Fifteen years and counting

That's hold long it's been since i started on this road. Fifteen years.

August 2008. Southampton.

I'd just finished reading Stephen King's Wolves of the Calla, part of his dark tower saga, and i was compelled to cast what would be the first chapter of what would be my first novel onto paper. 

I didn't know it take me almost two years to complete.

August 2008.

Since then I've finished one degree, started another - an MA in creative writing at Brunel, i've not made a single commercial illustration for fun or profit; preferring to focus on my writing and accepting that as my chosen vocation. 

I've changed jobs twice, moved back home to London, gotten into debt, gotten out of it again...

Lost friends, made friends, found out who my real friends are.

Gotten published, seen my work in print, had signings.

And lost my poor Dad to cancer.

Fifteen years.

A blur of thousands of days, some wasted, most seized.

And now, in the dying days of 2023, on the cusp of what will be my most transformative year, i'm forced to take stock. I've walked a marathon between there and here, and I've done what many thought i couldn't and shouldn't do. 

But, i feel i'm at the beginning again. Next year will see me start my own publishing company, the first black owned science fiction and fantasy publisher in the Uk from which shall publish my own books with full control over the look and content of my work. There's a lot to do between now and the launch of my book, which i mean to make available at at Worldcon in Glasgow 2024 - including rewriting the very novel i mean to print based on the feedback i've received from both beta readers and an editor I commissioned...all the while simultaneously doing a Masters Degree in Creative Writing. 

I have annoying tendency to create rods for my own back...but no matter.

Fifteen years and i'm finally at the beginning.