James Hockley's Blog, page 10

Not the 9 O’clock News?

You may have noticed that I am going through popular television related news titles – don’t worry, they will run out pretty soon. Sorry.

So – what have I been up to? Well, I’m happy to say that I think that the upcoming novella is in a pretty good place, and you may have noticed that I’ve started to blog the whole book. I intend to do this with the main novel later on too, but just the novella for now. More on that later.

And the novel has now been out for a month, and the sales have been ste...

Book in a Blog: Mandestroy 2

What has come to pass?

Well, we have met our protagonist, and more than that, we have interviewed him here. He’s a prickly sort of character. But then we’ve also witnessed his moment of revelation here, and let’s face it, he has to be half mad to do what he’s done.

But why is this General Kantal like this? Well, that’s all in the past. We will get there, I promise, but not quite yet. First we must look to his present. Who is this man outside the chaos? And how does he fit into the world? Let’...

Beagle’s Blot 5 | The Blue

Today was the first time I truly recognised the value of formal credit. With nothing to my person but the clothes hanging off my shoulders and the sad sack on my back, transit was not going to be easy to arrange. All I had was my name.

But my family is a litter of Callij, and beyond those boundaries the name carries no weight. So, of course, when I approached the merchants, they scoffed at my offer of promised payment upon the safe delivery of my person to a preagreed destination. There was s...

Book in a Blog: Meet the General

What’s up?

This is the second part of the ‘book in a blog’ series running up to the release of Mandestroy at the end of July. On Thursday evening we blogged the prologue of the novella, and hopefully you had a chance to read it. If not, it’s time to jump back and get reading!

Is this the second chapter?

The shrewd amongst you will have noticed that I laid out that the second chapter would be published on Thursday the 2nd June. And today (at time of publication) is not the 2nd June. So what’s...

Book in a Blog: Mandestroy 1

What’s the deal?

Well, by way of introducing readers to the World of Ku, and ultimately to the epic fantasy series ‘Age of Ku‘, I have been writing a novella which will be released free to all electronic book stores later this year. When? Okay then, I’ll commit to a date. I’ll make sure it’s live by the 31st July.

The book is called Mandestroy, and it is in effect a prequel to the Age of Ku trilogy [the first book of which is called Fear’s Union].

But who says you can’t read it sooner? Well,...

Book Review: Half a World

Book 2 of the Shattered Sea Series By Joe Abercrombie

Now, to start with I am a big Abercrombie fan. Believe it or not, I have only actually been reading in the Fantasy genre for about 5 years (despite writing, or rather attempting to write in it, for 15), and once I’d finished George R.R. Martin, Joe Abercrombie was the next big author I uncovered. It’s fair to say that I was somewhat blown away. Here’s a run-down of my Lord Grimdark love affair:

The First Law trilogy: frankly, I thi [image error] nk thi...

Book Covers by 99Designs

James’s Writing Experience: Interlude 2

Given that I’ve just gone through the experience of using 99Designs.com for two book covers, I thought I’d get my thoughts down while they’re still fresh. So here goes.

What is 99Designs?

99Designs is a brilliant website where you can put out a requirement for some sort of graphic design, set a budget (by choosing a prize), and then reach out and get proposals from thousands of fantastic online graphic designers. I used the service for book covers, but...

Book Review: Shades of Smoke

Book One of ‘After the Fall’ By Alan Denham & Graham Buckby

My latest foray into the world of indie authors is “Shades of Smoke”. So, what is my first observation? Well, this book personifies that old saying perfectly – “don’t judge a book by its cover.” This is a good story.

Shades of Smoke is the debut novel by the writing duo of Alan Denham and Graham Buckley. It was released in 2011, but I was approached by Alan on Goodreads to see if I would like to read it, which was quite flattering. I...

Have I got News for you? May 2016

So, it turns out that the plan that I had has been somewhat thrown out of the window. The book I was going to release later this year (after another edit and after the novella has been around for a bit) has gone live already. Whoops!

That’s right – Fear’s Union is now available for sale (though only currently on Kindle). Other formats will be available later this year.

Very exciting. And as you’ll see, I’ve also had a proper book cover sorted out, as-well as for Mandestroy. I used 99D...

Beagle’s Blot 4 | Namcalla

It was worth it. All the pain; it was all ruddy worth it! I feel like I could fly right now.

Which would be useful, if only to ease the burden on my poor feet. Damn – I shall spend some time here, that is for certain. And what a chore that will be.

Where the man meets the sea.

Namcalla.

Beautiful.

My smile is unbreakable.

A plea to creative readers: as I look upon this, my eyes grow bored by the uniformity! I crave inspirational images, but alas, my hands fail me in that regard. I am not a r...