Those pre-launch jitters - What to do

My last book, Inspector Kirby and Harold Longcoat - A Northumbrian Mystery went down well with those who read it.  There just weren’t enough of those readers.  A familiar story to many out there I’m sure.  It was fun to write and everyone said it was fun to read, which is great.  However, it was still just one book and everything you read tells you as an indie author you need a series.  Well, I’ve done it.  I’ve written books two and three and the early feedback has been positive.  So what now? 

For the full blog follow this link

Who and what influenced me as a writer?

I was asked what influenced me as writer recently.  At first I thought it was an easy thing to answer.  I’ve said before that Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End is what got me hooked on science fiction, the ending blew my teenage mind.  That lead me to reading more Clarke and Asimov then authors such as Greg Bear and Ben Bova.  Also, I grew up  at the time of the Apollo missions and the moon landings.  As a young lad, how could that not captivate my imagination?  Then later films such as 2001, Close Encounters and Star Wars were taking science fiction on the screen from clunky B Movie status to the mainstream.

However, having given my standard answer it occurred to me that these were things that had sparked my interest as a consumer of science fiction, and later fantasy through authors such as Raymond Feist and David Eddings.  However, had they influenced my writing?  In terms of the subject matter, yes.  I have adapted themes that those writers have explored before me (and I presume they adapted from earlier writers).   As for my actual writing, perhaps much less than Imagined.  They may have placed that spark, the desire to write.  However, as to influencing my writing that comes later, from the authors I’ve read just before and while I’ve been writing.

For the complete blog follow this link

What's wrong with a nice story?

The prompt for this post was a film I watched recently, Salmon fishing is the Yemen.  I knew it had good crits and it’d been on my “to see” list for a long time.  From the first few minutes to the end I enjoyed it.  It was a gentle tale, with an element of humour and even a bit of romance.  There was some violence, however basically it was a “nice” (and I know as authors the word “nice” is something to be avoided) story well told.

For the complete blog follow this link 

Another year as a writer - time to reflect

Well, that’s almost it for 2017.  I don’t know whether it's because I'm a writer and there never seems to be enough time, or it’s just that I’m getting older (as everyone does of course).  However, I sure someone is sneaking days out my years while I’m not looking.  Still, it’s time to reflect, which I think it’s important, especially for an indie-author.  What have I done well and what could have done better?  Where have I stepped up to the plate and where have I shirked or side stepped issues?

For the complete blog - follow this link

Writers beware - sod's law exists

Part of my first job on leaving Uni was in the quality assurance section of a scientific organisation.  Believe it or not, before the late 1970s little of it existed.  After all everyone was doing their best so the data and reports would be fine wouldn’t they?  Answer, no.  Because if nothing else Sod’s Law operates. i.e. whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.  And one of the problems back then was that nobody understood what could go wrong – it was of course, anything and everything.  So after a few well published cases, which I won’t go into, the need for a formal system of quality assurance was established.

For me this involved, amongst other things the checking of scientific reports, both for internal consistency and against the “raw data”.  At first my involvement, essentially pointing out where people had made errors was resented.  I mean, who was I to tell a senior scientist they had made mistakes.  And this wasn’t just the odd typo, whole lines of data were transposed, decimal points were in the wrong place, thing disappeared from the records only to appear elsewhere.  I could go on.  These didn’t always affect the scientific outcomes, but occasionally they could and this was important work.  What’s more it’s not as if you could predict when or where a major error might occur.

For the complete blog follow this link

What does it take to be a writer? - Persitence

For most writers success is not an overnight event.  One of my all time, and sadly missed, writer heroes, Iain Banks, completed five or six books before being published.  He persisted.

Now I write this blog a week or so after I’ve launched my latest book.  I’ve had some sales, but not as many as hoped for.  So yes, I admit it, I’m a little disappointed.  I feel that I just need that kick start, that nudge that sends sales cascading.  The book itself is a new venture for me, being urban fantasy / detective story, written in a humorous style, rather than my usual science fiction.

For the full blog follow this link

Inspector Kirby and Harold Longcoat - A Northumbrian Mystery

Launching today!

Inspector Kirby and Harold Longcoat - A Northumbrian Mystery.

Here’s the link: http://smarturl.it/inspectorkirby1

A pair of shoes - how weird can that be?

Inspector Jonah Kirby ends up with the cases other officers don’t like to handle, the weird ones. When a young girl is reported missing all he has to go on is the pair of shoes. To Kirby it doesn’t feel right and in his experience things not feeling right often lead to things not being right. Little does he realise that his weirdness scale – weird, very weird and extremely weird – will soon need extending.

Meet Inspector Kirby

Inspector Kirby, Jonah to his friends and 'old school' to his junior colleagues, wandered out of the cottage.  He crossed the road and headed down the lane, with thorny hedge rows either side, that led to the sea.  He’d put this off for days, wondering how it would make him feel.  Still there was nothing quite like a walk along the coast with its prevailing North East breeze and the smell of salt and rotting seaweed in the air to clear the mind.  And let’s face it there was a lot to clear.

To meet Inspector Kirby follow this link

Getting into your characters - Inspector Kirby and Harold Longcoat

My latest project, Inspector Kirby and Harold Longcoat, due to be launched in a few week’s time, was great fun to write.  Possibly, because it’s a change from my normal diet of science fiction, set as it is in the present day, more-or-less.  It’s a detective, mystery story, again something new for me, although not quite that straightforward.  If you’ve read some of my short stories you’ll understand.  It’s also allowed me to play with the humour in my writing.  However, I think one of the keys to getting that part of it right was developing sympathetic characters who would play off each other.

For the full blog follow this link

Indie authors - relish cross genre fiction

I enjoy my science fiction and my fantasy.  When I pick up a book (or these days download) in one of these genres I guess I know what I’m getting, I’m on safe ground.  Also, as a writer if I stick to a genre I know where I’m going with my books.  I know where they will “fit”.  This is very much the case with the Bleak books and Project Noah.  They are very firmly in the science fiction camp.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  I enjoyed writing them and from the feedback I’ve had people enjoy reading them.

The first book I published and whose sequels are written and waiting to be finalised (they occasionally nag at me to be published) is a little different.  While still very much science fiction it has an element of fantasy in that I give a “scientific” reason for the existence of Fairies (you’ll understand if you read it).

For the complete blog just follow this link

FREE - collection of sci-fi and fantasy short stories

To get your FREE copy just click on the image and follow the link.

Writing - location,location, location.

Recently I’ve been completing my latest project, working title:  Inspector Kirby and Harold Longcoat, a Northumbrian mystery.  The comments from beta readers are good and although there are a couple more to feedback I’ve sent it for proofreading/editing.  Now, if you’re familiar with my other books you’ll know that I write science fiction and as the title of my latest creation suggests, it isn’t.  Yes, it’s a detective story with, as I hope again is hinted at by the title, a supernatural/magical edge to it (it can’t be that straightforward).

This presented me with an interesting challenge.  It is the first time I have used a contemporary location that some people at least will be familiar with.  It also set me thinking that the location is as much a character, as important, in the book as are the people. 

For the complete blog please follow this link 

The fantasy fiction chicken and egg question?

In the UK there have been an interesting series of programs (on the BBC) by Andrew Marr looking in-depth at why we love reading fiction.  The first program concerned the genre of detective stories and the second Fantasy (I haven’t watched the third yet).  Now, as a science fiction writer I found the discussion on fantasy the most interesting as, in many ways, much of it could apply to sci-fi as well.  There was some talk about the escapism etc. and that so much of fantasy is set in almost an alternative middle ages (obviously does not apply to sci-fi), usually with magic added in, in some form or other.  This to me was all pretty standard.  However, what I found most interesting was the concept of deeper meanings in fantasy fiction.

For the full blog follow this link

The Universe - 15 mind boggling facts

As a science fiction writer I find some of the facts about our universe both mind boggling and inspiring.  It convinces me that out there anything is possible.  http://wp.me/p3ycbY-1e1

Go on - read some fantasy

Last week I extolled the values of great science fiction.  This week I'm doing the same for fantasy - so go on, put aside those prejudices of 'genre' fiction and read some fantasy: http://wp.me/p3ycbY-1cq

25 things I've learnt from science fantasy

A few weeks ago I looked at what science fiction has taught me.  This time its science fantasy:  http://wp.me/p3ycbY-18F

The magic of fantasy - or sometimes not

I'm a writer and reader of science fiction.  But I also read a lot of fantasy.  There are some great books out their by people like Raymond Feist, David Gemmel and George RR Martin.  However, it seems to me that the quality is very variable.  I think magic is both a strength and weakness of fantasy - see my blog
for why:
  
http://wp.me/p3ycbY-148

What makes a good Fantasy read (or not) - 3)

 My third in a series of blogs looking at why there are some books I just cannot finish, which annoys me, especially if I've paid good money for them.  This time it's Fantasy which I guess, like me, most sci-fi fans also read. 

My blog:  http://wp.me/p3ycbY-127