Friday 18 January 2019
Martin Chalk and the Underworld King on free promotion
Martin Chalk and the Underworld King is on free promotion from the 18th till the 22nd. That is from today until Tuesday. First free promo I've done so I'm hoping for downloads and especially for reviews. Getting traction on Amazon is pretty much as hard as pulling teeth unfortunately.
Sunday 13 January 2019
Martin Chalk and the Search in Sheona published
Well I'm pretty chuffed that the latest in the Martin Chalk series has just been published on Amazon, last night as a matter of fact.
The story is starting to hit its groove and is becoming more fun to write. It feels less like me pushing events and more like the events are unfolding and I'm merely documenting what happens. A narrative often feels like a train to me ... slow to really get going fast but once it does, hard to stop.
The city of Sheona is, to me, a natural evolution of lawfulness being carried a bit too far, and I had fun with putting the straight-laced Martin into a situation where he was the guy that was the rebel and flirting with ending up on the wrong side of the Law.
I also had fun in creating the Nightcleaner, and something tells me we'll be seeing him again ;)
The story is starting to hit its groove and is becoming more fun to write. It feels less like me pushing events and more like the events are unfolding and I'm merely documenting what happens. A narrative often feels like a train to me ... slow to really get going fast but once it does, hard to stop.
The city of Sheona is, to me, a natural evolution of lawfulness being carried a bit too far, and I had fun with putting the straight-laced Martin into a situation where he was the guy that was the rebel and flirting with ending up on the wrong side of the Law.
I also had fun in creating the Nightcleaner, and something tells me we'll be seeing him again ;)
Wednesday 9 January 2019
Martin Chalk: The Search in Sheona coming soon
The second installment of the Martin Chalk series is coming out soon.
It's been finished, edited and re-edited. Cover done, and that's going to look a little different from other covers. More on this later.
Why so long, though?
Well, for one reason, its financial.
Writing hasn't so much as paid for an ice cream so far and unfortunately real-life hassles like paying the electrical bill and putting food on the table have interfered with writing for fun. I'm now in a position to give my writing some much needed attention and to see whether something that I do for the love of it can't become a viable sub-career.
The second reason is my own tendency to devolve into complexity. Nothing I do (except for one-off short stories) seems to be simple and to the point.
The Martin Chalk series was originally meant to be knocked out in a year (LOL) and then I was going to get a move on with Book 2 of Tergin's Tale. It's burning in the back of my mind and I need to write it.
Unfortunately I can't turn out porridge and be happy with it.
My characters took on a life of their own and needed back stories. The plot linking the 5 books needed a thoroughly worked out backstory. That plot developed subplots. I ended up having to hack my way out of the spider's web through sheer dint of effort. Now that I've re-ignited the Chalk series I'm not going to stop till it's done, in case I forget who was doing what and why.
It's been finished, edited and re-edited. Cover done, and that's going to look a little different from other covers. More on this later.
Why so long, though?
Well, for one reason, its financial.
Writing hasn't so much as paid for an ice cream so far and unfortunately real-life hassles like paying the electrical bill and putting food on the table have interfered with writing for fun. I'm now in a position to give my writing some much needed attention and to see whether something that I do for the love of it can't become a viable sub-career.
The second reason is my own tendency to devolve into complexity. Nothing I do (except for one-off short stories) seems to be simple and to the point.
The Martin Chalk series was originally meant to be knocked out in a year (LOL) and then I was going to get a move on with Book 2 of Tergin's Tale. It's burning in the back of my mind and I need to write it.
Unfortunately I can't turn out porridge and be happy with it.
My characters took on a life of their own and needed back stories. The plot linking the 5 books needed a thoroughly worked out backstory. That plot developed subplots. I ended up having to hack my way out of the spider's web through sheer dint of effort. Now that I've re-ignited the Chalk series I'm not going to stop till it's done, in case I forget who was doing what and why.
Monday 7 January 2019
Getting back into it
After quite a while of treating my writing as a fun diversion from my usual activities (metalwork mostly) I've decided to actually go for it in a serious manner.
Writing a book is the easy part. Hell, I've been doing it since I was 12.
Actually getting anybody to read it is another entirely. Getting people to read them thar books means marketing, and if there's anything I'm not a fan of it's punting my stuff as though its something special - the same as all the other 21 350 000* authors out there. For some reason marketing has been my achilles heel since forever.
But apparently that's how its done, so Tergin and Martin Chalk will have to do their little dance and juggle some flaming balls on the street corner. Sorry, Martin, I know you have better things to do, but, just this one jig and that's it**.
* Figure entirely sucked from my thumb.
** A lie, obviously.
Writing a book is the easy part. Hell, I've been doing it since I was 12.
Actually getting anybody to read it is another entirely. Getting people to read them thar books means marketing, and if there's anything I'm not a fan of it's punting my stuff as though its something special - the same as all the other 21 350 000* authors out there. For some reason marketing has been my achilles heel since forever.
But apparently that's how its done, so Tergin and Martin Chalk will have to do their little dance and juggle some flaming balls on the street corner. Sorry, Martin, I know you have better things to do, but, just this one jig and that's it**.
* Figure entirely sucked from my thumb.
** A lie, obviously.
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