2023 began with me catching covid again, unfashionably late. Once recovered, January was absorbed by helping clear the family home, so little writing, travelling or archaeology at all! It was minus two the day we filled the skip.
By February I managed to get out and about again, hiking over Malham Cove in a balmy seven degrees. At the desk I was working on the early draft of Blackshirt Rebellion.
It snowed in March, but I was off to the Alderney Literary Festival to act as hall manager. This lovely boutique festival concentrates on historical fiction, biography and non-fiction so hits all my buttons. Sign up to the Alderney Literary Trust newsletter to hear about the 2024 event.
By April the juggling act is well underway, planning the dig and working on both Blackshirt Projects. The Crime Writer’s Association held its annual conference in York, which included a splendid gala dinner in the Victorian street within Castle Museum. As I was on the organising sub-committee this had involved a fair amount of darting back and forth to York in the preceding months.
In May it was time to be totally schizophrenic. Jason the author was feverishly working on Blackshirt Rebellion. Jason the traveller packed a suitcase for both Bristol Crimefest immediately followed by a three-week excavation; fogbound at airports for a day in between. Fog cleared, Jason the Archaeologist was back in Alderney for the rather surprising 2023 Longis Common excavation. It only took a few days to write up my notes afterwards, but I was polishing the 2022 dig notes for publication.
Shetland Noir was June’s highlight, an excellent conference and a chance to explore the islands in exceptionally kind weather. On the Old Bones panel I was able to talk about the Jeffrey Flint novels, and thinking of reviving the archaeological mystery theme.
July was a cascade of events. The CWA Daggers Dinner in London was a glittering occasion – Gary Stratmann snapped me here talking to Mick Herron. Crime writers also assembled en masse at the Theakstone’s Old Peculiar Crime Festival in Harrogate, which also gave a chance for the Northern Chapter of the CWA to get together. And it was a quick change of tone for the Eboracum Roman Festival in York, where a lovely bunch of authors set up camp in front of the Multangular Tower.
With no conferences, and with the dig now moved to May, August presented opportunity to travel without an agenda. Little hikes, meeting up with family, a trip to Guernsey and visiting the Yorkshire Wildlife Park for the first time. With Blackshirt Conspiracy bubbling under I was writing review articles for e-magazines to meet their October deadlines.
In September things become mildly crazy. My travel company of choice is Explore, who run small group adventure holidays. This year it was Ancient Macedonia, taking in part of Bulgaria, North Macedonia, northern Greece and a bit of Albania. Meanwhile, in the evenings I was busily setting up reviewers for Blackshirt Conspiracy.
And Blackshirt Conspiracy is published! October was spent in pre-publication promotion, then post-publication promotion that is still ongoing. Adding to the workload was the looming deadline for the delivery of the next manuscript. The interim publication of the 2022 excavation at the Alderney Nunnery came out, which will be the last one before the monograph is written about the site.
If it’s November, this must be Egypt; I eschewed organised tours and put together a DIY programme of pyramids, temples, tombs and museums. A publisher is interested in the Nunnery monograph and the manuscript for Blackshirt Rebellion wings its way to Level Best in America.
After the desert heat, it’s back to snow in Yorkshire. And a chilly London where the CWA held its annual Christmas party across the Thames from the MI6 building. December was about taking stock, making plans for the next year and the next books. With five projects on the block, 2024 is going to be busy.
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