“There’s just the one project, actually…”

So far. There’s only one project so far: The Sum. Since I’m a hobbyist and a full time student, it really comes down to when I get free time to write. BUT – I do like writing, and, the universe willing, there will be more. You have to be optimistic about these things.

Read the first chapter of The Sum: EAT here
Read a sneak peak for book 2: PREY here

The Sum: EAT

“It’s like night of the living furries,” said Jon. “And so far, they’ve all been arseholes.”

When I wrote EAT, I had no idea if anyone would like it, I just had to get it out of my brain and on to paper. I started the story years ago as a web-comic. Then, in 2014, I reformatted it as a novel, but life stuff got in the way, and I didn’t pick the story back up until 2018. I finished the first draft in 2020. Then lockdown happened, and I spent a lot of time re-writing and refining. By the time I started talking to an editor it was 2022. I procrastinated with this… a lot. I finally self published book one at the end of 2023. I absolutely failed to promote it at all (and luckily managed to still get pre-orders through word of mouth alone thank goodness).
I use my royalties money to buy books that are much, much better than anything I can write.

The blurb

A chunk of white rested inside the dip of her collarbone. She fished it out and flicked it away, its rattle echoing as it bounced under a display table, alerting her to the silence. The ringing in her ears had finally stopped. The mask and goggles were long gone; fallen off in her haste. Pointless to wear them now, anyway…

All Caede wants is to complete her masters, refresh her dating profile, and finally join the land of the living. Instead, she wakes up on a cold, wet pavement surrounded by dead bodies and ferocious monsters. Kai waits anxiously for his sister to return from the world’s longest night shift. Ravi hides under a desk in his office, and Efia lays unconscious in a garage.

For recently dumped Jonathan, the end can’t arrive soon enough… until a grizzly attack sends him stumbling into the path of Caede and the horrors of an apocalyptic London.

The Background

Humanity, evolved…

The year is 2030. GMO crops and lab grown meat have saved millions from starvation. Veganism in the west has increased in popularity tenfold. People are becoming healthier and living longer. Electric cars outnumber petrol, and renewable energies are now the largest producers of power in Europe and the UK.

At least, that’s what they want you to believe.

Brexit happened. Covid happened. The NHS is still under-funded. Buses have Wi-Fi that leaks your personal information to the highest bidder. Tabloids are still awful. Terror attacks are on the rise.

Economic crisis has become the norm in Britain. Rows of newly built houses stand empty while homelessness has tripled. Tobacco use, vaping, and alcoholism have increased.

The first cold war was fought with fear of a nuclear apocalypse. The second, arguably, was fought over the internet in the early 2020s, with underhanded political strategies conducted in the form of online trolling. Each an arms race, a metaphorical exercise in who has the largest missile. 2030 is no different. The UK, the US and Russia are still at war, of sorts. Except now it’s about who can become the first to unlock the secrets of the genome and create a new, evolved form of human being.

After the discovery of CRISPR CAS-9, the field of gene editing has taken off. But, it’s still new, and the technology around it is limited. In my series, The Sum, one of these emerging technologies is called: Sigma Delta Tau.

In the wake of these emerging technologies, activist groups are forming. Some are advocates of the development, and fight to make the technology accessible to everyone, regardless of their social or economic status. Others are more fearful, arguing that altering one’s DNA without caution is a significant risk, and needs to be tightly controlled to protect the populace.

One such group has gotten wind of the latest development and is keen to investigate SDT and the individuals behind its creation.