The Rushford Times - A weekly newsletter from Jodi Taylor
Sent on Wednesdays to paid subscribers and Fridays to free subscribers
This week we have:
Jodi Taylor - Pre-prison ramblings
The St Mary’s Incident Report Competition - it’s time to judge the entries CLICK HERE to vote
LAST CHANCE TO ENTER! March audio clip competition - guess the book and characters speaking for your chance to win a signed copy of Out of Time
Short Story of the Month: Ships Stings and Wedding Rings - a chance to discover some of the St Mary’s short stories
There’s plenty to read this week and you can see everything on the blog too. CLICK HERE for the blog.
Well, here I am in the enviable position of having finished A Family Affair – edits and all – just Zara to record it now, I think. So that’s all done and dusted.
The fifteenth St Mary’s book – Well, That Could Have Gone Better – is coming along. I think I’m going to make the deadline.
I’m making good progress with the Christmas story – Twelfth Night. I’ve done the usual thing – written the end, and then the beginning, and now I just need to get to grips with the middle bit. Or the plot, as my editor will insist on calling it – so that’s a good start.
And I’m in credit with all my Substack contributions, so – yeah – all in all, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. Until …
I spent Tuesday grappling with my boiler. No hot water for eight days. I wasn’t stinky, or anything – well, I didn’t think I was. People weren’t reeling backwards holding their noses, which, I think, is quite a good sign – and because I’m innovative and inventive, I was doing clever things with kettles and washing up bowls and wet wipes. Anyway, two boiler man visits later, they came to the conclusion it wasn’t the boiler – it was the meter. I had one of those old, black, radio-controlled things, and it wasn’t switching from night to day properly. Or even at all. Literally two hours later – many thanks, Octopus – meter man was knocking on my door, and only an hour later I was smartmeter woman. Ta -da!
Let’s not start that again.
He left – in a cloud of my gratitude and thanks – leaving me to anticipate a long hot bath and unguents. Which was the moment the little smartmeter display told me I had a message.
Willingly embracing this magic new technology, I tapped on read, and it told me I now owed Octopus £1881.00. And I’d only had it for twenty-five minutes.
I like to think I’m fairly resilient, but it was a nasty moment. I know energy prices are rocketing, but even so … To cut a long story and several blistering emails short, the engineer had transposed the readings from my old meter, and my supposed debt has been wiped. Phew! Not that I would have paid it anyway. I was already envisaging cancelling my direct debit, fighting off bailiffs and being hauled off to prison while defiantly singing Dame Ethel Smyth’s The March of the Women.
I mentioned this to my poor editor when she rang, and she informed me that, actually, they do allow you to write in prison. In fact, with all that wonderful publicity, it’s usually a sure-fire route to bestsellerhood. Looking back on the conversation, she actually seemed very keen for prison to happen, but I’m sure that’s just my imagination.
Anyway, the point of her telephone call – and all these boiler-related ramblings – was for her to ask me if I would like to write a short story for Halloween. Nothing massive – only about twenty thousand words. By June.
Well, obviously, that was out of the question with these other projects still outstanding. To say nothing of my crying need for immersion in hot water. With unguents. I opened my mouth to decline, politely, because my mother likes me to tell people I wasn’t raised by wolves – and it came out as, ‘Yes, I’d love to.’
Sometimes I think Bolshy Jane isn’t the figment of my imagination; I tell people she is.
So there you are, folks. An extra short story this year. I’ve no idea about what or where or when or why. Or even the title. I do know it will be a Team 236 story, and things won’t go well. Other than that …
PS – As you were on completing A Family Affair. Not one hour later, another round of queries from the proofreader. Back to the typeface.
PPS – The Halloween short story might be titled Who’s There? On the other hand, it might not. What is life without a little suspense?
PPPS – The army has just marched past. I’m not sure in what context. I’m not going to get any work done today, am I?
Jodi x
It’s time to judge the entries! Hurry, you’ve only got a week to help choose the winner…
The St Mary’s Incident Report Competition - please read all the entries CLICK HERE
Judging is by a reader poll from 25th March, and the winner will be announced on 31st March. Please CLICK HERE to vote
MARCH - GUESS THE BOOK COMPETITION
Guess the book and characters speaking for your chance to win a signed copy of Out of Time
Put your knowledge of Jodi’s books to the test with our audio clip competition. Listen carefully to a short extract and see if you can identify the book and the characters speaking for a chance to win a signed copy of Out of Time.
Audiobooks are hugely popular among Jodi Taylor fans, bringing her stories to life through distinctive voices, character-driven performances, and immersive narration. For many readers, audiobooks offer the perfect way to enjoy a favourite series while commuting, walking, or relaxing. They make stories more accessible, flexible, and engaging than ever.
Tune in, trust your ears, and see if you can name the book and the characters behind the voices.
Ships Stings and Wedding Rings - available in Kindle and Audiobook formats - also included in The Long and Short of It anthology
Buy now from Bookshop.uk - UK USA
A loaded gun has been left behind in ancient Egypt and it’s up to Max, Peterson and Markham to get it back as quickly and as quietly as possible. Before it goes off and kills someone. Leaving them with the more than tricky task of trailing their colleagues but always remaining unobserved. The slightest misstep and they’ll be up to their necks in paradoxes.
There are the usual perils and problems – the heat, the dust, the insects… and then Max inadvertently poisons Mr Markham.
Jodi Taylor says…
‘This is what happened when I was bored and there wasn’t anything on TV and I was reduced to reading the small print on a can of WD40.’
Being in prison may be an allowable business expense as it will enable accurate ambience for an author. Just don't end up in TP Battersea Power cells. The ambience there seems to be deadly although you may have free power instead of meter maid (sorry made).
Was it the whole Army? A platoon? A regiment? Were they wearing camo? Maybe the rep of your boiler company summoned them during the Hot Water War. Luckily for them the war ended without shots being fired or swans being released.