Mightier Is The Pen

Christmas Cracker

Or how to write a book and get it published at Christmas, be challenged by other writers with more clout, and get lost in an avalanche or cavalcade of books not about Christmas. (Don’t get me started on “Christmas Songs” or we’ll be here all week).

My Middle-grade book, now being pitched at 10-12 year olds, features the Manchester Christmas Blitz of 1940. Not mentioned much in the big headers, in a similar way to the Clydebank Blitz, or other places such as Bristol etc.

I’m not taking away anything from the horror and tragedy of the other places bombed, nor those places in Europe bombed in return, and no-one should. Anyhow, moving on.

Ken, The Wonderful Wizard of Covers, has taken the job of packaging the stuffing within the pages and turning it into something hopefully more than just a (Christmas) Turkey.

It will mark two novels published in a single year, and will clear the decks for other projects like Only Bloody Money (now approaching completion of second draft), and War Mages (working title), which has been test read by a few folks who find it going in the right direction.

My now job is now about five weeks old, and not only taking up the day, but is poised to move into evening and weekend working as well. This has drastically cut my time to write, and with projects being near-to or even completed, the impetus to write on has been difficult to rouse consistently – especially as I have been learning the quirks of the job which is in a completely new sphere to me.

That sounds like I’m complaining – but I’m not, I’m grateful I have a job at all in these crazy times, it just hooks into that overall need to forge ahead with the time I have left to me, and so the inertia is a bit vexing. I just want to get sorted out so I can start re-organising what I’m going to do and when.

Which includes building up some excitement on this blog – hopefully! :p

Anyway, that’s it so far, have a great day Adventurers 🙂

All Quiet on the Front

Apologies to all the Adventurers for my absence from the blogosphere, I have been very busy.

A quick update then!

I have prepared another book for launch, a Middle Grade book I’m fairly happy with, just a question of putting it out for Christmas or not…most popular authors will be competing for the top spot around this time to make it into your Christmas stocking!

From my understanding, Indie’s suffer a bit due to lacking the spending power to make a good advertising campaign, so putting it out then won’t hurt or hinder me, it’s just getting all the dominoes in a row to make it happen.

In other news, I have a job!

I’m settling in, so the writing has let off some steam for now until everything is tidy and I know what I’m doing. Once that happens – it’s back to the boulder!

That’s it now Adventurers, have a good day! 🙂

Doing It Live

Just a quick update folks, the Ares Gambit is finally online, live and tidy for your perusal and purchase in E-book, Paperback or new Hardcover! 😀

If you just want to take a peek, go ahead and feel free to take a sample and decide later 🙂

Everything is fixed, sorted and tidy for your enjoyment!

Have a great day Adventurers! 🙂

Quick PSA

An attack of the Booklins^(TM) (another Arronism…) has occurred, and a formatting error with my book has been identified.

I have now corrected this, and new versions of The Ares Gambit will be available in e-book, paper and hardcover in 72-ish hours. If you’ve bought the e-book, it will update automatically.

Thanks for your patience and sincere apologies!

Have a Great day, Adventurers! 🙂

Up Down Under

It’s interesting to watch what happens after I launch a book, because when you sell a couple of copies, it’s very reassuring – but it’s also sometimes surprising.

I’ve shipped three (Edit: I just checked – four!) copies of the e-book, (not bad) and whilst two of these have been Domestic purchases (Great Britain) one of them (Edit: Correction! Make that two!) went to the ‘corner’ of the globe – Australia!

Now, I have seen some go to Germany as well, but this makes a new landmark for me, since if I was being bullish I could now claim to be not just a European author, but an international one too! Ha!

I don’t know if the customers who bought my books will read this, or if I’ll ever meet them, but thank you very much for your purchases, and I hope that the book entertains and pleases in equal measure. 🙂

And that’s all I have for now – The Ares Gambit Hardback is ‘in review’ still, but it’s chugging through the process, so maybe soon!

Have a great day Adventurers! 🙂

Adventure Awaits

The Ares Gambit is out on Kindle/Paperback now!

I use Amazon.co.uk as my main storefront, probably not the wisest move, as most marketing stuff only works for US storefront, but hey-ho, I never seem to do things the easy way!

Anyway, you can get it here (UK) or here (US)!

Have a good day Adventurers! 🙂

Going Live (Again)

Hello fellow adventurers!

Just a note to let you know that the work on The Ares Gambit has now been completed, and it has been a very long time in coming! Everyone in my acknowledgements deserves a big hand for their part in it.

Thank you of course to my family for supporting me on the journey to bash this bloody thing out, special thanks to Polly, Bob, Ian and the other usual suspects, for their hard work and making decisions easier.

Further thanks to the absolute wizard, Ken Dawson at Creative Covers, and speaking of which, heartfelt thanks to Magic Pencil, who will shortly have a website (after the many other things they’ve got to do!) for everything in the proofing, printing and positivity departments!

The Ares Gambit has been officially handed into Amazon’s care and will be live shortly in E-book and Paperback renditions. Unfortunately the Hardback is going to be delayed whilst we work out some kinks in print margins/sizing/bleed or whatever typesetters call it.

In any event – it is now here. Twenty years late, but it’s here. Somehow it won’t quite be real until it’s in my hands, but I’ll be updating the blog with the links as soon as it’s available.

There will be many more stories to come.

Have a Great Day Adventurers! 🙂

Cover Me (Part 4)

Here we go again!

Proposed Back Cover for The Ares Gambit.

Complete with blurb, although that’s not in final finished format yet, as some last minute editing has been done to make the writing tighter.

Props to my very patient and clever cover man Ken, as always. Bloody legend mate.

A quick note about him is that he used to work with Fiverr agents, but as he explained it to me, it’s a Goddamned shark pit. Steer clear and get someone reputable. I can’t say I’ve ever regretted working with Ken.

Anyway!

Have a great day Adventurers! 🙂

Cover Me (Part 3)

This is the proposed cover for my Military Sci-fi novel (some would call “Epic” since it’s over 110,000 words) The Ares Gambit.

What do you all think? Ken, over at Creative Covers is the wizard behind this, and I have some ideas for the back cover to tie everything in, but any opinions are welcome!

You can find the Cover for Children of The Glyph in his Gallery too, which contains many other striking covers and designs. It’s well worth a look for inspiration alone.

Children of The Glyph will soon (hopefully) be featured in the portfolio of the editor at Liminal Pages, too.

It feels like a long project is coming to an end, almost an era perhaps, since this book has been in the works for nearly 20 years, and that’s almost a generation!

Anyway, that’s it for now – and as always,

Have a great day, Adventurers! 🙂

Progress Report

Rapid fire one today!

Had some feedback from a man of the cloth – of all people – on my Middle Grade Low Fantasy book. It’s still under a working title, but I think I might alter it slightly to better meet reader expectation. I’ll be going forward with that and some more feedback I’ve had from the Dauntless Few (my gallery of behind the scenes helpers and test readers), in the near future.

The Ares Gambit moves closer to completion, with the initial book covers being delivered in the next couple of days.

Only Bloody Money continues to grow. Gross word count for the book has gone up by about 10,000, but net it’s only 7,500ish thanks to a lot of reformatting of wonky scenes or dumb ideas that don’t work. I estimate another couple of weeks will see it ready for test reading by anyone, or maybe even an editor-for-hire.

My Alternative History, Low Fantasy novel Magic Guns (Working Title) is being gobbled up by Beta readers. It’s sitting patiently in the queue for my attentions, but already some feedback is pinging my way, and it’s fairly positive.

The Jovian Counter has been executed.

I’ve discussed the sequel to Children of the Glyph with a couple of people, so Orphans of The Glyph is now back on the radar.

In the real world, still no job on the horizon, but I’m scrimping and saving and getting by by selling bits and bobs. it’s almost cathartic really, thinning out the toys, games and models I used to own, I’m discovering space in the house!

Still no word from any of the six Literary Agents yet to reply. 12 weeks on, so I’m considering them all a bust bar one, who reports back in October. Not long now for that one, and not holding out much hope. I may not even bother trying with any more, and ignore that route altogether.

Anyway, that’s it, hope you have a great day Adventurers! 🙂