Sorry it’s so late. I’ve had problems with WordPress today. (Don’t ask). The Boom Show, my latest short story to be published, is available free to download today, 31st October on Amazon. You can read it on your Kindle ebook reader, the Kindle app on mobile phone and tablet, and on the Kindle app on your computer. I will be offering it free to download again on another four dates (watch this space). The reason it’s free is that…
Just to say that I’ve published a new short story, The Boom Show. It’s available now, on Amazon, price 99p (in the UK). It’s my first science fiction short story. The British Fantasy Society originally published this in the January 2018 edition of their monthly magazine, Horizons. It’s currently only available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. I am aiming to make it available on other online bookstores early 2019. It’s about a senior citizen, George, who competes in a quiz…
The Smashwords web site is having its 2018 Summer/Winter Sale from 1 – 31 July. It’s called a Summer/Winter Sale because while it’s summer in the northern hemisphere, it’s winter in the summer hemisphere. Smashwords obviously likes to to make sure all their customers can benefit. My short story, “The Interview” is free instead of $0.99 (£0.75) and my novel, “Pride and Prejudice: The Other Way Round” is $1.00 (£0.76) instead of $2.00 (£1.52) for the duration of the sale.
As you may know, Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month and takes place every November. People attempt and often succeed in writing a 50,000 word novel during that month. As you may also know, Smashwords, the self-publishing site has a special programme to promote Nanowrimo novels and gives the opportunity to publish your draft Nanowrimo novel on its site during November. Don’t do it. Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Do It If You Want a Traditional Publisher. Because once your…
Yes, I won the Nanowrimo writing challenge (again) this year. But, ahem, not without a certain amount of what some might call cheating. Oh all right then, what nearly every would call cheating. I cheated. I admit I did have cheating as part of my back up plan but I was fully intending not to do it. I had a number of technical difficulties during Nanowrimo. I also didn’t make life easy for myself by going on holiday for ten…
Nanowrimo has rolled around again. And this year, I’m planning to try something new – the first of a series. It’s an urban fantasy about a young woman who is transformed into a dryad while holidaying in New England. I’m slightly nervous as I’ve never tried to write a series of novels before and all the technical stuff I’m reading about how to write a series is putting me off slightly but hey, it never hurts to try – right?…
You know when you’ve had a brilliant idea and think you’re really clever, only to find out that others have had it as well? It seems to happen quite often in Hollywood with ” twin movies” such as Friends with Benefits and No Strings Attached or Antz and A Bug’s Life. Well, it happened to me recently. While browsing at Smashwords.com, I came across a couple of other authors who’ve done the same thing as me, retro-engineered a classic novel…
I was recently browsing through the books at http://www.smashwords.com and realised that many of the stories I was looking at didn’t allow the reader to download samples . Now, I can see why authors might feel like not doing that for a short story — the recommended 20% may seem rather a large amount or for a free story, hey — it’s free! But not to do it for novels that the reader is going to have to pay for, seems…
I’m just back from a week long Editing Fiction course run by the Arvon Foundation. I had the pleasure of spending my time in an old country house in the beautiful Devon countryside. I wish I could say the sun shone every day but it didn’t. There was no internet access or WiFi, which drove some of the other people on the course crazy but I found it refreshing to have no distractions from the outside world. I really enjoyed…