The clock is ticking on 2024, and soon it will be 2025 with all the excitement, hopes, and dreams a new year brings, so before any of that happens I thought I would look back on 2024 and reflect on what I achieved.
By the numbers, in 2024…
I published four stories, Angel, Janus, Golden Blood, and Christmas Inc.
I wrote 339,970 words
My stories were downloaded over 1,500 times.
Looking back at all of this makes me feel quite proud. I enjoyed writing all of my stories, but I am especially proud of what I have produced this year. Angel is a great story and Janus is a deserving sequel for the Mr. Amazing storyline. Golden Blood is some of my finest writing, and Christmas Inc. is a pretty funny story and quite relevant to the times we live in.
More than anything, I really enjoyed taking these ideas and converting them to words, and editing and building on those words, and making it into a story with characters that feel real and who inhabit a world that feels lived in and tangible.
I think my writing has evolved, and hopefully it has improved as well. I am excited about what I have planned for my next projects, and hopefully people will continue to enjoy what I have written.
My most popular stories in 2024 by number of downloads were…
- The Secret Service
My most popular story was the second instalment, following on from The Secret Policemen, of Karla’s story, a transgender sex worker who (through no fault of their own) becomes embroiled in the murky and dangerous world of international espionage, deception, and assassinations.
I had a lot of fun writing this story – and I think it is a fun and satirical look at the dark and dystopian world of The People’s Republic, with a nice and romantic ending (sorry for spoilers!)
2. Angel
Coming in second is Angel, a short but fun satirical adventure across layers of reality. It is the story of David Watts from London, stuck in a job he hates, and his recurring dream of a beautiful woman and a plane crash.
The inspiration for this story came from a dream I had and my musings about reality while I sipped a cup of coffee at breakfast. So it is appropriate that this story is about dreams, reality, quantum mechanics, assassins, celebrities, the mafia, getting the job done, and coffee.
3. The Secret Policemen
Number three is the first story I wrote. I stared at my keyboard with an idea, and said to myself “You can do this!” – and I did. This is a dark, unpleasant, violent, grim, and dystopian story, but also quite funny, and filled with moments of poignancy.
This is the story of the corrupt Inspector and the violent Smoking Man, and how a transgender sex worker, Karla, is pulled into the dark and shadowy world of The Secret Policemen.
4. The Children of the Third Reich
I had the idea for this book rattling around in my head for decades. I had the idea of a super-soldiers created by the Nazis to fight the Russians and dreamed of writing it and bringing Nathan, Butch, Tiny, Klaus, and Dr. K to life, and here it is. This story is the first part of what will most likely be a series of four books (the first three are written), and I might start work on the fourth part of this story next year.
This story has been very well reviewed, with an average rating above 4.5 stars. I highly recommend this as a leaping off point for my writing.
5. Extinction
And number five of my most popular stories is Extinction, an absurdist romp across time and space – with sentient robots, aliens, dinosaurs, more aliens, time travel, ancient Rome, and Eddie Murphy.
The writing isn’t my best, but the story (and ending) is some of the finest I have thought up – so if you can forgive the roughness of my word-smithery, this story is a lot of fun!
So what’s next…?
I continue to work on Above The Clouds which I will be publishing in Feb 2025. The story is set in our world’s distant, ruined future and follows the lives of Zell, Squirt, and Dara, three sisters who inhabit this world, and their search for meaning, connections, and happiness.
I will also be publishing Age of Magic, a sweeping dark fantasy story about witches, warlocks, beasts, magic, the fight of good against evil, destiny, and finding one’s place in the world.
I am also working on an episodic memoir about my time working on cruise ships and as a paparazzi that has a working title of Mind Your Head! A sample chapter can be found here. I will continue working on this throughout 2025, and will probably publish it at some point.
I hope that my stories have entertained those who have read them, and perhaps even caused the reader to pause for thought, and even enjoy my turn of phrase or a character I have created. And I hope that the new stories I write continue to do that.
So that is that from me in 2024. If you read something of mine and liked it, feel free to add a review on my Goodreads page.
Thanks for reading – and wishing you a very merry Saturnalia and a Happy New Year!
Tim.
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