Hi!

So i did an even worse job at making regular posts than I thought. Three months of pseudo-consistency followed by a 17 month gap. I'd apologise, but that would carry some kind of implication that it wouldn't happen again. I can't promise that.

Where I left off last time was just after Helena Burnley Vs Professor Endtimes part 1, which feels like forever ago. It didn't really get any easier to keep writing a novel in real time, releasing chapters every month, mostly because of the inability to indulge in revisionist history that I lamented previously. Especially towards the last two chapters there were several ideas that I would have liked to work in earlier, and plot points which could have been more easily resolved by laying groundwork at the beginning of the book, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

It was a strange relief to go back to writing something that wasn't Helena Burnley. I had so much fun with the boundless possibility presented by Adam West Batman style villains and making puns all day that the joy of doing something entirely different in a slightly different style was surprising. Going back to sci-fi and fantasy after that also had a kind of liberation, to put it pretentiously, because it opens the scope for doing other stupid things.

In and around writing the short stories I also started work on a sequel for Helena Burnley and a daily(ish) interactive story on Facebook (www.facebook.com/groups/433624097093162/). At this point the writing time-sink kind of exploded, and I'm learning a lesson in how much is a reasonable amount to take on. Again it's been a hell of a lot of fun, but I need to sort myself out a decent schedule for ending seasons before I feel like my whole life has been overtaken.

I'l wrap this up after the self-indulgence of writing about myself. You'd have thought I'd have more to say after 17 months, but I wouldn't want to leave myself dry for another year and a half.

Thanks for reading and supporting.

​Iain

Hello!

I had all the best intentions of releasing a blog post at least every month to keep everyone appraised of what I'm up to. Technically, there will still have been a post in every calendar month when I post this one, even if it has been 55 days since the previous. Go maths!

So I've just released Helena Burnley vs Professor Endtimes Part One: Rise of The Stunner. I had an alarming amount of fun with writing that one, as possibly evidenced by the fact that it's the longest one yet, only part one of a longer story to tell, and it was released a few days BEFORE the end of the month. Crazy dedication right there. I think the freedom of utter nonsense afforded by comic-book-style villains, plus the natural tendency that classic villains have towards wordplay, means that I can just write anything that makes me giggle and go nuts with it.

I have a larger plan of where I want to go with this, and it kind of all revolves around the (eventual) ending. I realised pretty early on when I started trying to write it that the ending wouldn't work properly unless there'd been sufficient build-up, and generating that build-up without seeming rushed, forced or contrived was something I couldn't really do within the bounds of one month's-worth of writing space (and time). This doesn't mean that I'm padding things out unnecessarily, it just means that I have the space and the scope of explore a lot more of what Helena Burnley, Professor Endtimes, and any number of super-villains might want to do.

It's pretty daunting releasing a story like this in parts, because I can't go back and change little details in the earlier parts of the story to facilitate stuff later one. I made use of that quite a lot when writing Terra Academia, and I think that it was incredibly beneficial. But, doing things this way around will also force me to accept what I've written so far and not spend even more time twiddling with it.

In other news, I entered One Last Dance into a short story competition at www.writersandartists.co.uk, so I've got fingers and other superstitiously charged bodily parts crossed that I get somewhere with it. I'm not holding my breath (I can't think of any situation in which my respiratory habits will help or hinder my chances with the judge) but it'd be a great way to spread some awareness.

I'll let you go know; you've earned a break from me.

Thanks for reading and supporting me.

Iain

Happy New Year darlings. I hope it finds you well, thus allowing the game of hide-and-seek tobe resolved in appropriate timescales.

I noticed that some of the formatting on my stories got a little screwed up when transferring them from Word/Blogspot, so I've trawled through them this morning and had a tidy up. Line breaks should now be appearing in the right places with any luck. If you see anything ridiculous then please drop me an email at [email protected], and I'll fix it.

Help hasn't even been out for 24 hours yet and I've already made a start on January's story - it's going to have heroes, villains, magical powers, and common & curable lens degeneration. Optometry will be underrepresented in fantasy writing no more!

Thank you very much for visiting and reading - dont' forget you can like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter to stay up to date. I'm going to try to sort out a mailing list for the website too, because I'm totally radical like that. Or something.

Thanks!
​Iain

Hello!

Welcome to ireadstories. Can you see what I've done there? Because my name contracts to I. Read and I'm writing stories for you all to read?

You'll get it later. 

​So, as you can see I've started a website to act as a central hub for all my short stories and recordings (or, more accurately, singe recording to date). Let me walk you through it patronisingly:
The 'Stories' section contains all of my short stories, as could probably be surmised from the title.
The 'Audio' section contains all the recordings of my stories, totalling one at the moment, but planned for expansion in the future.
The 'Blog' section is where I'll communicate any news or general chatter. You know, like every other blog on the internet.
The 'About' section is about me, in a narcissistic cataclysm of not-particularly-personal information.
Finally, the 'Contact' section lists how you can follow or contact me on various social media platforms. Probably no surprises there.

I'm friggin' loving writing something regularly, and I hope that if you're sitting about reading this then you're enjoying reading what I've made so far. Thanks for that, by the way; it's pretty awesome of you. Watch this space, because I have plans to make this bigger and better as time goes by, but I wanted to get something live sooner rather than later. I have improvements in mind to make, but if you have any suggestions then I'd love to hear them. I'll leave it as homework to find out how to contact me with anything like that.

More than anything, I want this to serve as a way of making it easier for people to find and enjoy what I'm writing. If you're a regular reader than a) thank you and b) please spread the word. The more readers I get, the more likely it is that I can make a real career out of writing.

Thanks for reading, now go and explore the site!
Iain