Lek 6 – Behind The Smile

I haven’t been around much for the last two months, as my regular readers will know, because I have been writing the sixth book in the series Behind The Smile, commonly referred to as Lek 6.

Lek 6 took quite a long time to write. OK, the first one took five years and the second six months, but I did finish the fourth in thirty days (for NaNoWriMo 2014).

Lek 6 took me fifty days. For the sake of comparison, I should point out that all the Leks are 112k words long. It was the hardest of them to write.

Anyway, while I was ‘away’ writing Lek 6, several other things happened.

We had a four-foot Clouded Monitor lizard move into our garden, but my wife and our dog hassled it so much that it moved out again. Then a two-foot version moved in and a week later moved on as well. In my eleven years here, they are the only two I have ever seen or heard of. I think that that’s quite something.

Gail, our granddaughter, was one on September 21st, and it seems that all of a sudden she is learning to speak and do things she hasn’t been taught. She speaks several words now that tell us she wants something like food and water, but if she yawns and you say ‘sleep’, she puts a hand to her head and tilts it over. She also switches the fan on and off, opens sliding doors and looks for the remote.

Yesterday she was crying, which is unusual for her, and the only thing that was wrong was that her nappy was soiled. She did that again today. I love to watch her learning, but God knows how she can understand when adults use Thai baby-talk on her, because I can’t fathom it and I’ve been here ten times longer than she has.

On a less happy note, this blog spent two weeks switched off due to the incompetence of my host, Hostgator. They said that it is all right now, but it was down twice this morning for a few minutes. Steer clear of them until they sort themselves out. Oh, and if you want to keep tabs on your own blog, install the free Jetpack plug-in. It’s great – loads of features.

I am missing writing already, but I will stave off the pangs by posting to you every day until November 1st, when NaNoWriMo 2015 starts. I hope that you will join me in that. I still don’t have a clue what to write about.

And lastly for today, going back to Lek 6, the artist who made the first five covers for the Behind The Smile series has disappeared (from me), so I am having to redesign them all so that they match. (Writers of series take note).

So, if you have a few volumes with the original covers, you will still be able to purchase the first five the same, but Lek 6 will be different. Those starting to read the series from scratch should buy the new covers. The new Lek 6 cover is above, what do you think of it (on the latest one, the writing is not so cramped).

[simpleazon-image align=”none” asin=”B016P0ZUOO” locale=”uk” height=”160″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/413HY6hRg8L._SL160_.jpg” width=”100″]   Update 26-10-15: I have reread half of the first draft, so am on schedule to complete Lek 6 before the deadline. Please pre-order here: [simpleazon-link asin=”B016P0ZUOO” locale=”uk”]The Dream: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya (Behind The Smile Book 6)[/simpleazon-link]

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Lek 6