Well doesn't time fly!
Roaming Romans is still a work in progress I am afraid - a new job and a new house have put me behind schedule - well, to be honest, VERY behind schedule, but there we are.
Still, I still have 'Flying Shed' to market and so I am going to put some effort into getting it 'off the ground' - sorry about the pun!
So, if you haven't purchased one yet - shame on you - go to Amazon and buy one, right now. It's a really good read, and that comment is from both young and old - I used to think people told fibs when they talked about books they 'could not put down'. But hey, now they are saying it about my little gem, and that sort of comment makes me walk 10ft tall, especially since these are from people who aren't family and friends.
So go on, go and buy one, you won't regret it - and if you buy one now, it will be worth a bob or two, because it is first edition. I am working and a 2nd edition, with some of the 'deliberate mistakes' taken out - so 1st editions could well turn out to be priceless in 10 years time.
So don't wait or in 10 years time, I will will there going "I told you so!"
Have fun
Ian
Monday, November 9, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
School Trip
Hi there,
Sales of 'Space Ace and The Flying Shed' are progressing steadily - mind you I had a bit of a 'to-do' with Amazon etc as they had listed both my name and the book title incorrectly - it's all OK now though, so if you want to order a first edition, there are still a few left.
I did my first school visit with the book to Church Eaton primary is Staffordshire and my thanks to Mrs Burton and Mr Winkle for inviting me in - I went to assembly to see all the kids dressed as a character from a book - they were magnificent in their costumes and then I had an hour with class 3 making monsters and talking about magic and witches and the like, before reading then the first chapter.
I then had an hour with class 4, where the kids started to design me a new book cover and I will be going back shortly to judge the winner and present them with a signed copy of the book.
I was exhausted by the end, but thrilled at the reception they gave me and the interest shown in this book and the first few chapters of 'Space Ace and The Roaming Romans', which I am working on at the moment.
I am hoping to get the book ready for the next round of publication by the YouWriteOn team, but I may not achieve the deadline - ho hum.
Still, I am looking forward to my next visit to a school, library or bookshop with 'Flying Shed.'
cheers
Ian
Sales of 'Space Ace and The Flying Shed' are progressing steadily - mind you I had a bit of a 'to-do' with Amazon etc as they had listed both my name and the book title incorrectly - it's all OK now though, so if you want to order a first edition, there are still a few left.
I did my first school visit with the book to Church Eaton primary is Staffordshire and my thanks to Mrs Burton and Mr Winkle for inviting me in - I went to assembly to see all the kids dressed as a character from a book - they were magnificent in their costumes and then I had an hour with class 3 making monsters and talking about magic and witches and the like, before reading then the first chapter.
I then had an hour with class 4, where the kids started to design me a new book cover and I will be going back shortly to judge the winner and present them with a signed copy of the book.
I was exhausted by the end, but thrilled at the reception they gave me and the interest shown in this book and the first few chapters of 'Space Ace and The Roaming Romans', which I am working on at the moment.
I am hoping to get the book ready for the next round of publication by the YouWriteOn team, but I may not achieve the deadline - ho hum.
Still, I am looking forward to my next visit to a school, library or bookshop with 'Flying Shed.'
cheers
Ian
Thursday, October 30, 2008
About to be published....
Hi there,
well, it is actually about to happen, I am about to become a published author - I had every belief it would happen and now it is, and it's all thanks to the Arts Council for England, their YouWriteOn.com website and their partnership with Legend Press.
It has been a mad 4 weeks as I have edited and proof read my first 'Space Ace' novel over and over again, and no mater how many times I read it through I found an error, or some part that didn't quite read properly etc.
And then there was the title. In its first incarnation the book was called 'I hate baked beans' which I thought was a catchy title, but didn't really tell you what the book was about, so now it's called 'Space Ace and The Flying Shed' which I thought was a pretty good title for and adventure story aimed at the 7 + market.
All I have to do now is come up with an affective marketing strategy.
Anyway, it should be available for purchase through all good on like booksellers such as Amazon and Waterstones by Christmas - so look out for it and go and buy it for a young person near you.
Cheers
Ian
well, it is actually about to happen, I am about to become a published author - I had every belief it would happen and now it is, and it's all thanks to the Arts Council for England, their YouWriteOn.com website and their partnership with Legend Press.
It has been a mad 4 weeks as I have edited and proof read my first 'Space Ace' novel over and over again, and no mater how many times I read it through I found an error, or some part that didn't quite read properly etc.
And then there was the title. In its first incarnation the book was called 'I hate baked beans' which I thought was a catchy title, but didn't really tell you what the book was about, so now it's called 'Space Ace and The Flying Shed' which I thought was a pretty good title for and adventure story aimed at the 7 + market.
All I have to do now is come up with an affective marketing strategy.
Anyway, it should be available for purchase through all good on like booksellers such as Amazon and Waterstones by Christmas - so look out for it and go and buy it for a young person near you.
Cheers
Ian
Sunday, September 21, 2008
FantasyCon 2008
Wow, just been blown away by a most fantastic time at FantasyCon 2008 in Nottingham run by the British Fantasy Society.
I have never attended one of these types of events before and it was both enlightening and entertaining. I met a whole new bunch of people, some like Simon R Green, who I didn't know from Adam until I started talking to him and found out that he is really big in the USA and has just made it onto the New York Times best seller list. Simon is such a friendly guy and gave me some brilliant, down to earth advice.
I attended some earth shattering seminars given by some of the Big Cheeses in the publishing world, a couple of book launches and a reading by James Barclay of his newest work.
Altogether attendance is to be highly recommended if like me you are interested in the SF&F genres and a MUST if you are writing on the subject. I will certainly be having my name down for next years event.
Now, back to my writing and finishing off the prologue for Spellcaster's Apprentice.
I have never attended one of these types of events before and it was both enlightening and entertaining. I met a whole new bunch of people, some like Simon R Green, who I didn't know from Adam until I started talking to him and found out that he is really big in the USA and has just made it onto the New York Times best seller list. Simon is such a friendly guy and gave me some brilliant, down to earth advice.
I attended some earth shattering seminars given by some of the Big Cheeses in the publishing world, a couple of book launches and a reading by James Barclay of his newest work.
Altogether attendance is to be highly recommended if like me you are interested in the SF&F genres and a MUST if you are writing on the subject. I will certainly be having my name down for next years event.
Now, back to my writing and finishing off the prologue for Spellcaster's Apprentice.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Struggling with the plot plan
Hi there,
I am working hard on the plot plan for my latest work, Spellcaster's Apprentice , the first in the Children of Aurora saga, and it's a real struggle to get the plan just so. In the past I have just written from the heart and seen where the story takes me, but as I have gone on and been helped to learn my craft I have found that working hard in the early stages on a plot plan has paid dividends when moving into the main writing of the story.
With my new project, where I am writing six books simultaneously, then getting the plot plans right is crucial. How the main characters of each book interact with each other has to be plotted now, at the outset, as when the first book is finally written and sent out to the big world then it will be almost set in stone.
I am also working on a prologue that will be the cornerstone of each book, as each book will be a stand alone, as well as an interaction with the others, then the same prologue will be used in each book to give the reader the background knowledge needed to then move straight into the book.
And all this has to be set against the background of my work life which is in a little bit of a tumultuous situation as the college that I work for is merging with 2 other colleges and none of us know how safe our jobs are, or what the future holds for us - given the best case scenario, I can get the first of the saga taken on by a publisher, who gives me a big wad of cash to write the rest pf the books and I can take a redundancy package and get on with what I like doing best, which is writing - but life doesn't actually work like that, does it?
I am working hard on the plot plan for my latest work, Spellcaster's Apprentice , the first in the Children of Aurora saga, and it's a real struggle to get the plan just so. In the past I have just written from the heart and seen where the story takes me, but as I have gone on and been helped to learn my craft I have found that working hard in the early stages on a plot plan has paid dividends when moving into the main writing of the story.
With my new project, where I am writing six books simultaneously, then getting the plot plans right is crucial. How the main characters of each book interact with each other has to be plotted now, at the outset, as when the first book is finally written and sent out to the big world then it will be almost set in stone.
I am also working on a prologue that will be the cornerstone of each book, as each book will be a stand alone, as well as an interaction with the others, then the same prologue will be used in each book to give the reader the background knowledge needed to then move straight into the book.
And all this has to be set against the background of my work life which is in a little bit of a tumultuous situation as the college that I work for is merging with 2 other colleges and none of us know how safe our jobs are, or what the future holds for us - given the best case scenario, I can get the first of the saga taken on by a publisher, who gives me a big wad of cash to write the rest pf the books and I can take a redundancy package and get on with what I like doing best, which is writing - but life doesn't actually work like that, does it?
Monday, July 14, 2008
New projects - new hope
Hi there,
well I haven't blogged for a bit - well, April I think, but time just flies by. I am spending every spare moment working on my new projects - I am attempting to write six books simultaneously!
That's right six! All set in the same time line, all written from a different point of view about six different characters.
It is a Fantasy saga, aimed mainly at young adults, but I think (hope?) there is quite a bit of crossover into the adult market, they are certainly books I would like to read if I was browsing the books shelf, and I think that is what makes it so much fun for me - writing a book I would like to read, and frankly, a set of books which I think are missing from the bookshelves.
The first book that I want to complete is called - Spellcaster's Apprentice and charts the apprenticeship of Kevan, his hopes, his dreams, his loves and his adventures as he frustratingly tries to learn enough magic from an aging spellcaster to enable him to save his mother and sister from the slavers that raided his village.
Of course, there is a bit more to it than that and I'll keep a more regular posting on this news blog as the saga progresses, but needless to say, I don't want to say too much now as the plot is pretty fluid at the moment.
I will start to add chapters to the web site as I begin to carve them out the paper, please feel free to comment on them, e mails via the link on the website.
I have still to send them off to Anne, my editor, who suggested that I plot them all out in the first place before writing anymore of Spellcaster - I have also written the characterisations for the six main characters (one for each book)
The thing is, although writing and editing the book will be hard, it will also be fun - it is the selling it to agents and publishers that is where the hard work starts. Wish me luck.
well I haven't blogged for a bit - well, April I think, but time just flies by. I am spending every spare moment working on my new projects - I am attempting to write six books simultaneously!
That's right six! All set in the same time line, all written from a different point of view about six different characters.
It is a Fantasy saga, aimed mainly at young adults, but I think (hope?) there is quite a bit of crossover into the adult market, they are certainly books I would like to read if I was browsing the books shelf, and I think that is what makes it so much fun for me - writing a book I would like to read, and frankly, a set of books which I think are missing from the bookshelves.
The first book that I want to complete is called - Spellcaster's Apprentice and charts the apprenticeship of Kevan, his hopes, his dreams, his loves and his adventures as he frustratingly tries to learn enough magic from an aging spellcaster to enable him to save his mother and sister from the slavers that raided his village.
Of course, there is a bit more to it than that and I'll keep a more regular posting on this news blog as the saga progresses, but needless to say, I don't want to say too much now as the plot is pretty fluid at the moment.
I will start to add chapters to the web site as I begin to carve them out the paper, please feel free to comment on them, e mails via the link on the website.
I have still to send them off to Anne, my editor, who suggested that I plot them all out in the first place before writing anymore of Spellcaster - I have also written the characterisations for the six main characters (one for each book)
The thing is, although writing and editing the book will be hard, it will also be fun - it is the selling it to agents and publishers that is where the hard work starts. Wish me luck.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Spellcaster's Apprentice is shaping up
I am really pleased with the way Spellcaster's Apprentice is going.
It is a project I have been working on for about twenty years and have visited it off and on over that time. I completed the first draft about 1o years ago, (then called Dragon's Apprentice, but there have been a few too many dragon books since then, so I have changed the title) but have moved on in my writing so much since then that the work that I am doing now is just leaps and bounds better than it was the last time I opened the book to look inside the pages.
I am trying not to rush it, but I am just dying to see what sort of reaction I get when I go live with it on the YWO website. You see they have just announced that the publisher Random House is going to be reading through the Top Ten books on the site each month for the next 6 months, so I want to get it posted, but I want to get it right first, to stand the best chance with the work.
I will also post the first draft on my website to see if I get any feedback from that too. If you get time to look at it please do and e mail me with your thoughts - the address is on the website.
Cheers
Ian
It is a project I have been working on for about twenty years and have visited it off and on over that time. I completed the first draft about 1o years ago, (then called Dragon's Apprentice, but there have been a few too many dragon books since then, so I have changed the title) but have moved on in my writing so much since then that the work that I am doing now is just leaps and bounds better than it was the last time I opened the book to look inside the pages.
I am trying not to rush it, but I am just dying to see what sort of reaction I get when I go live with it on the YWO website. You see they have just announced that the publisher Random House is going to be reading through the Top Ten books on the site each month for the next 6 months, so I want to get it posted, but I want to get it right first, to stand the best chance with the work.
I will also post the first draft on my website to see if I get any feedback from that too. If you get time to look at it please do and e mail me with your thoughts - the address is on the website.
Cheers
Ian
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)