November 2012, long time no write!

Hi everyone,

I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted. I apologise! Much to catch up on!

Since I last blogged I have had little opportunity to engage in a passion of mine, writing fiction. This is out of sheer necessity as I have been engaged in two things over the last year or so, working towards my PhD, and looking for full-time work.

I have now completed two of the three milestones needed to get my PhD. That consists of the Confirmation Seminar and the Mid-Candidature Review, which I completed in June of this year. The latter involved submitting a completed sample chapter from the thesis, a bibliography, academic portfolio and a thirty minute presentation, followed by questioning from an academic committee. It was, to say the least, tough. Up until that point I had been a full-time PhD student and worked a couple of days part-time for the bills. Since then I made the decision to go part-time at Uni and get full-time work for money reasons. This means two things, I now have, technically, till June 2014 to get my PhD done (though I hope to get it done before then) and I have been actively looking for full-time work, not easy in this job market sadly. Anyway, this has all meant that no new fiction work has been done, though there have been developments with my previous publications.

Four of my previous works are now for sale as Kindle e-books. This includes my novel The Lilith Charm, a previously published short-story that got a lot of great attention when released called The Next Tolken, a children's tale called Grumblethumps and finally the long-form poem that lends it name to this blog, Beyond a Snowy Path. Please feel free to check them out and, if so moved, buy a copy or two: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=Adrian%20Gibb

The editor of Christmas Magazine has kindly showcased all my Christmas Poems on their Christmas Spirit page which can be found here: http://www.christmasmagazine.com/en/spirit/

I have been able to keep up with non-fiction writing. I am working on a book called Sacred Paths. It is a book that will ask members of various faiths from various locations around the world five 'big questions' and collate their responses. The idea is to promote a pluralistic attitude towards many faiths, examine how each person responds as a representative of the 'label' they feel comfortable with, but also to show, within that, that there are differing attitudes within each faith. I have now all but one of the contributor's material but the first chapter is done and I have started submitting to literary agents. The material is fantastic and I am very excited about this project. Just hope and pray I can have some editors interested too!

Just recently I wrote an article about an interfaith temple in the US and a wonderful man who is both a Buddhist Monk and a Christian Pastor. It can be found here: http://newlotus.buddhistdoor.com/en/news/d/30706

And so, apart from working on part two of my thesis (I am doing part two first, part one next year hopefully) that is me up to date. Have HEAPS of ideas for fiction stuff, including ones I have mentioned in previous posts. Will get to them one day!

Merry Christmas if I don't touch base before!

Adi