So I guess I should offer some sort of apology / excuse / hilarious anecdote to explain the lack of updates in the last few months. As is obvious below, a baby is on the way, but surely it is much too early for it to be sapping all my time and creative energy, yes?

Mostly yes.

For some time now the idea of writing a proper story has greatly appealed to me, not only because work Got Wise to my online ramblings and put a stop to that particular outlet, but I do really enjoy it. The Wife says "Why don't you turn it into a book?" and I um and ah about it but ulimately decide that admin is really not that interesting.

So my first plan is to just start writing, make it an organic serial-type affair of 500-word installments, but after I sit down and write a couple of thousand words I quickly realise that I'm not going to get away with it. I have too much to say. What if I change something later that affects what I write in the beginning? Of course, given the flexibility of the web I CAN go back and change things organically, adding in pages and moving stuff around but it can't be too inconsistent so I'd better have a Plan!

So I begin to plot and outline, suffer a brief distraction learning about writing software (eventually settled on Liquid Story Binder ), then spending more time reading about writing than actually writing and finally, about 20,000 words down the line (and that's only 3-4 chapters) I'm afraid that my story is going to be a lot bigger than I had originally anticipated.

I am going to start posting it up on Skip the Budgie in the New Year, will probably be scenes of about 700-1500 words a week and the story will flow from there. I've got all the Important Stuff planned out - the big twists - a complicated timeline, I just need to get it all down on paper now.

With the baby on the way time is ticking, but that's it really.

That's why I haven't been writing here.

I've been writing elsewhere.

I hope you enjoy it.