Jon Cronshaw's Author Diary: The Real Life of a Legally Blind Fantasy Author

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Welcome to Jon's author diary for the week ending December 8, 2019.

My wife and son have been ill this week, so I’ve not done as much writing as usual. My son was ill last weekend and was home on Monday, and then my wife got the same illness. I think it was probably the same virus that knocked me on my back a few weeks ago.

I didn't get anything done towards The Ravenglass Chronicles, save for a bit of outlining. But I did manage to do some final editing tasks towards my non-fiction book for authors, The Stoic Writer. I’m going to give it a final read, but I think it’s ready for the editor.

I had my best month ever in publishing  in November. So, for a change, I’m actually going to treat my family with the money. Next year, I’m going to book a week holiday to get some late autumn sun. Hopefully, this will keep the worst symptoms of SAD at bay…hopefully. I've realised November is my worst month for Seasonal Affective Disorder—the depression is pretty hard-core at points. So, the extra sunshine can only help.

Finally, please visit https://patreon.com/joncronshawauthor to support this podcast and pay for my sun-cream.

Support Jon's work at https://patreon.com/joncronshawauthor

Support at https://patreon.com/joncronshawauthor

Welcome to Jon's author diary for the week ending November 17, 2019.

I was ill this week had what was probably the flu, so I was in bed for about four days. This was all the typical symptoms of cold sweats and waking up in the middle of the night full of snot and all that wonderful stuff.

I felt well enough to get back to work on Thursday. It was a bit slow-going but it was good to get back into writing Death, which is episode 13 of The Ravenglass Chronicles. I managed to finish writing the first draft and now five chapters into the second. Hopefully by this time next week, I have a solid second draft ready.

I’ve had the first few reviews come in for book 12. They have been really positive, with some readers saying is strongest in the series. People who’ve read the author’s notes from that one will know has been difficult for me to view it objectively. I’m just pleased readers are enjoying it.

Thank you to everyone who has left a review so far, and to everyone who has helped The Ravenglass Chronicles episode 1-11 boxed set become a bestseller.

Jekyll and Hyde

I submitted the final draft of a story to a forthcoming anthology of tales inspired by Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The anthology will raise money for Deaf Blind International feature stories from 16 authors, as well as the original tale by Robert Louis Stevenson.

My story is called The Princess and the Tailor and is a prequel to The Ravenglass Chronicles, telling the story of how cats mum and dad met for the first time. Let’s just say, it doesn’t go very well.

Black Death

The post-apocalyptic Black Death series is finally coming together. My co-author Lynn Sheridan’s now working through the final drafts of the trilogy, so that should be with the editor soon.

We are hoping to have everything done and dusted, ready for a release by spring…hopefully.

The Fool

I continue to post more chapters from the new prequel to The Ravenglass Chronicles on my Patreon page. Oppose new chapters every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. There are also dozens of short stories, a preview to the rewrite of Wizard of the Wasteland, early access to my author diary podcast, as well as exclusive articles and audio. You can access all of this for just one dollar per month.

Visit: https://patreon.com/joncronshawauthor

Take care,

Jon

Welcome to Jon's author diary for the week ending November 10, 2019.

It’s been a busy week. Last weekend I went to see my family in Wolverhampton. We celebrated bonfire night a few days early—so there were lots of fireworks, a curry, and gin.

I’m not sure if gin is a traditional bonfire night beverage, but it worked for me.

I was a little bit concerned how my guide dog Digit would react to the fireworks that have been going off all week, but he’s been fine. Explosions don’t seem to faze him…which might not be a good thing if the apocalypse comes.

 I’ve been working on draft of Death, which is episode 13 of The Ravenglass Chronicles. If you’ve followed my work for a while, you might remember I wrote a story about three years ago called Her Name Was Red, which I got some great feedback for and was what inspired me to write The Ravenglass Chronicles. I’m now at that point in the overall story. There are some elements that remain from the original story, but around 95 percent is new.

This one has been a lot of fun to write.

 This reminds me, book 12 is now live! Click HERE to get your copy. It’s 99c or you can read it on Kindle Unlimited. This one was extremely difficult to write, so I hope you enjoy reading it.

Reading

Based on a recommendation from a reader, I’m currently reading The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene. I tend to have a fiction and non-fiction book on the go at any given time.

This book is excellent. It’s a close look at why people act the way they do. It’s a fascinating read. And I’m sure it will help to give my characters more depth.

Podcasting

As well as my usual Author Diary podcast, Dan Willcocks interviewed my on Great Writers Share. This is a podcast aimed mainly at other writers, but if you’re interested in getting an insight into my creative process, my philosophy on writing, and why I find Stoicism useful, do check it out.

Support Jon at https://patreon.com/joncronshawauthor

Welcome to Jon's author diary for the week ending October 27, 2019.

This week has been half-term holidays in the UK, so I have been in dad mode. It’s been great spending quality time with my son—the kid is so imaginative! He could talk for England on the subject of Pokémon and got quite competitive over a few games of Mario Kart.

I did manage to go over notes from beta readers for book 12 of The Ravenglass Chronicles and a short story set in the Ravenglass Universe for an anthology of stories inspired by Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde.

But, the half-term holidays are only a week, so my son goes back to school on Monday and I have to get back to the writing. My plan is start my first draft of book 13 of The Ravenglass Chronicles, which is inspired by the tarot card ‘death.’ I’ve written the outline and am I’m chomping at the bit to start writing—I have a feeling this episode is going to be far too much fun.

It’s interesting the types of things I’ve found myself researching for my books. Over the past year I’ve explored old ships and Anglo Saxon burial grounds, and learned about sword fighting, medieval food, and making poisons. This week I got far too much detail from an expert about how corpses decompose. Yuck! At least it’s inspired a rather disgusting scene in my next book.

My wife and I finished watching the new series of Stranger Things on Netflix. Maybe it’s because I’m the perfect age for the nostalgia to make me feel nice and fuzzy, but I loved this show.

Going in, I was a little bit worried that the quality might dip (I thought the second season paled in comparison to the first—and the less said about Eleven’s tangent episode, the better). But this series was fantastic. And The Neverending Story bit was hilarious.

I grew up on 80s movies where a group of friends go on an adventure (The Goonies, IT, Stand by Me, etc.), so this ticked a lot of boxes for me.

I’m now at loss as to what to watch next.

Now that I’ve finished posting the re-write of Wizard of the Wasteland on Patreon, I have started posting chapters from a new prequel to The Ravenglass Chronicles. The story is called The Fool, and it’s a new novella-length story about how Kat and Hansel first met. Visit: patreon.com/joncronshawauthor and start reading today.

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Welcome to Jon's author diary for the week ending October 13, 2019.

I managed to finish the first draft of The Hanged Man and am almost done with my second draft. Hopefully, I’ll have the final draft ready for the editor by the end of next week.

Last week I mentioned that my guide dog Digit got attacked walking my son home from school, so I’ve had the fallout from that to deal with.

The police tried to fob me off to the dog warden. But because Digit is an assistance dog, it is treated as an assault against a person in the UK, so it is a police issue.

The police did come round and talk to me about it. Luckily, one of the parents got half decent photo of the guy and his dog, so that's with the police.

Since it happened, I've actually seen the guy with his dog three times over the past week. I’ve let the investigating officer know each time I’ve seen him, and it’s at the same time and place as the attack. So, if the police are actually looking to talk to him, they know exactly where to find him.

I’m sure the police have much more important things to deal with, so I don’t think anything will happen.

Digit is still injured. He’s been to the vets three times and will be going back on Tuesday to have the staples taken out his leg. Poor guy still has one of those cone things around his head and keeps bumping into things around the house.

Hopefully, the attack won’t have knocked his confidence when he gets back to work. I really struggle in the winter when I have to use a white cane, so I just hope he’s going to be okay.

So thank you to everyone who sent Digit well wishes, I tried to respond to as many as I could, but there were so many that some of them might have slipped through the cracks.

Finally, I also want to thank everyone who left a review on the episodes 1-11 of The Ravenglass Chronicles boxed set. I had one reviewer compare my writing to Robin Hobb, so I’ll take that :D

Take care,

Jon