I ordered a paperback copy of my latest book, The Devil Within Us, for my wife. She is one of those readers who prefer to hold a book rather than look at an electronic representation of it. I do not view such people as luddites, and not just because I am married to her, everyone … Continue reading The Pitfalls of Design
novels
The Dreaded One Star Review AKA Beware what you wish for!
I wished for more reviews of my books and I have just received my first ever one star review. It was for 'Mesozoic'. It is not the first poor review that I have had for my work, but the lowest rating that is for sure. When you are putting something like a book out there … Continue reading The Dreaded One Star Review AKA Beware what you wish for!
Coenred and Mildryth
Where do characters come from? I wrote quite extensively about how Artemisia Montessori developed from a very simple idea into the protagonist of my most recent novel, The Devil Within Us. Not all of my characters appeared that way, however. When I was researching The War Wolf I had no idea that there were three … Continue reading Coenred and Mildryth
ROGOF
As promised I have now immersed myself in the world of marketing. One of my first ideas was ROGOF! This superb and totally original idea is very simple: Review One and Get One Free! I have struggled to get the numbers for reviews of my books to equal the number of sales said books have … Continue reading ROGOF
The Devil Within Us – Published!
It was with a very happy heart that I submitted The Devil Within Us for publication. I had not intended to write another novel this year, I was supposed to be learning all about marketing in order to be discovered, become famous, and obviously rich. That is what I will - hopefully - be doing next! … Continue reading The Devil Within Us – Published!
Writing My Seventh Novel – Part Fifteen
Almost there! It is quite a feeling to complete a project like writing a novel. I am not sure if I have captured any of it in my previous fourteen posts. The book is very close to being finished. In many respects this is the most difficult part of any artistic creation no matter what … Continue reading Writing My Seventh Novel – Part Fifteen
Giving Eugenica a New Look
I am always looking at my work and wondering how I can improve it. The two commonest approaches are manuscript reviews and designing new covers. I recently undertook such a review of the covers to the Sorrow Song Trilogy books and I was very happy with the end result. I am not sure how I … Continue reading Giving Eugenica a New Look
A Marketing We’ll Go
As I come to the end of writing my latest novel I cannot help but return to the subject that I like least and yet what I was considering at the beginning of the year; marketing. As previously mentioned in earlier blogs, I have dabbled with marketing, but not enjoyed any great success. In fact, I cannot say that I particularly enjoyed the experience. It does seem, however, to be an absolutely necessary requirement in my ongoing quest for a greater readership and an increase in the awareness of my work.
Writing My Seventh Novel – Part Fourteen
This has been fun! I have really enjoyed the experience of both writing a book and posting updates here about the progress. I think that splitting my time between the two activities has been really helpful. At the start of the lockdown I was a designated key worker, but later I was identified as at … Continue reading Writing My Seventh Novel – Part Fourteen
Writing My Seventh Novel – Part Thirteen
Part Thirteen? That seems a little coincidental! Up until a few days ago I did not have a proper title for this book, which made designing the cover somewhat problematic to say the least. I was still using the working title of 'Mephistopheles', but I knew that it was not appropriate. The story begins with … Continue reading Writing My Seventh Novel – Part Thirteen