For roughly the past decade, a period coinciding with my loss of enthusiasm following the 2016 UK EU membership referendum, consistently updating this blog has been a challenge. Each January, I would resolve to post regularly again, managing to do so for a few weeks or months before the effort would lapse.
After restarting my blog eight months ago in June, my posting frequency has significantly improved, though it’s not quite at the multiple-times-a-week level I maintained in 2008/2009. My current goal is to post at least weekly, and while I don’t always meet it, the consistency is much better. From June to December 2024, I published thirty-one posts, and this one marks my eighteenth for 2025.
A rate of just over four blog posts per month.
Most of the posts since then have been updates on my progress in writing ‘A Healing Love.’ Maintaining a blog is easier when you have something you know you can fall back on rather than having to find things to write about.
So how is that progress going?
In October 2023, I reported that the manuscript was at 25,000 words. That was roughly six months’ work, given that I completed ‘A Wounded Heart’ in the first half of 2023.
Then, as so often in the past, I stopped posting on here until June. No reason other than the standard excuse that “Life got in the way.” The first few posts were about me as a writer, what motivates me and how I started. It wasn’t until July 2024 that I provided another word count update, reporting that the manuscript was 45,000 words.
That’s about 20,000 words in over nine months. Pretty poor progress. Other things took my attention—Netflix. Xbox. Cities Skylines. Planet Zoo.
Now, in April 2025, another nine months on, the manuscript stands at just over 185,000 words, and I have one chapter left to write. That’s 140,000 in nine months or over 15,000 words per month.
That’s really good given my history and I’m chuffed to bits to have been so prolific.
And not just that, but I think ‘A Healing Love’ represents some of the very best writing I’ve ever done. I’m really looking forward to finishing this last chapter, ploughing through the edits and getting the book released to see just what your reaction to this latest episode of Paul’s journey will be.
I’m looking forward to seeing how you react to the new character I’ve introduced and to Paul’s changed dynamic with two other characters. I’m looking forward to seeing what you make of his business dealings as he starts to finally take control of his financial affairs.
And I’m looking forward to how you react to the emotional rollercoaster that is Paul’s journey as it continues.
Some aspects of this story make me nervous. Paul is now twenty-one and is becoming not just financially but also politically aware. There have been hints at Paul’s underlying political beliefs in previous books, but in this one, he’s really starting to think about things.
This is an aspect of his character that will develop even further in the fifth (and I hope final!) book.
And I’m looking forward to your reaction to the song lyrics I’ve written for some scenes in this book. I’ve even used Suno to turn those lyrics into actual songs, and I’m keen to share them when the time is right.
Writing this book has been just as much of an emotional journey for me as it has been for Paul. So when I’m in a position to finally let it out into the wild, it will be a big, scary time. Releasing any story always is.
But, yes (I know I’ve said this a lot), I’m looking forward to it.
