Welcome to Today’s Chapter, the home of the writings, musings and general grumblings of Craig Anderson. I’m a Brit that lives in Canada, and I moved here via Australia, so no matter where I go people hear my bizarre accent and ask me where I’m from. I have a beautiful wife, an artistic daughter, a video game obsessed son, a cat called Sydney, and a rather stubborn Brittany Spaniel named Jasper.
I love to write humour (yes that is how they spell it where I am from!) with just a touch of depth. If I can make you laugh and then make you think, I’m on the right track. I have a soft spot for characters with hidden strength, the types that no-one thinks will amount to anything. Give me a nun-chuck wielding elf or a granny hacker any day of the week.
I’m a keen writer of short form fiction, be it Flash (typically 250 words or less), short stories (2000 words or less) or if I’m feeling ambitious a novella. I keep trying to write something longer, but I’m easily distracted. Having a house full of kids and animals will do that!
My Writing History
1990: At the ripe old age of ten, I discover that English is my favorite subject at school. I also discover that I am not a fan of Shakespeare. I particularly enjoy creative writing, because there is no ‘wrong answer’.
1994: Awarded a Certificate of Merit in the Royal Mail letter writing competition. They only gave out 3000 of these from the 375,000 entries received. The other kids in my class were understandably unimpressed.
1995: Substitute English teacher pulls me aside after class to ask about a short story I wrote. Accuses me of copying it from a book, saying the twist at the end was ‘too good’ for me to come up with on my own. I admit I added the ‘twist’ because I ran out of time and was rushing to finish my homework. Still the strangest compliment I have ever received.
1996: Start writing 1st novel. Give up days later, because it is rubbish.
2000: Decide that making money for a living would be a good idea. Go to university to study Business and Marketing, aka ‘bullshit training.’
2003: Start writing 2nd novel. Quickly becomes a thinly veiled auto-biography of my drunken antics at university. Is entertaining to approximately 3 people, one of which is me. Decide that if it is ever published it would almost certainly become ‘Exhibit A’ in a dozen lawsuits brought forth by disgruntled bartenders. Promptly delete it.
2004: Get a job as a management consultant in London, England. My extensive bullshit training becomes immensely useful. Use my creative writing skills regularly for status updates.
2006: Move to Melbourne Australia. Same as above, but with sunshine. Meet my gorgeous wife. Play up accent to sound charming & intelligent. Apparently it worked.
2008: Move to Kingston, Canada. Initially unemployed, so write 3rd novel – Project Christmas, a satirical take on the world of management consulting. Write 95% of it before getting a job.
2010: Set up Today’s Chapter as a way to share my writing with my friends and family. Last approximately 6 months before I stop posting new updates.
2012: On fourth total re-write of Project Christmas, somehow still at 95% complete. Try writing a ‘short story’ to refresh the creative juices. Accidentally write Getting Lucky, a 20k word novella.
2013: Self publish Getting Lucky. Relaunch Today’s Chapter. Commit to actually finishing Project Christmas sometime this year…
2014: Give up the pretence of ever finishing Project Christmas and write the sequel to Getting Lucky instead. Hit my one year anniversary of blogging, with consistently regular weekly posts. This shocked me more than anyone. Also had a baby, so most of what I am writing is sleep deprived dribble.
2015: Asked to contribute to two short story anthologies, becoming a #flashdog in the process. This was the first time I saw my stories in an actual printed novel. Reached the two year anniversary of writing at least one flash fiction every week (which somehow still caught me by surprise). Had another baby, so added yet more sleep depravation to add to the general exhaustion of chasing a toddler around from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
2016: Contributed three stories to the Flashdogs Time anthology, one co-written with the awesome Rebekah Postupak. Published Lucky Shot, the follow up to Getting Lucky. Also published The Colony, a sci-fi novella.
2017: Published Lucky Break, the final book in the Lucky Beggar Trilogy. Also put out my very first paperback, a collection with all three Lucky Beggar books. Published TROJAN, a techno-thriller that was also my first full length novel. Contributed short stories to two anthologies, the 12 Days of Christmas and The Infernal Clock: CalenDark. Finally took part in my very first NaNoWriMo, writing 50k words of what would become Level Up.
2018: Published Level Up, my first LitRPG and first book in the One Up series. It quickly became my bestselling book, gaining over 400 reviews with an average of 4.4 stars.
2019: Published Grow Up, the second book in the One Up series. Podium produced and released the Level Up audiobook, with the excellent Peter Noble narrating.
2020: Podium produced and released the Grow Up audiobook, narrated by the super talented Kevin Kemp.
2022: Released Max Luck, the start a whole new series. Also (finally!) released Power Up, the third book in the One Up series.
2024: Podium produced and released the Power Up audiobook, narrated once more by the fantastic Kevin Kemp. It clocks in at a whopping 26+ hours!