On my personal social media profiles I describe myself as a writer, yet aside from this blog my friends sometimes ask what exactly I’m doing to justify that? It’s time to come clean and fill you all in on what I’m working on away from the blog, especially since some of it should (hopefully) interest regular readers. I’ll begin with one thing you can already read in Northern Ireland’s Impspired Magazine.

SHORT STORY

Last year I was taking part in a medical trial and one of the nurses there writes and performs her own one-woman plays in Belfast, and so we’d talk at length about writing. One day she told me about a creative short story writing competition only 24 hours before its deadline. I hadn’t written creatively since my early 20s but I thought “what the hell” and entered it. Next thing I knew I was a finalist and got published in their online magazine and later their print edition. I was stunned! (Please ignore the typo right at the start, I can only guess it happened when printed, my original doesn’t have it.)

It’s gave me a taste. I’ve had a certain novel in my head since my 20s that I never got around to writing because I never had the confidence in my creative writing abilities. However, I now find myself with the OiNK Blog which is doing very well, not just with the amount of visitors it gets, but also the feedback I’ve received from professional writers and editors about my writing. Yes, it’s a different genre, but still. So, after that competition I’m considering resurrecting the story. Starting it is part of the planned outlook for 2026.

THE BLOG iN 2026

I’m immensely proud of this blog and have no intention of ever stopping, so don’t worry this post isn’t about me moving away from it to concentrate on other things. Last year I did limit the extras (except at Christmas) and concentrated on the real time read throughs so I could start work on other stuff. This year I’m also going to have to balance things, but I’m really looking forward to what’s to come.

This year, Aliens ends its monthly series in March and there’ll be no new real time read throughs beginning (well, a new one at Christmas which you’ll find out about then) and instead I’ll be concentrating on a year full of extras, and every single comic covered so far will be included! This is both to make up for last year and to give me a chance to work on my main project (named further below) while not skimping on blog content for its readers.

HUSH-HUSH PROJECT

Since last year I’ve also been working on a secret project with a professional writer/editor on something I’m positive fans of a certain section of the blog will lap up. My co-writer is a very busy person so there’s no timeline yet on when we’ll have anything to announce but you’ll be the first to know when we do. The plans for the project are exciting even at this early stage so I’m eager to see where 2026 takes it.

COMiCS 80:99

The main project is one I’ve mentioned just briefly on the blog before, Comics 80:99. This will be my first attempt at self-publishing. It’ll be a nice thick bookazine based around a similar selection of comics as here on the blog, the majority of which hadn’t received much coverage in the years since their publication. There’ll also be features based around lesser-known aspects of some of the more popular UK comics from the 1980s and 1990s.

There’ll be regular updates here throughout the year but obviously I need to keep some things close to my chest for now. This is on the advice of some comics professionals I’ve already approached and talked to about it, but I can let you in on a little for now. Some of those professionals are comics heroes of mine and I was amazed when they’d tell me they were aware of me through this blog or even that they read it regularly! So far, all of those I’ve approached have agreed to take part in some fashion and I couldn’t be more thrilled. (I can hear teenage me screaming inside my head!)

I’ve finalised the contents (and thus the amount of pages it’ll contain) and all of the comics I’ll be including. I’ve also been researching paper types. This might seem like a backwards way of doing things but as this is my first dip into self-publishing I wanted to look into the costs and research printing companies to ensure it was doable. I soon learned I needed to know the names of different paper types and thicknesses. Proctors, a local Belfast shop was incredibly helpful and very patient when I took along samples so they could identify them for me, meaning I could get accurate quotes from various printers online.

I needed that reassurance of what it’d cost and what I could charge before committing myself, after all I also need to make money from this. I have a cat to spoil.

Long story short, Comics 80:99 is a go and I’ll keep you up-to-date on it in this Writing Diary. The secret (for now) co-authored project is in its early development stages, then once these are both further along that novel inside my head will finally begin its transition to the laptop. Throughout all of this the blog will also continue and you can expect one new post every single week on average throughout 2026 (along with an accompanying Mighty Marvel Checklist every Wednesday too) and a wealth of stuff at Christmas as usual.

I’ve decided it’s going to be a big year for me, I hope you’ll join me.