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24 June 2026
2026-06-19 / Subscribe
Hi, everybody! 👋🏻
All right, all right. We have a lot to get through today, so pipe down. It's your time you're wasting. Do I need to separate you two up the back?
No? Good. A quick overview of what we'll be covering:
A sneaky cover reveal for Choppy Water, out this November (actually, there's the cover right there! Great, we're ahead of schedule. What do you think?)
An even sneakier overview of my next ten books--top secret, burn after reading
A writing workshop I'm teaching in Canberra this Sunday (which is why I'm practising my teacher voice)
And how I have a new website, sort of, and I could use your advice.
Let's get to it!
Rather than hinting at all the things I'm working on, I figured I'd just copy-paste the email I sent to my agent. ✉️
Call it an act of radical transparency! (I sure hope there's nothing confidential in there.)
Hi Alex! As you know, you are my literary agent, and have been for some time. I thought you (being my agent) might appreciate a summary of where all my various manuscripts are up to.
CHOPPY WATER: I have about 60 pages to go on the proofread. Retail links are just starting to go live, so I'm dialing up my social media presence a little bit to promote them. Hopefully my wonderful newsletter subscribers will pre-order it from their local bookshop! Pre-orders are very important in the industry these days, as you would know, being my agent.
SHEER DROP: I have an outline and 6.4k words of the first draft.
200 MINUTES OF SURVIVAL: I've submitted the first draft and I'm waiting for the structural edit.
ELEMENT 66: I have 47.2k words of the first draft (which I think needs to be about 90k).
YKNR BOOK FOR S&S: I have a 900-word outline with a major plot hole and no good ideas for the title. But I got to meet Tash for the first time a couple of nights ago, so that was nice! Is this project supposed to be confidential, by the way?
KILL YOUR STALKER: I have the old outline I wrote for the zoo/hyena crime novel, and a pretty clear idea of how I'll turn it into a Kiara/Ben mystery.
ZOE GALE 3: Scholastic has pretty much approved my outline, but I haven't started the first draft yet.
300 MINUTES OF SURVIVAL: I've done nothing.
SPY ACADEMY 3: Not yet contracted, but I'd still like to write it. I have an extremely detailed outline.
HANGMAN 5: As above!
Am I forgetting anything? If not, I'll just keep beavering away! 🦫
Best wishes,
Jack
I'm teaching a writing workshop in Canberra on Sunday! 📓
Last time I checked there were still two or three spots available. So if you know a writer in the area, let them know! (And just in case you're interested but live far away: I'm going to ask participants for permission to film. If they all say yes, and if the technology plays ball, I'll be able to share the workshop with you later.)
I made a new website! 🖱️
Why, you ask? Fair question. (I was already quite busy, as you saw above.)
I did it partly because I lost the ability to update my old site (long story) and I wasn't confident that I'd get it back in time in time to promote Choppy Water. But another driving force was nostalgia.
Before social media gobbled up the whole internet, I made my very first website using html and CSS. (OK, OK. My friend Paul made it--but I spent so much time tweaking and fiddling and testing and re-tweaking that after a year or two not much of Paul's code was left.)
If you'd asked me at the time, I would've told you I was "working", but in retrospect, it was never important for me to have a cool website (or any website). Many successful authors didn't, back then. But I enjoyed coding. I enjoyed adding funny alt text to every image. I enjoyed carefully typing <img align="right">, then hitting refresh and watching the picture jump to the other side of the screen. I even enjoyed accidentally breaking things, seeing the words and pictures scattered all over the place, and then having to piece it all back together.
I'm told that these days an AI can write the code for you, sort of, which I'm sure is very handy if you don't have the time or inclination to learn. But I liked doing it all myself. And when I discovered Neocities, which offers free hosting for small websites, I couldn't resist a trip down memory lane.
So here's my question: have you ever visited an author's website? If so, what were you looking for?
And does mine have it?
🎟️ Some other events coming up:
July 31 to August 2, WA: Kimberly Writers Festival
August, NSW/VIC: Children's Book Week stuff
August 29, ACT: Interviewing Joanna Jenkins at Queanbeyan Library, details soon
September 9 to 13, NSW/VIC: Write Around the Murray Festival
October 21, SA: Love, Crime and Wine panel (details soon)
October 29 to 30, SA: Once Upon a Festival
November: Choppy Water comes out! Your life jacket has a light and a whistle for attracting attention.
If you're reading this and you're not a subscriber, hit the link below:
Till next time, fellow bookworms!
Jack Heath 🖊️
P.S. I ran out of time to tell you the whole story, but you might like this video of the little DIY project I've been working on.
🖊️