10
2. Mavis Braithwaite Strikes Again will be Wordsworth Short #40, so I can publish the 4^th collection of Wordsworth Shorts, 31 to 40

But first, I had to publish the stories that have already appeared in the bookazine.

So, this means Elvis is Missing will be out on Monday next week, complete with shiny new cover made entirely by moi in Affinity Publisher. 

Words Worth Reading: Issue 3 will be out the following Monday.

The Battle of Stubbins Bridge is Flash Fiction #15. That will be published the Monday after that.

The Ace of Swords will be published the week after that. And the week after that it’s the new flash fiction anthology, 1 to 10, that replaces the first 2 original flash fiction collections of 5. I’ve decided to republish those in batches of 10 as they’re very short. But I won’t be publishing the 2 very short flashes that were bonus stories before.

And so on. 

In fact, I’ll be publishing 10 publications between now and right before the October bookazine comes out. And then I start all over again.

So I had to make covers for the new publications. Then I had to update the gallery in the side bar on here. 

And then the poet got home from work and tested positive for Covid…

Oh dear. That’s wiped out our weekend away in the van, which was a weekend away for him really, as we were going to watch a major fishing contest in Lincolnshire. 

I can hardly wait until it passes to me…Because, as you know, we share everything in our house, and I do hope he doesn’t suffer too badly with it. But it *will* do wonders for my very carefully prepared schedule.

Ah yes, and grand-doggy #2 went home at midday too, but her humans had a cracking time at the Oasis gig.

Have a great weekend.