Mark P. Henderson

First blog for months!

It’s been a busy time since May, but it should never be too busy to post a blog. Call it selective laziness. Anyway, conscience (or something) has summoned me with a faint but persistent trumpet blast, so now I’m writing the first of several nearly-simultaneous blogs to make up for the protracted radio silence.

The good news on the health front is that the cancer appears to be under control. There are irritating symptoms and unaccustomed tiredness, but nothing sinister, and the latest follow-up check was encouraging. Indeed, it was encouraging enough for me to consider opening the champagne.

It seems that The Definitive Biography of St Arborius of Glossopdale and his Thin Dog (e-book) has attracted a healthy number of readers, perhaps because of its snappy title, and National Cake Day in Ruritania continues to evoke a ‘Marmite’ reception – some people love it, some can’t read it. I await the appearance of The Engklimastat in the public domain (e-book to be officially released in October but the paperback should be available before that), and my wholly rewritten Perilaus II is currently being read by a publisher with whom I haven’t previously worked; her response to the synopsis was encouraging. No news yet about my novella The Man who Let the Cat of Doom out of the Bag, but there’s more than enough going on without progress on that front!

The autobiography I was editing – in effect, ghost-writing – is finished, agreed, and submitted for publication. The publisher is likely to take it on but will demand substantial reworking, particularly of the early chapters. That’s to be expected. The potential (probable) acceptance is a big plus, whereat the author is delighted.

I’ve been trying to start serious work on my intended historical novel about our local Elizabethan “folk hero” (largely unknown to folk everywhere – I hope to change that!) but as with writing blogs I haven’t got around to it. No trumpet blast needed here; I have plenty of enthusiasm; I’m just struggling to transform the piles of research into an engaging story.

The folktale film project is making good progress. One of the two cameramen has now completed his editing work so we have a 25-30 minute draft of one selection of stories on film. With any luck we’ll have the rest done by autumn and can then start to get the whole thing into the public domain.

My lovely group of writers in Chapel-en-le-Frith cooperated wonderfully on the booklet of their prose and poetry, and their 35 rich and varied pieces of creative work were duly assembled into an agreed order. The main disagreement concerned the cover design for the booklet! However, this has been resolved (by majority vote) and the booklet is currently being printed. I hope to collect the copies and distribute them later this week. That will be one project finished.

Actually, reading what I’ve just written (which hasn’t mentioned several other demands on my time), I think I might have an excuse for not having posted blogs for a couple of months!