Monthly Archives: May 2014

My Writing Process Blog Tour

25 Sunday May 2014

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I took up the open call from Jami Gold on her blog, Jami Gold Paranormal Author, about the writing process. Thanks Jami!

Without further ado, here are my answers:

What am I working on?

The second part of my Faerie Apocalypse series. Blurb for the first part published last week, Faerie Apocalypse – Aoife’s Tale, below:
“December 21st 2012, the day the world as we knew it ended.

Ireland’s ancient inhabitants, the Tuatha Dé Dannan, are free from the subterranean prison in which the Celts trapped them thousands of years ago. And the Tuath Dé, or Faeries, waste no time in making the world theirs again.

Aoife O’Neill, a former surgeon, lives on the rugged west coast of Ireland. She lies low, using her wits to avoid the cruel faerie courts that roam the country. Mourning the death of her younger brother, killed by the first explosive wave of Faeries to escape confinement, Aoife researches the Celtic lore for a way to bring an end to the Faerie Kingdom.

Dallada, a powerful arrogant faerie obsessed with Aoife, learns the hard way that she is stronger than she appears. He will stop at nothing to exact revenge for her insolence in refusing him.

Andrew Tyler, a seasoned British Army officer, leads a small band of soldiers in the Yorkshire dales in hit and run missions. Andrew can see no end in sight, but he’s determined to keep fighting.

When Aoife stumbles onto Andrew’s battlefield, he has a choice. Join her in a desperate attempt to defeat the powerful Faeries, or keep the Irish surgeon against her will as part of his military staff.

‘Aoife’s Tale’ begins the fight against the devastating power of the Faeries.”

Aoife’s Tale was published on Amazon last week. Part Two is Aidan’s Tale and I’m about 2,000 words in. It’s tough enough going given I have a full time job and can only write in my spare time. But it’s something I enjoy and so on I go.

Continue reading →

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Four days since I published my first novella on Amazon

21 Wednesday May 2014

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Well.
Ten thousand copies sold! Ahahahahaha! Only messing, of course.
I have sold four copies in four days. One to myself just to check it looks ok on Kindle and one to my bezzie mate.
And TWO to complete strangers on t’interwebs! Words can’t express how awesome it feels to know that someone out there is reading my story. It’s amazing.
My little faerie story, Faerie Apocalypse – Aoife’s Tale, available here for a very reasonable $0.99.

Pressed the button

17 Saturday May 2014

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…and published my debut novella ‘Faerie Apocalypse – Aoife’s Tale’ in the last few minutes. It’s a fantasy romance about a dystopian future where faeries rule the earth and humans struggle to survive under their rule. Available here for $0.99!

Quite nervous now!

I have no idea what the result of this action will be, but I’m looking forward to the journey and writing the next in the Faerie Apocalypse series.

The Roman story is also percolating away in my head but this work was in much better shape for publication.

So…watch this space for updates.

 

 

 

Progress being made…

11 Sunday May 2014

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…of a sort. I’ve identified a cover for my first release. As soon as I saw it, I kew it was for me. I spent a happy evening faffing about with fonts and colours and text placing. I’m about to press ‘buy now’ over on the artist’s website.
It makes the whole thing that much more real when you actually select a cover. I’m having all kind of second thoughts now, about whether or not to even proceed with this whole self publishing lark.
However, I’ve had two beta readers go over the book recently as well as that sample edit mentioned in my previous post, so I’ll just have to have some faith in my work and get it out there.
Joe Konrath’s blog post is a big inspiration here too. The best time for me to upload my book is yesterday, it would seem.

Interesting times

04 Sunday May 2014

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I may have mentioned in my first blog post that I had entered a competition back in 2011 for a story with an apocalyptic theme run by Samhain Publishing. I had come to the competition late and dashed off 24k words in 6 weeks. Even when submitting it, I knew I wasn’t quite ready but I had run out of time at that point and had to let the work succeed or fail on its (then) current merits. It was ultimately rejected and so it languished unread on my hard drive for the last three years.

Until I found this website: http://www.editingforauthors.com

They offer a free sample edit, so I took them up on it. I got in touch and got a friendly note back looking for the first ten pages of my apocalyptic work for review. I duly acceded to this request and then awaited their feedback.

It took one week, during which time I bit my nails to the quick, worrying that my work was so appalling that the editors were racking their brains trying to think of nice ways to tell me that I suck.

What I got back, however, was a really professional edit on my prologue accompanied by a note with a few salient suggestions on what might improve the work. Basically I received some realistic and very helpful comments. Certainly nothing I disagreed with anyway!

It was a revelatory moment for me, truth be told. I had some doubts about my writing, wondering if it was just pure rubbish with no merit whatsoever. But getting this sample edit done has given me the confidence to go on. I was told I had ‘clean’ writing, which I assume means that my work is not littered with spelling and grammar errors. Plus they really liked my apocalyptic idea, so I was quite chuffed with that!

I’ll work on their suggestions and then send them the full manuscript for an overhaul, the charge is a very reasonable $0.017 a word (paid in instalments) and I think they’re well worth it going by the sample.

So, the moral of the story is that sometimes it’s worth getting an objective outside opinion on your work. It can give you the courage to keep going when you’re plagued by self doubt.