Marc Nobbs: Blog

I thought I’d offer a quick update on my progress with the final edit of A Loving Light, since I promised a couple of weeks ago to keep you all in the loop.
I’m happy to report that I’m just about halfway through the manuscript, having started chapter 15 of 29.
My objective with this pass is threefold. First, I’m picking up any obvious errors. I type very quickly, but not always entirely accurately, so a thorough proofread is essential. I find the combination of Word’s built-in editor, Grammarly and AI tools quite effective. What one misses, the others may well catch.
The AI tools are particularly good at detecting context. I’m using a combination of Gemini Pro, ChatGPT and Claude, and they’ll often flag a sentence fragment while also recognising that it works in context. Grammarly and Word’s editor are more likely to simply underline it as a potential error.
As always, though, I don’t simply accept every suggested correction. Authorial judgement and voice have to take precedence. One example came in chapter 12, where Paul makes a snarky aside about a character’s ‘perfect eyebrows’ and wonders how she got them so perfect. Claude flagged it as disrupting the flow, but it’s exactly the kind of aside Paul always makes. It gives him a voice, so it stays.
The second objective is to look at what needs tightening or expansion. This is where the AI tools really come into their own, because they assess the scene as a whole and can suggest whether something is overwritten, or where there may be an opportunity to add a small character reaction that would enhance the moment.
I’ve instructed the chats not to make sweeping changes, but instead to offer suggestions along the lines of:
“The description of jetlag is appropriate, but might go into too much detail about the logistics of the travel. Consider cutting the number of references to the time in the two different zones and concentrating instead on the feeling of disorientation.”
That kind of advice is genuinely useful.
The third thing I’m looking at is narrative and character progression. Does each scene serve a purpose? What is that purpose? Every scene needs either to move the plot forward or develop character—ideally, both. Some bridge scenes are necessary simply to carry the story from one point to another, but even those need to justify their place in the book.
Again, the AI tools are useful here because part of my instruction to them is to analyse exactly that: what a scene is doing, whether it advances the plot, and what it reveals about the characters.
So, in summary, I’m making good progress. I’m still not willing to put a timescale on the release, but the book is moving steadily in the right direction.
As things stand, the release plan is similar to that of A Healing Love. The eBook will come first, then the story will post to Ream Stories for paid subscribers, and finally, it will make its way to SOL.

On 20th December last year, I shared a post explaining that I had decided to split the ‘final’ book in The Paul Robertson Saga into two parts, and that I considered Book 5: A Loving Light to be a complete first draft—ready for editing and refinement before publication.

And that was the last time you heard from me. It’s been nearly three months.

If you’ve been wondering what happened to the updates, the short answer is: I’ve been busy writing.

At around 145,000 words, A Loving Light brings to a close the journey that began with Paul in A Good Man. By the end of that story, he has found peace within himself, we discover who his life partner will be, and he becomes ‘Version 1.0’ of the man he will ultimately grow into—the man we glimpse in the various prologues set in 2048.

But while writing it, I realised something important.

The story wasn’t finished.

During A Loving Light, I had created several plot threads that clearly needed to be followed through to their conclusion. My original plan had been to resolve them within the same book, but eventually it became obvious that these threads were not really part of the journey Paul began in A Good Man.

They are a different story.

And, in many ways, they are not really Paul’s story.

Paul himself acknowledges this in the prologue to the next book, We Hear You. He says:

“What follows from here isn’t my story. Not really.
It’s theirs. The people whose lives we affected.
I provided the stage, Lana was the ethical and moral spine, Carly held the microphone, and Marcus amplified her voice beyond what we ever dreamed was possible. But the story—the movement—belongs to the young people around the world who embraced it.
But I was there. I witnessed it from the wings. And it’s a story that deserves to be shared.
So I’ll do my best to do it justice.”

So over the past three months, instead of editing A Loving Light, I’ve been doing something else entirely.

I’ve been writing the first draft of We Hear You.

And as of today… I think that first draft is now complete as well.

Or at least, complete enough.

The chapter I finished earlier today feels like a natural pause in the story—a place to stop for a moment, reflect, and take a breath before continuing. There is still a lot more story to tell, but after roughly 160,000 words, it felt like the right place to stop.

Which means that I now have two first drafts to edit and refine.

And, of course, I still need to write what was originally intended to be Book 7.

Although I’m starting to wonder if We Hear You is really the sixth book in The Paul Robertson Saga… or if it’s actually the first book in a new saga that Paul simply continues to narrate.

One thing I can say for certain is that I’ve genuinely enjoyed writing We Hear You. It has involved a lot of research—and I’ve learned a great deal along the way. Hopefully, that learning and the depth of the research will come through in the story.

But I suppose I’ll have to wait and find that out.

So what happens now?

Well, it’s definitely time to get on with the editing of A Loving Light. But I’ll also continue working on what comes next—whether that turns out to be Book 7… or Book 2 of something new.

I’ll try to be a little more regular with these updates going forward.

But I’m sure you know how it is.

When the words are flowing, and the plot ideas keep coming, you don’t really want to stop and spend half an hour writing a blog post.

You just want to get on with writing the damn book.

Firstly, I know that I've got a bunch of messages on here that I haven't responded to, and I apologise to everyone for that. I have read all the messages, but I just haven't had the time to reply. I will try to get to them this weekend.

So, moving forward, I want to say a public thank you to all who read my draft of A Loving Light and provided the feedback I needed to make a decision. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your opinion.

And as a result of all the feedback, I’ve made the decision I needed to make, and I’m making it with confidence.

And I can now announce two things.

1) The first draft of A Loving Light is now complete. Over the Christmas break and into the New Year, I will begin working on editing it, polishing it into a diamond I can release to the public. That typically takes a couple of months, so you can anticipate the release of the book towards the end of the first quarter of 2026.

2) There will be a sixth book in the Paul Robertson series.

Paul’s “Journey” is complete as of the end of A Loving Light. I believe it’s a satisfying conclusion to the main story. But there is a compelling continuing story I want to tell after that final moment in the book, and I will tell it in a sixth book. I’ve already written 50,000 words of the sixth book, so it’s proceeding well.

I had originally intended for this “extra” story to be like an extended epilogue, but there is simply too much story to tell for that, so after seeking the opinion of some actual readers, I have decided to make it into its own, separate book. And I’m happy with that decision.

Many thanks to those who responded to my request for a volunteer. From the responses to the specific question I asked, I think I have a clearer idea of what I want to do.

I'll post an update on that in the coming days/weeks.

I'm looking for a volunteer to read an unfinished, very rough, unpolished manuscript, in order to answer one question that I have about it. The manuscript is almost 170,000 words, and you will need to be familiar with the four existing books in the Paul Robertson Saga.

I'm not looking for an editor or 'beta-reader' per se - I just have one very specific question that I want someone else's opinion on.

Drop me a DM if this is something you're interested in helping with. Thanks.