📈 Milestone Milestones, a Title Winner, and My Empty Manuscript Vault!
This month, I am hoping to hit a few massive milestones that, quite frankly, I find completely unbelievable.
First up, this very blog is just a handful of clicks away from hitting 20,000 views. This week's article marks my seventy-second post. For a little while, I actually left Blogger to try running my own independent website, and if I were to add the traffic from that platform into the mix, we would have surpassed this total ages ago. But Blogger has served me incredibly well, and for the foreseeable future, it will remain the official home of Swimming Upstream. It might not be the most complex blogging platform out there, but it’s simple enough for me to navigate and it brings in the readers. That is all I can ask for at this stage, so thank you!
Second, over on Amazon, An Irish Mystery is just short of hitting 10,000 total page reads on Kindle Unlimited, with nearly 8,000 of those reads happening this year alone. Just like with the blog, I originally pulled my books off Kindle Unlimited for about three months to try "going wide" on other eBook platforms, but that didn't really work out for me. The moment I returned to the Amazon ecosystem, the page reads started flying in. I was incredibly glad to be back.
🏆 We Have a Winner!
Last week, I asked you all to vote on your favourite title for Book 3, and the results are officially in.
The undisputed crowd favourite was AN ATLANTIC SHADOW. I am absolutely thrilled with the choice. It perfectly rounds out the trilogy's naming convention:
- An Irish Mystery (Book 1)
- An American Treasure (Book 2)
- An Atlantic Shadow (Book 3)
The latest edition of the Newman Adventure series is officially locked in.
🇩🇪 Living in the Weimar Republic
While Book 3 is moving into its next phase, my brain has been completely engrossed in writing my new historical fiction project set in the 1932 Weimar Republic. I have so many grand plans for this book. At the moment, I don’t know if it will ultimately be a stand-alone novel or the start of a brand-new series—only time will tell. Sometimes you just need to get the story into the hands of readers first to know if a second installment is warranted.
Even though I am still typing away, I’ve already designed the paperback book cover, the audiobook cover, and matching bookmarks for this project, and I absolutely love how they look! The title alone is something I think will deeply intrigue anyone who loves reading fiction from that era.
Because I am a textbook "Pantser" writer, the official blurb will have to wait until the manuscript is finished. I don't even know exactly where the plot is going yet! I just write one chapter at a time, finish it, and then think: Right, where can I take this now?
Right now, the story is in a phase where there is so much going on, secrets, lies, backstabbing, brutality, and political corruption. The characters are leading me down a path where three completely separate plotlines are getting ready to collide. It has been incredibly exciting to write; every single free minute I get, I am at my screen trying to drum out a word or two.
🧭 What’s Next for Cedric and Daniela?
I will be getting back in contact with Peter over at bespokebookcovers.co.uk. He did such a wonderful, professional job designing the covers for Books 1 and 2, and I cannot wait to see what visual magic he comes up with for An Atlantic Shadow.
I don’t have an exact launch date locked down just yet, but I am aiming to have it out by late 2026. The manuscript will be heading out to my ARC readers very soon to check for any narrative plot holes, or those repetitive words and emotions that I am quite gifted at accidentally overusing! The high-stakes search for La Voiture Noire is officially on.
🗄️ Emptying the Vault
As a writer, my head is constantly swimming with random ideas, and I have quite a few stories tucked away in my cloud memory that were written years ago and left to gather digital dust.
For instance, I have three completed children’s books all about roller hockey—the very sport I coach and that my son plays. The main hurdle there is that they need professional illustrating and editing before they can see the light of day, so for now, they just sit there. I also have a 30,000-word fantasy novella that I wrote years ago. It’s the one book my friends and family constantly plague me to release, but fantasy isn’t really my personal thing, so I’ve always worried it isn’t good enough.
But that is the absolute joy of writing. You just write what you feel like writing at the time. My current plan is that once An Atlantic Shadow is published, I will look into releasing this grim Weimar Republic book, and then hopefully by next year, we can start talking about Book 4 of the Newman Adventure series.
When Book 3 drops later this year, it means I will officially be "out of stock." What do I mean by that? Well, I’ve had a bit of a safety cushion up until now. An Irish Mystery was released in May 2025, but it was originally written back in 2020. An American Treasure was drafted in 2022, and Book 3 was written between 2022 and 2023.
Once Book 3 is published, every single completed book I have will be out in the world. I did start writing Book 4 in late 2024, but it took a massive back seat when Book 1 launched because all my energy went into marketing and formatting. It’s currently sitting at about 45,000 words, but I am going to have to re-read the entire thing from the beginning just to remember where on earth I was going with the plot!
💬 Over to You!
As I look toward the future of the Newman Adventure series and plan out where Cedric, Daniela, and Hans will go next, I want to ask my readers: Is there a particular historical era you would love me to explore, or a famous lost treasure you think the team should hunt for in Book 5? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
📚 What I’m Reading...
Celtic Empire by Clive Cussler (with Dirk Cussler)
I love Clive Cussler books, and this one hasn't disapointed either. I am slowly getting my way through Celtic Empire, but most of my free time has been spent on writing. Once I am in the grove with writing a book all my spare time is fixated on that story. But I am desperate to find out where the mystery goes next. I need to just get some time to finish this book, especially as I have just brought 2 new paperbacks.
Enjoyed the ride? 📖
I balance my writing life with a full-time day job, which means covers, research, and advertising all come out of my own pocket. If you’d like to see these books reach more readers—and help me stay caffeinated while I write them—you can support my work here. Your help keeps the "Stream" flowing and the books coming.
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📚 The Newman Adventures
An Irish Mystery A fast-paced historical adventure about stolen treasures, hidden histories, and the cost of obsession. The story that started it all.
An American Treasure The journey continues! Cedric Newman returns in a high-stakes hunt for the lost riches of Mosby's Rangers. Action, mystery, and a new enemy await.
Available in Ebook, Kindle Unlimited, Paperback & Hardcover
📱 Let’s Connect
You can also find me on Instagram, Bluesky, X, and Facebook, where I share writing updates, research snippets, and behind-the-scenes moments from the school building and the writing desk.
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