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It has been a wonderful and busy year at Zee C Writer headquarters and I am thrilled to share some very exciting news with you all.

Scruffy and Teddy, the brand new third book in the Scruffy series, is due to be published in October 2026 just in time for Christmas. In this adventure Sam and Scruffy welcome some wonderful new additions to their world including a pet sheep called Loopy Lou and some very special alpacas. There are big changes ahead for Sam's family too and as always Scruffy is right there in the thick of it all.

If you have been following Scruffy and Sam's journey from the very beginning you are going to love this next chapter. And if you are new to the series there has never been a better time to discover Scruffy. Books 1 and 2 are both available on Amazon right now.

I am also delighted to share that Dizzy Izzy and The Singer will be getting a beautiful new cover and fresh new edition arriving later this year.

Thank you so much for all your support. Keep checking back for more updates.

Zee C

Due to the fact that I am going to use my marketing team and a media promotion team for Little Bear I have decided to do a big launch Sept/Oct ready for the big Christmas market. Because of this I will need to release Scruffy and Teddy earlier than this so have put Little Bear aside for a few weeks while I concentrate on getting Scruffy and Teddy written. I find both the Scruffy and Dizzy Izzy very easy to write as I have already formulated the writing style whereas because Little Bear is aimed at an different audience and needs a lot more research I am finding it needing more time to write it. I am enjoying the challenge and it is flowing well as I have already passed 40,000 words and haven't reached the end of Little Bear's first 24 hours yet. I believe that this book will do very well hence the reason that I am investing a great deal of money in it's promotion

Since returning to work the story of Little Bear has flowed well and I am now well past 30,000 words. I am going to be getting some factual information about what it is like to live with M.S. and how the person is coping emotionally, mentally and physically with it. Although I won't be quoting her at least I will get my facts right to add to the story when I get to that bit. I still need to contact a bar school to see if I can spend some time with the students as although I know how the graduate diploma in law works as I did it I never went to bar school. I did a number of mini pupillages around the area so I can easily describe not only the sitting in court but all the background work that barristers do so I am okay with that. I am hoping that the chambers in York will allow me to visit and maybe get an idea of how they are set out etc but all those visits can wait until the spring or maybe even early summer as I won't need that information before that as I still think that this book will need to be split into 2 books as it will be too big otherwise. I am hoping to do a proper big book launch with this Little Bear book and get some media attention and drive the sales of it a lot further than my other books. I don't expect now to launch it before early September just in time to hit all the Christmas sales even if I have finished writing it well before then. I still plan on releasing Scruffy and Teddy ready for the summer holiday reading and Dizzy Izzy and the Other Fairy Kingdoms in early December. I have rather a lot of work planned for this year but I will keep you all posted

Firstly I would just like to wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous new year. I have had a bit of a break to celebrate the holidays with my family but as from now it is back to work with a vengeance. By taking a couple of weeks off I will need to push on now with Little Bear or else I will run out of time to get Scruffy and Teddy and Dizzy Izzy and the other Fairy Kingdoms written and published before next Christmas. I will keep you all informed as to progress as we wend our way through the next few weeks.

I already have the front cover photographs for Little Bear and Scruffy and Teddy so I only have to source a picture for the new Dizzy Izzy book.

Dizzy Izzy and the Singer is now a proper complete book and I have fulfilled all the initial orders and got them posted. I still have some copies at home so I can continue selling them in the New Year but I won't be posting any more copies out now before Christmas.

I have been adding more to the Little Bear story and it is going quite well but I have also come across a couple of other stories that I started and committed to paper quite a while ago so as they were on scrappy bits of paper I have typed up as far as I had got with them so they are safe on the computer.

One is a romantic story that I began ready to submit to The People's friend but I am already over 2,000 words and not even halfway through it. It is going to be even too big for their other magazine that comes out every 8 weeks as the stories for that need to be no longer than 4,400 words and I don't think it will stay in that region but equally won't be big enough for a pocket novel as that needs to be 42,000 words. I can see I will just have to file that away and one day publish a book of short stories but will need to write several more stories before I am ready to do that. This one is called The Importance of Colour.

The other one I have been typing up is the notes to the next full adult book that I will be writing and publishing after Little Bear is finished is called Bombshells and it is about a family that consists of a mixture of born or homegrown children, adopted children and step children plus the parents. They all collect on the eve of the youngest twins 18th birthday party but each person in the family has a secret and will drop it into the family as a bombshell completely shattering the fragile bonds that formed the family. Even the parents have secrets of their own that they haven't shared even with each other and the twins, who everyone expects are going to university have their own secret kept even from their own twin. It will be a very intricate story to write so that I can keep my readers both interested but able to follow the complicated plot. If I pull this off then I will consider I have come of age in my writing career. I haven't even finished the notes yet and I have almost hit 3,000 words so expect this book to be a rather large story. Watch out for more information on this once I actually begin to write the full story probably early 2020 depends on how Little Bear, Scruffy and Teddy and Dizzy Izzy and the other Fairy Kingdoms work out

I have just had notification that Dizzy Izzy and the Singer is almost ready for it's final checks. They are just typesetting the front cover and then it will be coming over for the final checks before I say yes run it off the production line. I don't envisage any corrections will need doing but I remain vigilant. I am busy compiling a list of people who want books posting out so I can get them set off as soon as I receive them from the publishers. As usual I am running a bit close to Christmas but I remain hopeful they will get to my customers in time for Christmas. I am having to insist on receiving the money for the goods up front now as I have lost a lot of money by posting the books out to people and then they never pay. I am not a charity so this is the only way I can do it.

Little Bear continues her story as is usual with me there have been some unexpected twists in the story. I have several people working with me to help me to understand how it feels to have and live with the disease of MS as Little Bear will be supporting her adoptive mum through this progressive illness. Although it is tugging at my heart strings as I write the story I am really enjoying getting my teeth into a new type of writing.

I hope to explore writing for the People's Friend in the New Year as I can write 1,000 word story in about an hour so although they won't publish every story I send them I might get a bit of bread and butter money coming in for very little time spent. I have been reading the People's Friend for many years now following in my mum's footsteps so I am looking forward to this new journey.

I have completed the narrative to the little book called the story of the fleece which tells the story of how a fleece goes from keeping the sheep warm to it finally becoming a ball of wool. It is written from a baby lamb's point of view following her mummy's coat so she knows what will happen to her coat next year. We still have to sort and place the photos in and add a few simple knitting pattern at the back but it should be ready for retail by Easter. It was commissioned by a smallholding that has a few sheep and produce their own wool from their sheep to sell. They felt that having a book to buy would bring in another revenue and people might buy wool to try out the knitting pattern. I actually do the knitting for them. Another new avenue for me to follow

Dizzy Izzy and the Singer has winged its way to the publishers and the hard copy of the manuscript has been filed in its ring binder and put away in the cupboard. I will soon have to extend the cupboard if I keep writing at the rate I am doing. I must admit I am loving every minute of this new career. Well I maybe can't call it a career yet as it isn't providing me with a living wage but I am loving the challenges it is bringing.

I intended taking a week or two off before making a start on my new series but within a few days of sending off Dizzy Izzy to the publishers the story was clamoring to be committed to paper. Once I began the story and was about 5,000 words into it I realised that this book was going to be a very different one to my others that I had written and this was going to explore social issues from a much more adult perspective. It isn't actually a sad story but it certainly will pull at the heart strings and make people really think as they read it. It will be fine for young adults 14-18 years old and if they are very good readers maybe as young as 12 but certainly no younger. It will provide lots of issues for discussion as we explore the hidden world and pain caused by abandonment, abuse and the healing process that Little Bear has to go through. There is no sex, violence, drugs or gangs in the book so will not appeal to some readers but hopefully to a large slice of the population. It will be a much larger book than the others and I think the whole story will be told in 2 books. I will keep you posted on that as I work through it.

I think I may look into employing a literary agent to take on this new book as I think it needs a different approach to publishing, marketing and promoting than my other 2 series do. I would like to think Little Bear became a book that sparked discussions in schools, in book clubs and other public bodies as I feel it has a message to impart. My greatest dream would be if someone took it and made a sympathetic film from it but as yet I have no idea how to get it into the circles it would need to be in for this to happen but who knows what is round the next corner.

I have already hit 15,000 words and it is flowing well but emotionally draining to write. I think I may need a complete rest to recharge my batteries once it is finished. I will still continue to write my Scruffy series and the Dizzy Izzy series and will be publishing a new one of each of them in 2019. The next Scruffy book will be called Scruffy and Teddy and the next Dizzy Izzy book will be Dizzy Izzy and her Travels or something like that.

Just sent off the manuscript, front cover photo, acknowledgement page and the back page cover synopsis to the publishers and have received their reply that they are going to get on with it and get it typeset so that is book number 4 set off on its journey to become a book. This bit is always a bit scary but I am collecting a few orders for it so hopefully it will do well like all my other books are.

Having a day doing a bit of admin as I have 2 months bookkeeping to do and something called a metadata thing to do linked to my e books. Haven't really looked at it yet as been busy  finishing off this book but can't put it off any longer now. No excuse!

Tomorrow I will get the narrative down on paper for the little book I am doing for a friend who has sheep and spins and dyes her own fleece. She wants a little book to sell along with the wool at fairs and in her tearoom that tells the story of the fleece and then a few knitting patterns in the back. She has the photos so I am just doing the narrative and leaving her to slot the pictures in later.

Next week will be starting the new series 'Little Bear'. Will keep you updated as to how it is going

The party have visited the campsite and met the fairies and elves that have settled close to the fairy hotels. Yes there were fairy hotels in the forest as Danny suspected! The main hotel had a large ballroom that inspired Mimi and Mo with their lighting projects and Danny is now going to make a large ballroom/party space in Penny's Kingdom Hotel. They meet the country singer fairy who tells them about festivals that she performs at. Much to Izzy's delight she is not only going to the Summer National Fairy Ball but is also performing there so has offered to entertain at the Summer Ball at Penny's Kingdom before heading off to the National Ball and Izzy and her deputies will be joining her and the other fairies and elves on the journey. I think this will be another complete book maybe the next or the following book.

The party have met up with a new little fairy who has decided that she would like to join Danny on a permanent basis so she will float in and out of the Dizzy Izzy books a bit like the country singer does. They are presently exploring the beach and the seaside and then once everyone goes home they will be designing all the different fairy doors as they have all decided on their own design to denote their own interests. I then have to move soil to raise the holiday island, place containers around Penny's garden, play host to visiting birds from Danny's garden, visit the goats summer residence and allow Penny and Danny to meet the deer before testing and fitting the new 'goat door'. Think will turn out to be another busy day for everyone.

Next blog should be after the big editing and getting the manuscript off to the publishers. Going to be a couple of weeks later than I planned but still hopeful it will in the shops for Christmas

'Scruffy and Maisie' continues to sell quietly no big orders just a trickle on a weekly basis. I have a number of people waiting in the wings for 'Dizzy Izzy and the Singer' but I have also had a lot of interest in my new proposed series that I will be starting to write as soon as I get this Dizzy Izzy book sent off to the publishers. I have hit over 52,000 words and the party are on their way to explore the campsite where they hope to meet up with other fairies and learn all about fairy hotels before heading off to explore the beach and find the seaside fairies. I still have another day to write about before I hit a natural break. On current form I imagine we won't be far off 100,000 words so this book will probably be another £9.99 as anything over 85,000 words costs me more to have published so I need to retail it for more to offset this cost.

Once I finish this book I will be taking off a couple of days to write the narrative for a book for Shear Wensleydale which is a company that has sheep but spins their own fleeces and uses the yarn to make garments. They want a little book writing following the story of a fleece from growing on the back of the sheep to the completed ball of wool then a few simple patterns at the back of it. They have the photos so I will write the main body of the story and then they will add the photos. It won't take me very long to write so I can slot it in between my own books. Another branch to pursue

Well I finally managed to complete day one and we hit a total of 31,700 words so I am afraid I think this new book will be hitting 100,000 words before I get to the end of the weekend. As usual we got another twist in the tail that I wasn't expecting as 2 of the wild goats decided that they wanted to join the fairies, elves and Penny in her garden. I can see some fun times ahead!

I am still on target to hit my deadline of getting this book ready for retail by early December but I think I will be having some late nights on the way. If it is any longer than, I am sure it will be, 85,000 words finished article then it will have to retail at £9.99.

Once this book is complete it will have to be straight into my new series 'Little Bear' as I want to release 3 books next year in the following order 'Little Bear', 'Scruffy and Teddy' and finally the next Dizzy Izzy book which as yet I don't know the title.

I also need to get on and write some short stories to submit to the People's Friend. As an avid reader of the magazine I am sure I could write some that might help to make a bit of bread and butter money to keep me ticking over between the big novels. I actually went on a workshop day for them which was a wonderful day and gave me some very good guidelines to work to.

I think I need to submit 5 a week as they say that they usually only use about 1 in 5 stories submitted to them to make an extra £200 a month that might help to pay the rent!

I have completed 4 chapters of 'Dizzy Izzy and the Singer' hit 21,500 words and still haven't finished the first day yet! Another chapter should see the end of this first day and then I will be going on to the following day in the story. Now as Izzy, her deputies, her operational heads of the kingdom and Penny are visiting Danny's garden as he grows a number of different kinds of fruit and vegetables to get ideas what to plant in and around Penny's garden to supply the kingdom with a variety of food and then on to a camp site in a wooded area where Danny has a log cabin holiday home very close to the sea there will be lots of adventures and new experiences to describe so I imagine by the time I have finished that day we could very easily be 50,000-60,000 words into the story. As it is the weekend they have another full day planned for the following day when Izzy takes Penny and Danny to meet the deer and the goats in their own home and they all get busy placing pots and pans and building fairy houses, fairy doors and bird nesting boxes for Penny's garden I can see another rather long book emerging. Izzy meets a very surprising fairy who is a performer and introduces Izzy to a whole new world that she had never imagined existed hence the title.

I have made a good start on my next book 'Dizzy Izzy and the Singer'. I have written the first chapter and typed it up and have hit over 7,000 words. We haven't even got to mid morning on the first day so it looks as though there will be 3 chapters to cover this first day. As Izzy has some very busy days planned for the next 2 days after this it doesn't look as though this next book is going to get to the Summer ball either. I think people are going to end up having to get some more bookcases if they want to keep all my books as at this rate the Dizzy Izzy series are probably going to be nearly 10 books and I think Scruffy will be nearly 20 in the series. I don't know yet how the many the new series will generate but on my track record quite a few  would think. I am itching to get that one started. I have a couple of books to write for other people in tandem with them. One is the story of a fleece from growing on the sheep through shearing, washing and dying before finally been knitted into a garment. At the back of the book will be a selection of simple knitting patterns to try. The other book is taken from the blogs of a lady who has a wonderful gift of descriptive powers but who has no time nor idea how to fashion them into a story. She has 9 dogs, 4 goats, 3 alpacas that have just come to live with her so the story will be written from the alpaca's point of view, 2 cats I think I will have to consult my notebook on that score and some chickens. She breeds dogs so at some point we will have puppies cavorting across the page too. I think I am going to be very busy next year as I still have to produce my own 3 books 'Little Bear', 'Scruffy and Teddy' and whatever the next Dizzy Izzy book is called. Good job I love writing!

I have finally made an effort to get back to my blogging but unfortunately had to have another online tutorial to refresh my memory on how to do it. Luckily for me my web designing team were able to put bookmarks on for me so I can easily find the right spot again now I only have to try and set aside some time hopefully once a week to keep you all posted on everything that is going on.

Since I last posted on here there has been some dramatic opportunities arisen so I think I had better fill you all in. I didn't quite hit my deadline to finish and launch 'Scruffy and Maisie' in the spring (what a surprise) but it was finally completed and launched on 14th July so now it is available for anyone wanting a copy. As usual it was launched at the North York Moors National Park visitor center where they continue to support and promote my books. A big thank you to them for their encouragement. As usual they took 12 copies of the new book straight off but then within days they contacted me to request another 12 copies of 'Scruffy' and 6 of 'Dizzy Izzy' as they said the books were flying off the shelves. It will probably be the last time I physically do a book signing or launch a book as now I can't drive (that is another story but in a nutshell my sight has deteriorated so much I now do not meet the DVLA standard to drive) and getting anywhere is becoming very difficult. I don't think it matters so much now as people are already waiting for any new books coming out. 'Scruffy and Maisie' ended up as a bigger book than the others so is on sale for £9.99. I hit 101,000 words before I found a natural stopping spot! I already have the title and the front cover photo for the next book in the series and have a real good idea where it is going although we got an unexpected twist in this latest book as Sam's mum has been given a couple of fields so she has bought herself a flock of sheep. Think there could be many adventures pending around them especially as Sam is determined to name them all individually. Scruffy spent a lot of time being nanny to the kittens when  their mum left them and Helen and Maisie had some surprise news for Sam when they came to visit. Watch out for other twists and turns as Scruffy's story unfolds and other animals join in.

I have now put that book to bed and am refreshing my memory what I wrote in the first Dizzy Izzy book and am beginning to write the second in the series. It is called 'Dizzy Izzy and the Singer' and I have already got the front cover picture ready and have paid for the publication so all I have to do is write it and send it off to the publishers. I intend to have it in the shops for early December ready for people for Christmas presents but I will keep you all posted.

Next year I intend to write and publish at least 3 books during the year starting with the first book in a new series about another rescue dog called 'Little Bear'. I saw her photo on Facebook and her story began taking shape. Unknown to me I was in fact writing her story exactly how it happened as she was abandoned in the forests of Romania which is where the story starts. We follow her journey from getting picked up on the road as she stumbles out of the forest through her vet experiences to travelling to the UK into foster care. I am not sure how far we will get in the first book but eventually she is adopted by a single lady who lives on the edge of a city. Little Bear is so timid and frightened of every little thing that between them they have a lot of work to do. The lady has a degenerative disease and slowly becomes disabled having to retrain for another job that she can do from a wheelchair. They encounter all kinds of problems as they both come to terms with her disability and Little Bear becomes her registered assistant dog. More to come on that book as it slowly develops. There is a lot more things in the pipeline regarding my new marketing team that have taken over the promotion of my books so many more interesting blogs to come

I have settled on the title for the next Dizzy Izzy book. I think, as Izzy has now become the Fairy Queen, that I cannot continue to term her as dizzy anymore as she has proved herself a very practical caring and mature queen. The title for the next book will be 'Izzy and the Singer'. There are more twists and turns to come in her journey to make her kingdom the best in the country if not in the world and her sense of adventure continues helped by the humans Penny and Danny. Not sure if we will reach the first ball of the series depends where I find a natural break. The plan is to get there but as the first book only managed a few days in her story and the summer ball is 4 weeks away we might not get there in this book it might have to wait until the next book in the series. I am steadily working away at 'Scruffy and Maisie' although I think it may struggle to hit the shops before the beginning of May. If so then that might mean it will be beginning of August before the next Izzy book hits the shops and hopefully the new series will be ready for you all to engage with by Christmas 2018. This new series of books will be about another rescue dog called Ty who begins life in a Romanian shelter very frightened and timid and by the end of the series, many books further on, he becomes a trusted and integral part of his disabled owner's team as her assistance dog. As usual with my story telling there are many twists, turns, laughs and thought provoking issues as Ty travels along his personal journey accompanied by his owner

I had a successful book signing and sales at the launch of Dizzy Izzy and even sold a number of Scruffy books too. Grosmont bookshop, Guisborough book shop, Coopers of Pickering and North York Moors National Park visitor center have taken copies of Dizzy Izzy to sell alongside Scruffy I have made a start on the second Scruffy book but it is going quite slow as Christmas has got in the way but I am hopeful that I will soon get my writing head back on. I entered an Amazon competition with my version of a rework of a Christmas Carol but it wasn't considered good enough to win. I struggled to keep under 1,000 words so I think I might have another go and submit it to the People's Friend as I would love to get involved in writing for my favorite magazine. I am in dialogue with someone who will be probably using the same photo on her new CD cover as I will be using on the cover of the next Dizzy Izzy book and we will possibly be linking the 2 items. In fact she has offered to write a song especially to accompany the launch of this book but as this will not be until the summer I will keep you all posted

Dizzy Izzy is now complete and is selling well. They are all signed and posted out now just waiting to see if there are many more orders needed before Christmas. I have just completed a rework of 'A Christmas Carol' for a competition run by Amazon. I only found out about it 4 days ago and it needed to be submitted before tomorrow so it has had to be a busy weekend. The biggest problem was it had to be under 1,000 words and as I am used to writing multiple 1,000 word stories i ended up having to chop huge lumps out of it. In my opinion was way too short but as it is for children and going to an illustrated book I can understand why it needed to be that short. Next job has to be getting my head around starting Scruffy and Maisie as I have set myself a target of getting 3 books published next year

Dizzy Izzy has now flown off to the publishers and I am now awaiting her arriving back as my own first copy of her as a complete book. The book is not as large as Scruffy was but it was a natural place to stop. We only managed the first 24 hours of adventures so there is many more to come. I think this series could very well end up as about 10 books in the series. I am just having a week off to catch my breath and then will be hitting the trail again writing Scruffy and Maisie as I want to get both the Scruffy and Izzy second books published and in the shops next year. I would like to kick off the 'Ty' book series next autumn well late autumn same as I did launching Scruffy last year and Dizzy Izzy this year and then the rest of the books in all 3 series will just come out at different times. Ty is about a rescue dog who goes to live in the city with a lady who has a progressive disease and will eventually become wheelchair bound and Ty will become her assistant dog but in the early days he is so scared and timid and is frightened of his own shadow. We follow their trials and tribulations as both grow into their partnership

Despite encountering a range of personal family problems Dizzy Izzy is still busy in her kingdom and I have already nearly hit 40,000 words which is my halfway stage of 80,000 words for the completed first book and we haven't finished her first 24 hours as the Fairy Queen. This bodes well for a number of books in her series too. She has completed meeting all the woodland animals in her kingdom and has only the families of mice who live under the patio to meet before she chairs her first meeting of the animals, birds, fairies and elves who live in or around the garden. Penny has to show her what hotels and caravan parks look like in the human world and then Izzy will no doubt design, along with some of her fairies and elves, something similar for visiting dignitaries. Don't think this book will get us anywhere near the planned summer ball so I think that might be something to look forward to in the next book. Unfortunately I haven't managed to hit the deadline I set myself so 'Scruffy and Maisie, will not be available for Christmas this year but 'Dizzy Izzy' wil. I will get the second Scruffy book into the shops as soon as possible

Another productive weekend Dizzy Izzy continues to evolve and I find she goes off in directions that I didn't plan when I began to write it. The way things are going we are not going to even get to the first fairy ball in this book! I had envisaged that each book would feature a fairy ball which would have given us 3 books in the series but now I am not so sure