R.J. Madigan's Blog, page 3

Multi-touch iBooks – The Future of Publishing by author R.J.Madigan

R J Madigan:

A big thank you to the wonderful Sally at Smorgasboard- Variety is the spice of life for hosting my feature on multi-touch iBooks. I would love to hear your thoughts on this new and exciting platform for storytelling!

Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:

Recently when we were posting the series on Ebook formatting, author R.J. Madigan got in touch to introduce me to her YA fantasy The Sword of Air which is an excellent example of how publishing is evolving alongside developing technology. I think you will find it very interesting reading particularly if you are an author within genres that lend themselves to this visual and interactive book style.

Multi-touch iBooks -The future of publishing

I chose to take a slightly different path to other YA fantasy authors by publishing The Sword of Air as a multi-touch iBook because I believe young people today need more than printed text to engage them. Pharrell Williams said it best when he said ‘kids today need visual.’

View the trailer here

When I was young it was nothing to sit for hours with a printed book and just my imagination. Today kids are brought up…

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The Sword of Air – Official Sneak Preview!

Ever wondered what the inside of a multi-touch iBook looks like?  Want to experience the stunning photography, cinematic soundtrack and HD video for yourself?  Then check out this incredible sneak preview from R.J. Madigan.

The Sword of Air is now available from iBookstore.  Click on the front cover below to download the first three chapters for free!

 

 

Follow The Sword of Air on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Sw...

And Pinterest  https://uk.pinterest.com/authorrjmadi...

 

 

Author Q&A with Krista Walsh.

I am thrilled to be featuring talented fantasy author Krista Walsh on my blog today.  I have been following Krista at theravensquill.com for a while now and am delighted to finally have the chance to ask her some questions about her work.

 

Q1) What do you enjoy doing when you are not reading and writing?

That depends on the season! During the deep freeze of our Ottawa winters, I can usually be found bundled under layers of blankets with my warm beverage-IV inserted (usually of the tea or hot chocolate variety) either reading, watching old movies, or playing card games on the computer. I also love video games with a good story line – I find they spark all sorts of new ideas.

In the summer (which does come around from time to time) I walk a lot. I love finding quiet paths and brainstorming book ideas.

I’m also a groupie for the local burlesque and geek scenes, so I love spending time with my performer friends and cheering them on, or going to cons when they come up to gawk at the cosplayers and browse the local talent.

Q2) Wow, it’s amazing you actually find to the time to write.  When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?

I believe my first short stories were written when I was six years old? Three one-page ghost/monsters stories that I still claim to be some of the best words I’ve ever written. I remember come up with plays to put on with my friends for our parents (we charged $0.10!). But the short stories kept getting longer and longer and when I was about 12 or 13, they morphed into novels.

 

Q3) What inspired you to write the Meratis trilogy?

A fan fiction contest! The prompt was “An author gets trapped inside his own novel” and so many people enjoyed the dynamic between Jeff, Jasmine, and Jayden that became the basis for an entire trilogy. You can read the flash fiction piece here:

http://theravensquill.com/samples/evensong/

Although Evensong was originally intended to be a stand-alone novel. I even put my foot down when I started it that I would only write the one. But then, as they do, the characters hijacked the story and it turned out they had more to say!

Q4) I can’t wait to read the flash fiction piece.  Thank you for sharing.  Tell us some interesting facts about your protagonist fantasy author Jeff Powell?

He’s a coffee and junk food addict. He believes its part of his writing process, but really it’s just because it’s a bachelor who doesn’t like to cook, and he keeps odd hours.

 

He lives in Montreal, Quebec, but his French is pretty lousy. Although he hasn’t admitted this to me, yet, I suspect he was born somewhere in western Canada and moved to Montreal for the beauty of the city.

 

He likes to pretend he’s closer to his more “action-oriented” characters like Jayden or Corey, but when he enters into his novel, it turns out he’s far closer to his “research-oriented” character, Brady.

Q5) On your website you talk about wanting to explore books as windows into other worlds or narrative as fate in the Meratis trilogy.  What exactly does this concept mean to you?

For me, it’s part of my writing process. I’m not a determined outliner when I start a new project. I like having a good idea of the direction I’m headed, but I prefer to sit back and let the characters take me for the ride. I see it as being the medium to tell their own story. I find this concept helps me stay consistent in my characters, making them relatable and realistic.

Q6) In Eventide (book 2 of the trilogy) Jeff Powell is suffering from writers block.  Have you ever experienced writers block yourself.  If so how did you overcome it?

I usually go through a creative hiatus after I finish editing a book. I think it’s the difficulty switching back from critical, analytical thinking to the creative thinking of drafting. The best solution I’ve found is to write. I try to write a 200-word short story/scene/dialogue every day to keep the habit, but I find the practice of writing without worrying about how good it is helps oil the way for better words. A case of creativity breeding creativity.

Q7) Tell us a little about your two works in progress ‘The Fenwith Trials’ and ‘The Storms of Time.’

Fenwith Trials is the story of four women who are affected by a renewed witch hunt. I wrote the first draft about five years ago, and even after four edits, the word count is stuck around 210,000! As a result, it’s on hold for the time being until I find a different way to structure it.

The Storms of Time is an urban fantasy series about an accidentally immortal sorceress named Katerina. It’s told in a parallel structure between the past and present, and how she’s adapted over the years as the “clean-up crew”, keeping the mundane world unaware/protecting it from supernatural elements. It’s planned to be a 4 or 5-book series with a cast of very fun characters,

I don’t have it listed on my blog, but my current work is progress is a follow-up to the Meratis Trilogy. One of the secondary characters, the blade-wielding, sharp-mouthed assassin Venn Connell is getting her own story in the Cadis Trilogy. I’m nearly half-way through the first draft of book 1, Bloodlore, and having so much fun with it!

Q8)  Sounds exciting!  I am pleased to hear there is a lot more of your wonderful work coming our way.  It can be really hard for an author starting out to make their work visible and very disheartening when their work is not selling.  In your most recent blog post you mention having ‘hit a nice sales milestone.’  What advice would you give to a new author who was trying to get to where you are now?

As much as the saying is “never say never”, I will ignore this once to offer the advice of: Never compare yourself to anyone else. This business, especially when you go the self-publishing route, is all about trial and error. If something isn’t working, do your research and explore new ways that work best for you. There are no “hard and true” rules except two: don’t give up, and keep writing!

Q9) What is your worst form of procrastination while writing?

Social media. It’s horrible! Although I’ve found a way to twist it to my advantage by joining a great writing group on Facebook. We do timed writing sprints throughout the day and motivate each to concentrate for 25 minutes at a time.

Lately I’ve also turned to procrasticleaning and procrastibaking. When the weather it nice, I get away from my computer to go for walks, but at least I usually come home with great ideas. Right now, I’m answering this Q&A ;-)

 

10) I think we are all a little guilty of spending too much time on social media.  Your Facebook group sounds fantastic.  What a wonderful way to keep each other motivated.  Where can people find you and your writing on the internet?

EVERYWHERE!!!

You can take a gander at my blog/site: theravensquill.com

Find me on twitter: @krista_walsh or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristawalshauthor

I’m even on Pinterest! https://www.pinterest.com/theravensquill/

Finally, you can also sign up for my newsletter to get updates on new releases, cover reveals, and promotions! http://eepurl.com/GIJkz

 

Thank you so much for hosting me!

 

A huge thank you to Krista for taking part in an author Q&A on http://www.swordofair.net!

 

Click the link below to read the author Q&A Krista hosted with me a few weeks ago!

http://swordofair.net/2015/02/02/author-qa-with-rj-madigan/

 

The Future of Books.

 

In 1450 the Guttenberg printing press created a revolution in books. It massively decreased the cost and time of producing a book, which before would have been scribed out by hand. The next revolution in storytelling has already arrived, but it’s not physical, it’s in the minds of our kids.

A friend of mine told me a story about going to see the fireworks with his five-year old son. When the fireworks were over and they were walking back to the car, they had this conversation:

‘I want to see the fireworks again dad’.

‘Sorry, the fireworks are finished now.’

‘No dad, we can just google them when we get home and see as many as we like!’

Kids of 5 or 6 have been brought up with broadband wireless internet and touchscreen technology. It’s not just that they know how to use it from a young age. It’s in their mind, part of their consciousness and it affects the way they think. They expect everything to be linked to the greater hive mind that is the internet, but also change and react to their actions. That’s normal for them, something that isn’t interactive is almost bizarre.

 

In their world, music is dematerialized, you simply tap the screen, download it and play it immediately. There are no music shops, CDs are for old people. It’s the same with books. You want a book, you tap the screen, and it appears. This changes your mind-set. There are kids books now where you enter your own name for the hero or heroine, where you decide how the story will progress. As they grow up, some of them will learn to appreciate and love physical books, and beautiful printed editions, just as we do, but it will always be a second string, or a hobby.

Don’t believe me? The numbers don’t lie. Sales of printed books are falling and have been doing so for almost decade. This is only going in one direction. Sales of e-books are rising rapidly and continue to do so. Still don’t believe me? In 2013 two of the biggest publishers in the world, Penguin and Random House merged. Why? Because they can’t make it on their own. They need huge size to try to keep making money out of the book world.

Issac Asimov

Neil Stephenson

 

Decades ago Isaac Asimov in his short story Robbie, was writing about books you interact with and talk to. More recently Neil Stephenson in his Cyber Punk classic – The Diamond Age – based the core of his story around a book that changed as the little girl who owned it grew up. They envisaged a world where books are more than just print, they come alive and talk to you, react and interact with you. That world is now. The iPad has brought science fiction into reality.

No one’s really taken advantage of this yet. I wanted to use it for my storytelling and the iPad makes this possible. I was inspired by the Pharrell Williams quote ‘Kids today need a visual.’ Young people have so many distractions with TV, iPad’s, computer games, the internet and social media. When I was growing up it was nothing to sit for hours with a print book, but now kids need something more to engage them.

Still think I’m mad? When I was in school the teachers used blackboards and chalk. Now they’re using internet enabled, interactive touch screen whiteboards. Think about that for a minute. The technological tide is rising and taking all of us with it.

Just like in Asimov’s story – it won’t be long before kids will laugh in surprise at a book that doesn’t change or talk to them. Printed books will be around for a long time yet no doubt, but as our kids grow up, more and more they will become a niche hobby like vinyl is today. Don’t get me wrong, I love books, I own many beautiful editions, I have a record player and hundreds of records but printed books are 15th century technology in a 21st century world.

iBooks will continue to outpace printed fiction, not because people don’t want books anymore but because what you can do on an iPad will only get more amazing and interactive. And the hardware technology will only get cheaper and more ubiquitous. Printed books are at the zenith of what they can do. There are words on a page, you turn the page, that’s it.

If nothing else, economics will push the rise of iBooks. As people live in smaller and smaller houses and flats, the space they have storing printed books will keep falling. Sure people will have a few of their favourites on the shelf in special editions, but the rest will be iBooks. Similarly for DVDs, why let them take up space in your house forever when someone else can keep them in the cloud and you can stream them whenever or wherever you want. It’s the same process happening with books.

We are on the edge of a paradigm change in the way people consume their stories. In the distant past there was an oral tradition, then stories were written down, then printed in mass production, now blended with cinema in iBooks and distributed at the speed of light all over the globe and available 24 hours a day. The medium changes but the stories remain.

I hope you will love the Sword of Air. You can get it from iBooks on a Mac or an iPad. It’s the epic fantasy story of Niamh, set in altered reality medieval Ireland. Blending movies, music and photography into the story to make it really come alive. Once you’ve read it tell me what you think of the story, the technology and how you think this will develop in the future.

 

 

 

Click on the front cover to get the first three chapters free.

 

A sneak preview inside the stunning new multi-touch iBook from R.J. Madigan.

Watch a sneak preview of R.J. Madigan’s stunning new multi-touch iBook The Sword of Air!

 

The Sword of Air is now available from the iBooks store.  Click on the front cover below to download the first three chapters as a free sample!

 

Author Q&A with RJ Madigan

R J Madigan:

Check out the Q&A I did about my stunning new multitouch iBook ‘The Sword of Air’ with talented fantasy writer and blogger Krista Walsh. I would highly recommend The Raven’s Quill!

Originally posted on The Raven's Quill:

I recently connected with fantasy author R.J. Madigan and am thrilled to feature her on The Raven’s Quill. She has chosen a fascinating and unique route to shake up the fantasy scene and I can’t wait to see what comes of it!

So we’ll start with the … I’d say easiest question, but it’s not always. Tell us a bit about yourself.

I live in London with my husband and our rescue cat.  My hobbies include sea kayaking, all kinds of cookery and volunteering for an incredible organisation called ‘Riding for the Disabled,’ which provides therapeutic horse riding for disabled children and adults living in the local community. I love all animals but my favourite in the world are elephants which I was lucky enough to see in the wild last year when I went on safari to South Africa.

Doing good works and living the dream? Sounds like a pretty great…

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Who is The Grogoch? Will he help Niamh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The grogoch is one of the most loveable characters in The Sword of Air.  But where does he come from?  His origins can me found deep in Irish mythology.  Half fairy, half human, with strange magical powers. Will he help Niamh and her friends escape? Or betray her to the Raven Queen?

A very small creature covered in reddish fur, he wears no clothes, but sports a variety of twigs and dirt from his travels. Timid in nature, he rarely leaves the forest so sightings of him by humans are very rare.

In myth his home was often a cave, hollow or cleft in the landscape. The grogoch in The Sword of Air lives in a magical treehouse. Niamh and her friends travel to find the grogoch on horseback after her adopted grandmother is brutally murdered by the Raven Queen’s Fomor army.

The grogoch has the power of invisibility and likes to borrow people’s belongings – usually without them knowing(!)

His favourite food is pumpkin which he grows himself. He makes Niamh a spiced pumpkin hot chocolate to help her sleep. It’s the most delicious thing she’s ever tasted!

He is the only creature alive other than The Raven Queen who knows the location of the Stone circle, the magic portal to the faery realm. Niamh and her friends will be hunted down and killed by the Fomor army searching for them if they can’t get help from the magical Fae in time. The Raven Queen has sworn him to secrecy. He’s so terrified of her that no one has ever been able to get the grogoch to revel the location of the stone circle.

Outcast by both the human and faery world the grogoch longs for a friend more than anything else in the world. When Niamh gives him the name Finn he attaches himself to her. But will Nimah’s offer of friendship be enough to persuade the grogoch to risk his life by taking her and her friends to the stone circle?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finn’s recipe for Pumpkin Hot Chocolate.

Ingredients:

Serves 2

1/2 cup milk (from grogoch’s own cow)

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream (handmade by grogoch from cows milk)

1 tsp cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin puree (grogoch’s home-grown pumpkin)

1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/4 cup whipped cream (handmade by grogoch from cows milk)

1 pinch ground cinnamon

1 pinch ground nutmeg

Method:

1) Whisk milk, cream and cocoa powder together in a pan for 3-5 minutes over a medium heat until hot chocolate is smooth.

2) Stir in pumpkin puree, the pumpkin pie spice and a pinch of grogoch magic.

3) Pour hot chocolate into 2 mugs.  Top with whipped cream; sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg over whipped cream.  Best served with a slice of the grogoch’s home made pumpkin pie.  Sit back and relax!

 

 

Click on the front cover below to download the stunning new multi-touch iBook The Sword of Air rated 5 STARS ON GOODREADS!  Includes breathtaking photography, cinematic soundtrack and HD video. Experience the future of publishing for yourself!

Join hundreds of other fans and follow The Sword of Air on Facebook!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 STAR REVIEW FOR THE SWORD OF AIR!

Check out this 5 star Review for R J Madigan’s stunning new multi-touch iBook ‘The Sword of Air’ from Awesome blogger The Bookish Blonde on YouTube!

If you love books like Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Divergent, The Mortal Instruments Series and The Hunger Games then you will love The Sword of Air. Includes breathtaking photography, cinematic soundtrack and HD video.  Unlike any fantasy book you have ever experienced before!

The Sword of Air is now available to download from the iBooks store.  Click on the front cover below to go to iBooks.

The Fae.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where did the Fae in the Sword of Air come from? Well, fairy comes from the old French word faerie. These supernatural beings have been around in books a lot longer than you might first expect with the earliest form being found loosely in the mythical beings in Greek mythology –  nymphs, satyrs and sileni. But why are they in the Sword of Air?

Shakespeare popularised fairies in English folklore during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in England, with the characters Oberon, Titania and Puck in his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And of course Queen Mab in Romeo & Juliet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Arthurian legend, the divine or fairy figures also appeared in abundance. Merlin is the most famous fairy in english literature, in many retellings a conflicted and dark character much like the Fae in the Sword of Air.

Arthur’s half-sister, called Morgan le Fay, was a great sorceress and healer.  Her nickname even means ‘fairy’.

The Raven Queen / Maev and the other Fae characters in The Sword of Air derive from a particular group of faeries in Irish mythology better known as the Tuatha de Danann, translated as the ‘tribe of Danu.’

In legend the Danann were a race of God like people gifted with supernatural powers, who invaded and ruled Ireland over four thousand years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Book of Invasions claims in a poem that they came to Ireland in ‘flying ships’ surrounded by ‘dark clouds,’ from the four mystical cities of Murias, Gorias, Falias and Finias.  They landed on the iron mountain in Co Leitrim, where they ‘bought a darkness over the sun lasting three days.’ There is a beautiful line which illustrates perfectly the bewilderment felt towards these conquerors,

‘The truth is not known, beneath the sky of stars,

whether they were of heaven or earth.’

There are conflicting versions of this story, some relegating the flying ships to mere sailing ships.  And so we have our first dilemma; which story to believe?

In The Sword of Air, Fergus tells Niamh that terrible floods in the mystical isles forced the Fae to make a new home in Ireland.  With them they brought the four treasures – The Sword of Air, The Stone of Destiny, The Cauldron of Dagda and The Spear of Lugh, each representing one of the four sacred elements – earth, air, fire and water, which maintain the order of the natural world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dannan are described as tall with red or black hair, blue or green eyes and pale skin.  For The Sword of Air I made the Fae characters all tall and beautiful with green eyes.  It is Nimah’s green eyes that first mark her out as having Fae blood.

‘Shall I tell you what I think?’ Jareth said, his face an inch from mine. ‘I think you’ve got unusual eyes, real unusual. Fae eyes in fact.’

In Irish mythology the Fae were known to shape shift, sometimes appearing as birds or animals. In The Sword of Air, each member of the Fae has a magical feathered cloak that allows them to transform into that bird as well as fly in their Fae form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maev has a cloak of raven feathers and appears as a raven in chapter three when she flies to the Grogoch’s tree house.  Breena and Kalen, King and Queen of the Fae first appear as a snowy owl and a barn owl.  Niamh is given a cloak of eagle feathers by Fergus after her adopted grandmother Ide is brutally murdered by the Raven Queen’s army of Fomors in chapter 1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Similarly to the Danann of Irish myth the Fae in The Sword of Air are not absolutely immortal.  Able to live for thousands of years they can also be killed by an excess of any of the four magical elements of earth, air, fire and water.  For example they can drown as Niamh’s mother did.  They can also be killed in battle by iron or fire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the opening to The Sword of Air Niamh believes the merciless Raven Queen is the last of the magical Fae.  Unbeknown to her the remaining Fae were driven underground by Maev in a last battle before she won the throne and Ireland fell under her dark reign.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Niamh is forced to flee her home after it is burned to the ground by Maev’s Fomor army. But why is the Raven Queen hunting her?  If Niamh is to stay alive she must find out what happened to the magical Fae people and seek their help. The clock is ticking, she must do all of this before Maev reaches the faery realm and steals the two remaining Fae treasures from Breena and Kalen, and the world falls into darkness forever.

Want to know what happens?  Then click on the front cover below to download the first three chapters free of The Sword of Air on the Apple iBooks store.

Social Media – Too Much Choice?

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s a whole world of social media platforms out there. For an author social media has become a crucial part of the process in driving sales. Unless you’re Stephen King or Marianne Keyes the publishing company is not going to be spending millions on advertising your book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Readers expect to be able to interact with the author these days. So this leaves the question of which platform most usefully achieves this – Facebook? Pinterest? YouTube? Google+? Goodreads? WordPress? LinkedIn? Or one of the other myriad choices?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Building a loyal following of readers organically is a tough business. There’s a fine line between interacting with potential readers and pasting the link to your book everywhere. This line can be difficult to judge, different platforms have different unwritten rules and conventions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An author interacting with people on social media is doing it not just as themselves but also with the lens of being an author and having a book to sell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The extreme ends of the scale are easy. At one end you can say ‘love your channel / post / pic’ , which everyone will be happy with, but doesn’t really drive traffic to your site. At the other end you can use paid for ads which scream ‘buy my book’, which people are also comfortable with. But the modern author exists in the grey area in between.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You want to interact with people and hear their views on your work, but on the other hand you want to sell your book. In the absence of a Hollywood style advertising budget, so you can plaster buses and billboards with a picture of your new book, you end up on social media.

But which platform to choose? And how long to spend? The initial reaction is usually ‘ALL OF THEM and ALL THE TIME’. However you quickly realise that each social media channel takes up a significant amount of time. Also that people on these platforms want to (ultimately) build up a relationship with you as the author. So simply posting one comment on their page saying ‘hi’ is unlikely to want to make them check out your author website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s a need to balance the author’s time as well. Spending every second on social media platforms soon drives you totally mad but it also stops you writing your next book. Authors are not social media marketing PRs and fundamentally they want to be writing.

In the end it’s about careful choice of social media platform. Being up front about being an author with a book to sell but also being genuine and valuing people on social media as individuals and not just as potential customers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social media is a hard road but the benefits can be fantastic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on The Sword of Air front cover to take you straight to iBooks store to download free sample of our stunning new multi-touch iBook.

And now back to Facebook / Pinterest / Goodreads / YouTube for just a bit more networking!

The Producer.