There’s nothing quite like writing (or reading!) a book while the world passes by.

Earlier this week I spent the day in the capital and thought I’d share a bit of what I got up to, including some thoughts on my next book, Fright on Stage Right.

The short video is the same across TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, so feel free to pick your preferred platform:

I’ve embedded the video below where possible (note: you might need to unmute the video to hear audio) and further down I’ve included a transcript (with links) if you’d prefer to just read the text.

Video transcript

Join me for a quick day trip down to Wellington which involved writing on the train and at the library, coffee with a friend, a walk along the waterfront and past parliament, and then reading a book on the train journey back.

I headed down on the Capital Connection, with the train departing Palmerston North at a very early 6:15am.

I used to get a lot of writing done on my daily commute, an hour each way on the train, when living in London. There’s something about the constantly changing landscape and people moving around within the carriage, that keeps the ideas flowing and the fingers flying across the keyboard.

Today’s writing involved collating all the notes, random thoughts, and scraps of ideas that I’ve jotted down over the months for my next novel, Fright on Stage Right, the fourth of my Milverton Mysteries.

It’s the wildest stage of the my writing process where everything is up for grabs. Who are my victim or victims? How did they snuff it? Who are my suspects? What possible motives could they have had? And how could our hero Addison Harper possibly find himself involved once again? Which new locations will we explore with him and which new Milverton residents might we meet? Or, which locations or characters might we revisit from previous books? Anything is possible.

And for this book in particular, late October is the perfect time of the year to start drafting this project in earnest. I’ve already given you the title, Fright on Stage Right, but I’ll quickly read the blurb now, and you’ll see why Halloween is rather relevant.

It’s opening night at the theatre and Addison Harper has front-row seats with Sergeant Jake Murphy. This might just be his perfect date.

The playbill promises spooky Halloween fun, ghoulish drag queens, frightening musical numbers, and the scariest thing of all: audience participation. Of course, the unlucky victim dragged from the safety of his seat is a mortified Addison. In a play full of twists and turns, he has no idea what’s coming next but nobody could have anticipated witnessing a sudden, absolutely unscripted, and very real death.

A dreadful accident? Or was it foul play? As the curtain falls before a horror-struck audience, Addison Harper finds himself once again in the spotlight at centre stage.

You can pre-order now, if you like! Or go right back to book 1, Murder on Milverton Square, which is out in ebook, paperback, and audiobook.

Anyway, back to my little day trip. What started out as a miserably wet morning, turned into a bleak afternoon before clearing into a gloriously sunny early evening. I was very cosy in the library and made excellent progress on getting all my thoughts together into a single document. For some aspects I have way too much for a single novel, and for others I don’t quite have enough. But I have enough now, almost, I think, to get started on Chapter 1. By that point the weather had eased off so I took a walk to clear my head, but still found myself pulling out my phone to jot more things down as my brain worked away in the background on its own.

I got a little more done before it was time to head back on the evening train.

My brain had done all the creative output it could manage for the day, for the trip back it was time for some creative input. I got stuck into Mark Stay‘s The Holly King, the fourth in his wonderful Witches of Woodville series. This came out last year but I didn’t get a chance to read it before Christmas, so I’m catching up now that we’re approaching the festive season again.

So, a long but productive day! It was great to have a fresh change of scenery, which is always inspiring and motivating. And now, back to my desk, back to writing that book.