Guest post: The Making of a ‘Good’ Villain by TJ Perkins

Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of villains, is brought to you by Y.A. fantasy, mystery novelist, guest blogger and interviewee TJ Perkins.

The Making of a ‘Good’ Villain

It is said that in order to create really great characters that your readers care about you must absorb yourself into their psyche; you must take a part of your own personality and place it into ‘them.’  I’m sure many of you have done that – think back – go on…ahhhh, so you remember how that damsel in distress was a part of you when you were going through a tough time, or how the great warrior in your latest fantasy novel resembled your thoughts and feelings on a matter.  This is all great and wonderful for the good guys in a story, but what about the bad guys?

The same holds true for the villains – yes, the author’s darker side.  Sure, everyone wants to see the hero triumph, but in order for that to happen you have to have a really good bad guy, someone that will challenge your hero, someone who will throw out all the obstacles that he can to make the hero really struggle.  But to love the hero one must also love the villain.

It’ll take an exceptional villain, one with much evil, dastardly doings and underhandedness to capture your reader’s hearts.  He or she will have to pull out all the stops and really be nasty to the hero, doing all they can to destroy him and thwart the whole saving the world thing.  But how do you do that?

Unfortunately, my friend, you’re going to have to get evil.  Yes, that’s what I said.  You need to think mean and nasty, and allow the dark corners of your demented mind (and yes, I know you have them) to trickle out.  You have to actually draw out from your being all the demented, twisted ideals from the very fabric of your soul and entwine these ideals throughout the story.  The villain will challenge the hero from the very beginning and the storyline must have a balanced roller-coaster ride of really bad stuff happening, then a lull, then more bad stuff happening.  All of which the villain is instigating.

If you’re having trouble coming up with great ideas for the bad guy to do to the good guy think of opposites.  Example:  In a store line someone may allow another person to cut in line.  What’s the opposite?  What mean thing could be done?  I’ve found a lot of negative, dastardly stuff in cartoon movies, anime, or even by watching some of the best villains in current HBO shows.

There are actually a lot of great ideas out there, you just have to look.  Once you find them you must embrace the dark side, allow your villain to be the most evil, scheming, conniving villain he/she can be, and make your readers love to hate him/her.  Give them a twisted since of humor.  Make them sarcastic.  Make them a complete asshole.  The choice is up to you.

Go, now, and create.  Enjoy the dastardly events that will make your hero miserable and the reader cheer, yet cry, when you villain is defeated.

Happy Writing!

That was great, thank you, TJ. Great to have you back.

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TJ Perkins is an award-winning author of the mystery / suspense genre. Her writing style has been compared to that of Mildred Wirt Benson A.K.A. Carolyn Keen (Nancy Drew).  Mystery books for ages 8-14 are Mystery of the Attic, On Forbidden Ground, Wound Too Tight and the first 5 books in the Kim & Kelly Mystery Series.

TJ has recently expanded into the world of fantasy for teens. Publisher Silver Leaf Books has contracted to release Shadow Legacy, a 5-book series of fantasy.  The first installment of this new exciting series, Art of the Ninja: Earth, is an award-winner and has been classified by readers and reviewers as a cross-genre of fantasy/manga.

TJ lives in Baltimore, MD with her 2 cats and an imagination that’s bursting at the seams.

You can read sample pages of TJ’s writing (www.authorsden.com/tjperkins), see the book trailer (www.silverleafbooks.com), check out TJ’s blog, follower her on Twitter, friend / like her on Facebook and find her books at Goodreads (all her books are available on Kindle, Nook, iPad – just look them up by TJ Perkins).

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If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.

The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with non-fiction author Yves Johnson – the six hundred and ninth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.

***

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words), or posted for others to critique (up to 5,000 words) on the new Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my Red Pen Critique posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry and Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group.

 

Guest post: The Slow Blog Manifesto: 7 Reasons for New Authors to Blog Slowly by Anne R. Allen

Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of blogging, is brought to you by mystery author Anne R Allen.

The Slow Blog Manifesto: 7 Reasons for New Authors to Blog Slowly

I’ve loved Morgen’s blog ever since I ran across it by clicking on a Facebook link to one of her great interviews—and I was so pleased when I saw both our blogs were named in Tribal Nation Daily’s “50 Top Blogs for Authors” last September.

But I’m the opposite kind of blogger from hard-working Morgen. I’m a slacker, Slow Blogger. I only blog once a week. Well, actually twice a month, because I have a blog partner who takes over duties every fourth Sunday, and we usually host a guest blogger once a month as well.

I didn’t start out to be a Slow Blogger. When I began, I was simply too busy bloodying my knuckles on the doors of the publishing industry to have time to post more than once a week. I hadn’t even heard of the Slow Blog Manifesto.

But it was pointed out to me by one of my readers after I whined about the pressure to blog daily. The Manifesto gave me permission to continue my slacker ways and concentrate on writing books.

Thanks to that decision, I just launched my seventh book in fourteen months—twelfth if you count anthologies and singles. (And no. I don’t intend to keep up that pace. I’m about to take a doctor–ordered much-needed vacation.)

But I don’t like to see new authors being told they MUST blog every day.

Yes, if you’re trying to establish a big platform quickly the way Morgen has, blogging more often is a must. This is a true “destination blog” you can spend hours reading.

But a Slow Blog can establish a solid web presence and strong platform for an author if you keep at it. You just need a little more patience. I spent my first year getting maybe 17 hits a post, but three and a half years later, I get 7000.

Okay, so what is the Slow Blog Manifesto?

It’s an essay written in 2006 by Canadian software designer Todd Sieling at the height of the everybody-must-get-a-blog frenzy. Slow Blogging is modeled on the “slow food” movement (the opposite of McBurgerish “fast food.”) The point is quality over quantity.

Todd wrote: “Slow Blogging is the re-establishment of the machine as the agent of human expression, rather than its whip and container. It’s the voluntary halting of the light-speed hamster wheel dictated in rules of highly effective blogging.”

He urged people to write a few thoughtful posts per month rather than daily blabber. A number of influential journalists, technicians, and academics joined his movement. It built steam until mid-2008, when it merited an article in theNew York Times.

It’s a principle that’s caught on. I see a lot of publishing industry bloggers cutting back on their number of posts—even uberbloggers like Nathan Bransford, Joe Konrath and Jane Friedman.

But unfortunately, not everybody has got the message. The standard advice to new authors is still to blog at least three days a week.

This is because the search engines pick you up faster if you blog more often.

But here’s the thing: Search engines aren’t the biggest factor in driving most writers’ blog traffic.  Out of the nearly 30,000 hits our blog got last month, only about 1500 came from Google searches. Most of our traffic comes from “word of mouth” on Twitter, Facebook, the Kindleboards and other blogs.

I think new authors, especially, need to limit their distractions. Plenty of successful authors don’t blog at all.

However, I do recommend it.  A blog is more dynamic than a static website (and free) and it’s a great way to interact with readers and fellow writers. It’s not a great sales tool, especially when you’re starting out, but it’s useful as an Internet home where people can come and visit.

But most people are too busy to come calling every day.

In order to get a readership in this saturated blogosphere, we should be stressing quality over quantity. Nobody I know is starved for blogposts to read.

If you don’t have a blog yet, or blogging has taken over your life—not in a good way—do consider the slow blog route

Here are some reasons a slow blog might even be better than a daily one for the beginning author:

1) A slow blog has a longer life-span.

The average life span of a blog is three years. But you want your writing career to last longer than three years, don’t you? A neglected blog hanging in cyberspace is worse than none.

So you’ve got to plan a blog that’s going to beat the odds. A slow blog is more likely to do that.

2) You reach more people by commenting on other people’s blogs than by madly posting on a new blog nobody reads.

Author / publisher / social media guru Bob Mayer pointed out on his blog: “One of the best networking tools is to go to people’s blogs and leave cogent comments.”

Think of it this way: would you reach more people by sitting in your basement making a thousand signs, or by making one sign and taking it to a place where tons of people hang out?

Use your blogging time to visit other blogs and make friends, and only post on your own blog when you have something to say. Then your new blogfriends will seek you out.

3) Busy people are less likely to subscribe / follow a blog that’s going to clutter their email inbox / rss feed every day.  I sure won’t. I don’t read ANYBODY’S blog every day. I’d be so glad if they’d only send notifications of the good posts. Or—even better—only write the good ones. (Which, um, is called “slow blogging.”)

When you write mostly good posts, people will know a visit to your blog is a valuable use of their time and they’ll spread the word. Then maybe an agent or publisher will visit and like it so much they’ll ask you to send them a novel. That’s what happened to me

4) Everybody has bad days. When you have to think of something to say on the day you got that nasty / clueless review / rejection, your emotions could leak out.

On the day you vent about how all agents are spawns of Satan, you might have a visit from a wonderful agent who loved your query and was about to ask for pages. Oops.

5) Nobody can come up with that many interesting posts.

When you slow blog and you don’t have anything to say, you don’t have to say it.

6) Writing nonfiction—which is what you should be writing on your blog—uses a different part of your brain from fiction.

When you’re on a roll with a novel and have to stop to write something perspicacious on the subject of sentence structure, you can stop that flow dead. It can take weeks to get back into the novel—as your left brain takes over and you start organizing the paper clips in your drawer by color and alphabetizing your collection of how-to-write books.

7) Making time to blog every day is incredibly difficult, so you’ll constantly feel guilty. When you feel guilty you eat / drink / smoke too much and then feel guilty about that too.

See where this is going…?

The late, great pseudonyminous agent, Miss Snark was a fan of slow blogging. In spite of all the pressure to “build platform,” she advised new writers to always put their writing first: “Your job is to write…
…There’s a lot to be said for sitting down with your ownself and writing. Nothing, literally NOTHING replaces that. Focus. You’re wasting time.”

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Morgen: 30,000 hits a month… wow. When I started my blog (March 2011 so I have a year to go before the three-year bell rings!) it was recommended to blog once a week minimum. Little did I know how many guests I’d have and you’re right, it takes up most of my life, more of my writing time than I would like and I’m cutting down on the interviews in July (from seven to five a week!) but then I’m replacing the two ‘missing’ interviews with author spotlights. Blogging is a marketing tool and whilst writers have to market themselves, I wouldn’t recommend them going to the extreme I have… unless you’ve done what I’ve done and swapped the day job for two lodgers. Thank you again, Anne.

Anne R. Allen is the author of six romantic-comedy mysteries published by Mark Williams international Digital Publishing. Her newest is No Place Like Home.

Right now, her previous Camilla Randall mystery, SHERWOOD, LTD is free on Kobo and Smashwords. It is also available in paperback from Amazon. It’s inspired by Anne’s own mis-adventures with her first publishers, an outlaw band of Englishmen following their own self-styled Robin Hood.

Anne has also written a guidebook for authors with Catherine Ryan Hyde (author of the iconic novel Pay it Forward.) How to be a writer in the e-age…and keep your e-sanity! She blogs with NYT bestselling author Ruth Harris at Anne R. Allen’s Blog…with Ruth Harris.

Anne’s new book, No Place Like Home, is free on Amazon Jan 1-3 so hurry before the offer finishes!

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If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.

The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with autobiographer Debz Lowry – the six hundred and second of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Guest post: Beginnings by Deborah Rae Cota

Tonight’s guest blog post (perfect for New Year’s Day!) is brought to you by fantasy author and interviewee Deborah Rae Cota.

Beginnings

A new year is like a fresh page.

A clean sheet.

A blank canvas to start anew, without blemish or error.

A new horizon to look upon with hope…

At least, it is now. I actually used to dread New Years Eve.

It seemed so symbolic of loss to me; loss of time and chances, and especially the stupidly, squandered opportunities. I feared the passing of time, and dwelled on what I may have missed, instead of remembering what I had experienced, enjoyed and learned.

As I grew older, and hopefully wiser, I learned that my fears were for naught. My fear was the very thing keeping me down, and holding me back from moving my life forward.

Now, I look to a new year eagerly, and await to see what adventures it holds for me. As a writer, this is not only how I see the start of a new year, but also every start of a new novel.

It’s three hundred and sixty-five opportunities with which to achieve greatness, and be the star of the story that is your life. Vast opportunities where only you can make the choices, and decide where the story goes. The outline, the plan, the vision…

Of course, deciding the characters can be tricky. We all want to be the protagonist in our own story, but sometimes we end up being only a secondary character, or goofy sidekick for a short time… and then sometimes, by choice or without realizing it, even the antagonist. From beginning, to middle, to end… the plot will thicken or thin, but only by your design.

Will it be it a torrid romance, a silly, yet romantic comedy, a family drama, or a fantasy wrought with mystical heroes? No one really knows, until you toss away your fears, and put pen to paper. The choice is always yours.

Never mind who or what you were before, or what mistakes were made. This is a new story. A new chapter just waiting for you. And it all starts with a blank page.

Don’t be afraid… turn it over… Let’s begin.

Happy New Year!

Thank you, and you, Deborah. Most of the authors I’ve interviewed have said they’re ‘pantsers’ and whilst Stephen King says “The scariest moment is always just before you start”, but it’s certainly not for me (and I’m sure other writers) – we can’t edit a blank page so as you say, “don’t be afraid” and enjoy the ride.

Deborah Rae Cota ventured into many arenas seeking a home. After promising a former teacher to write something every day, pen and paper (along with her trusty camera) have always been a part of her daily routine.

When Deborah isn’t writing, she’s cooking and creating new recipes for her family, or screaming in the stands of her favorite local sports teams where she lives, breathes & works in the beautiful, scenic Bay Area.

Her website is http://www.dantechronicles.com and she can be found on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/#!/DanteChronicles).

Debra has to-date released two of a planned eight books from ‘The Dante Chronicles’, Book I is titled ‘The Kindred’ and Book II is ‘The Brotherhood’. Book III, ‘The Traveler’ is due out Spring 2013…

Every team needs a leader…and now that the team is formed, and ready, missions should go exactly as planned. Right? But what if the leader isn’t the one calling the shots? An old nemesis has some new players he is toying with, and creating total chaos for the team.  With the help of former members of The Brotherhood, the team will learn a tough lesson that will ultimately strengthen them, but at what cost?

Set against the backdrop of the San Francisco Bay Area, and Silicon Valley, this is Book III of The Dante Chronicles.

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If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.

The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with short story author, novelist and tutor Della Galton – the six hundredth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Author interview no.597 with suspense mystery novelist Debra R Borys

Welcome to the five hundred and ninety-seventh of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with suspense mystery novelist and spotlightee Deb Borys. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. You can read Debra’s author spotlight at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/author-spotlight-no-61-debra-borys.

Morgen: Hello again, Deb. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Debra: I currently live in Seattle and have been here for about ten years.  Before that I lived in Chicago, but most of my life was spent in small town Illinois. I’ve been writing since I was a kid.  I remember even binding a small book using cardboard, construction paper and a typewriter when I was in junior high.  I chose not to go to college because I knew I wanted to be a writer and what did a writer need with a college degree?  I know better now, but to my 17-year-old mind it made sense at the time.  I wrote all through my marriage and that was when I started submitting things.  I concentrated on novels at first, but nothing worked until I started writing and submitting a few short stories.  Getting a few of those accepted–for pay even!–gave me the confidence I needed to keep working on my novels. As an inspiration for Painted Black, I spent four years living in Chicago and volunteering with Chicago’s homeless, youth in particular.  I got to know a few on a personal level that made me want to become a voice for them.

Morgen: I’m always in awe of authors who said that they always knew they wanted to be a writer. I didn’t know until I went to evening classes in my late thirties and then it took me another four years to consider it as a profession (I’m still working on that actually). What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Debra: While I have written spec fic and literary stories, suspense and mystery seem to be my niche. Painted Black is a suspense novel, but because it’s so character driven, it doesn’t fit neatly into a genre.  Straight whodunits were never as interesting to me as something that got me into the mind of the character as much or more than the actual plotline.  If you care about the main characters, the puzzle they are solving seems less important than what might happen to them while they are following the clues.

If there is one unifying theme to my work now, it is an attempt to see the real world for what it really is, the good and the bad, and keep going no matter what.  Like the character in one of my short stories says, “It’s how you deal with the darkness that counts.”

I read a wide variety of books myself (my favorite all time author is historical novelist Dorothy Dunnett) but mystery / suspense has always been my favorite.  It started with the Bobbsey Twins and Hardy Boy books when I was a kid and continues through Stephen King and Dean Koontz, et al.  My favorite authors always have a certain something that makes them rise above the genre, however.

Morgen: I’ve never read Dean Koontz but I was a big Stephen King fan in my teens and read everything as it came out, until somewhere after Misery (which I loved) when I lost interest and switched to softer reads (like Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected ). What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?

Debra: Painted Black is my first published novel, but I have had several short stories published in print and online publications.  One of them, Red Light, Green Light, is actually a story that arose out of one of the main characters of Painted Black.  I also had three short mysteries published.  I did use a pseudonym for my Evelyn A. Archer P.I. stories which I call my cynical bitch mini-mysteries.  The only reason for the pseudonym was because the books are told from a first person narrative and I thought it would be fun to make it look like Evelyn was a real person writing about her detective agency.  The second book in the series, Bend Me, Shape Me, is due to be released next spring, also by New Libri Press.

Here’s a list of my publications so far:

• Painted Black – a suspense novel, New Libri Press
• Heaven Can B Hell – mini-mystery, The Fringe Magazine
• Peeling the Onion – literary short story, City Slab
• Red Light, Green Light – literary short story, Downstate Story
• Love Takes a Licking – mini-mystery, Red Herring Mystery Magazine
• Blackout Blues – mini-mystery, Pirate Writings
• The Nest – literary short story, Iowa Woman

Morgen: Evelyn sounds fun. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Debra: Standard rejections are easy to take.  I’ve created a database of markets and manuscripts that I’m always adding new markets to.  When a rejection comes in, I just send the story off to the next appropriate market in the database.  The hard rejections are the ones that take the time to tell you how good they thought this or that was, but they aren’t interested in the piece because of some other thing.  There have been times when I have revaluated and even changed a piece based on those kinds of letters, but opinions are always so subjective, it’s risky to take any of them to heart unless they say something you secretly already knew.

Morgen: It’s a good idea to submit elsewhere when something’s rejected. It is just a case of finding the right person for the right story. Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions?

 

5a.m. Flash 271212 – Free Thriller eBook by G.T. Rigdon 27-29 December

What is the line that separates good and evil, coincidence and providence, delusion and reality? This question is confronted by G.T. Rigdon, author of morally engaged fiction, provocative stories for curious minds. His book High Striker will be available for FREE on Kindle during 27th to 29th December 2012.

High Striker synopsis:

In 2018, Dr. Amos Konklin, a renowned neurosurgeon dubbed “Doctor Golden Hands,” is arrested for a grisly double-homicide at the Old Wilderness Campground. During a mesmerizing interview with reporter Peter Wild, Dr. Konklin reveals a shocking secret. For decades he’s wrapped those golden hands around a twelve pound sledge-hammer, his instrument of choice in numerous executions. As the reporter probes deeper, he is lead into a world where a brain surgeon who spent his childhood running the “High Striker” carnival sideshow game is connected to Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, The Bible, and tormenting visions. High Striker is an unparalleled Old Testament / Carnivale thriller whose central character could be described as a God-obsessed fusion of Hannibal Lecter, Dexter Morgan, and a carny. It’s a remarkable journey through time and place, a saga of the Konklin family spanning generations, exploring religious, intellectual, and philosophical perspectives of the human condition. Ultimately, it dares to confront the challenging question: What is the line that separates good and evil, coincidence and providence, delusion and reality?

Available from Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/High-Striker-ebook/dp/B008YPL8AO and Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/High-Striker-ebook/dp/B008YPL8AO

For more information visit www.gtrigdon.com

G.T. Rigdon is an engineer, an ex-minister, and a writer of morally engaged fiction, provocative stories for curious minds.

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** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

 

5a.m. Flash 261212 – Free Sci-Fi eBook by Kenna McKinnon 26-28 December

There’s a buzz in the air—and it’s deadly…

Kenna Mary McKinnon’s novel ‘SpaceHive’ is free on Kindle from 26th to 28th December. Here’s more about Kenna’s book…

After getting kidnapped by giant alien bees, twelve-year-old Jason Anderson is transported to a spaceship called SpaceHive. There, he learns of a horrifying plot to annihilate Earth’s human population so that extraterrestrial bees and wasps can migrate to a new world.

As a swarm of spaceships make a beeline toward Earth, Jason must convince three friendly worker bees to help him escape his space prison and find other humans to aid in his mission to stop the invasion. But General Vard, wasp commander of the Black Watch, has other plans.

Can Jason unite the nations of Earth in their common fight to destroy these alien invaders? Or will Earth be lost to the sting of conspiracy and a worldwide massacre?

Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/SpaceHive-ebook/dp/B008SYCHFG

Amazon.co.uk link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/SpaceHive-ebook/dp/B008SYCHFG

Book trailer on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFSCTRLTlL0

***

Kenna McKinnon is a freelance writer/photographer and self-employed medical transcriptionist who lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Although her degree is in Anthropology (with a minor in Psychology), Kenna has spent her life writing.

She enjoys exploring the psychology of the human condition, especially when the accompanying human is dropped into complex and unusual circumstances. Kenna has lived successfully with schizophrenia for many years.

She has three wonderful children and three grandsons. Her website is http://kennamckinnon.blogspot.ca.

***

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

5a.m. Flash 251212 – Free eBooks by Ethan Jones 25-29 December

I know how much you love free eBooks so I put out the call for authors with special offers for me to shout about them in these 5am flashes. Here is a campaign from Ethan Jones (for Amazon.co.uk just swap the .com for .co.uk and the links should work):

I’m preparing a promotional campaign during December 18 to January 15. It’s called “29 Days of $2.99” and all my works will be priced at $2.99 during this time. I will appreciate any help you can give me to spread the word about this deal.

I’ve also scheduled a number of days in December when my works will be free on Amazon as follows:

Burying the Truth – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009DSPRI0

The Last Confession and Other Short Stories – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A0DL9PM

Carved in Memory – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0084R0196

The Last Confession – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0084R021S – free on December 25-29, and

Tripoli’s Target – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009M8W5ZY – free on December 25-29.

I hope you’ll have a chance to download and read these books. Feel free to share these days with anyone on your social media or circle of friends. And if you enjoy them, please leave a review on Amazon. This is very important as it helps other readers and allows my books to be listed on more websites during these free days.

Ethan

You can follow Ethan on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EthanJonesBooks. See the 5am flash on 121212 for details of Ethan’s books.

***

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

5am Flash: Indie Author Books – Poetry

Having seen one of my interviewees Rosanne Dingli say on a LinkedIn thread: “someone should write a blog soon about all the wonderful indie books available by very capable writers”, I challenged them to give me a <15-word synopsis for their book(s)… they are accepting the challenge and their books are appearing here. What I’m after is your name (listed within each section alphabetically by first name), your website / blog address, book title, book link (where we can buy it), genre and summary in no more than 15 words (a test of your editing skills). You can email me these details for up to 5 of your books (please don’t paste them into this page’s comments section). My free and $0.99-$2.99 eBooks are detailed on the Books – mine page.

Fiction – poetry

• you could have your poetry listed here
• Bonnie Gail Carter: That’s Life Poetry (poetry) – filled with pain and difficult relationships while also reflecting buoyancy and a positive approach to life.
• you could have your poetry listed here
• Cendrine Marrouat: Five Years and Counting. A Journey into the Mind of Soul Poetry (poetry) – life has four universal stages. Do you know what they are?
• Rizen (spoken word CD) – written and spoken words have met in a loving embrace.
• you could have your poetry listed here
• John C Bird: Something Understood – a collection of accessible poems to make you smile, fret and ponder.
• you could have your poetry listed here
• John Lavan: Familial: Selected Poems – many poems are inspired by family relationships, especially the bond he has with his first son Andrew, who has Down’s syndrome.
• you could have your poetry listed here
• Kenna Mary McKinnon: Discovery – An Anthology of Poetry (poetry) – poetry by Kenna McKinnon contains a variety of perspectives into her loves, life and times.
• you could have your poetry listed here
• K. S. Brooks: Odd and Odder (humour/suspense/general fiction/poetry) – a collection of sensuality, satire and suspense.
• you could have your poetry listed here
• Lesley Fletcher: 5 Pillars of the Gypsy (eBook/paperback) – a collection of poetry and art that will awaken your spirituality and heighten your senses.
• you could have your poetry listed here
• Vincent Miskell: Humorous Poetry Parodies & Even Verse (humour/verse) – parodies of Poe, Dante, Coleridge, Frost, and others with additional funny verse.
• you could have your poetry listed here
• Wayne Howard: Seasons of the Mind, 2nd Edition (poetry) – life, love, death and Christian mysticism against a backdrop of the seasons of the year.
• you could have your poetry listed here

Click here for Fiction – children’s / Y.A.

Click here for Fiction – novels & novellas

Click here for Fiction – script

Click here for Fiction – short stories (includes flash fiction)

Click here for Non-fiction

So what I’m after is your name (listed above alphabetically by first name), your website / blog address, book title, book link (where we can buy it), genre and summary in no more than 15 words (a test of your editing skills). You can email me these details for up to 5 of your books (please don’t paste them into this page’s comments section). My books and free short stories are detailed on the Books – mine page. Please note: the chances are that I’ve not read the books listed on this page (much as I would like to have done) so these are therefore not personal recommendations but are, in the main, by authors who I have chatted to, interviewed or got to know… even just a little bit. Kindle Fiction recommends a variety of eBooks and if you’ve read any eBooks you’d like to recommend then you can email suggestions to kindlesrp@gmail.com.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

5a.m. Flash 211212 – Free mystery thriller by Mark Dawson 21-23 December

Mark Dawson’s mystery thriller ‘The Black Mile’ is free on Kindle between 21 and 23 December.

Synopsis

London, 1940: the Luftwaffe blitzes London every night for fifty-seven nights. Houses, shops and entire streets are wiped from the map. The underworld is in flux: the Italian criminals who dominated the West End have been interned and now their rivals are fighting to replace them. Meanwhile, hidden in the shadows, the Black-Out Ripper sharpens his knife and sets to his grisly work.

Henry Irving is a disgraced reporter on a Fleet Street scandal rag. Genius detective sergeant Charlie Murphy is a fresh face in the Metropolitan Police, hunting corrupt colleagues but blinkered by ambition and jealousy. His brother, detective inspector Frank Murphy, searches frantically for his runaway daughter, terrified that she will be the killer’s next victim.

As the Ripper stalks the terrified streets, the three men discover that his handiwork is not quite what it seems. Conspirators are afoot, taking advantage of the chaos to settle old scores. The murders invade the lives of the victims and victimizers on both sides of the law, as everyone is sucked deeper and deeper into Soho’s black heart.

Based on a little known true story, The Black Mile is a rollercoaster ride of a novel that was previously the most downloaded novel on the Kindle Store. It is available from:

• Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/The-Black-Mile-ebook/dp/B007M9UM14; and
• Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Black-Mile-ebook/dp/B007M9UM14

Mark Dawson works in the film industry. The Black Mile is his third novel.

***

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

5a.m. Flash 171212 – Free eBooks by Ethan Jones 17-29 December

I know how much you love free eBooks so I put out the call for authors with special offers for me to shout about them in these 5am flashes. Here is a campaign from Ethan Jones (for Amazon.co.uk just swap the .com for .co.uk and the links should work):

I’m preparing a promotional campaign during December 18 to January 15. It’s called “29 Days of $2.99” and all my works will be priced at $2.99 during this time. I will appreciate any help you can give me to spread the word about this deal.

I’ve also scheduled a number of days in December when my works will be free on Amazon as follows:

Burying the Truth – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009DSPRI0

The Last Confession and Other Short Stories – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A0DL9PM

Carved in Memory – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0084R0196 – free on December 17-21

The Last Confession – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0084R021S – free on December 25-29, and

Tripoli’s Target – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009M8W5ZY – free on December 25-29.

I hope you’ll have a chance to download and read these books. Feel free to share these days with anyone on your social media or circle of friends. And if you enjoy them, please leave a review on Amazon. This is very important as it helps other readers and allows my books to be listed on more websites during these free days.

Ethan

You can follow Ethan on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EthanJonesBooks. See the 5am flash on 121212 for details of Ethan’s books.

***

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words!). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 3,000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Author interview no.582 with multi-genre writer Kenneth Weene

Welcome to the five hundred and eighty-second of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with multi-genre author Kenneth Weene. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. You can also read Ken’s short story ‘Curbside’ and guest blog.

Morgen: Welcome back, Ken. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Ken: Such a kind question: most of the time I feel like I’m floating in the air someplace between here and there. Geographically, I’m in Arizona, which is in the southwest US, but I grew up in New England and spent many years in New York.

As a kid I loved reading and always wanted to write. So naturally, I went to college to study economics and then got a doctorate in psychology. I grew up with an abiding belief that one should never follow ones dreams only ones nightmares. Luckily, in the past few years I’ve grown a bit. Now I do what I always dreamed and nobody tells me to not.

Morgen: I didn’t know I’d always dreamed of being a writer, I came to writing in my late 30s so I guess I’ve grown up too. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Ken: Mostly I write “literary fiction”, which means more attention to character and language than to plot. Having started with poetry, I am very much about how the writing sounds. I hope readers will read my work aloud. I never understood those teachers who wanted me to read silently; some of them were even upset if I moved my lips. Can you imagine reading Shakespeare silently? Milton? Dickens? Well, I feel the same way about Weene.

Currently I am working on a piece of historical fiction and I certainly have many short stories, some even flash fiction—under 1, 000 words. But the emphasis is still on language.

Morgen: I mentioned your short story ‘Curbside’ in the introduction. It’s a great story. What have you had published to-date?

Ken: I have four books published. The first, an anthology, was published through a vanity press simply to get my feet wet. Titled Songs For My Father, it has become strangely more in demand in recent months, perhaps because people have discovered me. When Amazon runs out, there are no more, and that’s okay. After Songs I was picked up by All Things That Matter Press, a small publisher. They have been great, and we have three novels out: Widow’s Walk, Memoirs From the Asylum, and Tales From the Dew Drop Inne.

Morgen: Maybe ‘Songs’ will become a collector’s piece that’ll fetch large sums on eBay. You mentioned Amazon, are your books available as eBooks? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

 

5am Flash: Indie Author Books – Novels & Novellas

Having seen one of my interviewees Rosanne Dingli say on a LinkedIn thread: “someone should write a blog soon about all the wonderful indie books available by very capable writers”, I challenged them to give me a <15-word synopsis for their book(s)… they are accepting the challenge and their books are appearing here.

What I’m after is your name (listed within each section alphabetically by first name), your website / blog address, book title, book link (where we can buy it), genre and summary in no more than 15 words (a test of your editing skills ). You can email me these details for up to 5 of your books (please don’t paste them into this page’s comments section). My free and $0.99-$2.99 eBooks are detailed on the Books – mine page.

• Click here for Fiction – children’s / Y.A.
• Click here for Fiction – poetry
• Click here for Fiction – script
• Click here for Fiction – short stories / flash fiction
• Click here for Non-fiction

Fiction – prose (novels & novellas)

• you could have your novel listed here
• Aggie Villanueva: Rightfully Mine: God’s Equal Rights Amendment (religion & spirituality) – why should my father’s name be wiped from Israel because he bore only daughters?
• you could have your novel listed here
• Alan Place: Chronicles of Mark Johnson (fantasy/horror) – the story of a photographer-turned-demon hunter trying to fight his demons. This book can be read as individual short stories or novel chapters.
• Did we see him? (horror) – mystery of the Victorian era turned into a time travel story.
• Holding Richmond (horror) – this is an alternate history story about the Battle for Richmond during the American Civil war. Not for fans of Twilight (Alan says).
• you could have your novel listed here
• Alana Woods: Automaton (thriller, legal) – won the Fast Books Prize for best Australian self-published fiction.
• Imbroglio (thriller, suspense) – fancy swimming with sharks? No? Neither does Noel, but some things are unavoidable.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Andrew Barrett: A Long Time Dead (crime/mystery/thriller) – Conniston pits his forensic skills against the evidence that arrested him.
• Stealing Elgar (crime/mystery/thriller) – Conniston battles merciless enimies and criminals as England’s most shocking robbery explodes.
• No More Tears (crime/mystery/thriller) – Conniston hunts a gang of savage killers. Is determination enough this time?
• The Third Rule, link t.b.a. (crime/mystery/thriller) – Collins discovers the truth, and fights a one-way trip to the slaughterhouse.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Anna Patricio: Asenath (historical) – a fictional memoir of the Egyptian priestess who married Joseph the dreamer.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Anne R. Allen: The Best Revenge (romantic comedy/mystery) – Perennially down-and-out socialite Camilla Randall is a magnet for murder, mayhem and Mr. Wrong. Available from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Barnes & Noble.
• Food of Love (romantic comedy/thriller) – someone’s trying to kill the Princess – because she got fat? There’s a small nuclear bomb… Available from Amazon.com (eBook), Amazon.co.uk (eBook), Amazon.com (paperback), Amazon.co.uk (paperback) and Barnes & Noble.
• The Gatsby Game (romantic comedy/mystery) – based on a real unsolved Hollywood mystery. Chick Lit noir. The nanny didn’t do it! Available from Amazon.com (eBook), Amazon.co.uk (eBook), Amazon.com (paperback), Amazon.co.uk (paperback), Kobo and Barnes & Noble.
• Ghostwriters in the Sky (romantic comedy/mystery) – murder at a Writers Conference. Is it ghosts, gangsters, gay cowboys, or the bogus agent? Available from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Barnes & Noble and Kobo.
• Sherwood, Ltd (romantic comedy/mystery) – penniless socialite becomes a 21st century Maid Marian, but is “Robin” planning to kill her? Available from Amazon.com (paperback), Amazon.co.uk (paperback), Barnes & Noble (FREE), and Smashwords (FREE).
• Camilla Randall Mysteries Box Set – all three Camilla adventures in one low-priced set. Available from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Barnes & Noble.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Arabella Sheraton: Married at Midnight – an inheritance depends upon a marriage at midnight… but the bride is already married!
• The Dangerous Duke – a Dowager Duchess, her beautiful Companion, and the duke who appears to dislike her intensely.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Barbara Ann Derksen: Fear Not – Brian and Andrea journey to clear a friend of murder but discover much more.
• Presumed Dead – Andrea and Brian search for a missing DEA agent undercover in a biker gang for two years.
• Vanished – death, fire, and kidnapping send Andrea and Brian to uncover a diabolical plot against blacks.
• Barbara’s books are available via Amazon.co.uk as e-books with paperbacks from Amazon.com.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Bob Frey: The DVD Murders (mystery) – someone is killing the A-list actors of Hollywood & leaving a DVD at the crime scene.
• The Bashful Vampire Murder & The Comic Book Murders (mystery) – Detective Frank Callahan is back in two hybrid, contemporary crime fiction stories.
• Supermale’s Gone and Left Us (satire) – if there really was such a thing as a superhero, what problems might he face?
• you could have your novel listed here
• Chaz Wood: Trinity Chronicles: Maranatha (thriller/mystery) – ‘The Lord Cometh’ but is it the Second Coming, or the Fourth Reich?
• Trinity Chronicles: Venus in Saturn (thriller/horror) – Horror, both personal and professional, haunts the life and mind of forensic investigator Vanessa Descartes.
• The Wish and the Will: Sundancer’s Regret Episode 1 (fantasy/steampunk) – welcome to Middengarth, where fairytales are history, and magic still lingers in the air (episodes 2 and 3 also available).
• The Black Flag (graphic novel/sci-fi/thriller) – love, death, and anarchy in the U.K… led by Georgina Macdubhgaill, eco-activist and possible goddess.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Cyra McFadden: The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County (humour) – The Serial mercilessly satirises the inhabitants of Marin County, California in counter-culture-gripped 1976.
• you could have your novel listed here
• C.S. Lakin: Innocent Little Crimes (psychological mystery/suspense) – six unsuspecting guests, a dish of revenge—a recipe for disaster and death.
• Intended for Harm (family drama/mystery) – a family saga of pain and loss that leads to faith and comfort.
• Conundrum (mystery/women’s fiction) – a young woman’s search to uncover the mystery behind her father’s death 25 years ago.
• The Map across Time (fantasy) – a sweeping epic of unfailing love and trust, in which the “insignificant” have merit and purpose.
• Someone to Blame (contemporary fiction/mystery/suspense) – a family reeling in pain moves to a small town to heal, only to get in the midst of trouble.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Dale T Phillips: A Fall From Grace (mystery) – Zack Taylor must clear a woman accused of murder, against a whole town of suspects. Available from Amazon and Smashwords.
• A Memory of Grief (mystery) – Troubled ex-con Zack Taylor faces danger while seeking the truth about his friend’s death. Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.
• you could have your novel listed here
• David Knop: Mining Sacred Ground (mystery/thriller) – former Marine cop, battles self-doubt, hostile law enforcement, and a killer through Arizona backcountry.
• Poisoned by God’s Flesh (mystery/thriller) – cop confronts gun-slinging hijackers of a nuclear weapons transporter in New Mexico’s unnamed, red-robed canyons. Both mystery/thrillers are published by BookBaby.com and are available in ebook format at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, The Copia, Kobo, and iTunes.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Debra Forch Benson: Perfect Wedding (general fiction novella) – will Leah’s father walk her down the aisle to marry the man of her heart?
• you could have your novel listed here
• Dennis Kitainik: Higher Than an Eagle: A Wings of Mercy Novel (disaster/rescue adventure) – a rescue team must fly through an Arctic cyclone to save a badly wounded scientist.
• you could have your novel listed here
• E.R. Yatscoff: Old Flames (adult mystery) – to some a hero, to others, a murderer.  Fire Captain Ormond hides a deadly past.
• Gerry’s War (adult suspense) – fire chief battles extortion, bribery, and embezzlement, along with the Red Mafiya.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Erica Miner: Murder In The Pit (murder mystery) – a young violinist investigates the high profile murder of a world-famous opera conductor. Available in paper, Kindle, iBooks and all electronic formats.
• Travels With My Lovers (romance) – a young mom goes on a journey of self-discovery in the romantic capitals of Europe. Available in paperback..
• you could have your novel listed here
• Ethan Jones: Arctic Wargame (spy thriller) – Three Canadian secret agents must save their country from an Arctic threat.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Fiona Veitch Smith: The Peace Garden (romantic thriller) – a romantic thriller doused in political intrigue, racial tension, international terrorism and… gardening!
• you could have your novel listed here
• Frank F. Fiore: Black Sun (action/adventure) – who’s plotting to create a second holocaust in Europe?
• Cyberkill (action/adventure) – how far will an Artificial Intelligence go for revenge?
• Seed (action/adventure) – what are people being murdered for what they found in the Hopi End Times Prediction?
• A Taste of the Apocalypse (action/adventure) – is Jesus’ body buried here on Earth?
• you could have your novel listed here
• Gary Showalter (blog): The Big Bend (mystery) – series of murders prompts Terry Rankin to go after the killers. Available as paperback and Kindle formats.
• Hog Valley (mystery) – the involvement of drug money in the Florida banking industry and the theft of millions from a US Army cash warehouse in Kuwait leads to murder in Florida. Available as paperback and Kindle formats.
• Twisted Key (mystery) – a kidnapping that never happened, and a treasure ship that shouldn’t exist, rip the masks off and let evil out to play in the Florida sun. Available as paperback and Kindle formats.
• Lonesome Cove (mystery) – Terry Rankin’s new client turns out to be somewhat less and somewhat more than he seems to be. And there’s three tons of gold missing, too. Available as Kindle format only.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Gregory Allen: Well With My Soul (literary/gay themed) – family drama of two brothers and how choices they make follow them for years.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Ian Kidd: Bloodlust (erotic horror) – a seductive but murderous lesbian vampire comes a cropper with her latest target.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Jean Harrington: Designed for Death (cozy mystery) – Deva Dunne knows the devil’s in the details, but not that the devil’s stalking her.
• Monet Murders (cozy mystery) – A stolen masterpiece, a dead woman, a killer on the loose.  This devil means murder.
• you could have your novel listed here
• JD Mader: Joe Café (crime / thriller) – murder, mobsters, strippers, and fly fishing (oh my). Postmodern noir.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Jennifer Word: The Poe Toaster (historical fiction / horror novella) – the last week of Edgar Allan Poe’s life is completely unaccounted for… until now.
• All Because of the Cat (horror novella) – when a man is stalked by a monster, only his cat can save the day.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Jenny Worstall: Make a Joyful Noise (romantic comedy) – a sparkling mixture of romance, music and humour with characters mercilessly sent up by author. Available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
• you could have your novel listed here
• J Griffith Mitchell: Death in Edenville (crime) – child commits a heinous crime. Townspeople question justice and commit an equally unspeakable crime.
• The House of Indiscretions (Family Saga/Women’s Fiction) – she retains her mansion through blackmail, prostitution, running a speakeasy, then discovers its real purpose.
• Jeremiah Bascomb – a Heart Divided (Family Saga) – a runaway orphan, through fate and his own efforts, becomes a business mogul by forty.
• Pola – a Biographical Novel (Biographical Fiction) – from poverty to ballerina to stage actress to movie superstar and princess.
• The Royle Blue Bloods (Family Saga/Women’s Fiction) – a dysfunctional four-generation family eventually destroys itself through greed, blackmail, deceit, suicide, and murder.
• J Griffith Mitchell’s books are available from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Kobo Books, Google Books, and iBooks.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Joan H Young: News from Dead Mule Swamp (cozy mystery) – Anastasia Raven #1 a hundred-year-old newspaper is stolen  But what old news could be dangerous?
• The Hollow Tree at Dead Mule Swamp (cozy mystery) – Anastasia Raven #2 Ana catches Jimmie Mosher hiding money. What else is the boy hiding?
• Paddy Plays in Dead Mule Swamp (cozy mystery) – Anastasia Raven #3 Star and Sunny’s mother disappeared years ago. Enter: an exuberant Irish Setter.
• you could have your novel listed here
• John C Bird: Aristocrat at Large (comedy thriller) – a naive young Englishman finds fun, romance and danger in the American West.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Joy V Smith: Hidebound (science-fiction ebook) – after Anfissa meets Ferenc, they flee to a planet where even the grass is deadly.
• Sugar Time (science-fiction audiobook) – three time-travel stories: “Sugar Time”, “Flight Test”, and “Return to Neander”.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Kathryn Elizabeth Jones: Conquering Your Goliaths: A Parable of the Five Stones (Christian Fiction) – Virginia Bean meets God. How will the five stones help her to overcome?
  
• Scrambled (cozy mystery) – a middle-aged woman who has left her husband meets up with death in an old hotel.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Kimberley Payne (Fit for Faith and Return Home and Tell blogs): Tooth for Tooth – life finally looks safe for Heather Williams until her daughter reveals a terrifying secret. Available via Smashwords and Amazon.
• you could have your novel listed here
• K. S. Brooks: Lust for Danger (action-adventure) – Special Agent Kathrin Night tries to prevent terrorists from commiting mass-murder.
• Kiss of Night and Night Undone (suspense / romance) – Special Agent Kathrin Night deals with life after an injury-induced early “retirement”.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Kurt Kamm: Code Blood (thriller) – lives of a paramedic, stemcell researcher and vampire wannabe collide in this L.A. noir novel.
• One Foot in the Black (firefighting adventure) – a turbulent, thoughtful story of putting out fires, both personal and professional (Kirkus Discoveries).
• Red Flag Warning (serial arson mystery) – who is trying to burn down Malibu?
• you could have your novel listed here
• Lauren Grimley: Unforeseen (urban fantasy/paranormal romance) – hunted for her gift and haunted by her dreams, Alex is driven to fight. Available from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Linda M James: The Invisible Piper – 1940. An endearing cockney boy changes the life of a  war-torn family for ever.
• Tempting the Stars – 1944. One man’s inspirational struggle to survive in a world which judges us by how we look.
• The Day of the Swans (to be published July 2012) – if memories give you your identity, what happens if someone gives you false ones and makes you believe them?
• you could have your novel listed here
• Maggie Bishop (blog): Appalachian Paradise (romance) –  good ole boy meets high powered career woman for five-day backpacking trek. Available as Kindle and paperback formats.
• Emeralds in the Snow (romance, mystery) – treasure hunt, emerald mines, downhill skiing and cold case entangle rich woman and poor man. Available as Kindle and paperback formats.
• Murder at Blue Falls (cozy mystery) – the horse finds a body during trail ride at dude ranch; woman sleuth investigates. Available as Kindle and paperback formats.
• One Shot too Many (book 3) (cozy mystery) – photography group meets at dude ranch, shot kills, Detective Tucker takes lead. Available as Kindle and paperback formats.
• Perfect for Framing, (book 2) (cozy mystery) – trouble brewing in the Property Owners’ Association; CSI wannabe Jemma Chase investigates. Available as Kindle and paperback formats.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Marc Nash: A,B&E (contemporary fiction) – a gangster’s moll with a contract on her head hides out in island Greece.
• Not In My Name (political fiction) – internet terrorist grooming, no one is who they say they are
• you could have your novel listed here
• Marietta Miemietz: Off-site (financial / thriller) – banker attends secluded team-building off-site meeting. Strange things happen, leaving her in mortal danger. Available on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de (as ‘Das Seminar’), Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Marja McGraw: The Bogey Man – A Sandi Webster Mystery (mystery) – Sandi Webster deals with a wannabe private eye who’s a dead ringer for Humphrey Bogart.
• Old Murders Never Die – A Sandi Webster Mystery (mystery) – Sandi Webster becomes stranded in a ghost town haunted by unsolved Old West murders.
• Bogey Nights – A Bogey Man Mystery (mystery) – see what happens when you find a body that’s been buried in your basement since 1942.
• Bogey’s Ace in the Hole – A Bogey Man Mystery (mystery) – ride along in Chris’s 1950 Chevy while he tries to find a killer and a potential victim.
• Click here for Marja’s Amazon author page.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Marla Madison: She’s Not There (suspense) – abused women are going missing. Is a predator targeting them?
• you could have your novel listed here
• Michael Brookes: The Cult of Me (supernatural) – By entering people’s minds he tormented them. Then things got interesting..
• you could have your novel listed here
• Michael Nicholson: Pilgrims Rest (historical fiction) – The story of Mary, a Welsh widow, who resolves to forge a new life with her children in 1870s South Africa.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Michele Drier: Edited for Death (traditional mystery) – an art theft in WWII leads to three murders 60 years later in California.
• SNAP: The World Unfolds (vampire romance) – Maxie finds more than she expected when she begins working for international celeb media SNAP.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Morgen Bailey: The Serial Dater’s Shopping List (chick-lit) – Northampton technology journalist Isobel McFarlane is set the task to date 31 men in 31 days, what could possibly go wrong? Available from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Smashwords.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Neal James: A Ticket to Tewkesbury (spy thriller) – who will find the secret documents vital for the national security of modern-day Britain?
• Two Little Dicky Birds (crime) – a killer stalks the streets of England. Can the Met catch him before more people suffer?
• Threads of Deceit (crime) – James Poynter’s thirst for revenge brings the futures of all connected to a tipping point.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Neil L. Yuzuk & David A. Yuzuk: Beachside PD: The Reluctant Knight (thriller / mystery / police procedural; details on their website) – a compelling novel of corruption, murder, unforgettable characters, intriguing romance and redemption.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Nick Cook: Aggressor (action) – three men find and rescue hostages taken in the Middle East, following the Gulf War.
• Angel, Archangel (action) – two British spy pilots defuse a Russian scheme in World War Two.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Nick Orsini: Fingerless Gloves (young adult fiction/urban fiction) – Tonight will be the most difficult night in 25-year-old Anton Duchamp’s life.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Nicole Dunlap: Miss Nobody (drama/family saga) – Charlene runs away from home and a fear that shakes her very core…seeing her daughter. Available from Amazon and Smashwords.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Nigel Hey: Wonderment (biography/memoir – Matador Oct 1 2012): Globetrotter writer’s adventurous life story interleaves career, domestic life, and departures from the expected. Available from Amazon (including Kindle), B&N, etc.
• The Star Wars Enigma (Cold War History – Potomac Books, ̣̣̣2006): Reagan’s hoax? The little-known political and scientific inside story of the 1980s Strategic Defence Initiative. Available from Amazon (including Kindle), B&N, etc.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Nina Munteanu: Darwin’s Paradox – released in 2007 by Dragon Moon Press. An environmental thriller that explores the merger of machine intelligence with an intelligent virus.
• Angel of Chaos – released in 2010 by Dragon Moon Press. In this prequel to Darwin’s Paradox  an environmental disease changes the evolution of humanity.
• Outer Diverse (Book One of the Splintered Universe Trilogy) – released in 2011 by Starfire World Syndicate. A paranormal space thriller about a hard-boiled female detective who must solve a religious massacre. Nina also blogs at The Alien Next Door.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Phyllis J Burton: A Passing Storm (romance/suspense) – Jennifer Redmond is in hospital suffering from amnesia. When her memory returns she remembers why she was running away.
• Paper Dreams (romance/suspense) – Katie Nicholson discovers evidence of a past scandal and her life is put in mortal danger! Published by Matador (Troubador) December 2011.
• you could have your novel listed here
• P W Fox: Sea Change (fantasy) – overcoming betrayal and death, Selena uses magic and races the moon for escape and vengeance.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Robert Ford: The King of Spain (literary fiction) – a debut novel set in the not-too-distant future, with unworldly Sam as its hero.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Rosanne Dingli: Death in Malta (mystery – BeWrite Books) – a lonely novelist flees to Malta, where a missing boy and a woman prove confounding. You had me at ‘Novelist’.
• According to Luke (romantic thriller – BeWrite Books) – murder, extortion and forbidden love overwhelm Jana when an ancient icon reveals a dangerous secret.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Rudy A. Mazzocchi (blog / trailer): Equity of Evil (medical thriller) – based on true events, this novel involves some of the world’s oldest, most emotional and controversial issues. Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and OmniLit.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Sarah Baethge: The Speed of Darkness (sci-fi / fantasy – available from Amazon & Smashwords) –what happens when closely guarded secrets are thrown away to prevent what seems wrong?
• you could have your novel listed here
• Sarah England: Expected (comedy) – Sam Sweet doesn’t want a husband or kids, just a job and a cowboy!
• you could have your novel listed here
• Sheron Wood McCartha: A Dangerous Talent For Time (science fiction time travel adventure) – a renegade Talent is loose in the past and destroying the future. Can solving a hidden riddle save it?
• Caught In Time (science fiction time travel adventure) – time traveler Rowyna Grae journeys 1,000 years into the medieval past to save the future. Will love trip her up? Also available as a paperback.
• Cosmic Entanglement (science-fiction) – An alien probe crashes on Alysia. Adversaries Ching T’Karre and the Democratic Union work together on space program to protect their world. Politics, mayhem, murder and romance ensue. Sheron also blogs at http//www.scifibookreview.com.
• you could have your novel listed here
• SL Dwyer (and blog): Dirt (YA & adults, available on Amazon and Smashwords) – It’s 1933 and newly-orphaned Sammy begins to live a lie and all its consequences.
• For Benny (mainstream drama) – a mother’s plans for revenge takes an unexpected turn forcing her to make a decision.
• If Truth Be Known (action/adventure, available on Amazon and Createspace) – Casey must find the meaning of the mysterious Mayan symbol while trying to stay alive.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Stacy Juba: Sink or Swim (mystery / romantic suspense) – a personal trainer attracts a stalker after appearing on a reality TV show.
• Twenty-Five Years Ago Today (mystery / romantic suspense) – a newspaper editorial assistant investigates an unsolved murder and falls for the victim’s nephew.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Sue Margolis: Apocalipstick (chicklit) – will Rebecca win the recognition she yearns for and get the man of her dreams?
• Neutorica (chicklit) – Anna commits adultery for the pure joy of it: fast, funny, shocking and unputdownable.
• Sisteria (chicklit) – the hilarious novel about Finchley-dwelling Jewish housewife’s family life.
• Spin Cycle (chicklit) – Rachel, a cleaner and professional stand-up comedian, meets a sexy washing machine repair man.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Suzan Tisdale: Laiden’s Daughter (eBook, paperback due in March 2012, historical romance) – she believes men are not honorable nor are they kind – he proves her wrong.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Terry W Ervin II: Flank Hawk (the first in the First Civilization’s Legacy series) – an action-adventure post-apocalyptic fantasy where magic exists and ogres are more than a child’s nightmare.
• Blood Sword (the second in the First Civilization’s Legacy series) – Flank Hawk, Grand Wizard Seelain’s mercenary guard, faces peril seeking the malevolent Blood Sword’s return.
• you could have your novel listed here
• TL Spencer: Blood Prophecy: The Fated Three (vampire) – with vampires and werewolves around every corner, Selene must make a choice between love, death and the fate of the world.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Toni Weymouth: Deadly Vibrations (Amazon / Smashwords / soft cover; erotic suspense) – the Wilde Sisters band together to ferret out sex toy mischief, mayhem and murder.
• Easy Entry (Amazon / soft cover; romantic suspense) – a therapist and her dog find danger while travelling in a caravan across the county.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Tristram La Roche: On My Knees (M:M/gay/contemporary romance) – when Mark meets a handsome stranger at the gym, he realises he’s gay not weird.
• Lorenzo il Magnifico (M:M/gay/contemporary romance) – can a holiday fling with sexy Florentine waiter Lorenzo change Luke’s humdrum life?
• Fixed (M:M/gay/contemporary romance) – he’s broken, but an unexpected meeting with an old friend breathes new life into Mike.
• The Hun and The General (M:M/gay/historical romance) – when two powerful men share an intimate secret, the course of history may be changed.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Vincent Miskell: Godspeed Inc.: A Naomi Kinder Adventure (science fiction free ebook) – set in 2097, Naomi must race to Umbriel to save the solar system.
• Rescuing the Future:  A Naomi Kinder Novel (science fiction novel) – Naomi travels to the 24th century to stop a nanobot takeover of Earth.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Will le Fleming: Central Reservation (general fiction) – a gripping tale of haunting and the search for identity in a world on fire.
• you could have your novel listed here
• Yvonne Hertzberger: Back From Chaos: Earth’s Pendulum, Book One (epic fantasy – available from Amazon as an eBook and pBook) – sometimes destiny chooses the unlikeliest of heroes – assassin and spy. But the goddess needs him.
• Through Kestrel’s Eyes: Earth’s Pendulum, Book Two (epic fantasy – available from Amazon as eBook and pBook) – Liannis, seer, must face tests and self-doubt to help restore the Balance. Time is short.
• you could have your novel listed here

So what I’m after is your name (listed above alphabetically by first name), your website / blog address, book title, book link (where we can buy it), genre and summary in no more than 15 words (a test of your editing skills ). You can email me these details for up to 5 of your books (please don’t paste them into this page’s comments section). My books and free short stories are detailed on the Books – mine page. Please note: the chances are that I’ve not read the books listed on this page (much as I would like to have done) so these are therefore not personal recommendations but are, in the main, by authors who I have chatted to, interviewed or got to know… even just a little bit.  Kindle Fiction recommends a variety of eBooks and if you’ve read any eBooks you’d like to recommend then you can email suggestions to kindlesrp@gmail.com.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Author interview no.580 with Benedictine Oblate monk and non-fiction writer James Bishop

Welcome to the five hundred and eightieth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with non-fiction author James Bishop. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, James. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

James: Hello Morgen. My name is James Bishop. I grew up in southern California and now live in northern California. I’m a bit of a “nerd” and a great lover of mathematics and computers. I also have synaesthesia, and write about it occasionally.

Morgen: I grew up with an older brother so I had no chance of escape nerdiness or techieness – I’m grateful for the latter. You write non-fiction, how do you decide what to write about?

James: I’ve written two non-fiction works, both completely different. The first, A Way in the Wilderness, is a commentary on the Rule of Benedict, and I wrote that on the insistence of a friend. My second non-fiction book, Rocket Man, is my autobiography, and my decision to write that was mostly based on personal catharsis. I needed to get it all out in the open, so to speak.

Morgen: I keep saying to my mum that she should write hers (amongst other things she was a groom for racing driver Stirling Moss’ sister and photographed several of our royals at show-jumping events). You’ve self-published, what lead to you going your own way?

James: I was very fortunate with Wilderness. It was picked up by the first publisher to whom it was offered, and I was delighted. When I finished Rocket Man, the publisher said it was not their genre, so I looked into self-publishing as an option and liked it very much. It just seemed easier at the time.

Morgen: I’ve seven eBooks and it’s really not that scary once you know how, or done one – I have a ‘how to guide’ on http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/ebooks/how-to-create-an-ebook. Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

 

5a.m. Flash 121212 – Free eBooks by Ethan Jones 11-29 December

I know how much you love free eBooks so I put out the call for authors with special offers for me to shout about them in these 5am flashes. Here is a campaign from Ethan Jones (for Amazon.co.uk just swap the .com for .co.uk and the links should work), further details of the books below:

I’m preparing a promotional campaign during December 18 to January 15. It’s called “29 Days of $2.99” and all my works will be priced at $2.99 during this time. I will appreciate any help you can give me to spread the word about this deal.

I’ve also scheduled a number of days in December when my works will be free on Amazon as follows:

Burying the Truth – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009DSPRI0 – free on December 4-6

Sorry, I missed that one… it looks a great book so worth the $2.99 (£1.92)

The Last Confession and Other Short Stories – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A0DL9PM – free on December 11-15

Carved in Memory – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0084R0196 – free on December 17-21

The Last Confession – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0084R021S – free on December 25-29, and

Tripoli’s Target – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009M8W5ZY – free on December 25-29.

I hope you’ll have a chance to download and read these books. Feel free to share these days with anyone on your social media or circle of friends. And if you enjoy them, please leave a review on Amazon. This is very important as it helps other readers and allows my books to be listed on more websites during these free days.

Ethan

Thank you, Ethan. It’s very kind of you to let us know. You can follow Ethan on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EthanJonesBooks

1. The Last Confession and Other Short Stories – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A0DL9PM – free on December 11-15

A collection of three short stories: The Last Confession, Burying the Truth, and Carved in Memory.

The Last Confession
A New York mobster on his deathbed. A priest struggling to make things right. A policeman facing a tough choice. The Last Confession is a great Mafia tale of betrayal, revenge and justice.

Burying the Truth
A married couple faces their worst nightmare when they fall prey of a home invasion. Something goes terribly wrong, and two shotgun blasts seal their fate. Now, what will it take to bury the truth?

Carved in Memory
When Justin Hall, a Canadian Intelligence Service agent, is captured by terrorists in Libya during a rescue operation, he is left with only his mind games to escape certain death.

The bonus content includes the prologue and the first four chapters of Arctic Wargame, the first book in the wildly popular Justin Hall spy thriller series, which came out in May. Arctic Wargame hit the Amazon’s Top 100 Best Sellers in Suspense Thrillers list in July and October, standing at No. 1 and No. 8. It also includes the prologue and the first four chapters of Tripoli’s Target, the second book in this series, which came out on October 4.

2.  Carved in Memory – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0084R0196 – free on December 17-21

Carved in Memory is a short story prequel to Arctic Wargame, the first book in the wildly popular Justin Hall spy thriller series, which came out in May. Arctic Wargame hit the Amazon’s Top 100 Best Sellers in Suspense Thrillers list in July and October, standing at No. 11 and No. 8.

When Justin Hall, a Canadian Intelligence Service agent, is captured by terrorists in Libya during a rescue operation, he is left with only his mind games to escape certain death.

The bonus content includes the prologue and the first four chapters of Arctic Wargame and the prologue and the first four chapters of Tripoli’s Target, the second book in this series, which came out on October 4.

3.  The Last Confession – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0084R021S – free on December 25-29

A New York mobster on his deathbed. A priest struggling to make things right. A policeman facing a tough choice. The Last Confession is a great Mafia tale of betrayal, revenge and justice.

The bonus content includes the prologue and the first four chapters of Arctic Wargame, the first book in the wildly popular Justin Hall spy thriller series, which came out in May. Arctic Wargame hit the Amazon’s Top 100 Best Sellers in Suspense Thrillers list in July and October, standing at No. 11 and No. 8. It also includes the prologue and the first four chapters of Tripoli’s Target, the second book in this series, which came out on October 4.

4.  Tripoli’s Target – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009M8W5ZY – free on December 25-29.

Tripoli’s Target is the second book in the wildly popular Justin Hall spy thriller series.

Justin Hall and Carrie O’Connor, Canadian Intelligence Service Agents, find themselves in lawless North Africa on the trail of an assassination plot. The target is the US President, and the hit is scheduled to take place during a G-20 summit in Libya’s capital, Tripoli. But the source of their information is the deceitful leader of one of the deadliest terrorist groups in the area. Ambushes and questionable loyalties turn an already difficult mission into a dark maze of betrayal and misdirection.

Forced to return to Tripoli, Justin and Carrie dig up new intelligence pointing to a powerful Saudi prince bankrolling the assassination plan. What’s worse, Justin and Carrie realize something crucial is very, very wrong with their plan. The summit is only forty-eight hours away and they still have to stop the Saudi prince, dismantle the assassination plot, and save the life of Tripoli’s target.

Tripoli’s Target promises to take the reader through a great story as it becomes the next international bestseller. Fans of David Baldacci, Vince Flynn, and Daniel Silva will love this high-octane spy thriller.

The bonus content includes the prologue and the first chapter of Arctic Wargame, the first book in this series, which came out in May. Arctic Wargame hit the Amazon’s Top 100 Best Sellers in Suspense Thrillers list in July and October, standing at No. 11 and No. 8. It also includes the prologue and the first chapter of Fog of War, the third book in the Justin Hall series, which is expected to come out in the summer of 2013.

***

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Author interview no.578 with multi-genre writer JM Powers

Welcome to the five hundred and seventy-eighth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with multi-genre author JM Powers. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, JM. Please tell us something about yourself.

JM: Hi there! Though not my intention when I picked a pen name, everyone calls me JM. At first I found it weird, but it’s grown on me. (Call me Jeannie if you want to use my real name.) I’m based in Upstate New York near Niagara Falls, USA. Might I add I live on an island? Cool, huh?

Morgen: Me too (Britain), but probably a bit bigger than yours. How did you come to be a writer?

JM: I came to be a writer more out of a need than a choice really.  My father was in the Air Force, therefore, we moved every couple of years. I wrote stories while sitting in the back seat of our old station wagon to entertain myself on the long rides from one air base to the next. (I read them out loud to my siblings, but the only one that took an interest was my baby sister.) As I grew older, writing became an integral part of me—I suppose it always was, but as a child, I didn’t realize it. I thought my siblings were the weird ones. I couldn’t imagine why they would let a day go by without creating a new character or scene. Yeah, now I know I was the odd man (er…girl) out.

Morgen: What a lovely story. I came to writing fiction in my late 30s and now feel a bit like you; that everyone should be writing so they can see how wonderful it is. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

JM: I’m a genre junkie. Though my first love is historical romance (excuse the pun), I delve into fantasy, sweet romance, erotic romance, women’s fiction, and even non-fiction. I’m constantly learning something new in the writing world. There is no such thing as polishing a craft too much.

Morgen: Absolutely. I often hear established writers saying they’re still learning. That’s life for you; always something new. What have you had published to-date? Do you always write as JM?

JM: Currently I have six books published under two pseudonyms: Summer Falls and J.M. Powers

Stellar Surprise (my first publication in 2009) I entered an international contest. When I received an email from the publisher, my husband had to pry the laptop from my hands to see why I was hyperventilating. A book contract became reality and I haven’t stopped since. Here is my current list:

• Stellar Surprise (Summer Falls, Breathless Press 2009) http://www.breathlesspress.com/stellar-surprise
• Basket of Hope (Summer Falls, Breathless Press 2010) http://www.breathlesspress.com/basket-hope

Magic Stone Series (Beautiful Trouble 2012)

• For All Time
  
• Timeless Valentine
  
• Margery’s Time
  
• Jewel of Ramstone (https://beautifultroublepublishing.com/xcart/Jewel-of-Ramstone-EBOOK.html)

(All books also available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon)

Jewel of Ramstone, a medieval romance will be released this summer. (Updates @ http://JMPowersRomance.blogspot.com)

Morgen: Congratulations. Are your books available as eBooks? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

 

Author interview no.577 with fantasy and YA writer Elaine Ouston

Welcome to the five hundred and seventy-seventh of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with fantasy and YA author Elaine Ouston. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Elaine. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Elaine: Hi Morgen. I am an Australian writer, based in sunny (mostly) Queensland. I write for children and young adults. I became interested in writing at school and would spend hours coming up with interesting plots and, according to my mother, far-fetched stories, for the simplest English assignments. Work took over and I didn’t get back to writing for a long time.

In the 80’s I travelled to England, the country of my mother’s birth, to spend some time. While I was waiting for my work permit, I went to the library to research the native animals of the British Isles. I was fascinated to learn that while many of these animals were very different in appearance, they lived in a similar manner. I thought my grandchildren at home would be interested to learn about these animals so I wrote and illustrated a short story for them. This story flamed my latent desire to be a writer, but work soon took over. It wasn’t until 5 years ago that I could get back to my dream.

Morgen: Every writer reading this will know how work takes over… like takes over so easily. I ‘found’ creative writing (through and evening class) eight years ago and was hooked but it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I contemplated giving up my day job (which I did in March this year). What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Elaine: I am a fantasy author, but my animal adventure for young readers wasn’t written in that genre – although come to think about it, talking animals is fantasy. I have developed a plot for a YA book that isn’t fantasy, but I fear that once I get started, fantasy elements may creep in when I’m not looking.

Morgen: Fantasy readers reading this won’t complain. Besides, fiction may be based on what we know but it’s often our fantasy, what we dream up for our characters. What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?

Elaine: I write and live under my maiden name. I have three published books. The animal adventure Lost in a Strange Land for early readers, and two books in a series, The Mystery of Nida Valley. The first book was released in May 2011 and the second, Captured – The Mystery of Nida Valley was released in June 2012. Both are available on Amazon as eBook and paperback.

Morgen: Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

 

Author interview no.572 with novelist, poet and artist Baldip Kaur

Welcome to the five hundred and seventy-second of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with novelist, poet and artist Baldip Kaur. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello Baldip. Jumping straight in, please tell us about your books. Are they available as eBooks? How involved were you in that process? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Baldip: Two of my books are available as paperbacks on Amazon at the moment, published by New Generation Publishing (http://www.newgeneration-publishing.com). As I myself do not read ebooks, I am not very keen on this format, although I am aware that ebooks are very much in demand.

Morgen: They are overtaking paper books, have done in some outlets. I recognise NGP from my red pen no.9 novelist Danny Kemp. I know he’s happy with them. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?

Baldip: Strangely, my favourite characters in my two novels are in the background so I cannot see them as the leading actor / actress so would like my main characters, around who the story revolves, to take the lead.

Morgen: I love minor characters, especially when they become major ones in other books / stories. Did you choose the titles / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?

Baldip: Yes!! All the way for me they reflect the essence of my novels. However, I do not know how important they are from a commercial point of view.

Morgen: I’d say so because they are the first thing a potential reader sees. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Baldip: My current work in progress revolves around the tsunami (fiction) which hit Asia on Boxing Day and where lots of lots of people lost their lives and others were made homeless.

Morgen: A tragic event. I can understand why you want to write about it. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Baldip: I try to but yes! I do suffer from writers block and at that time I am convinced I could not possibly be a writer, else I would be writing!!

Morgen: Oh dear, but it sounds like you bounce back. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Baldip: No, I usually get my inspiration by some piece of news which affects me. I start the book and my characters run the book!

Morgen: Don’t they. That’s my favourite aspect. Do you have a method for creating your characters?

Baldip: Yes I do have a method, for the main characters only. They reflect their characters / temperament.

Morgen: Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Baldip: I do a lot of editing but at the same time I think my writing is more fully-formed.

Morgen: It’s all about practice, isn’t it. Like anything we get better at something we do more oftne. Do you have to do much research?

Baldip: Oh yes! As my novels are inspired on social issues, a lot of research and reading is undertaken to make the situations / plot believable.

Morgen: And they have to be, in any genre. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Baldip: Second person but I find I have to shift that as the writing progresses.

Morgen: It’s my favourite too. Do you write any poetry, non-fiction or short stories?

Baldip: Yes, I write poetry and have also published my works compiling both poetry and my artwork titled ‘Visual Reflections’ which is available on Amazon.co.uk. I have written a few short stories and as my next project, need to compile them and maybe have them published!

Morgen: Yes, do. I’m biased as I write short stories more than anything else but I know they’re very popular. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Baldip: Yes… maybe my short stories and some articles.

Morgen: Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Baldip: Oh yes! I have had many rejections and although my book has been published, I still expect rejections, for I know that my book, although a lot of time, thought, research and if I may add, feeling, has been put in my book, it may not be liked by everyone.

Morgen: It’s just finding the right thing for the right person but at least by self-publishing you’re getting it to an audience who would likely love it but be denied it because a mainstream publisher didn’t want to take the risk. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Baldip: No I do not have an agent. I personally think they would be yes.

Morgen: What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Baldip: My favourite part of writing starts off with addressing a social issue, but that soon turns to interest as the book and its characters develop. My least favourite part is the loneliness. The surprising part is when my characters have taken the lead.

Morgen: I’m lucky in that respect, I don’t get lonely especially at the moment as I have two lodgers so I get to be alone in the day and then have them around in the evenings. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Baldip: Stick to it and not give up!

Morgen: Absolutely, because you don’t know if success is just round the corner. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Baldip: One of them has to be Shakespeare! The others would be Gandhi and Churchill. I would serve Indian food, (simply because that is all I know) and of course I would make sure to hide the containers!

Morgen: Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Baldip: I would say ‘self-enpowerment’!

Morgen: That works for me. What do you do when you’re not writing?

Baldip: Yes, I am also an artist and have had various small exhibitions of my artwork in local libraries. I am also a Scrabble player and play in national tournaments.

Morgen: Oh wow. My mum and aunt play Scrabble most evenings. I join in when I’m there. Are there any writing-related websites and / or books that you find useful?

Baldip: I believe Facebook and Twitter, for starters, will have websites related to writing. Others sites I am exploring.

Morgen: There are so many writers on those two sites. If you do a search for #writing on Twitter you’ll see an almost constant stream of people talking about writing. Put a hash before any topic and it’ll likely come up with something. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

Baldip: Yes amongst a few… writers and authors circle on LinkedIn, affiliated authors group, write connections, book marketing, published authors network, celebritize yourself…

Morgen: LinkedIn’s great, isn’t it. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Baldip: Very bleak I am afraid. There is more work, rejections to be expected. Also as the digital world is taking over…

Morgen: Which can be a great thing for, as an example, your works of short stories. Where can we find out about you and your writing?

Baldip: My books are available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk and I am in the midst of creating my website which would include my works, etc.

Morgen: I’d recommend WordPress but then I am biased. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Baldip: Yes, I am sure that readers would find my book Maelstrom an interesting read!

Morgen: Thank you, Baldip.

I then invited Baldip to include a synopsis of one of her books…

Maelstrom is a novel that gives insight and understanding of the human psyche by relating events and emotions that have been extravagantly and dramatically expressed by me. The book is set in London in present times with flashbacks to a troubled state in India. Maelstrom is a multi-genre novel that covers psychology, crime, romance politics and mystery:

Physiological genre – it studies characters state of mind when interacting with internal / external influences.

Crime – ranges from light-hearted misunderstanding to sinister darker plots that involve murder.

Mystery – a vital piece of information is withheld from the reader.

Romance – The novel shows a pure and dark side to love.

Political – Has philanthropist characters who are actively engaged in highlighting and promoting human welfare.

*

Baldip Kaur is a British Indian but was born in Egypt but has lived in England for the most part. Her literary forte was latent till about 12 years ago when she embarked on her literary journey by painting, as a hobby, in oils and has had many exhibitions of her artwork in the local libraries. Her first work, which was published in 2002, is a book of her artwork and poetry titled ‘Visual Reflections’ which is on sale on Amazon.

She is inspired by social issues so decided to have oppression and injustice as the theme of ‘Kismet’. Her first novel. Her third novel ‘Fanish’, due out in 2013, was inspired by an incident that took place locally involving a man who had kidnapped a young girl. And themd of the novel is sex and drug trafficking whilst touching on paedophilia and incest.

‘Maelstrom’s’ her second novel has been published recently and is available on Amazon.

Baldip is writing her fourth novel which… although fictional it is based around the events surrounding the Tsunami that hit Asia on Boxing Day and in which lives where lost and others made homeless.

Update February 2013: “My third book, ‘Fanish’, is being published soon… in fact I am expecting the first copy any day, but the details of the book isbn etc can only be given later on or when I get the book. However, I can give you a little background to the book:

Fanish is the name of the central character and is a novel about Vanita and Gazal who are vulnerable girls abused and neglected by their families. They are befriended by Fanish who uses his hypnotic charm to draw them into his web of international drug and sex trafficking. He becomes their confidant and companion and as so often happens with defenceless children, they blossom in confidence. They are caught in his web of deceit and subsequently realise that his intention had only been to exploit their feeling of powerlessness and wounded trust in adults. Fanish highlights the realism that without concerned adults, children can easily be trapped and exploited whilst illustrating the trauma the victims undergo; the scars they leave which in turn inflame reprisal.”

Congratulations, Baldip.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.569 with debut novelist Andy Holmes

Welcome to the five hundred and sixty-ninth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with debut novelist Andy Holmes. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Andy. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Andy: Hi Morgen, thanks for chatting to me today. My name’s Andy Holmes, I’m 32, I live in Buckinghamshire in England. I’ve worked in the media for most of my career, I’ve broadcast to most of The Midlands and the South West, but have always enjoyed writing and always wanted to write a novel. Four years ago I had some spare time when I moved down to Cornwall, so I wrote a first draft in a couple of weeks. Since then I’ve been polishing, polishing, polishing and doing more polishing until November 1st, 2012 when I was finally ready to self-publish my first e-novel, ‘Always the DJ’ via the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing format.

Morgen: It’s great hearing that you’ve always wanted to write a novel, and that you’ve done something about it already. So many people say they’ve always wanted to but left it until they’ve retired and then wished they’d done it earlier. 300 words a day is a 100,000-word novel in a year and really, we can all find the time for 300 words. Which authors would you compare your writing to?

Andy: As this is my first self-published novel, I think it’s too early for me to compare my writing to others. I do have a number of writers I look up to, David Nobbs and Tony Parsons in particular, but like all writers I think I’m looking for my own voice and hopefully finding it.

Morgen: I’d not heard of David Nobbs until Jane Wenham-Jones said she was interviewing him at the Guildford Book Festival in October. I went to the festival on the Friday but unfortunately couldn’t stay until the Monday but I’m sure it was brilliant. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Andy: I’ve been really busy with trying to publicise ‘Always the DJ’ of late, but the plan is to probably be working on something new in early 2013. A lot will depend on the success or otherwise of ‘ATD’, if it’s a flop I certainly won’t give up, but I think as a writer if you’re given encouragement from others who tell you that they want to read me, well it’s certainly a bigger incentive to get back on the computer again. I’ve got ideas for a couple more novels at present, ‘ATD’ was very much focussed on my experiences from working as a mobile DJ, but I’ve got what I hope is a great idea for a novel based around the radio industry that I want to work on soon and develop.

Morgen: Please don’t give up. My sales are a trickle and whilst I don’t technically do much self-promotion (I’ve been waiting until I have a couple of novel out) I know this blog is great at getting my name out and I do hope it’ll push the sales up but I enjoy it either way, and like you, will never give up. We shouldn’t, because we just don’t know what’s round the corner. If we have the passion, we’ll find we couldn’t if we wanted to. Do you manage to write every day, or ever suffer from writer’s block?

Andy: When I’m not working on something I tend not to write for weeks and months at a time. I make films for a living, write for a magazine called 72m (http://seventy2minutes.com/blog/72m), and do the odd bit of amateur dramatics on the side too. And I’m trying to get more media related work to boot, so I tend to scratch my inner creative itch on a regular basis anyway. But when I’m writing something I’ll do my best to add little bits on a daily basis, and then I often find (as with ‘ATD’) that the main body of the work tends to spew out quickly and then it’s a case of working out what’s worth keeping and what should be removed.

Morgen: I’m lucky in that respect, that it ‘spews’. Hopefully you don’t have to remove too much. Whenever I hear authors say they delete huge chunks my heart sinks as I wonder whether it could have been used later, or elsewhere. This is where cut / paste should come in. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Andy: I’ve got better at planning as I’ve got older. Even at school when we were encouraged to plan essays I’d tend to just get on with, and kept up that approach at Uni. I’ve written enough, both professionally and as a hobby, to trust in myself in that respect that even if I just write with no real plan, then what comes out at the end will at least be something salvageable. But for ‘ATD’ I certainly mapped out a basic storyline, chapter by chapter, and as my experience of writing’s gone on I’m spending more time on fleshing out characters before starting to write.

Morgen: Most authors I’ve interviewed have been pantsers. It works for me too… besides, those who do plot tend to say that it goes off at a tangent anyway, usually because of the characters. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

Andy: I find names the hardest part for some reason, I can’t imagine how bad I’m going to be when I have kids one day. I think it’s quite tricky to come up with believable names, so often characters end up being named after people I know, even if it’s an amalgamation of one’s surname and another’s first. So far, I’ve tend to at least base my writing on my own life experience, taking things that have happened to me, and then embellishing the tale to make a better end result and it’s certainly often been the same with character creation. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nobody in ‘ATD’ who is a carbon copy of either myself or anyone I know, but again there’s amalgamations based on the type of people I’ve met. That probably helps to make them believable and I’m always convinced it’s better to write about what you know than to dip into the unknown. However, this for me is the start of my journey as a writer, my first experience of producing something that’s viewed as a product and not just something I’ve written for fun. So hopefully the feedback I get from putting it out there, will help develop my skills and if I’m still writing in a decades time (and I see no reason why I wouldn’t) then I’ll certainly be a better writer and hopefully better at plucking new characters out of my imagination.

Morgen: They do say to write what you know but I usually have bodies in my stories and I’ve certainly only bumped people off in fiction but we’ve watched enough TV, read enough books and surf the internet enough to be able to imagine, and that’s half the fun. Feedback is so important. I have two pages on my blog for this (http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/reviews for a list reviewers and http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/feedback for feedback from writers / readers, especially for works-in-progress – you’ll have to let me know if you’d like to be added to the latter for novel number two). Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Andy: In my view the hard bit is getting the bulk of the story down on paper. Once that’s done I actually quite enjoy the nitty gritty of the editing process. It’s the same when I edit films, the actual shooting is fine, but the real kick comes from chopping it up, ripping it apart and then slowly but surely putting all the parts in the right places for a decent end result. And I have the same approach to editing any written work I’ve done, it’s often a lonely process, no-one else can do it for you, but the more you polish, surely the more confident you’ll be in the end result, knowing that you’ve taken your time to make it as good as possible. Being still an amateur writer, agent-less and self publishing I also have a couple of people I trust to run a couple of edits along the way, which I also think is crucial as you need someone, who isn’t right in the middle of process, to be able to step back and view the material with fresh eyes.

Morgen: I found that when doing audio interviews for my podcast – the hard work began once the recording was done, and the same’s true for my novels; whilst my flash fiction is pretty much done when it comes out, I usually edit the novels between four and seven times because I invariable spot something when going through it (or someone else does). Do you have to do much research?

Andy: So far I’ve mainly written about things I have a decent knowledge of. However, I certainly have the web on hand to fill in any gaps or to give me details on anything I may have forgotten.

Morgen: Isn’t it great that we have that resource. Do you write any poetry, non-fiction or short stories?

Andy: I’ve written the odd piece of poetry, it’s certainly a cathartic process to get the words down on paper about various experiences I’ve been through, but I regard those as very personal at this point so I’m not keen to have them as anything more than just for me. I’ve written for newspapers, fanzines and obviously for 72m magazine along the way, and have often had jobs where writing has been at the core of my work, be it copy for news bulletins, press releases or even writing jokes for a comedy prep services (didn’t make much money out of that one but good for the CV!!). I’ve also written a whole load of plays, sitcoms and other more acting based work, but again at this point most of that is more for my own amusement.

Morgen: I do think (and sometimes say) that writing, like playing the piano, like anything else, is all about practice. The more we do something, the better we get at it, the more confident we become and the more we enjoy it. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Andy: I’ve written a lot of different things over the last ten years and I never throw anything away.

Morgen: I’m so glad to hear that.

Andy: I guess I’m a believer that a half idea when you’re twenty, could well become THE idea when you’re thirty for instance, and certainly aspects of ‘ATD’ are taken from earlier work that I’d written, but then dismissed at the time. I also think there’s the argument, that various bits that you’ve written, should you ever hit the writing jackpot and become a ‘name’, will suddenly acquire a certain value in themselves so it’s always wise to have a back catalogue.

Morgen: You can certainly go back and see where a piece needs fixing. Like anything we’ve written, once some time has passed, we’ve forgotten it (and the intention behind it) enough to read it as someone else would. I wrote my second novel in 2009 so it’s fun going back through it… it’s also like meeting friends I haven’t seen for a while. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Andy: Like most self-published authors, I’m no stranger to rejection, certainly ‘ATD’ has been round a few literary agents in the past couple of years with no success. That’s obviously never easy, but having worked in such a competitive industry as the media, I’m aware that the rejection is never personal, and it’s often less a case of the end product not being good enough, and more the fact that there are so many people jostling for publishers attentions that it’s very hard to stand out. I get the impression from talking to other authors that you need 99 percent luck to make it, and often the actual agents themselves won’t even see your manuscripts. You’ll have maybe one page to grab the attention of an intern and if you don’t, it doesn’t matter if the next 250 are world-beaters, you’ll end up on the slush pile. At least with self-publishing I’m the master, to an extent, of my own destiny, and if this method provides me with a chance to build up a following that will make me more desirable to agents, then that’s an added bonus.

Morgen: Absolutely. These days it’s all about marketing and having an audience listening to you. How much marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Andy: Having worked in the media and also public relations I’ve got, I hope, a fair idea of how the process works and also have, I hope, a number of contacts that I can get in touch with when I’m publishing a piece of work. I would say social media is making it a lot easier, certainly a lot cheaper for self-publishers to market their wares, the only drawback to that being, that again with so many self-publishers using Twitter for instance, it’s again quite hard to stand out. But at least, by scratching a few backs, you can quickly build up an online following, and a platform to promote what you’re doing. I’ve certainly put a lot of planning into the PR for ‘ATD’, I made sure I spent a month before launch teasing my potential audience in an effort to build up a bigger buzz. Only time will tell how effective this has been, I’m sure I’ll have made mistakes along the way, but also reckon I’ll have learnt for next time too.

Morgen: Word of mouth is probably the best form of advertising. If a reviewer loves your book then they have a captive audience who’ll go and check you out… apparently it’s how Fifty Shades got its break. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Andy: The hardest part is the loneliness of it all, needing the discipline to almost lock yourself away to get on with it. In that respect I’m lucky being single, as I’m not sure what the balance would have to be like if I had a wife and kids for instance, but those two things are certainly in my long term plan so I’d imagine at some point that will become an issue. But it does often feel like you’re climbing a mountain when you restart an edit for instance, but ultimately that’s a sacrifice all writers have to make, because you need an end product that you’re confident in being able to sell. My favourite parts are reading passages back, say if you haven’t looked at them for a while, and thinking to yourself, ‘Yeah that’s pretty good, and I wrote that’, I’m also looking forward to the buzz (even if it’s just from a few people) when readers contact me and say ‘hey I liked that!’

Morgen: Being single does help, although being so busy means not getting out to do anything about it. Since I’m so passionate about writing I have my heart set on meeting a writer; another excuse to go to conferences and festivals. Another writer would understand why you have to shut yourself away and what you flinging your arms around and staring out the window means. There’s nothing better than getting reader feedback. Friends will (probably) say they like what you’ve written but strangers don’t have to, and when they take the trouble to, it makes all the hard graft even more worthwhile. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Andy: In three words, go for it. In a slightly longer answer, if it’s something you have a passion for, there’s nothing to stop you. You HAVE to have that passion, and like most vocations relating to being creative and the arts, you have to be prepared to work VERY hard in the beginning for little or no money or professional regard. I’m at the start of the journey myself, in ten years I could be the next big thing, or I could be just someone who published a couple of e-novels before getting on with the rest of my life. But for all of us, we’ll never know until we try, so once you’ve polished, polished and polished some more, when you have a product that you feel is worth reading, get it out there and see what happens.

Morgen: Or somewhere in between at the very least; publishing more novels until you make it big. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Andy: This is a tricky one as I’ve met a few people I thought of as heroes down the years, and the end result has not always been a positive one. To that end I may just be dull and say I’d invite my best mate Neil, a literary agent who has a genuine interest in my work, and why not someone like Kelly Brook to make the place look a bit nicer. I’m working on my cooking, but with all my other creative channels, it tends to be neglected so I’ll probably hide the containers from the curry house down the road.

Morgen: I think Kelly would be a popular choice, and she’s always struck me as lovely. Nothing wrong with getting a takeaway, it would give you more time to chat. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Andy: My best mate Neil is also a broadcaster, it’s how we got to know each other, and a few years ago he was on a TV programme in the South West with John Nettles of Bergerac and Midsomer Murders fame. During the programme, for some reason unknown to him or us since, Neil uttered the phrase ‘you’ve got to power on basically’ when finishing the answer to a question from Mr Nettles. And it’s kind of stuck for both of us as being a motto for modern life, we’ve yet to get it trendy on Twitter though!!

Morgen: It’s all about the hash tags. I’m rubbish at remembering to add hash tags. What do you do when you’re not writing? Any hobbies or party tricks?

Andy: I’m definitely one of those people that can’t sit down for more than about thirty seconds so there’s always plenty going on. Work keeps me busy, there’s the Amateur dramatics, occasional bits of compering, having one eye on more media work, and I like to stay fit as well, so there’s normally a few games of football per week. When it comes to party tricks I’m fairly normal really, unless you count sober karaoke as a party trick.

Morgen: If you can sing, I’d say so. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Andy: The web and social media has changed everything. It used to be that everyone could be a writer, but it was hard to get the platform to do it, these days there are platforms everywhere you look and you can set yourself up as a blogger in about five minutes. It’s still hard to stand out and get noticed though, in the past that was due to the lack of opportunities, nowadays it’s the opposite and you very much need a gimic or a lot of luck to get attention. I’m tempted to say that the quality of writing has gone down now everyone has at least the chance to do it, having said that though, the really strong writers, as with all walks of life, will rise to the top eventually.

Morgen: When I first started blogging (with a .blogspot equivalent of this) I did nothing with it and therefore had 372 visits in a year and a bit. When I decided to set this one up, I deleted the other one and made sure I blogged at least once a week (the recommended minimum). Having so many guests involved means I blog 2-4 times a day so have just celebrated 100,000 visits in <20 months but it’s a full-time job (and then some). Something in between would be something to aim for. Blogs are great and are easy to set up, if you’re technologically-minded. I design them (especially for other authors) and some just don’t want to spend the time finding out so because I don’t charge much (£50) to get it up and running, it means they can get on with their writing, which is what we are all about. Where can we find out about you and your writing?

Andy: The best place at the moment is on Twitter where you can follow me @andyholmesmedia. That’ll keep you up to speed with what I’m doing and any future plans that I have. You can of course, also get a copy of ‘Always the DJ’ by following this link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Always-the-DJ-ebook/dp/B009XRNO3Q (UK) and http://www.amazon.com/Always-the-DJ-ebook/dp/B009XRNO3Q (outside UK). Thanks very much for talking to me Morgen, best of luck with the website.

Morgen: You’re very welcome, thank you, Andy. Let me know if you create a blog / website and I’ll gladly add the link.

I then invited Andy to include a synopsis of his book…

What would you do if you were a part-time DJ, but the rest of your existence was like a record, playing at the wrong speed?

You’re pushing thirty, in a dead end job, your best friend’s living with a meathead, whilst your own romantic situation is more problematic than trying to play a CD on a turntable!!

Meet Alex Smith, available for weddings, parties and bar mitzvahs, NOT available for sorting his own life out!!

***

Andy Holmes lives in Buckinghamshire and has more than a decades worth of experience in the media, including print, radio and now video. He’s got a drama degree that he swears he’s going to use one day, and writes for 72m magazine when he’s not making films. In his spare time you’ll find him following Hereford United round the lower reaches of the football pyramid, and you can follow him yourself on Twitter @andyholmesmedia.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

5am Flash: Indie Author Books – Children’s & YA

Having seen one of my interviewees Rosanne Dingli say on a LinkedIn thread: “someone should write a blog soon about all the wonderful indie books available by very capable writers”, I challenged them to give me a <15-word synopsis for their book(s)… they are accepting the challenge and their books are appearing here. What I’m after is your name (listed within each section alphabetically by first name), your website / blog address, book title, book link (where we can buy it), genre and summary in no more than 15 words (a test of your editing skills ). You can email me these details for up to 5 of your books (please don’t paste them into this page’s comments section). My free and $0.99-$2.99 eBooks are detailed on the Books – mine page.

Fiction – children’s / Y.A.

• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Bob Frey: Guide to Seldom Seen Animals (children’s picture book) – helps explain in humorous ways some of the curious things that happen in everyday life.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• C.V. Smith: Nettie Parker’s Backyard ((ages 9-13) multi-cultural historical-fiction) – magical African-American woman symbolizes tolerance caring for eight Holocaust children in war-torn London.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• E.R. Yatscoff: Archie’s Gold (juvenile fiction, mystery) – when shoeshine boy Archie finds stolen gold coins in his money tin, danger begins.
• Out On A Limb (juvenile fiction, suspense) – two mischievous boys + Egghead, a mean old man + a tree house = trouble.
• Ransom (juvenile fiction, suspense) – three friends face off against a larger gang in a suspenseful story of integrity, bravery, and friendship.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Erica Miner: FourEver Friends (young adult) – in the 1960s four teenage girls bond over raging hormones and their love for music. Available in paperback..
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Felicia Johnson: Shuck, shuck, shuck (children’s literature) – children learn creativity, sound recognition, and self-confidence at outdoor play as expressed by one character, Hania.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Fiona Ingram: The Secret of the Sacred Scarab – adventure abounds when two boys find an ancient scarab on their first day in Egypt.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Fiona Veitch Smith: David and the Hairy Beast (bible-based picture book) – can young David save the sheep from the Hairy Beast?
• David and the Kingmaker (bible-based picture book) – will the Prophet Samuel find the next king of Israel?
• Donovon’s Rainbow (chapter book for 6-8s) – can Donovon Dove outwit the evil Raven to save Noah’s Ark?
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Henry, Josh & Harrison Herts: Nimpentoad (children’s fantasy) – beautifully illustrated children’s fantasy that discourages bullying, and promotes teamwork, creativity, perseverance and teamwork (available from both websites).
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Jerry Mullinax: Enoree (Young Adult fiction) – in 1950’s South, eight-year-old Jake secretly befriends Josiah, a black boy across the Enoree River.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Katherine L. Holmes: The House in Windward Leaves (middle grade fantasy) – the wayward Sadie leads her friends into an enchantment where their costumes become real.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Kathryn Elizabeth Jones: A River of Stones (YA fiction) – the divorce of a young girl’s parents gives Samantha an opportunity to grow.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• K. S. Brooks: Postcards from Mr. Pish, Mr. Pish’s Woodland Adventure, and The Mighty Oak and Me (fun educational) – children’s picture books promoting outdoor learning and literacy.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Lesley Fletcher: All I Want for Christmas is a Wishmas Tree – imagine the wistfulness and envy that children who do not celebrate Christmas feel as every street is filled with lights, seasonal music is playing and gifts being exchanged.Emphasis on inter-cultural traditions and family.
• Hey Angel! – by envisioning this friendly and loving angel children can feel secure that ‘someone’ is always with them. They will soon learn that the someone is themselves.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Mary Ellen Ryall: My Name is Butterfly (children’s illustrated book) – discover the world of Monarch butterflies about a young girl’s summer in her enchanted garden.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Mollie Carson-Vollath: Terrence O’Ferret (children’s illustrated non-fiction) – the story of how a girl discovered ferrets and got one for her very own.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Omoruyi Uwuigiaren: The City Heroes and Other Stories from the Heart of Africa (children’s) – suitable for middle grade readers, the stories within the collection contain messages and themes about forgiveness, charity, redemption and loyalty all from a decidedly African perspective.
• The Adventures of Nihu (children’s) – Nihu is sucked into a world inside of a stone, visits a powerful ruler in an underwater city, and makes friends with a group of refugees only a hero could love.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Nancy Di Fabbio: Midnight Magic – Be Careful What You Wish For! (juvenile fiction) – spooky thriller about a haunted painting, a phantom horse and the girl who loves him.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Nick Orsini: Fingerless Gloves (young adult fiction/urban fiction) – Tonight will be the most difficult night in 25-year-old Anton Duchamp’s life.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Penny Ross: Cave of Journeys (chapter book for 9 & over) – three friends journey back in time to discover legends and retrieve stories of Canadian history. Available in paperback and for the Kindle.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Roger Mortimer: Eagles’ Revenge (children’s) – the Rat-Kind are plotting to wipe out the Mouse Kingdom of Carminel.
• Eagle Warrior (children’s) – in the distant mouse kingdom of Carminel, a terrible civil war has broken out.
• The Ruby of Carminel (children’s) – the island of Carminel lies in peril.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Samni Ghani: The shoe, the necklace and the Giant (children’s) – this is an adventure story about four children and their encounter with a Giant.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Sherrill S. Cannon: Gimme-Jimmy (children’s picture book) – Jimmy is a bully whose favorite word is “Gimme”, and who has to learn to share.
• The Magic Word (children’s picture book) – Elisabeth needs to learn The Magic Word “please”, and to use it every day.
• Peter and the Whimper-Whineys (children’s picture book) – Peter and the Whimper-Whineys helps parents cope with whining in a fun way.
• Santa’s Birthday Gift (children’s picture book) – after reading a story of the nativity to a grandchild, she asked “But where’s Santa?”.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• SL Dwyer (and blog): Dirt (YA & adults, available on Amazon and Smashwords) – it’s 1933 and newly-orphaned Sammy begins to live a lie and all its consequences.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Stacy Juba: Dark Before Dawn (Young Adult paranormal) – ESP spells D-A-N-G-E-R when a teen psychic takes secret classes from the local fortuneteller.
• Face-Off (Young Adult (Sports)) – teenage twin brothers, stars of the high school hockey team, compete on and off the ice.
• Teddy Bear Town Children’s E-book Bundle (children’s picture book) – three picture books featuring teddy bears: The Flag Keeper, Sticker Shoes, and Victoria Rose and the Big Bad Noise.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Susan Brocker: The Wolf in the Wardrobe (middle grade fiction (ages 9-13)) – a boy rescues a wolf from a circus and keeps her as his pet.
• Dreams of Warriors (middle grade fiction (ages 9-13)) – a teenage girl battles to save the family farm while her father is away at war.
• Saving Sam (middle grade fiction (ages 9-13)) – a troubled boy and a damaged dog team up to save Sam.
• Restless Spirit (middle grade fiction (ages 9-13)) – two teenagers attempt to free a captured wild Kaimanawa stallion.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• TJ Perkins: Wound Too Tight (YA: 8-14) – cursed treasure, an enchanted watch, an evil spirit wants it back – run if you can! (available in various formats)
• Mystery of the Attic (YA: 8-14) – Melissa needs to solve an ancient murder, but the evil ghost wants to stop her. (available in various formats)
• On Forbidden Ground (sequel to Mystery of the Attic) (YA: 8-14) – Melissa is lured back to the old house to face her greatest fear alone! (available in various formats)
• Fantasies are Murder (Book 1 in the Kim & Kelly Mystery Series) (YA: 8-14) – teen detectives risk becoming the next victims at a mystery weekend resort. (available in various formats)
• Art of the Ninja: Earth (Teen) – Duncan needs to master the raging mysterious force within before he is destroyed. (available in various formats)
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here
• Vincent Miskell: Dreaming Thomas: A Fairy Tale (illustrated children’s story) – daydreaming gets Thomas into trouble, but might just win him a princess and a kingdom.
• you could have your children’s / YA book listed here

Click here for Fiction – novels & novellas

Click here for Fiction – poetry

Click here for Fiction – script

Click here for Fiction – short stories (includes flash fiction)

Click here for Non-fiction

So what I’m after is your name (listed above alphabetically by first name), your website / blog address, book title, book link (where we can buy it), genre and summary in no more than 15 words (a test of your editing skills ). You can email me these details for up to 5 of your books (please don’t paste them into this page’s comments section). My eBooks including free short stories are detailed on the Books – mine page.

Please note: the chances are that I’ve not read the books listed on this page (much as I would like to have done) so these are therefore not personal recommendations but are, in the main, by authors who I have chatted to, interviewed or got to know… even just a little bit.  Kindle Fiction on Twitter recommends a variety of eBooks and if you’ve read any eBooks you’d like to recommend then you can email suggestions to kindlesrp@gmail.com.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Author interview no.551 with children’s and thriller writer Rhys A Jones

Welcome to the five hundred and fifty-first of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with author of science fantasy and urban fantasy for children and thrillers Rhys A Jones aka R.A. Jones. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, RA. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

RA: I’m male, 56, live in Carmarthenshire in West Wales. I’m a doctor of medicine by profession. Always had a burning desire to write, suppressed by all it takes to become a surgeon until I was perhaps 33. Started writing then – have done ever since.

Morgen: Life does have a habit of being consuming but congratulations for pushing it aside enough while still ‘young’ (I was 39). What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

RA: Now, I write science fantasy and urban fantasy for children mainly–but with a couple of adult MSS on the back burner. Previously, as Dylan Jones, I wrote gritty thrillers.

Morgen: I love gritty thrillers. What have you had published to-date? You mentioned your pseudonym…

RA: As Dylan Jones, 4 adult thrillers–with Random House / Corgi. As RA Jones 2 children’s / YA with Lucky Bat Books.

Morgen: You’ve also self-published, what lead to you going your own way?

RA: I’m self-publishing the children’s stuff. Needed a new name / fresh start. Finally gave up on trying the normal submission route when an Editor from Hodder and Stoughton told me they loved the book (the Obsidian Pebble) but that their list was only doing YA vampire books for the foreseeable future. Life’s too short.

Morgen: Ouch (and dare I say very single-minded of them). Are your books available as eBooks? How involved were you in that process? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

RA: Yes–Random House have started to release the thrillers as Ebooks at last (10 years later). The MG/YA books are ebooks, with one series ebook only, the other ebook and POD. Very involved with the ebook–but Lucky bat do all the heavy lifting. I have a kindle and I use it — 50/50.

Morgen: “heavy lifting”, I love that. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?

RA: Two of my thrillers were made into TV films–Jonathan Pryce took the lead role in Thicker Than Water. Danielle Nardini was the lead in Outside The Rules.

As for the kids books which is what I’m concentrating on now I have not dared think. Maybe Judi Dench would be a great Granny Merryweather in Dreables. (Let’s hope she doesn’t read this)

Morgen: With Jonathan Pryce playing a lead role previously, I’d say “let’s hope she is reading this”. Did you have any say in the titles / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?

RA: I was always asked to approve the paperback covers. With the RA Jones books–I’m very hands on—initial ideas to the artist and work develops from there. I think that they are very important as first impressions.

Morgen: They are, absolutely, and yours are great (I’m not just saying that). What are you working on at the moment / next?

RA: As mentioned, I have two series ongoing. The second in the Artefact series–The Beast of Seabourne is in editing, the second of The Merryweathers Mysteries, The Curse of Borage-Doone has just come out as ebook only.

Morgen: Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

RA: I do write every day. No, I do not have writers block. I get writer’s constipation, but I always manage to work it out with a pencil. (Sorry)

Morgen: That’s OK. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

RA: Plot. The Artefact series is a quintet and so I have timelines and character arcs and plot threads on huge pieces of flip chart paper. Have to for that. But always I have a working detailed synopsis with a known ending–regardless of which book it is.

Morgen: You’re one of a minority, most of us are ‘pantsers’ but writing series, you must have to be more structured. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

RA: Names are pretty random, and will often change from first draft to last. I tend to fall into the trap of using the same letter a lot, but I am aware of that. To make them believable–you need to engage the reader by giving the characters believable histories, qualities and personalities and let this drive the action.

Morgen: I keep wanting to call all my characters Elliott, as a first or surname. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

RA: All first drafts are ***t. That’s not me, that’s Hemingway–but I tend to agree. And no, my writing is not more fully formed. But I know that the rewriting is what will knock it into shape and I have the confidence of knowing that now.

Morgen: Absolutely, me too with mine. Do you have to do much research?

RA: Yes. Hours online, trying to avoid the shiny little things that distract me. But the great thing about fantasy is that it is all made up! Nevertheless, where detail is needed, I do research it thoroughly.

Morgen: And best to or someone will pick up on a flaw. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

RA: I’m a limited third person viewpoint author. I love the intimacy and immediacy this gets you–especially for the age group I write for.

Never tried second person–YET!

Morgen: Oh do, it’s great fun and can be quite dark (although best kept for short pieces). Do you write any poetry, non-fiction or short stories?

RA: No. I’m a fan of short stories though. MR James is one of my all time favourites as is Conan Doyle.

Morgen: Both classics (literally). Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

RA: Lots. Do you have a WC that needs papering?

Morgen: My bathroom upstairs is tiled but I’ll let you know about the downstairs WC. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

RA: Lots. I deal with them now by understanding that the industry is driven by zeitgeist. Bandwagon jumping is not a good idea and that you should be true to yourself. The great thing about self-publishing is that you soon get to know if what you’re doing is actually any good. Amazon and reviews in general are a pretty good barometer. For instance, I wanted to prove to myself that I could actually write for this age group and from what I’ve had back so far, it looks as if I can. So I am sticking to the road map and I have a long way to go to get a platform established and get more work out there.

Morgen: I agree about reviews and that’s how I think authors will fare, although I know of two (one personally and one from a recent newspaper article who write their own… using their own names!). Do you enter competitions? Are there any you could recommend?

RA: I haven’t yet, but I am considering this one this year: http://www.epicorg.com/competitions/epics-ebook-awards.html.

Morgen: How funny, my interviewee yesterday, Sarah Ettritch, mentioned EPIC. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

RA: No I do not. Not anymore. You still have to do almost everything yourself in terms of promo.

Morgen: You do. I’ve only had one author say their publisher does all their marketing but she’s still active on Twitter and Facebook. It was announced that she’d recently sold her 1,000,000th book – I wonder if that’s down to either of both. How marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

RA: A lot. I have employed a few people to help get me established as a web presence. Fiverr is a great site for getting Squidoo lenses, SEO, Bookmarks etc, wordpress blogs etc (that’s what you do, right?). I know, but I couldn’t speak Internetese until a few months ago either.

Morgen: It is, yes, although I have WordPress and Blogspot blogs, I’d recommend WP every time, and that’s all I design for other people. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

RA: Favourite part is reading something that my characters do that moves me. Always a surprise to learn that it works. Least favourite–the first page of the first draft and that ‘I must be bloody mad’ moment.

Surprised me? Yes, when people say nice things about what I’m doing and actually get what I’m trying to say.

Morgen: I love that too, especially when they take the trouble to email. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

RA: Don’t think that you can just put any old rubbish out there.  If you’re not part of a writing group, employ beta readers (ELANCE) and Editors. It costs money, but it will do two things.

1/ Tell you if you are actually any good at this.

2/ Make what you’ve written infinitely better.

Morgen: And 3/ come up with some great other suggestions (which I suppose fits in to 2/ too). Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

RA: Magic is just our inability to understand technology. I’m paraphrasing Arthur C Clark

Morgen: “Any technology beyond our own would seem like magic to us.” Thank you http://www.halexandria.org/dward455.htm. What do you do when you’re not writing? Any hobbies or party tricks?

RA: Ha. I walk the hills around us. I’m a dozen miles from the Brecon Beacon National Park and we have two dogs. ‘nuff said.

Morgen: How lovely. I’m just round the corner from an old racecourse and get there as often as I do because of my dog. Are there any writing-related websites and / or books that you find useful?

RA: The Creative Penn, kindle-for-kids, advancedfictionwriting.

Morgen: Joanna Penn again. Sarah mentioned her site too. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

RA: Bookbloggers and Kindle forums. I subscribe but actually use them very rarely. Similarly, I have decided not to blog about writing. I think that you can spend a lot of time blogging to authors, not your audience.

Morgen: You can but authors read too… or if they don’t, they should (pot, kettle, black – I don’t read nearly enough). What do you think the future holds for a writer?

RA: Interesting times. My genre may be the last one that stays with paper as the target audience are disenfranchised when it comes to purchasing. But ebooks will need to offer more to attract readers. How and what, I am not sure yet.

Morgen: A great time to be an author (despite the huge competition), I feel. Where can we find out about you and your writing?

RA: www.rajonesauthor.com.

Morgen: Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

RA: No, but I will consider a second person viewpoint piece, promise.

Morgen: Oh yes, please do. It’s an acquired taste but I’ve acquired it. Thank you, RA.

Update from R.A. since our interview took place: The Obsidian pebble has been taken off Amazon because I’ve signed a deal with a small press called Spencer Hill Books which will be re-releasing OP in October of next year, with the others in the series to follow. As I said in the interview,  I just felt that there is a need to somehow get through to the gatekeepers — librarians / teachers / parents — to get your book known in middle grade because the target audience aren’t always the ones buying the books. I’ve also re branded as Rhys A Jones because of googlganger issues with another RA Jones. Having said that, I’ve just signed too for Spence City — the adult urban fantasy branch fo the Spencer Hill family and have a book coming out with them in Feb 2014 under the pseudonym DCFarmer. www.dcfarmer.com.

Update February 2013:

1/ We are relaunching the whole series including the Obsidian Pebble with a new publisher in October this year.

2/ I am now Rhys A Jones as opposed to R A Jones. Because of a couple of authors with similar names. Curse of googlegangers.

3/ The Obsidian Pebble has just won The Sharp Writ YA book of 2012 award.

Morgen: Congratulations, Rhys.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

My debut novel is out!

I’m finally doing something with the novels.  I’ve written four and a bit, currently writing my sixth for NaNoWriMo 2012. The ‘bit’ by the way is a conversion of a 102-page script I wrote for the now-defunct Script Frenzy back in April 2010.

The first one, which is my one and only chick lit novel, and the third novel I wrote, has now gone live. The Serial Dater’s Shopping List’s tagline and synopsis go like this:

• 31 men in 31 days – what could possibly go wrong?
• Isobel MacFarlane is a recently-turned-40 journalist who usually writes a technology column for a newspaper based in Northampton, England, but her somewhat-intimidating boss, William, has set her the task of meeting 31 men, via a local internet dating site, all within a month. Having an active, though fruitless, social life with her friend and ‘Health & Beauty’ colleague Donna, she knows what she wants in a man, so creates a shopping list of dos and don’ts, and starts ticking them off as she meets Mr Could Be Right Except For, Mr Not Bad, Mr Oh My Goodness and Mr Oh So Very Wrong. Follow the ups (there are a few) and downs (there are many) of the dating process and intertwined with her experiences, get to know her colleague and family, including her niece Lola who, apart from being an amazing storyteller, can eat ambidextrously whilst wearing a Princess glove puppet on her right hand, and Baby, William’s non-too-healthy African Grey parrot.

It’s now available on Amazon.co.uk (c.£2), and Amazon.com and Smashwords (c.$3) and will be on iTunes, B&N etc. shortly.

My other novels are:

• ‘After Jessica’ a general fiction novella about a woman’s death – and her complicated life (this will come out later this month)
• ‘Hitman Sam’ a lad-lit novella about a trainee hitman (hopefully due out by Christmas)
• ‘The Personal Trainer’ a lad-lit novella about a very personal trainer (which will be out next year)
• ‘Once Perfect’, the current (dark crime) novel-in-progress (which will be out next year)

 

Author interview no.541 with writer and White House correspondent Fred Lucas

Welcome to the five hundred and forty-first of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with non-fiction author Fred Lucas. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Fred. It’s great that you could join me today. Please tell us something about yourself.

Fred: I am the White House correspondent for CNSNews.com, and have reported on politics for more than a dozen years.

Morgen: You write non-fiction, how do you decide what to write about?

Fred: As a news reporter, I generally write about breaking events. During that time, the political impact of talk radio was evident, and I wanted to explore the roots of that. It is not something that can be explored in a short article, or even a long article. And considering the popularity of political talk radio, I thought it would produce a lot of interest.

Morgen: Is your book, The Right Frequency, available as an eBook? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Fred: Yes. It’s available on Kindle. And yes, I read e-books. But I haven’t given up on the old fashioned books yet.

Morgen: Very few people I’ve spoken to have. Most are like me, where I read paper books at home but take my iPad with me when I go away. Did you have any say in the titles / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?

Fred: I did have a say in the title. There were some suggestions between myself and History Publishing Company. I’m happy to say they went with my suggestion. It wasn’t my first suggestion, and the give and take helped improve on the title I had considered.

Morgen: I think it’s vital to have a second opinion on anything, especially editing the writing, because we’re always too close and as the cliché goes, two heads are better than one. Apart from spotting anomalies, my editor and first readers come up with some great suggestions, which clearly worked for you too. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Fred: I spent about nine months writing the book, and never really suffered writer’s block. It was so much fun to research and write about all these interesting characters that have dominated the airwaves for so many decades. The remarkable thing about talk radio is that it not only survived but thrived during so many different media revolutions.

Morgen: They said when the television came out that it would threaten the existence of cinema and, although it’s had a bumpy ride over the years it’s thriving now too. With so many gadgets on which to watch, read and listen it’s a great time to be an author, reader, viewer. Thank you again so much for taking time out for myself and my readers. It’s much appreciated.

I then invited Fred to provide a synopsis of his book…

American politics was transformed from the time a WABC manager told Rush Limbaugh, “You’re kidding yourself if you think we’ll ever carry your national show,” to the day an establishment Republican senator griped “talk radio is running America.” Limbaugh ignited a new generation of talkers such as Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck helping to define the Conservative movement. But Rush can’t take all the credit, the story begins much earlier. It began with Walter Winchell and Bob Grant. This is the remarkable story.

***

Fred Lucas, the White House correspondent for CNSNews.com. He is also a contributing editor for Townhall Magazine and has written for The Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, Human Events, The Washington Times and the New York Post. Before going to Washington, he reported on state capitols in Kentucky and Connecticut. He earned his Master’s at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Bachelor’s at Western Kentucky University. He lives in Fredericksburg, Va. with his wife Basia.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

5PM Fiction 150: He’ll know what to do

Welcome to the one hundred and fiftieth in this daily series that is ‘5pm Fiction’.

Late April 2011 I discovered http://StoryADay.org and the project that is to write 31 stories in 31 days. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog, knows how passionate I am about short stories so my clichéd eyes lit up at this new marvel. And just a few days later there I was, breathing life into new characters. This went on to become (with some editing of course) my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011.

I was nearing completion of the 2012 project when I decided that I didn’t want to stop at the end of May so 5PM Fiction was born. I put a load of prompts on the 5PM Fiction page and today’s was to write a monologue prompt of ‘fortune’, so here is my 294-worder.

He’ll know what to do

They all warn me it’s my fortune he’s after but I won’t listen. He loves me, really he does. Besides, it’s mine to do with as I wish and with him being older than me… almost twice my age… he’ll know what to do with it.

He was my dad’s Bank Manager so he’s going to be good with money, isn’t he? Says he has some investments in mind but they’ll tie up my money for a few years, but that’s fine. What do I need it for? The house is all paid for, I have everything I need already. It’s not how I want it yet, it was mum’s taste, not mine, but Teddy likes it, so… Teddy’s my fiancé by the way, Edward Thomas. Doesn’t like me calling him Teddy so I don’t when he can hear me but it’s better than Edward or Eddie. Eddie’s common, like a binman and Edward is too stiff, but then he is a banker, takes things too seriously sometimes, has a sort of worried look but it’ll be alright once we get married.

Everything will be ok once the kids come along. Teddy says he doesn’t want any but I know he’ll change his mind. Besides the house is too big for just the two of us, and what am I going to do all day? But then I’m not going to look after them, we’ll get a nanny to do that, an old one like Mary Poppins or better still that Nanny McFee. Don’t want Eddie getting to like her too much.

He should be home shortly, says he’s going to take me out to dinner, got something important to tell me. I can’t wait! I hope it’s French, haven’t had snails in ages.

***

5pm Fiction now takes a break until the New Year because I’m starting my fifth NaNoWriMo tomorrow and then (or hopefully during) will be getting some other eBooks online in December.

Photography courtesy of morguefile.com. You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books and I also have a blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

5PM Fiction 149: Easy to compare

Welcome to the one hundred and forty-ninth in this daily series that is ‘5pm Fiction’.

Late April 2011 I discovered http://StoryADay.org and the project that is to write 31 stories in 31 days. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog, knows how passionate I am about short stories so my clichéd eyes lit up at this new marvel. And just a few days later there I was, breathing life into new characters. This went on to become (with some editing of course) my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011.

I was nearing completion of the 2012 project when I decided that I didn’t want to stop at the end of May so 5PM Fiction was born. I put a load of prompts on the 5PM Fiction page and today’s was to write a story to include the following keywords: school, risk, cinema, late, old – so here is my 226-worder.

Easy to compare

Ella felt such a fool, standing outside the cinema in the pouring rain, waiting for a guy she’d never met, never even spoken to.

Her best friend Simon had nagged her to find someone and when Ella had made no sign of doing so Simon set her up on a date. An old school chum, he’d said. Wouldn’t say anymore.

Ella had gone to the same school and could only think of one guy she’d fancied – her best friend, and of course she couldn’t say anything to him.

She’d met a few guys and it was easy to compare them all but they would never be Simon. But he’d never even looked twice and they were so close yet not in the way she wanted, that she daren’t risk ruining that bond. She’d tried to forget him, her job took her away quite often but he’d always be at the back of her mind, on the end of a phone, a knock at the door.

She looked at her watch, 8.10. The film started in 5 minutes. Yes, he had to be a friend of Simon’s, because he was always late.

“Hello.”

Ella looked up, at the face of her blind date. Her heart leapt as he smiled and said, “Sorry I’m late, shall we go?”

Ella nodded without speaking and took the hand he offered, walking side-by-side by her oldest friend.

***

The 5pm Fiction slot will be taking a break (after no.150) for November and December as I’ll be embarking on my fifth NaNoWriMo. Do join me if you’re taking part too. Then I’ll have December off to upload other stuff and perhaps start editing that novel.  No.151 will be back in 1st January (or thereabouts).

Photography courtesy of morguefile.com. You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books and I also have a blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

5PM Fiction 148: Warped out of recognition

Welcome to the one hundred and forty-eighth in this daily series that is ‘5pm Fiction’.

Late April 2011 I discovered http://StoryADay.org and the project that is to write 31 stories in 31 days. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog, knows how passionate I am about short stories so my clichéd eyes lit up at this new marvel. And just a few days later there I was, breathing life into new characters. This went on to become (with some editing of course) my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011.

I was nearing completion of the 2012 project when I decided that I didn’t want to stop at the end of May so 5PM Fiction was born. I put a load of prompts on the 5PM Fiction page and today’s was to write a story with the following sentence start: ‘The bells chimed as…’, so here is my 294-worder.

Warped out of recognition

The bells chimed as Steve and Amy wandered round the old square. It was lunchtime and the smells of Crepes Suzette and pommes frites were enticing them from different directions.

Amy spotted a free table at a corner café and yanked Steve’s arm. “Steve! Quick!”

“I’ll catch up,” he said, pulling away. “I want to have a look at something,” and he headed for a nearby newsagents.

“Oh, Steve, I’m hungry. Don’t be long.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t. Order me anything.”

Steve’s concentration fell on a tall, narrow stand of postcards with a variety of Parisian views. One card however had leapt out. No cathedrals, museums or parks, but a solitary figure almost warped out of recognition.

“Dad,” Steve whimpered, grabbing the card before spinning the carousel for an indication of the price.

He paid the one euro and held the card to his chest as he walked to the café.

“I’ve ordered you a cheese baguette and black coffee… Steve?” Amy looked at her husband’s face, then down at his hands. “I didn’t think you did postcards.”

“I don’t… usually. I had to this time.”

“Let’s have a look.”

Steve handed her the card.

“Who’s this for?” Amy asked, looking at the card.

“Nathan.”

“Why?” She looked up. “Oh, Steve, can’t you let it go? It’s been years.”

“No. Have you got a pen?”

Amy fished around in her bag then handed him a blue thin felt tip. “Will this do?”

“Fine. Won’t be writing much.”

Steve sat down awkwardly on to the silver metal chair and stared at the picture. The card wobbled on the uneven table.

Amy searched her bag again and gave him a book to lean on.

Steve wrote the address then a simple message: ‘I’ll never forgive you.’

***

The 5pm Fiction slot will be taking a break (after no.150) for November and December as I’ll be embarking on my fifth NaNoWriMo. Do join me if you’re taking part too. Then I’ll have December off to upload other stuff and perhaps start editing that novel.  No.151 will be back in 1st January (or thereabouts).

Photography courtesy of morguefile.com. You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books and I also have a blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

5PM Fiction 147: Scream like a girl

Welcome to the one hundred and forty-seventh in this daily series that is ‘5pm Fiction’.

Late April 2011 I discovered http://StoryADay.org and the project that is to write 31 stories in 31 days. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog, knows how passionate I am about short stories so my clichéd eyes lit up at this new marvel. And just a few days later there I was, breathing life into new characters. This went on to become (with some editing of course) my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011.

I was nearing completion of the 2012 project when I decided that I didn’t want to stop at the end of May so 5PM Fiction was born. I put a load of prompts on the 5PM Fiction page and today’s was to write a story with a mixed bag: village hall, clown, 1970s, war, shy, so here is my 354-worder.

Scream like a girl

John Talbot was not usually shy. His job made him outgoing but as soon as he walked into the 1970s village hall, his heart raced. She’d not seen him, he was sure of that, and when she did, he knew she wouldn’t recognise him, not without his costume… without the mad multi-coloured wig, the red nose and ‘war paint’ as his mother Mildred used to call it; the white, black and red that was supposed to look humorous, make the children laugh.

For all the years he’d been an entertainer, nearly thirty, he’d always had mixed reactions. The majority loved him, but there had been one or two at every venue that had gone crying to their mothers. Mothers who’d whisked them away to play with balloons or eat yet more cake and ice cream, but not before they’d glared in John’s direction as if it was his fault he was there, not the parent who’d booked him for their spoilt brat’s birthday.

He went to the bar and ordered a whisky. He’d had a few of those in his time but tonight he’d just have the one… seeing as he was driving.

He stared in her direction, not at her, not obvious. John was an expert at how to look in a crowded room, only he usually had make-up to hide behind.

It was the black kid’s birthday he remembered her from. The sister of one of the mother’s, there to help make up the grown-up numbers, although compared with John she’d hardly have been called a grown up. John figured she’d have been late teens, early twenties, less than half his age, and tall. He liked tall. Anyone approaching six feet was a bonus. And that smile, he remembered that smile.

Someone behind him coughed but John ignored it and took a swig of his whisky, then shuddered as it ran down his throat. The person behind him coughed again and said John’s name.

John spun round, expecting to see someone he knew but instead saw his clown costume staring back at him.

He dropped his glass and screamed like a girl.

***

The 5pm Fiction slot will be taking a break (after no.150) for November and December as I’ll be embarking on my fifth NaNoWriMo. Do join me if you’re taking part too. Then I’ll have December off to upload other stuff and perhaps start editing that novel.  No.151 will be back in 1st January (or thereabouts).

Photography courtesy of morguefile.com. You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books and I also have a blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

5PM Fiction 146: Do his best

Welcome to the one hundred and forty-sixth in this daily series that is ‘5pm Fiction’.

Late April 2011 I discovered http://StoryADay.org and the project that is to write 31 stories in 31 days. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog, knows how passionate I am about short stories so my clichéd eyes lit up at this new marvel. And just a few days later there I was, breathing life into new characters. This went on to become (with some editing of course) my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011.

I was nearing completion of the 2012 project when I decided that I didn’t want to stop at the end of May so 5PM Fiction was born. I put a load of prompts on the 5PM Fiction page and today’s was to write a story with a one-word prompt ‘worry’ and past, present and future tense! So here is my 167-worder.

Do his best

Norman worries that he’s not clever enough to pass the test, that his mind will go blank when he turns over the exam paper, wade through the layers of sheets until he’s finished or the buzzer goes.

Jean will tell him repeatedly until it’s time to go, that he’ll be fine, but until he gets the call or the letter comes he won’t relax. He’ll pace the hall waiting for the phone or the postman, he doesn’t yet know which it’ll be.

The car will wait in the driveway until he knows. If he fails he’ll try again but at 72 he doesn’t want to wait. He wishes he’d taken his test years ago, before the written exam but he’s read all the books, watched Jean do all the manoeuvres, then paid more attention when her eyesight started to fail, before the trouble with her toes, he’d notice her wince when she accelerated. So he’ll smile at the examiner, turn over the page and do his best.

***

Photography courtesy of morguefile.com.

The 5pm Fiction slot will be taking a break (after no.150) for November and December as I’ll be embarking on my fifth NaNoWriMo. Do join me if you’re taking part too. Then I’ll have December off to upload other stuff and perhaps start editing that novel. No.151 will be back in 1st January (or thereabouts).

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books and I also have a blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

5PM Fiction 145: Not the wisest of actions

Welcome to the one hundred and forty-fifth in this daily series that is ‘5pm Fiction’.

Late April 2011 I discovered http://StoryADay.org and the project that is to write 31 stories in 31 days. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog, knows how passionate I am about short stories so my clichéd eyes lit up at this new marvel. And just a few days later there I was, breathing life into new characters. This went on to become (with some editing of course) my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011.

I was nearing completion of the 2012 project when I decided that I didn’t want to stop at the end of May so 5PM Fiction was born. I put a load of prompts on the 5PM Fiction page and today’s was to write a second-person viewpoint story containing a doctor, horse rider, toothbrush, balloon and shy – so here is my 251-worder.

Not the wisest of actions

You had no way of knowing that the toothbrush was going to find you a husband. You used it to clean your dog’s teeth but when the doctor asked how it got stuck in your ear, you had no real explanation. You’d had an itch.

It was Doug’s eyes that you noticed first; deep brown, almost black, with long, dark eyelashes and a smile… such a contrast, teeth like a photograph model’s. You would have liked him to be taller but an inch was better than same height. Your high heels could languish at the back of the wardrobe in favour of kitten, they were in fashion anyway.

By the end of the appointment you’d arranged a date – him too shy to ask, so you had… after checking his office for family photos and his hand for a wedding ring.

A year after you were married, you’d started feeling sick, put it down to a summer cold but he recognised the symptoms and brought home a test kit. You swelled like a balloon and missed your horse, but Doug had been cautious, insisted that you take a break, so you’d agreed, on the condition that he took lessons.

And as you watched him trot round the field on Bracken, you’d fallen in love with him all over again, seen the look he’d given you that first meeting, and knew that whilst sticking a toothbrush in your ear may not have been the wisest of actions, you’d do it all over again.

***

Photography courtesy of morguefile.com. You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books and I also have a blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

5PM Fiction 144: Rumbled (100-worder)

Welcome to the one hundred and forty-fourth in this daily series that is ‘5pm Fiction’.

Late April 2011 I discovered http://StoryADay.org and the project that is to write 31 stories in 31 days. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog, knows how passionate I am about short stories so my clichéd eyes lit up at this new marvel. And just a few days later there I was, breathing life into new characters. This went on to become (with some editing of course) my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011.

I was nearing completion of the 2012 project when I decided that I didn’t want to stop at the end of May so 5PM Fiction was born. I put a load of prompts on the 5PM Fiction page and today’s was to write a dialogue about a burglary… in 100 words.

Rumbled

“Frankie!”

“What?”

“There’s someone downstairs.”

“Mmm?”

“Frankie, downstairs! I heard something.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure. I heard a loud noise, like a window breaking.”

“OK, stay there. I’ll go and have a look.”

“Shall I call the police?”

“Wait until we know for sure.”

“But what if…”

“It’s probably nothing.”

***

“Anyone…? Hello? Who’s there?”

“Hello Frankie. Sorry, did I startle you.”

“Gran? What you are doing down here?”

“I was thirsty.”

“Then why are you…? What’s that noise? Is there someone else here?”

“Er, it’s…”

“Gran, spill.”

“OK. Ernest. You can come out now. We’ve been rumbled.”

###

Photography courtesy of morguefile.com. You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books and I also have a blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

5PM Fiction 143: Doing a job I love

Welcome to the one hundred and forty-third in this daily series that is ‘5pm Fiction’.

Late April 2011 I discovered http://StoryADay.org and the project that is to write 31 stories in 31 days. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog, knows how passionate I am about short stories so my clichéd eyes lit up at this new marvel. And just a few days later there I was, breathing life into new characters. This went on to become (with some editing of course) my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011.

I was nearing completion of the 2012 project when I decided that I didn’t want to stop at the end of May so 5PM Fiction was born. I put a load of prompts on the 5PM Fiction page and today’s was to write a monologue with the following keywords (taken from http://creativecopychallenge.com, their #142): odd, receive, drum, announced, rub, plant, issue, adhere, computerize (or in my case computerise, I’m English), and dig. Here is my 533-worder.

Doing a job I love

It had felt a little odd. Being given something like this for doing a job I love. And you couldn’t really call it that. Playing in a band a job? To receive an award for playing the drums was an added bonus. I’d been given a single drum, just a cheap thing, when I was very young, my mum says two but I think I was younger than that because I don’t remember getting it, just it being there.

When my name was announced I hadn’t been expecting it so it took Bondie digging me in the ribs for me to realise that they’d said my name. He’s stronger than he thinks. I was rubbing my ribs for weeks after that.

I think he’d been on something; weed, blow, or some such. He was always more rock ‘n’ roll than me. It hadn’t been an issue until that night, when he’d insisted on joining me on the stage. He could play the drums and had never received an award so I thought, “what’s the harm?”

If only he’d adhered to the rules; walk up the aisle, to the podium, say ‘thank you’ to the celebrity who hands you the statue (in our case it was the teen pop sensation Jimmy Penn) but his brain just couldn’t computerise that. I don’t think it computes anything these days.

He had to go up there didn’t he and dig, dig, dig. OK, so we’re not a fan of the weak pop music that climbs the charts faster than we ever did in our heyday but he’s still sore that Jimmy beat us to the top of the album chart when we released our Greatest Hits. A term I use loosely as the record company in their limited wisdom to make it a double CD when we’d only had half a dozen ‘hits’ (top 40) so the rest were more fillers than a tub of sandwich spread. That’s one thing I hadn’t noticed; that he’d not been eating, Bondie, just drinking, picking at his food, fork never reaching his mouth, although it’s big enough.

So there I was, mouth open to say a few unrehearsed words and ended up goldfish-like while Bondie spouted.

Bondie’s real name’s James… Bond, but he hates that. His mum was a real fan and we all reckon that she married a Bond just so she could have a son with the right name. Had the boy straight away, stroke of luck really, then the two of them left when he was still young. Probably why he is the way he is.

Anyway. He’d said his bit and I thought we were going to leave… he’d said plenty for both of us, what was I going to do, apologise? Pretend it didn’t happen? But then Jimmy called him by his real name, don’t know how he knew, Wikipedia I suppose, and well, Bondie flipped and went for the jugular, Jimmy’s jugular. Did enough so the damage was done. Only temporary, thankfully, but he had to cancel his tour. Bondie received so many “thank you” letters after we could have wallpapered our bus… the one we toured on not long after the awards ceremony.

***

Photography courtesy of morguefile.com. You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books and I also have a blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.