More Book Cover Designs

 Hi Guys,

Okay, just having a little fun with Deep Dream. So take a look!

So this, or a variant will be the cover for the next Barton Villa. That's Dee Wallace by the way. and pretty close to how I imagined her, just a little hotter!

A couple of versions for the other novel I'm working on - "A Ghost Of A Chance" It's a steampunk fantasy in case you couldn't guess!

And while I was looking for covers for Moody Rockers - an urban sci fi, I somehow created this! Hell if I know how! But here's something closer to the actual cover:

Damn this thing is fun!!!

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.

A Week in Writing

Hi Guys,

They say a week is a long time in politics. I think it may be even longer in writing!

Last week and a bit ago, several things happened almost simultaneously. First I sent a copy of my latest book - "The Dotard" off down to the editor, relieved that the first draft was finally done and thinking to myself - nothing can go wrong. Oh what a foolish thought!

Days later the North Korean's called the US President a dotard, and I was left shocked and floundering. Wondering, why do they suddenly use this archaic term right bloody then! And also wondering do I now have to change the title of the book now that I've gone to all the trouble of getting a cover done etc?

The problem is that some people seeing the book cover will connect the two things, and immediately either assume that I'm making some sort of political statement - which I am absolutely not - or else that I'm simply cashing in on the sudden notoriety of the word by copying North Korea - save that as far as I can tell they're copying me! Good to know I have readers there though! On the other hand - it was such a brilliant title for the book and I've already gone and got the cover done. I don't want to change it.

What a miserable couple of days that was! You just wouldn't read about it! (Except of course if you read the book when it comes out!)

Then just when I thought things couldn't get any worse my computer crashed. Actually the hard drive had a complete break down with all data lost. Thankfully it was only my desktop, so I lost no writing. I normally write on my laptop and back up regularly to burner discs. The desktop is purely for connecting to the net. That was the good news. The bad was that I did have one file on my desktop that I absolutely needed - the one with all my logins and passwords! The one I never backed up!

So after a week with no online presence, I'm now in the process of trying to resurrect all my logins and passwords - with limited success. Most of the time I had the computer remember my passwords and addresses for me which was extremely convenient - until now! At this stage I'd guess I can access probably half of the fora I used to, which means if you're looking for me under my alternate persona, don't be surprised if I'm not there.

Emails have of course also died, which means I've lost loads of names, contacts and reference material. And some of my contacts will shortly be receiving emails starting off "you remember that you sent me ...? Can you send it again!" And of course many of my online contacts like cover artists I won't be able to contact at all.

The moral of the story is of course - back up everything. Not just the data files on your laptop!

Anyway that's been my week. At this stage I've decided to leave the book as it is (as you can see above). Hopefully the North Koreans will find some other language to use and people will forget the word. And dotard really is a brilliantly old fashioned word that perfectly encapsulates the book.

So that's been my week or so. One out of the box really. All I can really say is that I hope people can learn from my mistakes. And that the title of the book like the book itself, has absolutely nothing to do with US politics.

Cheers, Greg.

Lessons Learned From TV Land Which Every Writer Should Know!

Hi Guys,

As a writer I am an avid tv watcher - usually when I should be writing! And in point of fact as I sit and struggle with the endless continuity problems involved in writing Mage, I have found myself watching a lot of the idiot box lately. There comes a point at which the thought of going back to a book I closed four years ago and promptly forgot about, just to fact check one tiny piece of information, becomes unbearable. A point at which I would rather hit the remote control and watch anything other than write another line.

 

There is a lesson here to be learned my fellow writers. Or actually two. The first is obviously don't start writing a sequel four years later - the pain of maintaining continuity between the old book which you've completely forgotten about and the new one, is not worth it. The second lesson for those who like me keep a companion document with all the facts and details about the book I'm writing, is of course, don't lose that damned document. It is so much easier to go through a companion document than to do endless word searches through an entire novel.

 

However, that's my pain at the moment, and completely a problem of my own making. I accept that, just as I accept that by the time Mage is completed I will in all probability have pulled out all my hair and may well have started on the cat!

 

But on the positive side, all this tv watching lately, has been useful. It has reminded me that there is wisdom in tv land. Great wisdom - and some of it even affects authors. So here - also in part because I can't stand the thought of doing any more word searches through Maverick tonight - I have pulled together a few of the most important lessons I've learned lately. Lessons that I believe we should all take to heart!

 

Lessons Learned From TV Land:

 

 

1 Never piss off a serial killer! Enough said I think. Not sure if this has any relevance to writers save of course for the obvious - don't write unflattering things about these people!
 

2 There is a subset of human beings who are literally too stupid to live. We call them reporters. These people will literally go out at night, unarmed and without any allies to meet strangers in dark parking garages when they know the people they are supposedly going to meet could be dangerous. And even within this subset there is another subset who are not only too stupid to live, but think its a virtue. We call them plucky female reporters! So the lesson for writers? Don't take up reporting as it's clear it will have a detrimental effect upon both your IQ and your life expectancy!

 

 

3 Writers are cursed. I call this Greg's law of Sodding Synchronicity. But whatever you want to call it it is a fact that in any tv series where there is a writer he will always end up at some point being attacked by whatever he writes about. If he writes about vampires, he will suffer a vampire attack. If he writes about werewolves, werewolves will attack him. Crime writers will always end up at some point embroiled in some sort of true crime – often a murder. And so on. The lesson for writers? Either write about pink fluffy bunnies or brace yourself for the consequences!

 

 

4 Never stand near the captain or other important members of a cast or crew. If possible don't even be in the same episode. The chances of suffering a horrible death increase exponentially as your rank decreases. And if you don't have a full name, you're doomed. The chances are crewman number five that you're going to die. The lesson for writers? Yeah I don't think there is one – it's just fascinating!

 

 

5 Time travel always happens. In any series once it passes a certain number of seasons, you will encounter a time traveller. It cannot be avoided. And said traveller will of course vanish leaving the main characters without evidence and scratching their heads. At much the same time Father Christmas will also appear and then vanish. So the lesson for writers? Expect strange visitors!

 

6 There are certain people in the world who thanks to their advanced hacking skills will be able to build a neutron bomb from duct tape and paper clips or carry out brain surgery by reading a few books. The lesson for writers? Get to know them – they may also be clever enough to be able to programme the damned dvd player!

 

Anyway, those are just a few of the lessons I've gleaned lately from the idiot box. No doubt more will follow in time as my hair thins and the cat heads for the hills!

 

Cheers, Greg.

 

 

 

 

The Best Book You Will Ever Read To Make You A Better Writer

Hi Guys,

I'm deep in the cycle of editing at the moment - and grateful that my hair is so short - it makes it harder to pull out! The Nephilim is going through its first edit at present, and will hopefully be published by the end of the month.

The cover image was taken from a photo in the wiki commons under a creative commons attribution share alike licence. The original photo is titled 9 of 365 - Frustration, by Tanya Little. It's been modified somewhat to reduce the biographic accuracy and concentrate on the angst and moodiness of the image.

Anyway while going through the editing process (a lot of which consists of sitting around waiting for copy to come back and fielding abusive phone calls from my editor) I spent some time going through my various writing fora and came across the above question. What is the best book you will ever read to improve your writing?

Now this is not a new question. Anyone who's been interested in writing will have seen it fielded in probably a hundred different guises by now. Everything from "I've just read book x,y,z by author a,b,c and it was great - what do you think?" to "Where can I find a good writing guide?" And usually I ignore these threads and move on. However this time for reasons probably most closely related to synchronicity - I read on. And as I read I knew the answer.

It's not any book on writing at all. There are a great many good books out there which all promise to give guidance on the topic, and only some of which I've read. But without exception I can say that none of them are the best. Many will talk about rules and guidelines. Many will point out common mistakes authors make when starting out. But in the end there is always one book that will help you as an author far more than any other. The book you're writing.

This may sound trite and flippant. It's probably both. But unfortunately it's also completely true. And it's important that writers understand this. The best way, probably the only true way, to become a better writer is to write. But I'll go further than that. To write and get feedback. (Now you see where the synchronicity comes in!)

There is no one great secret to writing. There is only hard work, a bit of talent, a lot of passion and criticism. And the process is simple - often simply painful, but still simple. It's this.

Write. Read what you write, rewrite it and keep going and going and going until you're finally satisfied that you can't go any further on your own. Then hit the critic groups and beta readers. Put out sample chapters etc and get feedback. As much as you can get. It may hurt and there is a reason that authors do need thick skins, but nothing else will help you as much in becoming a better writer. Then go back to the writing board, decide which of the criticism you think is valid, and rewrite. After that more critics of what you've rewritten, and more rewriting.

Then the truly painful stage, editing as someone good tears your work to pieces. It has to be done. So get it edited, then go through the process of rewriting it again, remembering always that some of what even the most capable editor will tell you will not fit with your voice or your vision. So edit and re-edit until finally you've reached the final stage. Publishing. Here's where the pain goes ballistic.

Publish - if you need help to put your book out as good copy with a good cover and blurb, get it. And then wait for reviews. Now you'd think that having gone through critics, beta readers and editing, your book would be beyond reproach. It isn't. You will get negative feedback. It's simply a fact of life. Your task as an author is to read it all and then ask yourself - is this right? Does it fit with my vision? Have I got something wrong? Remember readers can be just as wrong as you! But they can also be right.

And then write your next book, knowing that it too will be the best book you'll ever read that will make you a better writer.

Cheers, Greg.

The Future Of Self Publishing

Hi Guys,

This time I think it's time for me to apologise for a whole new mistake - posting blogs too often! (Yeah I know - it's never happened before and it probably won't happen again!)

 

However I felt inspired by a number of questions that have been asked on some of the writing fora to which I belong, and I thought I might take a stab at answering them. Or mostly just answering one question - where is self publishing going in the next few years?

Obviously trying to guess what's going to happen in even the next five years in this field is rather like trying to shoot a moving target with a bow and arrow while blind folded, but still it occurs to me that there are some trends that we can see happening already.

1. The first of them is that the age of the free ebooks, and perhaps even the 99c ones is probably going to come to if not an end then a slow down.

The reason for this is simple marketing. For a couple of years now Amazon has been happy to have books sold for nix. To take a minor hit on each sale. And the reason for this is simple. They want to sell their ebook reader, the Kindle. The loss they take on giving away books has been more than offset by the additional kindle sales. However this can't last.

Already we saw earlier this year the change in the Amazon algorhythms such that every free book 'sale' counted for only one tenth as much of a bump in the sales / author rankings as before. While dearer books gained an increased bump. The reason for this? Amazon makes money from selling books for money, not giving them away. And at some point they clearly decided that the value they were getting from the giveaways in terms of kindle sales was losing out to the losses they were taking in terms of gaining no revenue from the freebies and the hits they were taking when readers chose free books over ones they had to pay for.

My thought is that this trend will continue. Freebies will still exist in some form or another, and certainly on other sites, but the big online retailers will continue to move away from them. In the end there are only so many kindles you can sell, and when Amazon's competition for ebook readers includes not just other ebook readers but pads, laptops and now phones, that limit will be reached.

2. My next prediction is that there will be a rise in the numbers of people and organisations providing services for indie authors. It is inevitable that as more and more people realise that they can write books and publish them, the demand for these services will increase. So that's editors, cover artists, promoters, reviewers etc.

But to balance the good with the bad, as well as these there will also be those rip off artists I mentioned in a previous post - the vanity publishers as they were once known. (And probably still are.) As more and more people discover that they can write a book and then become desperate to publish them, the sharks will find more to feed on.

And I urge you all to remember the golden rule, as an author the money should always flow to you. You should never have to pay to be published. If someone says they will publish your book for x dollars, walk away.

3. The numbers of both authors and books both will increase. This is inevitable as more people decide that they can write a book and publish it, and those already in the business write and publish more, while at the same time everything that's digitally published remains out there for potentially centuries.

So what does this mean for those who want to write? It means more competition. More books out there in the same genre's competing with whatever they put out. It means that average incomes for indie authors (and trade published authors) will sooner or later fall. They have to as readers spend more money across a wider range of books, the amount that goes on each will decrease. There is only so much money to spend after all.

And what does it mean for readers? Greater choice than ever before - which is great. But at the same time greater difficulty finding books worth reading.

The solution for both however is the same. Those authors who want to sell more will have to concentrate on producing better quality books. This means better editing, better cover design, more professional formatting etc. More and more quality will have to become the indie author's byword. And the hope is that those authors who produce works of higher quality will find greater readership and gain a fan base.

The days I think when marketing campaigns, adds in various media etc, dropping prices and dumping huge loads of spam in peoples' in boxes will bring in large jumps in sales are numbered. In the end you can't sell a turd. (Although from Mythbusters we now know that you can polish one!) Already we are seeing that the numbers of pick ups of free books are declining. Readers are starting to realise that even free is sometimes too high a price to pay for a book. Readers are smart and it would be a foolish author who forgets that and tries to publish something that isn't ready.

Anyhow, those are my predictions.

Cheers, Greg.

Current Work In Progress.

Hi Guys,

This time I thought I'd return to my writing. Its been a while. So I thought I'd give you the cover and the blurb for my current book - Days of Light and Shadow. In this book I've returned to my love of traditional fantasy with elves and dwarves and magic etc, but I think woven a slightly darker tale. At present its a little over a month or so away from being finished, and as always all comments happily received.

The High Lord’s sister has been brutally raped and slain. An act of unspeakable foulness. Her brother Finell sits upon the Heartwood Throne, filled with grief and rage. His heart knows only the unelven need for vengeance. A need that will threaten a war of extinction against the humans. At his side his advisor Yaris works diligently to bring that war to life in the most terrible way possible, as he plots to take the throne and cleanse the world of human kind.

Arrayed against them a few innocents will have to stand, alone and unready. They will sacrifice all and they will be sacrificed in turn upon the altar of hatred, and still they will have to stand.

And all the while the spider demon eagerly awaits his feast of souls.

Cheers, Greg.