Looking Ahead

So, a new year beckons. It's always a time of hope and anticipation, mixed in with uncertainty about what the future may hold. For you, my readers, I wish you health and happiness and lots of good reading. As for me, the plan is to do plenty of writing and so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll remain fit and energetic.

My first publication of the year will be an anthology for the British Library, Deep Waters. I've been putting the finishing touches to it over the break, and it's due to hit the shelves in June. It's my thirteenth anthology in the Crime Classics series, and the response to the books has confirmed my belief that readers have a hearty appetite for short stories.

I'll also be continuing to write introductions for books in the series, and I'm especially pleased that three titles by Michael Gilbert will be appearing before long. He's a writer who deserves to be remembered. I'm also reading avidly at present, trying to dig out some more books of the past that merit republication. And these researches have yielded plenty of Forgotten Books for Fridays yet to come...

If you'd told me twelve months ago how 2018 would work out, I'd have been absolutely thrilled. Who knows what 2019 will bring? Well, one thing it will bring in the spring is the end of my term as Chair of the CWA; It's been a privilege to hold this office, and I've much enjoyed getting to know even more of the members. Amazingly, I find that I'm now the longest-serving Chair since the CWA's founder, John Creasey. So - a good innings, and it's definitely time to declare! I aim, though, to stay very much involved with the CWA, a splendid and thriving organisation, and in particular to do more work on its archives, a subject that fascinates me.

There should also be some travel, and plenty of events. I'm looking forward to getting involved with various library activities and events; giving something back to the libraries that have given me so much over the years is a particular priority for 2019. I'd also like to do some more work with inexperienced writers, having run a number of workshops last year which proved interesting and fruitful. On this blog, I have in mind to talk a bit more about various aspects of the craft of writing.

And as I say, there's plenty of writing that needs to be done. So I'd better get on with it...