“Through the years, I have learned there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration... Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent.”

– Steve Martin, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life

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The summer season is upon us. Originally I was aiming to have some early chapters of my debut novel "Human Software" available to share with you by the end of July but during the second draft I realised that there's further to go than I thought. These characters need more time to grow.

So what about them? Who are they and what do they want?

Our main character is Beth. She's a software engineer who works for an American company based in small town in south-east UK. She's responsible for building and supporting global software systems that should be 24/7 available. She's a so-called "DevOps" engineer which from an industry perspective is what we've learnt is the 'sweet spot' for software engineers. Those that understand how the software is built are best-placed to fix it when it goes wrong. But how can you be on-call all the time when you have a life and a family?

David is Beth's husband. He's a burnt out engineering leader and now full-time house-husband to their two kids - Maddie who is 17 and Eric who is 12. David has seen first-hand how the industry mistreats individuals at the cost of keeping systems running for customers. He is keen for them as a family to give up on technology and start again doing something more befitting their rural setting.

Also meet Chrissie. She's the new executive, arriving in this small town charged with making the hard decisions as she takes over control of a struggling business. She's burdened with the expectation that she puts on herself while she makes a success of this trip far away from her own family and friends.

"Human Software" charts the journey of these three as they negotiate the personal and social impact of software systems, security incidents, hacks, failures and ambition.

By the end of September or so I aiming to have the first few chapters ready to share with you. There's a quote about your first three novels being mainly autobiographical which I'd love to put here but I can't find it, instead I'll leave you with this quote about writing from the great horror writer Stephen King:

"Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right – as right as you can, anyway – it belongs to anyone who wants to read it. Or criticise it.”

I aim to live by these words!

Wishing you a wonderful summer.