13th Sept Book releases. Maddox Rewrites. Gender guessing.

You know what? It’s been a busy week. BAITED came out on Kindle last Monday, book 3 in the Mike Humber series. I love love love that story. The whole thing is set in Barnard Castle. The town, not the actual castle. And it doesn’t have anything to do with eye tests. (Brits will get that crap joke.) BAITED has got a bit of everything. Proper dark humour, twisty-turny crime shenanigans, murders, sexy stuff. The reviews so far are awesome. People have even been texting and emailing to say how much they loved it.

This is the link if you wanted to give it a read: https://mybook.to/toxvR6

So that was that. Which was all very exciting. But then TITAN Publishers dropped the cover and artwork for CHANGING WORLDS on Wednesday.

Now that is a proper classic sci-fi cover. Don’t you think so? I do. The colours just pop. That’s coming out in January on digital / Kindle / in bookshops / audio. Everywhere, really.

In amongst that, I’ve been working through the original Maddox chapters in Day Ten (Part Five) for the new audio rewrites. It’s such a blast, and a privilege, to be able to go back and redo these sections knowing what I know now. Maddox is a complex character. I find him very interesting to write about.

Squaby is 16 days old today, and enormous! A proper plump pigeon. I’m sure Squaby is a girl. Pigeon genitalia and organs are all on the inside, so unless you track behaviour, see egg laying or get a DNA test done, it’s hard to know. I’ve determined it with my flock through behaviours mostly. And also by seeing how the girl pigeons incubate at the same time, and then the boys take over during the afternoons. But there are also some thoughts about head shapes. Scratch, Big Sleepy and Big Bendy (boys) have domed heads. Whereas Marcy, Manbird and Rosie Dozy have a slightly more sloped shape.

Squaby, although young and growing, has a slightly more sloped shape. And something about how Deli is besotted with her makes me suspect she might be a girl. And Deli truly is besotted. She even sleeps in the pigeon room at night now and runs in first if I or the other dogs go near that room.

Another lovely thing happened too. I had to change the nests as Marcy laid a new egg (now swapped for a fake one) and Squaby was getting too big. Marcy gave a little pigeon growl when I moved the egg and Squaby, but seemed otherwise calm. Then after, I picked Marcy up to put her in the new nest. I very rarely handle the adult pigeons. Marcy was completely docile. I was even stroking her head and back after, and have done so a few times since. What a massive step forward that is. From terrified, starving pigeons to now living in paradise and feeling safe around people and dogs.

There have also been a few baby birds coming in recently. None of which have made it. Which is crushing. I’ve got heat pads, heat lamps, baby bird food, feeders. I even used Marcy and Scratch to get some heat into a baby collared dove. But they all passed.

One was a wood pigeon with suspected canker, which meant he couldn’t swallow. The other two could have been rejected by mum if she detected something wrong with them. That’s brutal, but it’s the way nature works. I had two at my local vets, and I was begging for X-rays and oxygen and offering to pay. But they just won’t do it. Sadly, all too often, local vets see euthanasia as the first option for injured birds.

I get people asking to donate now too. Which is lovely. But I don’t want to go down that route. Honestly though, buy a copy of BAITED, or another book. That will help massively.

That’s about it for my week. It’s all a blur of books and covers and pigeon poop and dog walks.

Ooh, but I am going ghost hunting on Oct 31st at a spooky castle. My buddy does them all the time and said to come along. I’ve had proper spooky things happen my whole life and normally run a mile, but I’ll give it a go, I think.

I hope you’ve had a lovely week, perhaps somewhat calmer if your kids went back to school. I do hope you are all well and safe anywho.

Much love!