Scandal and beauty - Mark Gatiss on Aubrey Beardsley was a rare treat for me, who has been an Aubrey Beardsley fan for many, many years (I have had a tattoo of his art on my arm for almost 20 years!). 
Like many people, I was so looking forward to the Beardsley exhibition at the Tate, which I had planned to visit in May... I guess they cannot extend it or reschedule it, and therefore I will not enjoy the original art of one of my favourite artists...
​I am genuinely heartbroken. 
I am the lucky owner of a copy of the first volume of Beardsley's controversial quarterly literary periodical Yellow Book. It is an incredibly fragile item and my copy is not in the best of conditions, but I do cherish it immensely... 
​I do have quite a few rare and beautiful books on my shelves, and might share them with you in the next few weeks.. 

Isn't it ironic? 
I moved to Dorset three years ago in order to be able to walk around the actual setting of my novels and find inspiration in this ancient of landscape. Now, I can no longer jump in the car and wander around the countryside and let it inspire me... 
Therefore, I am back to the books I have bought about the county and its secret places, myths and legends...
The problem with it is that I will not be getting the smells, the noises and the feel of the air...
I will not be able to live the countryside. 
I only hope that I am going to make a reasonable amount of progress on my first draft... 
​

I do need to get back into the novel and its world before I can resume writing. 
So I am starting with a small edit of the first 10,000 words I have written of the "official" first draft: I have discovered to my horror that I haven't touched the manuscript since mid-July 2019...
I wish I could say that I'm in a position of giving a pub date of late 2021 (I do have a new set of pencilled-in dates for each stage of the publishing process) but I no longer schedule anything these days. With the current situation, who knows what is going to happen in the next few months? And of course, I need to be able to fund the printing... 
All I can do at the moment is try and make as much progress as possible on the first draft... 

In order to work on my books properly, I need to be inspired and in some kind of "zone" - not for me the "writing in a cafe or at the kitchen table" set-up (I don't have a kitchen table anyway!).
I have to admit that anxiety is making it quite difficult to concentrate these days: our income has (hopefully) temporarily disappeared, we are all being stalked by a silent and often invisible killer, and any hope of  wandering around the glorious Dorset countryside in spring has all but vanished. 
I have now come to terms with quite a few things this week and now need to concentrate on my own projects which had been neglected lately. My calculation is that I have at least three to four months to dedicate to my books before I have to start thinking about working again... 
I am trying to nail the narrative for The Right Place and have been jotting down quite a few ideas for my fourth novel, Hell Lane. 
​I will post more about my progress in the next few weeks... Just don't expect to see many pictures of the Dorset countryside in bloom, as I had planned to do. 

Oh, and one more thing... The Arcane Publishing online shop, which will be rebuilt at some point late this year, is now closed until the lockdown is lifted for admin reasons... 

I work in education via an agency and schools are now closed, which is good, as I had decided to stop working anyway - I really, really don't fancy catching any virus, thank very much. 
Meanwhile, all the events I was going to attend with Matt ArtPix (some of them incredibly exciting) have all been cancelled and therefore, we will not be going anywhere in the foreseeable future. 
Therefore, it looks like both Matt ArtPix and I will be spending a lot of time at the ArtPix/Arcane Publishing towers over the next few weeks/months. 
I will be resuming writing my third novel, The Right Place. 
On Monday, not knowing that this would be the last day in a while we would be able to admire the stunning Dorset countryside, we went to Abbotsbury, where most of the action in The Right Place is set. 
I had promised to post pictures of lambs - the fields around the chapel are usually teeming with them at this time of year. It looks like we might have been too early: NOT ONE LAMB IN SIGHT ANYWHERE! 
Every year, it is just a joy to walk in the Dorset countryside as you are bound to bump into a few herds made up of of bouncy lambs and protective ewes. I feel crestfallen that I won't get to see any this year... 
​Look: no lambs... :-( 

I am reading a lot these days... Even more than usual... 
Two reasons for this:
1. I didn't read anything for four months because of a day job which I have now ditched!
2. I have a bout of writer's block, and the best way to get inspiration is to read work by other writers... 

In other news: if you want to know about plans and events, please go to the Arcane Publishing blog HERE as we have been posting about what we hope is going to happen over the next few months! 
Quite a few announcements to come over the next few weeks, so keep your eyes peeled!

The new pub date for my third novel, The Right Place, is late 2021... 

I am still in my "recuperation" period - getting as much inspiration from other writers as possible. 
I am a huge fan of Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May detective series which will be a big inspiration for what would be my fifth novel, the London-based Anti (working title). 
They are clever, fascinating, hilarious... Basically, unputdownable. 
I am still a few volumes behind... 
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go and make some tea and resume "Strange Tide". 

After four months of 60-hour weeks, finally, over the past two weeks, I have been reminded of why I moved to Dorset three years ago... 
Yesterday, I spent a few hours at Kimmeridge Bay - I regularly go back to my (many) favourite spots along the Jurassic Coast as they always look and feel different... 

Tomorrow, work resumes on my third novel, The Right Place. 
For inspiration, after having finished Amy Liptrot's stunning The Outrun, I have picked up Roger Deakin's delicious Notes From Walnut Tree Farm. I am immersing myself in the story of landscape and nature...