Mightier Is The Pen

Navel Grazing

“Time and Tide wait for no man.”
Ancient observation.

Yet here I am, dawdling in the doldrums, whilst the surf of life smashes shale into granules of sand.

I’ll wager you didn’t expect me to be waxing lyrical this early, but I’m in the mood for bloody awful poetry as I wade through the tide that is Writers Inertia.

I’m in that tight period between things, I’ve printed the proofs of The Ares Gambit and they’ve gone out to test readers, and my friends over at Magic Pencil are working through Only Bloody Money and it will seem, to my fellow adventurers at least, I am not working on anything else.

Oh, but I am. Or at least I tell myself that.

Building a book is like forging a sword, or to put it in a more relatable experience, building a house. You can pass that house a lot and it will seem like very little is done – the foundations are in, then maybe a few of the walls and the scaffolding goes up and stays up and a few more bricks are laid. Nothing seems to happen for ages; then suddenly, you have new neighbours.

That’s how it’s going so far, except I’m dabbling with a housing estate, I have several projects I want to tackle but am butterflying on all of them, because I don’t know if I want to take them on. The most recent things are not finished – at all, but I leave them to breathe because that’s the way I work. And so, we have this irritating period of inertia.

Time and tide.

But there’s never enough time and too much tide.

Don’t get swept away, have a great day Adventurers! 🙂

Re-View

A big thanks to my recent reviewer of Children of The Glyph for a stonking report!

I would like there to be more, but for some reason Amazon isn’t allowing some people to leave reviews, and I know that for a fact because I’ve had very disappointed people let me know. I’ve looked at Amazon’s terms and conditions for this sort of thing, and the community page, but the answers vary wildly.

So I emailed Amazon themselves and the reply I got back was unintelligible gibberish about my account not be a trade one. I have no idea where this would enter into it, so I’m left baffled.

Still, I know my reader have enjoyed the book, so it doesn’t matter – but thanks to everyone who tried or managed to get a review down, thanks to anyone and everyone for your continued support, from purchasers to bloggers who read my wayward drivel, I’m grateful for it all.

Now go forth and multiply – thy reading pile!

Have a great day Adventurers 🙂

Proof’s In The Reading

So there it is. Twenty years later and it’s actually a book of sorts. The Ares Gambit started life as something totally different, but this, I think was the way it was always meant to be. Perhaps a diamond in the rough, polished and cut, into this.

It’s not fully finished yet, just like everything I suppose, nothing is ever perfect or good enough – we are our own worst critics, yes? There comes a time though when an author says, “this is good enough” and it has to be sent away, out into the big, wide world. It’s nearly ready and I’m feeling relatively confident about it.

If the cover looks familiar, it’s because I use the same image over and over for my proofing books – why waste a good thing, right? That and even though it’s not part of the same series as Children of The Glyph, it should all look nice on the “proofing shelf”.

It feels good to have it even as this, since the biggest fear any author has is that there’s never enough time. Only a bit of proofing and it can go to final print and I have to find a cover artist…

I just hope it’s good!

Have a great day Adventurers! 🙂

Let’s Get Critical

“There is no defense against criticism except obscurity.”
Joseph Addison

A lot of what we call feedback is actually constructive criticism. Any writer is going to get this, but I recently received some and I’m not sure if it’s just petty. Now, I am aware that my proofreading isn’t the best – I occasionally leave in typos or all kind of things, where I’ve quickly written something and then altered it for something I consider better.

I’m guilty of that. I read back over Children of the Glyph and I can see there are still a few pips in there I should have sieved out – now that is not the fault of my Proofreader, it is my fault, because I’m an Indie Author and the buck stops with me. It isn’t helped that I keep changing things. Truth be told it drives Magic Pencil absolutely nuts, and they shout at me.

I can’t help it – it’s how I am.

Anyway…criticism.

I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of it, most of my life actually, and I can tell the difference between the good stuff (feedback) and the crap, and so the point of my post is really this:

If you’re going to critique something, make it clear you mean to help – then even if you’re heavy-handed, sometimes like me, it is obvious you mean no harm and your objective is encouragement. Sometimes, you need a bit of tough love as well, but that’s for another post.

If you’re receiving criticism, make it clear you’ve heard it and then evaluate it against your own experience. If it’s criticism of a type never said to you before, take a very good look at it, because you may have missed something, but this is important – do not let it put you off. Persevere. You are allowed to ask them what they meant, if you need more clarity and you judge the criticism worth investigating. This will come with experience.

It is all a question of scale, too. Criticism of a quick and dirty forum post, or even a blog like this, does not stack up against that of an editor, tearing your arse off because you used the word “acrid” forty-seven times on the same page.

Take all criticism on the chin and evaluate it. That is your duty as a writer.

Then make a character out of your critic and kill them painfully in your next story. That’s your reward as a writer for putting up with it (as well as a spell on the chaises-longues). Trust me, I’ve killed a guy fifteen times now and it never gets old, that warm fuzzy feeling is very cathartic.

Anyway, vented my spleen and the waters are calm again, so I guess it’s back to the boulder!

Have a great day adventurers! 🙂

Two-For-One!

One for sorrow, Two for mirth, Three for a funeral, And four for a birth…
John Brand’s Observations on Popular Antiquities in Lincolnshire (Circa 1780, the first recorded iteration of the ‘Magpies’ nursery rhyme).

Another day, another blog post and this one is a (fast) doozy.

Finished the first draft of Only Bloody Money and it has gone off to Magic Pencil, my Proofreading service.

I’ve also uploaded the third draft of The Ares Gambit to Amazon Kindle Publishing and had a free ISBN from them. This scuppers my chances with an agent for it, but that’s not a concern at the moment, because it’s full steam ahead and my other work can go to a bigger agent pool – the number of agents for Military Sci-Fi is small, so the Crime Fiction market is better poised to help me. If what I write is any good of course.

I’ve ordered a couple of proof copies to read through and pass out to my test readers, so we’ll see how it goes. I’ve births and deaths and many things to plot before this boulder goes uphill…

That’s it for today, have a great one, Adventurers! 🙂

Bouldering.

The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
Confucius – all round clever chap.

This blog now has 80 Adventurers! Isn’t that something? 🙂 Welcome new travellers, I hope that you find something you like within these unruly mutterings!

Thank you to everyone who keeps reading and liking, it’s helping all the time. So what is today’s brainwave? Not much really – Only Bloody Money is approaching completion of first draft, but I’ve been away from the boulder for a couple of days and have even managed to recline on a real chaises-longues! What extravagance!

Do not worry, I am back to plotting the clear-up and leaving the way clear for a sequel. I am unsure if there will be one, but I like a little bit of a cliffhanger, so we will see. I’m still baffled by the amount of bodies on the floor – I think we’re up to seventeen.

That’s the lowest ever! Perhaps I’m losing my touch… 😮

I’m being teased that I should explore another genre as well, but I don’t know if I have the flair for it, but that is for another post. Just wanted to keep you all updated.

Have a great day, Adventurers! 🙂

Nearly done!

Hammered out a goodly few words for Only Bloody Money. It’s now at 50k and rising, so it’s well on track to hit 55-60k, which will, on second revision work up to about 70-90k.

We’ve just had the climax and now it’s just a bit of mop up and the epilogue. The end was good and tied things loosely, but it’s not quite over yet.

I’ve kept the POV’s tight in this one, I think I have about three – as opposed to my large casts I prefer in my other books, where I think I max out at about eight to ten. I struggle with POV discipline a little because there’s usually so much happening in my Sci-Fi plots that I need the large crew – a lot of world building exists in those books too, so to make it relatable we need eyes into the view since I steer well away from third-person omniscient, ever since my editor tore my arse off for it. (I always make my editors sound harsh, but they’re really not 🙂 )

So, it’s planning the next bit and maybe returning to another Sci-Fi project whilst OBM gets the overview from a second pair of eyes (only when it’s finished!) and see what happens then.

Back to the boulder – hope you have a great day Adventurers! 🙂

Thanks!

This was going to be a huge ramble, but I thought coming to the point and adding an update would be less gruelling for my fellow Adventurers!

Thank you to whoever bought my book (Children of The Glyph) in the past few days – I really appreciate it and I am always grateful to the people who have done so in the past – they provide me with validation and recognition and we writers all crave that 😉

In other news progress on my Crime-Thriller progresses apace (although probably doomed it now, but I digress) as we hit 40k. I think we’ll probably terminate about 45-50k which is 10k shorter than I wanted, but Only Bloody Money will be the length it wants to be for first draft, and then will probably go up to 70-80k which is perfect for the genre.

When I started it, it was quite reminiscent of Jack Higgins, because that’s the way I wrote those kind of things – if I could pin it down into “High-Concept” I would say it’s now the British version of Person of Interest, with the odd bit of Taken and a good dose of Push Nevada, a highly underrated short series written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

I’m enjoying the story, even if not wholly enjoying cranking the thing out, but we’re into the final stages now, so it should work out OK.

So back to the boulder for me and thanks again, to every Adventurer, purchaser, patter-on-the-backer, friend and confident I have. Without you all I wouldn’t have people to bore on the internet! 😀

Have a great day Adventurers! 🙂

Crash Out

On the anniversary of this blog of all days!

I had to leave twitter for reasons I won’t go into, but I thought I’d pop up a quick message for anyone who catches me here to let them know I didn’t want to leave, but there were several issues that made the decision for me and none of them comfortable.

One huge reason, is that I’m not really getting much traffic from Twitter to this blog. I’ve commented on this many times here and really all I’m driving is a few tweets into the ether. I added a few agents and editors to my list, but after all I’m going to have to do this a different way.

I’m going to concentrate on forming a website where I can interact with you all if you did follow me on twitter, please don’t hesitate to stop by and read my (longer) thoughts!

I’m really sorry to everyone I interacted with, understand your frustration and disappointment, and hope that I can reconnect soon. I’d like to thank anyone that followed, promoted or retweeted me.

I’m really sorry again.

Other than that, have a good day Adventurers! 🙂

Networthking

A quick hello to a handful of new adventurers to the blog – I welcome you! Pull up a chair and huddle round the campfire, for the stars are out, the moon hangs in the night like a silver coin and the toll is paid for tales of danger, derring-do and shenanigans!

Another apology I’m afraid – I’ve been chopsing on Twitter and trying to get sorted out with editors, agents and fellow ramblers like your truly in order to get a handle on how proceed.

I’m a little dismayed about it, because I can check my stats on the blog and it gets very little traffic from twitter, which does and does not surprise me. It’s a bit of a microcosm (or should that be macrocosm..?) I think because replying is fast and easy and pithy sentiments go down well.

Now I’ve said this before – my blog is my preferred channel to connect to my audience, because I get room to discuss things, but I’m trying to get the “Author Platform” together for Querying agents, but I’m seeing a lot of rejections from what seem to be solid projects.

I’m not an agent or marketing expert (just one of those glib, tuppence-ha’penny indie authors, dont-cha-know, what-what) but when award winning journalists (a friend of mine) and historical fiction authors with a Degree in the Georgian Era are getting shot down in favour of what was deemed “high-concept” I set my jaw squarely and wonder if it’s worth the effort.

“Now, hang on old boy,” you might say, “didn’t you mention platform?”

Good question. I sure did.

In a marketing book I purchased, there is the example of several authors who have no social media interaction at all. They literally just bang out books and reel in the cash, (writers making money? Only the best and the dead!) and don’t do the followers or adventurers thing.

I have it on good authority that some UK domestic agents who have a US arm will not pick you up if your profile in the States isn’t worth it. Furthermore I saw one agent on Twitter admit they had too many Queries that were too short and some too long.

Now, there may be guidelines on their website about this, but too short? That’s the definition of high concept. Here’s an example of what that is:

Tom Cruise in a fighter jet.
High concept pitch for “Top Gun” (1984)

Tom Cruise in a race car.
High concept pitch for “Days of Thunder”

You see what I’m driving at? I have a high concept pitch for Children of The Glyph, wanna hear it? Of course you do!

Welsh psychos fight evil with machine guns and jetpacks.
Arron Owen, “Terrible f**king writer award 2020”

I don’t think Tom Cruise will improve it. However, Asa Butterfield, if you’re not busy, I have a role for you.

So what do you think, fellow adventurers? Is the Networking, Worth and Working? Let me know – and as always:

Have a great day. 🙂