It is a hard thing to finish a book. Not the hardest thing in the world by a long chalk, but, if you’ve tried writing a book, and then got feedback, edited, re-edited and then polished beyond editing into obsession, well then maybe you’ve a small idea of how hard it is to finish a book, one you care about, at least.

No apologies for the comma abuse in the above paragraph. I meant them all.

This blog was originally called The Long Road, and as a subtitle those words in that order remain. I think when I first coined the phrase it was a nod to the first line of a book I wrote that has yet to be released, and to the idea of the long road to publication. I think, when you are trying to do a thing that expresses your creativity, and it takes months and years of your life to achieve, that it can truly seem to be a long and lonely road you are traversing, with no hope of a destination, or even of meeting fellow travellers who understand why you are taking those small steps each day, and why you bother to take more each day after that.

All I can say is that I have trod that long and lonely road, one small step at a time. If you persist you can reach an ending, of one idea, one beautiful expression, and it can be a good moment. I had one of those a few years ago. But the road goes on, there are more ideas, more expressions of beauty to share. I think I have reached another moment where I can pause and look back over the terrain I have crossed, and be pleased.

My next book is ready, but for one word I will change. One word. A long road to a destination already made, but one word can change everything for me. Perhaps for my readers, perhaps not. I leave that to them, and that is why I almost left the word untouched. Until I remembered that I am the author, and I am not dead. And that word, that small step, mattered.

The Killer and The Dead is almost here. It is one word away.