The Man Who Fell Flies!

Hi Guys,

So The Man Who Fell is now out - in ebook form anyway, it could be another three days before the paperback edition gets approval. (Man was that a battle to prepare - there was a problem with the file and it kept getting knocked back, as usual with no explanation of why, so I had to nuke the text file completely and reformat from the ground up! The trials and tribulations of being an author!)

This ones an urban fantasy - I hadn't put out one for a while and thought I should - but it has no witches or wizards or spells. No vampires or werewolves either. Just a bunch of lineages / families with interesting gifts. The Ilans for example have essentially got super strength which they can pass on to their lovers. They're the Amazons by the way. The Domani can "suggest" things and have a limited ability to read minds. They're the descendants of the baba-yagas. And the Vans have the power of "awe". Essentially it's an almost spiritual power of light and overwhelming ... well awe ... that leaves people on the ground, stunned. There are other families of course, and they've all been battling with one another for thousands of years while always making sure that the normals never find out about them.

And into this mess comes Dale Fall, who returns early from his work one day, to find his wife in bed with another man, and then promptly gets picked up and hurled out the window of a thirtieth story penthouse in Manhattan. His wife's an Ilan though of course he had no idea. Roll on three or four years and he's an alcoholic living on a life style black in Hamilton New Zealand, still with no clue what's happening - and more superwomen are trying to kill him.

I really enjoyed writing this book, but as I did I kept thinking it borders on the superhero / mutant genre - except no guys in tights and no flying! No super criminals either - though all the families have long histories of making large amounts of money and gaining power through less than legal means! As I said at one point, the Domani have gone from telling fortunes to making them!

All of which left me with a strange question - just what is the difference between the superhero / mutant genre and the urban fantasy genre? Because it strikes me that they overlap a long way in some cases. Are superheros really just urban fantasy and mutants urban sci fi?

Anyway, thought I'd leave that question with you guys to think about. I need to go back to writing!

Hope you enjoy the book.

Cheers, Greg.

Manx is Out

Hi Guys,

So my first book of the year is out – Manx – and I'm feeling good. (Apart from my back of course which is absolutely killing me! Too much sitting, staring at a computer and snacking – way too much snacking!) But anyway, I feel like I'm finally making progress instead of simply sitting in my chair, staring off into the distance and typing random thoughts, and that's a good thing.

One of the problems writers face (I say confidently as if I have any idea what other writers go through!) is motivation. Not necessarily to write, but instead to write to a program. I write because I love to tell the stories in my head. But it's a very different thing to going to work every day and working. There you have goals. Set things you have to achieve every day. On your own the only goal you have is whatever you set for yourself. I may actually work harder and for a great many more hours at my keyboard than I did when I worked nine to five, but I tend to write less productively. My daily word count is much greater than before, but for every book I write I probably have ten others which I start but then let go nowhere. Some of them are nearly complete novels. So when I complete one, it's always an achievement. This book is a definite achievement. And Manx was also one I loved writing.

I love the cover too. It fits the book because the main character in it – Maxwell Smythe (Manx) – is a librarian in a Victorian / steam-punk era library who adopts a green eyed cat – despite the fact that he can speak with cats and knows they have nothing good to say!

The cat in question – She With The Sharp Claws Who Must Be Adored – is based loosely on my own cat Tab (yes Tabby the Tabby – I never claimed to be good with names!) Tab passed away late last year after a long battle with hyper-thyroidism and then renal failure, and I have to admit the loss hit me quite hard. It's amazing how much the little fur-balls can worm their way under your skin and into your heart. But I'd like to think that a little of her seeped its way into the work. Particularly the complete lack of guilt or shame she knew when she destroyed pieces of my home! In fact she used to stare at me with bits of fluff and furniture in her mouth, and wonder what I was upset about! Purring by the way, is simply a cat's way of lying!

The next book on the line is Adrift – which has absolutely no cats in it! It's a space opera about a man abducted by aliens trying to get home. I'm hoping to get that out in the next couple of months – but sadly I often have such hopes, so we'll have to see! Still the first draft is complete, and I'll start on the edit after I've completed the paperback version of Manx.

And maybe for once, I'll finally achieve my target of four books published in a year! Who knows – it's a new decade. Anything could happen!

Cheers, Greg

Callum's Out!!!

Hi Guys,

It's done! The Ebook version anyway! I finished the final revision yesterday morning, put it up, drank a cup of coffee and collapsed onto the couch. Next thing I knew it was thee a.m. this morning!

Regardless it's done and I'm happy (you know - that happy that comes from exhaustion!). Here's the blurb by the way:

Sometimes doing the right thing can be the wrong thing to do!

When Callum saw Fae locked away in prison wagons being hauled through the city like common criminals, he knew his duty. He reported it to the wizards of Eternum. And then he thought no more of it – until the Fae came to rescue their people, started a major battle in the city and finally abducted him. And when he escaped his spells started going wrong!

Raina had always obeyed the Elders. She was High Guard. That was her duty. She could never have imagined that the Elders would commit murder in front of her, dismiss her and finally try to have her assassinated.

Now the enchanter with the misfiring spells and the High Guard officer forced into running had to do something new – if they were to survive.

They had to do the wrong thing!

Anyway, I'm going to have a lie down now! So Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year.

Cheers, Greg.

The December Frenzy

Hi Guys,

Just a short note to let you know where I'm at. 

Callum (I decided to go with that as the title instead of Scars) is now back from the editors and I'm working hard on it. I hope to get it out by Christmas but January is looking more likely. I've done a rough mock up of the cover - above. I was hoping to go for a vibe of slightly magical and slightly creepy, but it may still need some work - not to mention a blurb!

In the meantime I've just finished the first draft of a new epic fantasy - Manx, about a thief and his cat (or possibly the cat and her thief! She With The Sharp Claws Who Must Be Adored certainly thinks so. By the way, cats choose their own names in case you hadn't guessed!) In essence it's a book about a steampunk world where magic has become little more than a legend for four hundreds years as the spell-casters all went away, and a librarian who has the magical gift of talking to cats (which is more of a curse!) And then the spell-casters return and everyone's world turns upside down.

Wings is just about ready to go down to Baen and sit in their slush pile for a year!

And somewhere in all of that I've got to buy some presents, prepare for Christmas and New Years, and maybe take a holiday!

Anyway, if I don't get another post out this year, Merry Christmas all and Happy New Years. And as always be good or don't get caught!

Cheers, Greg.

Fineas And Tusk Released

Hi Guys,

As you may know, the eBook version of Fineas and Tusk: The Epic Journey of a Man and His Pig has gone out on Kindle. Now I'm in the process of getting it ready for publication as a paperback edition through CreateSpace. In the meantime here's version 1 of the full cover with the back cover with blurb roughed out. It probably won't change a lot before publication but I'm rewriting the blurb.

Have to say I enjoyed writing this book. It made me laugh in places. And when I got the cover back from Andrew I practically went hog-wild over it! (Pun intended!)

By the way, for those of you who wonder about such things, the lead character isn't named for the hero from Around The World in Eighty Days. That's Phileas Fogg. Fineas is actually a modern version of the Greek name Phineas which means Oracle. As for the other main characters, Tusk was named as he was because - well - he's a wild boar! And Shanniah because I was listening to the singer when I named her! So no advanced naming strategy here!

Anyway, that's my news. Hope you all enjoy the book.

Cheers, Greg.

Fineas and Tusk - The Epic Journey Of A Man And His Pig!

Hi Guys,

Hope you all had a great Christmas and are enjoying the new year. Here in Rotorua it's been strange – weather wise at least. We had days and days of rain, intermixed with thunderstorms and endless grey skies which kept me locked inside a lot. But just at the moment we seem to have been hit with a heatwave and I can't even step outside without burning my feet off. So go figure!

Anyway all this enforced home detention has been good for my writing, and a new book is now about eighty percent complete. At this stage it has the working title of “Fineas and Tusk – the Epic Journey of a Man and his Pig.” The scary thing is that that may in fact remain the title – I haven't decided.

It's a slightly different twist on my usual epic fantasy of a hero – or more often a reluctant fool – setting out to save the world or at least some of it. In this story it begins with our hero actually plummeting from an airship a league above the ground, to land in a savage, magical land and then wanting to do nothing more than make his way home to his pregnant wife, a thousand leagues away. And once on the ground he encounters Tusk – a two hundred pound wild boar – who travels with him. While Tusk might or might not be a familiar – I've called him a companion which is simply an animal that those with magic are sometimes accompanied by – he doesn't talk, or cast spells or do anything other than what wild boars normally do. If he has a magical gift, it's eating and embarrassing Fineas as he journeys east.

My main struggle in writing Fineas and Tusk, has been in shaping the nature of Fineas. As many of you will know, I normally spend a lot of time trying to get into the head space of my main characters, and Fineas has been particularly difficult for me in this regard. He's so close to the traditional good guy in many ways, but his world view and beliefs are so different that often when he does things that seem to be what a good guy should do – he does them for completely different reasons. So if he steps into a battle where a woman is being attacked it's not because of a sense of justice or fear for her safety – it's because of his inbred need to act honourably. It would be shameful to let a woman be harmed. He will walk into a war even when he's quaking with fear and show not a sign of his terror, simply because he is a Lord and he can never fail in his duty or show such emotions. And when things go wrong as they inevitably do, the true destruction of his life isn't brought about by typical things like bankruptcy or criminality. It is again the code of honour which lays him low as he is shamed by the actions of others even when he has acted with nothing but propriety.

As I say he is close to being the generic good guy / hero, but when you cut to the heart of what makes him tick, he's almost completely alien. Tusk on the other hand is much simpler – it's always about the food!

Anyway, that's been my January. And as I sit here writing and bathing in my own sweat, I hope to have Fineas and Tusk and their epic journey off to the editor in February. After that I suppose, I'll have to start searching out cover art – and strangely there's a large dearth of covers out there depicting Lords walking with wild boars through medieval worlds!

Cheers, Greg.

Line Trimming For Dotards

Hi Guys,

Merry Christmas to all of you, or happy holidays for those who don't celebrate the festival. Thought I'd let you know that at this stage my latest book looks set to go on sale before Christmas. And following its release I may admit myself to the Home for the Terminally Bewildered!

Have to admit that this book has been a challenge. The Dotard – yes I'm keeping the name, North Korea will just have to find another word – despite being quite short at a hundred k or so has attracted the full fury of my editor. (And I thought it flowed quite well!) So the rewrites have been quite extensive.

But while she gets the final edit finished, that's given me a little time to spend in the garden with the line trimmer. Boy has that been a mistake!

It seems that somewhere in my misspent youth (would you believe last year?!), I fell for the old mantra that bigger is always better. And from my humble red-neck man's point of view, this is almost always true. I want to be taller, to have more money in my bank account, for my car to be bigger and more powerful. I think everybody does. But it turns out that line trimmers are where this rule of thumb breaks down – and if you're unlucky your thumb breaks down with it!

The new rule of thumb for line trimmers is this: When you're standing in a jet-stream of blended vegetation shooting into your face and ten feet over your head, when your right arm is cramping from the effort of holding down the trigger, and when every time you move the end of the trimmer wants to take flight and spin you around like a top – it's too big!

For me the magic number is eight hundred watts. Seven hundred and ninety nine would have been fine, but eight hundred was just too much! I know, it doesn't sound like a lot. It's only two or three times the power of a normal trimmer. But with the heavier line on it, it really is like trying to hang on to a jet engine. On the other hand when you're trimming the stuff that grows between the cobbles on the drive, it does a fantastic job of polishing the concrete too!

Anyway that's my consumer advice for Christmas. In the new year I may start reviewing bandages and painkillers!

Hope you all have a great holiday season, and don't over do it in the yard! My new years resolution will be to try and put out more books next year than I did this year.

Merry Christmas, Greg.