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We keep writing books, and often run eBook or audio serials. Here is a summary of Bible Tales – work in progress.
Last updated .
This page includes a progress bar for each of our current projects with some expected milestone dates. These dates are given in the knowledge that God is in control of our lives and everything else – things do not always work out as we expect. As far as it is up to us, these dates are important targets.
News of progress and further releases is included in the Bible Tales weekly newsletter. Sign up now and you will hear the news first.
If you have any more questions about the books and can’t wait to hear answers through the newsletter, please ask through our Contact form.
You may also be interested in our publication history.
To learn about Bible Tales’ work in progress, click on one of the tabs below to see what we are working on in that area.
A novel on the life of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, commander of King David’s army.
A sad loss in November 2024: Laptop needed fixing. Did a full backup. Worked on the book while travelling by train to Melbourne. Forgot to attach a copy to an email. Laptop needed motherboard replacing including the disk. Quite a few hours work lost because of carelessness and being in a hurry…
Total number of words achieved 6,602 out of 50,000. Failure.
Recommenced in a speed-writing format in the 30 days 24 November to 23 December 2025. Progress is shown below.
Finished one day early on 22 December 2025 at 56,712 words. Overall target length is 100 to 120 thousand words which requires approximately 55,000 extra words to be added now that the speed-writing is complete:
Direct writing has stopped at the moment as I work on a detailed chronology of the life of David which requires some re-ordering of the scriptural records in Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, but it’s not always easy to tell which ones or in what order!
Target completion time was Sep/Oct 2026.
Progress was not as good as I had hoped, so we’ve started a weekly eBook serial that imposes more short term deadlines. These work better for me. The serial started on 15 June and should conclude on 2 November (21 weeks). The bars below show the current progress.
Shortly after the conclusion of the serial on 2 November, subscribers will receive the entire eBook of “Chief and Commander”.
If we live and God is willing, publication is planned for February 2027.
Update 25 September 2025: This collection of micro-tales is now back in business as a Bible Tales – work in progress after the publication of “Upside Down with Paul”.
These micro-tales are included in the Bible Tales weekly newsletter. Sign up now to read new ones one by one as they are written and published. In most cases the stories in the newsletter and the book are just the same.
Old Testament
New Testament
Now that 11 longer micro-tales are completed, they will be included in an audiobook called “Book 4” and the bars below display progress.
At the conclusion of the serial, subscribers will receive the entire audiobook of “Fiction Favours the Facts – Book 4”. Shortly afterwards, the audiobook will be published on our Shopify store. Note that this will only be available as an audiobook. Book 4 will not be published as an eBook or paperback.
A youth with royal blood in his veins, growing up in Jerusalem during the religious revivals of King Josiah.
The hopes of a nation crumble as Josiah dies in battle and his revival dies with him.
Daniel continues to follow Josiah’s ways until his ability is recognised by the attacking king, Nebuchadnezzar, and he is taken away to Babylon.
As exiles in a land of strange customs, Daniel and his friends are to be educated in all the wisdom of Babylon. But first, they must decide whose rules come first: God’s or Nebuchadnezzar’s.
Which will Daniel choose? And what will the king do if Daniel rejects his laws?
It doesn’t take long before Daniel establishes himself as a man the king can’t do without, but jealous rivals ensure that danger is never far away.
NaNoWriMo began on 1 November 2018 at 00:00:01 and finished on 30 November at midnight.
When the clock reached midnight on 30 November 2018, I had already validated my novel earlier in the evening, so it was not quite as close to the deadline as last year. This time, large amounts of time spent travelling at the end of November fueled a frenzied rush of story-writing, with 35,000 words being written in the last week!
The story had not progressed far through the life of Daniel, with him only having spent 8 years in Babylon. Not only so, but some parts of that time period were still unfinished. An estimated 35,000 extra words were required to tie up those loose ends.
With a view to compelling progress, (since everything was taking too long!), the book was released as an eBook serial on 17 May 2022. It worked. The extra content was written and the serial finished on 20 December 2022.
A second volume began during NaNoWriMo 2022. However, once again, it didn’t get as far as I wanted…
NaNoWriMo began on 1 November 2022 at 00:00:01 and finished on 30 November at midnight.
An estimated 35,000 extra words were required to tie up more loose ends.
Once more the pressure of deadlines proved productive and the second book was also released as an eBook serial.
This serial began on 14 February 2023 and finished on 31 October 2023.
As far as I was concerned at the time, the manuscript of the combined book was then complete (about 170,000 words). I tried to publish the story through a traditional publisher. However, during the presentation of the manuscript to publishers, I decided that expanding the involvement of one important character would improve the story significantly. Editing is still in progress, and the overall improvement to the story makes the small increase (about 1%) to the overall manuscript length well worthwhile!
We also send out a – sometimes daily – Writer’s Diary. Searchable archives are available here.
Paul in Snippets (about 9,800 words; written in 24 hours)
Initially, my November speed writing projects (writing 50,000 words in November) were undertaken with the former National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), but over the years, NaNoWriMo took to openly promoting political, moral and religious directions with which I could not associate. In 2022, I had learned enough of this to wish to avoid any connection with their annual challenge. NaNoWriMo is now (as of April, 2025) defunct. However, I have continued repeating the concept each year since I find it helpful.
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