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 …
Tag Archives: fantasy
Ping! Done!
It’s a microwave baked novel. Storm Trooper, a novel about a WW1 soldier who is also a magic user has been completed to first draft at 61k. I’ll be taking a break from it for a while, and will be going back at it in about a fortnight, to re-trim and polish it to what …
Lost and Found
I’ve noticed a few Adventurers have gone their separate ways from the blog – I wish them luck on their travels and endeavours, and thank them for stopping by and sharing the fire on occasion. May your paths be straight, the road be firm and your burdens light. 🙂 When I first started this blog, …
Three Pronged Reproach
Some news from the boulderline! With a little guidance from my editor and valuable feedback from my test readers and the wonderfully eagle-eyed Copyediting and Proofreading by Polly at Magic Pencil, my Middle-Grade Historical Fantasy was polished up enough for me to send it out to three agents looking for that type of work. I’d …
Benchmark
Well, the report has come back from the editor and it’s a doozy, as our cousins across the pond would say. Very drastic rewrite is needed, with the intended market not being right for how I’ve pitched it – it’s still a historical fantasy, but the Editor has determined that there are two books in …
A Loss For Words
As authors we are constantly thinking about word count. We want more, always more, and so do Publishers, as they will often specify a word count in their application process – some ones I have seen will take no less than 80,000 which does qualify as full novel length according to some metrics. So it …
The Unsung Hero’s Journey
We’re going to get into the meat of this fast. This has been on my mind as I consider several different series of books, including my own. I got to thinking that Sean Egan, my protagonist, is the hero of his story right? Yet he’s not alone. He has friends – some of them are …
Free Reads!
Just a quick reminder and notification my three novellas are now up for grabs in the Kindle Store on Amazon: Wings of Azhov, Warlord of Azhov and Tides of Azhov. These are the US links, but I am sure you’ll find your way to the respective countries if you’re interested. They’re Life on Mars (the …
What Time Is It?
Now I may wear a polo-neck and artistically recline on my Chaises-Longues, but this is not Marcel Proust and any kind of Research into Temps perdu. This is, instead, generally my reaction when I look up from the keyboard and realise that it’s gone dark outside and I have the evening chores to do, but …
Mightier Is The Pen 