Ray McCarthy's Blog
March 2, 2021
Changes Spring 2021
Corvids press has been moving the book details to their HTTPS site.
Also the title “Firebirds of Kiranithiaen” has been nixed as too tricky so it’s now “Tom Og and the Firebirds“. I did like it, but I can barely pronounce it myself. I certainly can’t memorise the spelling. Proof I’m not a Changeling.
Other news“Dwarves and Rooks” will be published on the 6th of May 2021.
December 28, 2020
Smashwords end of 2020 sale
All reduced from $3.99 to 99 cents till Midnight 31st December 2020, so only a few days left!
Still full price on Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Google PlayBooks, Barnes & Noble and others.
All are complete stories though the characters develop in the series and some books have some sort of overall background story arc.
The Smashwords Kindle Version is Dual Mobi, all later Kindles get the KF8 format giving better appearance and also option for the Publisher Fonts.
The epub is suitable for all epub based eink readers and all epub Apps on the Fire, Apple, Android, Windows and Linux platforms. Aldiko for older Android or Lithium for newer versions. It’s better to use a 3rd party epub App on iOS than Apple Books unless you buy the titles from the Apple Store.
The Apprentice’s Talent
Series: Talents Universe, Book 1. This series has seven books. The last title is having final revisions.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
Under the Stone of Destiny
Series: Celtic Otherworld, Book 1
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
Hero Genesis
Series: Celtic Otherworld, Book 4
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
No Silver Lining
Series: Celtic Otherworld, Book 5
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
Online previews are on Amazon.
Corvids Press: https://www.corvidspress.com/
November 22, 2020
Mouse Factory Greed
#DisneyMustPay
How many other people are Disney cheating and have bullied into NDAs and settlements?
https://sfwa.org/2020/11/18/disney-must-pay/
Also Disney are lobbyists for unreasonable extension of copyright, benefits Corps, not creators and DRM. DRM doesn’t stop piracy, but controls consumers. They already got copyright extended to 75 years after an author’s death. So not content with buying up other studios, perverting fairy tale content, exploiting kids with merchandise, & twisting expectations of young girls, now Disney are cheating content creators.
This has been ongoing since 2016-2017. Read the comments. total disgrace, but a symptom of Corporate USA. Disney think rules and laws only apply to little people and foreigners, not them.
July 2, 2020
Summer 2020 News
I’ve re-written a group of three books with some characters that are developed over three books: ‘Goths and Rooks’, ‘Jewels and Rooks’, and ‘The Wooing of Marion’.
I’ve decided that ‘Robin Morgan, Faerie Prince’ doesn’t work as a stand alone novel, apart from being only 28,000 words. It’s now about half way in on “Four Kids, One Foxe”, which will likely be written several times more as it’s set about eleven years after The Wooing of Marion’.
I’m still working on the plot outline for ‘Watching the Watchers’, probably set a bit after ‘The Wooing of Marion’. A later story is ‘The Enscorcelled Maid’, which may be the next after ‘Watching the Watchers’ and is pretty polished.
I’ve set aside the last book of ‘The Talents Universe’ series, ‘The Mission’s Talent’, which is complete but needs a bit of rewriting. It’s been ‘beta read’ with good feedback. I’ve also set aside ‘The White Fire Stones’, for a while, though it’s nearly polished. It’s the immediate sequel to ‘The Seven Talismans’, now published and originally written but never published as ‘Jorath’s Quest’ in the early 1990s.
I’ve given up on Twitter after six years deciding it’s mostly a toxic waste of time. I deleted my Facebook account a while ago. The world would be a better place if people used moderated forums, email, sms etc and boycotted all Social Media, as you are the product, being sold to the advertisers, along with lies about the performance of targeted adverts, which are in any case immoral.
The only sure thing is that ‘Dwarves and Rooks’ is ready and will be published next. All published ebooks are available from all major ebook sellers except Google PlayStore.
April 19, 2020
WIP, April 2020
Busy organising and editing. I’m not sure I’ll seriously write new material till the Autumn as various things around the house and garden need done.
So very little done on either the Hard SF novel, “The Eden Seeds” or the first thriller in the Dark Ops Series. I thought “Goths and Rooks” was finished bar the proofing and curiously the sequel, “Jewels and Rooks” is, but “Goths and Rooks” will need more rewriting. I’ve added two entire chapters so far.
I’ll have to find out is the Recycling Centre closed, but it’s not a big issue.
Corvids Press is investigating relaunching paperbacks and adding hardbacks too. Though only the first two books were on paper. Withdrawn due to poor print quality and CreateSpace rebranding as Amazon. What bookshops would stock titles clearly printed and sort of Amazon published. So no “free” ISBNs for the paper editions. Corvids is buying a big block for all the authors and editions.
ISBN doesn’t really matter for eBooks as they are only sold online, not via physical shops.
February 5, 2020
Discounted Under the Stone of Destiny
We’ve discounted Under the Stone of Destiny to 99c.
Also Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble and many other stores. No DRM, but while you may read on other devices, or backup, you mustn’t share it on the Internet or outside your household.
Post comments here about what you think of it or use the Contact Form.
November 9, 2019
The Seven Talismans Release
‘The Seven Talismans’ has been well received by two Beta Readers, so release has been brought forward to the 25th of December 2019. Handy if you get an eReader for Christmas. It will be on Amazon for Kindle, Fire, or Kindle app, Apple store for iOS, Barnes & Noble for the Nook and Smashwords for all kinds of ereaders and apps on phones or tablets.
I think ‘The Seven Talismans’ is the start of a series of at least three books, possibly five to seven. The second will be going to Beta Readers soon and then in the new year we’ll see about the third. I might finish editing of ‘The Mission’s Talent’ first.
The Blurb
Jorath is hardly adult but hopes to find the Talismans of the High Lords. They must do something to fight the people that want to eradicate their tribe.
Set in a mediaeval style fantasy word with no ship’s clocks or black powder, this story is based on a novelization completed in 1992. The sequel was nearly completed in 1996 and now is called ‘The White Fire Stones’. Both stories can be read on their own.
The cover is based on ‘Pauvre Fauvette’ (1881) by Jules Bastien-Lepage.
October 17, 2019
Draft of The White Fire Stones
This is the sequel to ‘Seven Talismans’ and ‘The White Fire Stones’ is the second book in the Trader’s Isle series.
Should I have called it the Amrat Series or Traders’ Isle?
I’ve about 300 proof reading notes to edit in. It’s going well, faster to finalise than I thought.
The cover is based on a detail of ‘Hardanger fjord’ by Hans Gude (d. 1903). I might edit out the child and the dog.
I’m resisting temptations to blog on Halloween (Samhain) or Brexit.
October 11, 2019
Autumn 2019 WIP
I’ve taken a break from ‘Robin Morgan, Faerie Prince’ in the Celtic Otherworld series as it involves N.I., UK and Ireland just after Brexit. When and how will Brexit happen? Also might affect ‘Goths and Rooks’ and ‘The Wooing of Marion’.
So I’m working on what started as Jorath’s Quest in 1991. The sequel was about 3/4 written in 1995. In 1996 I combined the two as ‘Restoring the Talismans’. Then I got focused on programming, electronics, Computer Training and IT work (the Day Job) till 2009 when I was doing electronics and programming part time. Finally in 2014 I seriously focused on writing again.
I realised re-reading that the stories needed split again. Also the Talismans don’t get restored, so I split the text and changed the title to ‘Searching for the Talismans’, which feels a bit long.
You can re-use any title, they can’t easily be protected. However ‘Searching for the Talismans’ seems to be a Jackie Chan film AND a book. So ‘Seven Talismans’ is the current title of the WIP. I’ve over 400 proof reading notes to edit in and new chapter 4 to write. Currently about 56K words. Perhaps it will be released in January 2020.
My ‘Dwarves and Rooks’ seems polished and ready to go. I’ll let more people buy and read ‘Artists and Rooks’ first!
I think ‘Seven Talismans’ is the start of a series of five to seven books. The cover is based on ‘Pauvre Fauvette’ (1881) by Jules Bastien-Lepage. Most of the second book was written in 1995 and provisional title is ‘The White Fire Stones’. Probably the third will be about warring Barons. The series is called Trader’s Isle, though really that’s wrong, but looks better than Traders’ Isle. The Trader’s Isle series is set on a Mediaeval like world that was more technologically advanced over a thousand years ago. Unlike the ‘Celtic Otherworld’ it’s not based on any particular mythos. Also unlike ‘Celtic Otherworld’ and ‘Talents Universe’ there is no connection to our world or our timeline, though the ‘Talents Universe’ is a sort of Alternate Earth time line and the ‘Celtic Otherworld’ stories are roughly contemporaneous with the publishing dates.
I’ve about 210K words written on the seventh and last book of the ‘Talents Universe’ series, ‘The Mission’s Talent’. I’m wondering about cutting it a bit and if the largest cut bit should be a separate book. It needs a lot of re-writing.
Still done nothing more on the hard SF, ‘The Eden Seeds’. I’ve had a lot of thoughts and made notes on the new Dark Ops series, no SF or Fantasy in it. It’s about a sort of Irish equivalent to GCHQ, but outsourced to the security team of Cloud / Data Hosting company based in Ireland.
July 1, 2019
Summer 2019 releases
Smashwords summer sale starts 1st July 2019. ‘The Apprentice’s Talent’ and ‘Under the Stone of Destiny’ will be reduced to $1. The penultimate book in the Talent series, ‘The Legal Talent’ comes out 1st August 2019 and ‘The Fay Child’ on the 8th August. Then the 19th of September is ‘Artists and Rooks’.
All books normally at full price on Amazon, Smashwords, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo etc.
There has been a massive bit of work since December 2018 getting all the books proof edited to a higher standard. All the published titles are now updated. No changes to story or characters, purely proof edits.
