Richard Dee's Blog, page 90

Creating a new Character.

My third Andorra Pett novel, Andorra Pett and her Sister, is a bit of a departure for me, in more than one way.

Not only does it take place on Earth, and contain little in the way of Sci-fi, it also lacks the presence of one of the man characters from the first two books in the series.

This time, Cy has taken a holiday from the action, although to be fair he didn’t know that there would be any when he left.  He’s headed back to the space station. As a result, Andorra is on her own when trouble strikes.

It means that I can’t use the dynamic of Andorra and Cy to bounce ideas around and be the butt of each other’s humour. As I once said, between them, they made about one half-decent detective. Of course, their value as far as the story was concerned was so much more than that.

Two complementary characters can be used in so many ways, I wrote a post about sidekicks last year, about how useful they could be and here I was ignoring my own advice and dispensing with one who had served me well.

I thought that Andorra being on her own would force her to develop more as a person, I thought that it would be good to get her to sort it all out on her own. I thought that it would stop the series of books becoming stale and predictable. And I thought that Cy would not fit in well with the rest of the plot, he was likely to go and do something unnecessary, Earth had as many bad memories for him as it did for Andorra.

I had reckoned without Andi’s insecurity, especially around her elder sister, Tia. As I wrote, I found that the story wasn’t working with her by herself.

In short, Andi needed a sidekick. Someone who could deflect Tia’s “big-sisterliness” And I had shot myself in the foot by sending hers eight-hundred million miles away.  I could get him back but it would involve a lot of messing around, and it turned out that he had a part to play on the station as well

There was only one thing for it, Andorra needed a new partner to help her solve this particular crime. It couldn’t be her sister, they had already established a relationship, and it was more like an uneasy truce than a Batman and Robin type partnership.

Not only that, I could use the third person as a way of introducing even more tension between them.

I had my big idea, Andi could acquire a temporary sidekick, just for this book. And it could be someone that her sister knew. It was brilliant, Tia, being who she was, has a certain personality. Anabelle (the new character), could be a source of all the things about her that Tia didn’t want to be known. Which would mean that Tia was constantly on guard, hoping that Anabelle wouldn’t spill the beans to Andorra on anything too embarrassing. If you see what I mean.

I found that it was fun to develop a new foil for Andorra, I could do the things with them that I couldn’t do with Cy. And the mysterious part of it all is this; Anabelle was waiting, fully formed in some recess of my mind. All that was needed was to summon her and she turned up and joined in the fun. And once I started developing the relationship, by letting the three of them hold a conversation in my head (I know it sounds weird!), they worked out some sort of hierarchy between themselves. I just wrote it all down.

Andorra Pett and her Sister is now about half written, I hope to have it finished later this year. And my online course in fantasy world-building, which explains a lot more about how to create realistic settings, plots and characters, is currently being uploaded. It should be ready for beta testing soon.

Don’t forget, there will be another Indie Showcase on Thursday, another chance for an up-and-coming author to talk about…, wait and see! And all previous Showcase posts are now available from a single page, just use the Indie Showcase tab on any page, or click here.

If you would like to be featured in a future Showcase, where you can write about whatever (within reason) you want, then please let me know. Use the comment box below and I’ll get back to you.

 

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The Indie Showcase Presents, Amanda Baber

Today on the Showcase, the spotlight falls on author Amanda Baber. Away you go!

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Hi! I am Amanda Baber. A huge thank you to Richard for providing the opportunity to introduce myself. This is me with Missy and my first book in my Missy dog series.

 

Writing has always been with me. Since I read Dr Seuss books as a child, where the quote ‘Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!’ rings so clear now and still inspires me today. Then there were Aesop’s Fables in a beautifully illustrated book where morals in stories emerged such as in ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’. Shakespeare, Catherine Cookson and Agatha Christie are among my favourite authors, but I also love science fiction genre and fantasy.

Finding my creative flow after many years I picked up my writing again. Over time I have written poetry, short stories and novels, but why? What was I waiting for? Why did I do nothing with them? I was too young to listen to the fact that I had written the stories because I love to write. Back then, that wasn’t enough.

Finding the right time in my life and watching my gorgeous puppy dreaming I was suddenly hit with a thought. What if I could merge my love of history with Missy? Entering the world of historical fiction, I began writing my Missy dog books. The aim of these books is to support a good cause. My first book ‘Missy and the Whitts’ donates the proceeds to Charmouth Local History Society. The second book I am finalising is to support Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre.

 

 

Illustrating my books in pen and ink style I bring the words to life throughout. Missy dreams about real history and goes back in time, meeting characters, animals, their families and even ghosts. Everything I write is based on the real facts and I complete extensive research, delving into the historical archives.

In this section, Missy has just met Nemo, the real-life cat of the Whittington sisters. Nemo and Missy become friends after their initial greeting:

‘Missy ducked the claw which nearly, almost, but not quite caught her nose. She was good. After some thought she did what her humans seemed most pleased with and sat down to wait. This had a weird effect on the cat who floundered his claws in the air for five more complete minutes then spoke: “I am Nemo, cat of the Whittingtons. Descendant of Dick Whittington himself. How dare you come on the scene like this!”’

 

Blending humour through Missy’s antics with historical facts, I like to introduce fun into my stories whilst also presenting the educational points. To do this Missy has to experience lots of adventures, so I include my own visits to different places in her waking moments. Overall, this brings the present, past and characters which are old and new to life. There are many people, places and moments mentioned in my books based on chance encounters, who knows, you may even appear?

Then there is the question of age. Not being a fan of restraints, I suggest the reading age of my Missy dog books is for children aged 10 and above, but some children like to read at an earlier age and adults equally love reading historical fiction stories; so please don’t let a suggestion stop you and enjoy.

Available in paperback through my online shop, in local outlets and on Kindle I have been delighted to receive reviews including this one:

 

Writing about Missy’s dreams gives me the freedom to explore history in a different way. There is so much rich variety to discover about Charmouth and there are many titles waiting in my head to peek out onto the paper. Where will Missy go next in her dreams?

You can follow me through the links below to keep up to date with my work:

My Books are available from the links below through Missy’s Matters and through Kindle. https://www.amazon.com/author/amandababer

Missy’s Matters is my Conscious Crafties Shop full of creative, handmade goodies with many donating to good causes.

 

https://www.consciouscrafties.com/community/missys-matters/

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MissysMatters

 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/amandababerauthor

Website: http://amandababerauthor.wordpress.com/

 

Facebook https://m.facebook.com/MissysMatters/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/missysmatters/

Twitter https://mobile.twitter.com/Missysmatters

Pinterest https://uk.pinterest.com/missysmatters/pins/

Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/161120523@N02/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-baber-6094b9154/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrqE6dmZJ3TXpsojksu2BFQ

Google Plus https://plus.google.com/u/0/101178345091869241968

 

My thanks to Amanda for a great post, I hope you all enjoyed it.

While you’re here, why not have a look around the site? There are FREE things and a whole lot more, just follow the links at the top of the page.

If you want to be featured in a future Showcase, where you can write about whatever (within reason) you want, then please let me know. Use the comment box below and I’ll get back to you.

Don’t miss next Thursdays Showcase post, and my musings every Monday.

Have a great week,

Richard.

The post The Indie Showcase Presents, Amanda Baber appeared first on Welcome to my Worlds..

Redesign

To rewrite, or not?

I’m in the process of moving the physical versions of my earlier books to another printer. And setting up paperback versions of some of my eBooks. Which had left me with a dilemma when it came to Freefall, my first novel.

When I wrote it, I was (and still am) very proud of it. It has several good reviews and, as my first novel, will always be my favourite. But, I wondered if it couldn’t be better. If I wrote it now, it would most likely be a completely different version of the same story. I couldn’t decide whether to do a bit of work on it before I transferred it all over.

I know, with the way that print-on-demand and eBooks work, that I could have done it at any time; after all, it was only a case of rewriting and uploading a new file. Yet, so far, I’d chosen not to. I’d spoken to someone who had read it, someone whose opinion I trusted; they advised me to leave it alone, that it was good enough. The tortured artist in me still wasn’t sure.

Not only that, the time seemed right. I was going to upload it to the new system anyway, I might as well do a quick rewrite before I did. Then I read it again, apart from a couple of small modifications, where I felt that the plot needed a clarification, I’ve left it alone. And it’s funny; because it wasn’t how I remembered it at all. In a strange way, it was like reading it for the first time, I’d forgotten a lot of what went on. Dare I say it; my friend was right. It was good enough. Hence, I’ve left well alone.

 

 

 

Instead, I’ve moved on to Jungle Green, the sequel to Ribbonworld. That now has a new cover and for the first time is available in paperback.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m now in the middle of sorting out my short story collection Flash Fiction. That also has a new cover. Not only that, I’ve taken the opportunity to rectify a few errors in the text and added three more stories to the collection. I’ve updated the portfolio section to include the novels that I’ve released since the last update.

 

 

 

 

 

I have Tales from Norlandia, my Steampunk short story collection to work on next. I won’t be changing the cover, I still like the one it has. It will just receive a re-format and have a couple of errors rectified.

That’s the great thing about self-publishing, you can correct the manuscript, update and re-write to your heart’s content. If a typo or a formatting error is spotted or remarked on, you can sort it out, instantly.

If a cover’s not working, why not change it to a better one?

 

 

The font used for my name on Freefall didn’t match the one I now use. So I changed it, it only took me ten minutes to do in my paint programme. It was uploaded and live within twelve hours. Now the author name matches on all my covers.

Try doing that with a traditionally published book and see how long it takes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Changing things around also gives you a good reason to do a bit more marketing, make some new adverts featuring the extra content and new covers. It’s a chance to remind prospective readers of the novel.

Don’t miss the Showcase on Thursday, with the view from another talented Indie.

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The Indie Showcase presents, Elizabeth Ducie.

Today on the Showcase, I’m delighted to welcome author Elizabeth Ducie. It’s all yours:-

The Evolution of WriteBiz

I’m going to tell you an evolutionary tale. About how one workshop in 2011 grew into a series of books that now numbers five and is still growing.

I’ve been writing prolifically all my adult life. I spent more than thirty years as a technical writer in pharmaceutical manufacturing; producing millions of words of audit reports, training modules, articles and textbooks.

Yet, despite this, I didn’t consider myself an author. When I attended my first Writers’ Summer School in Swanwick, more than ten years ago, I spent half the week apologising to everyone for not being published.

Then I attended a workshop by the wonderful Irish writer/story-teller, Brendon Nolan, on writing non-fiction and the penny dropped. I had three textbooks on Amazon; I was a proper author. I held my head up high for the rest of the week.

Despite this, the feeling that ‘real authors write novels’ wouldn’t go away and I started working on Gorgito’s Ice Rink. It took nearly eight years to reach fruition, during which time I studied for an MA in Creative Writing and gave up the day job. But that’s another article altogether.

One of the things all aspiring authors are told is the importance of their ‘platform’. So, in December 2007, I set up a blog. There were not so many around then as there are today, so I didn’t have many to learn from. I wrote an occasional piece when I felt like it and left it at that.

I have run my own business since the early 1990s. I studied for an MBA at Cranfield School of Management. Business systems have been in my blood for a long time. I am comfortable, even happy, when playing with spreadsheets and filling in forms.

But many writers I talk to are the complete opposite. They have no awareness of, nor interest in, the non-creative side of being a writer. And part of the problem is it’s deemed to be too complicated, excessive even, for a one-person band like a writer.

So, I decided to steal the concept of basic minimum standards from pharma; a way of making regulatory requirements as simple as possible, for companies, or even countries, which were still in the early stages of developing their businesses. If it worked for pharma, why not for writers?

In 2011, I presented the first Business of Writing workshops at Swanwick;  they’ve been repeated several times since and this year, there will be four hours of workshops, one for each of the books in the Business of Writing series. Because the workshops led indirectly to the books.

But first of all, in 2012, they became a series of posts on my blog. Remember that blog? Started five years before and sadly neglected for some time? Well, it was time to revive it. I started with a piece called ‘Time Management for Grasshoppers’—I’ve got a real grasshopper mind and find it difficult to stick to any one thing for very long—and after that, posted about other key aspects of business skills for writers.

And for the next couple of years, that’s all I did with this material. But in the background, I had a spur, in the form of Lois Bird-Maddox, who for many years, ran the book room at Swanwick. She kept pushing me to put the material into a book.  And in 2014, I started bringing out a series of ebooks. They were short, just over 10K words each, a quick, easy but hopefully practical read. When all three were out, I made a composite volume which came out as a paperback.

And that’s probably as far as I would have taken it, had I not joined ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors) and started to get interested in their online conferences. I chatted with Orna Ross about presenting some of my material, but she pointed out that as it was all UK-focused, it would not be suitable for many of the conference attendees.

So earlier this year, I started rewriting the three volumes, bringing a more international focus in particular to parts 1 and 2. There are now major sections on not only business in the UK, but in the US as well. The rewrite also gave me the opportunity to include updates on such knotty issues as VAT on EU digital sales; and GDPR. The second editions of all three books were published on 31st May.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have a lot more detail this time around, plus an expanded array of case studies and templates. Whether producing a second edition just four years on is a good business decision or not remains to be seen. And as for the decision to launch three books on the same day—the jury’s still out on whether that was sensible or not!

I’ve now been an independent publisher for seven years; and in that time, I’ve brought out thirteen titles; a total of twenty-seven books in the various formats. Consequently, I am now working on Part 4 of the series, which will look at Independent Publishing, from the business point of view. After that, I’m going to put all the cases studies and templates together in a workbook as Part 5. And after that? Who knows? Although it has been suggested that Part 6 should be about learning to say no!

And for my final point in this evolutionary tale: why Writebiz? Well, I got fed up with typing ‘The Business of Writing’ all the time and at my launch party last week, I asked for suggestions for a one-word term for ‘setting up and running your own small business as a writer’. Cathie Hartigan of Creative Writing Matters and the Exeter Novel Prize came up with the term —and has generously allowed me to pinch it. So Writebiz it is from now on.

Bio

Elizabeth Ducie was a successful international manufacturing consultant when she decided to give it all up and start telling lies for a living instead. She now divides her time between writing fact and fiction. Parts 1-3 of the WriteBiz books are available now:

Part 1 Business Start-Up: http://elizabethducieauthor.co.uk/book/bow-part-1-business-set-up/

Part 2 Finance matters: http://elizabethducieauthor.co.uk/book/tbow-part-2-finance-matters/

Part 3 Improving Effectiveness: http://elizabethducieauthor.co.uk/book/tbow-part-3-improving-effectiveness/

Part 4 Independent Publishing will be available from the end of June. Details can be found here: http://elizabethducieauthor.co.uk/book/tbow-part-4-independent-publishing/

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Thanks very much, Elizabeth for a great insight.

While you’re here, why not have a look around the site? There are FREE things and a whole lot more, just follow the links at the top of the page.

If you want to be featured in a future Showcase, where you can write about whatever (within reason) you want, then please let me know. Use the comment box below and I’ll get back to you.

Don’t miss next Thursdays Showcase post, and my musings every Monday.

Have a great week,

Richard.

The post The Indie Showcase presents, Elizabeth Ducie. appeared first on Welcome to my Worlds..

Sometimes you have to go back…

Before you can go forwards.

You might be wondering where this is leading, bear with me for a moment and I’ll explain.

As regular readers will know, I’ve been in a bit of a slump, writing-wise. I’d tried getting on with a few projects but hadn’t got very far with any of them. With the result that I had two half-finished novels and about eight other ideas in various stages of writing. It’s always been my way to have several things on the go, to swap between if I get a block, this time it wasn’t working. I still had the Showcase to do but that was mainly just a formatting exercise. My marketing efforts have stalled as well, sales and reviews have all but dried up.

I decided that it might be a good idea to leave the creative writing behind and do something completely different for a while.

I planned to return to a hobby that I hadn’t been involved with for several years. Would I still be able to do it? Would I enjoy it like I used to? Would it clear the block in my head? Would it stop me asking so many questions?

In the past, I’d done a lot of cross stitch sewing, pictures like these.

I’d lost interest with it and given up. I still had several half-finished pictures stuffed away in my wardrobe, like I had with the books. The question was, should I restart one of them or try a new design?

In the end, I spotted this design in a magazine.

It was perfect for me to get back into the swing, a lot of small elements, and nothing too technical. Not only that, it would go perfectly in our kitchen. I had a look in my box of materials; I only needed a few things to get started. As soon as I had them, I rolled my sleeves up and got started. It all came back to me very quickly.

Six weeks later, I was finished.

 

By that time, I wanted to return to writing, my head was bursting with new ideas. Since then, I’ve written a lot, got more involved in marketing and even prepared for a few events later this year, things I’d been putting off. And started redesigning covers for a re-issue of some of my earlier titles. Not only that, I’d rekindled my interest in cross-stitch, I’m planning my next project as well.

Like I said, sometimes you have to go back to go forward. The trick is knowing when.

Don’t miss the Showcase on Thursday, when another author will be sharing their story.

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The Indie Showcase presents, Deborah A. Stansil.

It’s the first post of a new series. As I’ve said before, I got a lot of help when I was just starting out. It never hurts to give back, the Indie Showcase is a chance for those of us at or near the bottom of the ladder, the lesser known authors and bloggers, to have a say.

I hope you enjoy the guests that I’ve got lined up over the coming few months, you’ll see that there’s a lot of talent out there, a lot of hard work going on.

For the inaugural post, I’m delighted to welcome Deborah A. Stansil. Over to you:-

 

How I Ditched the Day Job and Became a Full-Time Writer

 

If you happen to have read my blog (or stumbled across me on social media) then no doubt you will have heard me say at some point that the people who say that earning a good, full-time salary from writing is impossible are the ones who didn’t try hard enough.

Why do I say this? Well because it’s true. Of course, there might be mitigating circumstances and a good reason why someone couldn’t try hard enough – but my point is that it is more than possible to make money as a writer.

I know this because I do it. And I am just a normal girl with no fancy writing degrees or any of that stuff. When I first started writing, I had no connections in the industry and I didn’t know a single writer. I didn’t have the first clue about publishing, marketing or networking.

What I did have was determination and the desire to turn my passion for writing into an actual way to make money while still having the creative freedom to not feel like writing had a become a chore.

I had always dreamed of being a writer from being a young child, but like a lot of dreams, it got pushed aside in favour of something more practical. The desire never left me though and novel ideas niggled around the edges of my mind almost constantly.

One day, I decided enough was enough and I set up a blog. I had no idea what I was doing – I Googled starting a blog and took the first hit (which obviously was Blogger) and within ten minutes, I had a blog.

It was a rubbish blog with a generic theme and no personality in the design, but it was still a blog. I spent the next few weeks churning out posts and wondering why no one was reading them.

The answer was obvious with hindsight – how could anyone read something they didn’t know existed. I took the plunge and joined Twitter and within a couple of months, I had a regular readership. Nothing major, but a couple of thousand views a month. And it spurred me on.

Blogging had become a big part of my life and I went self-hosted about five months after starting my blog. I also began writing my first novel, The Joker. I wasn’t confident enough to actually publish the novel, and I started instead with a short story collection, Twisted Tales.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The collection was well received and it gave me the push I needed to finally let the world see my novel. By then, I had well and truly caught the author bug. I have now written two short story collections, four novels, a collection of funny poems and two non-fiction books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In June 2017, I began to really think seriously about making writing a full-time career. I had heard of ghostwriting, but only in an abstract way, and I started to look into it more seriously.

I landed my first job writing short stories. The money wasn’t fantastic (it worked out to be around £25 per hour) but it was a start. It was still far more per hour than I was earning in my day job as a bartender and I began to see that I could make it work.

I set myself a goal to leave my day job in January 2019. One day in October, I was at work on a quiet shift thinking about the fact I could be making more money at home doing something I loved than I was by being at work. A little voice in the back of my mind spoke up. It told me I was already making good money writing and it asked me what I was waiting for. It told me if I didn’t leave that job now, I never would.

I listened to it and I sat down and worked out my budget there and then and I knew I could do it. I handed my resignation in the next day and I’ve never looked back.

I guess what I’m saying is that if I can do it, you can do it. Don’t let fear or self-doubt stop you from chasing your dreams. This is your life and you owe it to yourself to do something you love.

At the same time, I wouldn’t advise anyone leaving a steady job they need without being absolutely sure they have the motivation to make it work.

If you have the motivation to push yourself every day, to learn the skills you need and to keep feeling inspired to write, then do it. You won’t regret it.

If writing is your thing and you’re looking for a supportive community where you will receive tips and advice from other authors and have the opportunity to take part in challenges to push your writing forward, feel free to join my Facebook group, The Writer’s Den.

And the next time someone tells you that making good money from writing is impossible, just smile knowingly. And then go out and prove to them how completely wrong they are.

 

Bio

Born in 1982 in North East England, I knew from an early age I wanted to be a writer. Life got in the way, and the dream was put on the back burner, although never forgotten. I am now a full-time author and freelance writer and I write my own blog, My Random Musings.

I have published four novels, two short story collections, two non-fiction books and a collection of funny poems.

 

Links to my blog and social media

Blog link: www.myrandommusings.co.uk

Twitter: www.twitter.com/randommusings29

Facebook: www.facebook.com/myrandommusingsblog

Instagram: www.instagram.com/debrandommusingsblog29/

Amazon Author Page: https://goo.gl/FrXC4V

Thank you, Deborah, for taking part in the Showcase.

I hope you all enjoyed the post, it’s great to hear someone else’s story. While you’re here, why not have a look around the site? There are FREE things and a whole lot more, just follow the links at the top of the page.

If you want to be featured in a future Showcase, where you can write about whatever (within reason) you want, then please let me know. Use the comment box below and I’ll get back to you.

Don’t miss next Thursdays Showcase post, and my musings every Monday.

Have a great week,

Richard.

The post The Indie Showcase presents, Deborah A. Stansil. appeared first on Welcome to my Worlds..

The Indie Showcase starts on Thursday!

This is a reminder that the first Indie Showcase will be live this Thursday, May 31st. In the weeks that follow, indie authors will be taking over the site every Thursday to post about whatever they like. See the original post HERE

As today is a bank holiday in England, I’ve not got a huge post to take up your time. I’ve been away for a few days, seeing my family, writing and posting this was not a priority.

In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s been a change of emphasis in my writing life just lately. Since the new year, after my marathon writing effort in 2017, I’ve been struggling to write anything apart from blog posts and short pieces. Maybe its writer’s block? I prefer to think that; like me, the voices in my head have also gone on a break.

In the great scheme of things, I suppose that it doesn’t matter much, I have two complete novels ready to be edited and three half-finished ones as well, but whereas in the past I’ve just changed my project if I’ve hit a slump, this time it feels a bit more serious. I’ve spent time gazing at the screen and willing words to come, re-reading my part completed work, hoping for inspiration.

I’m not used to having nothing to say, hopefully, it’s only temporary and I can soon resume the adventures that are in progress. Maybe I’ll even start on something completely different, perhaps a change of topic or a random idea will help me to get going again. I’m sure that, wherever it comes from, there’s plenty more to come.

In the meantime, I’ve started trying to catch up on my T.B.R. pile and doing a bit of reviewing. I’ve also been busy with The Indie Showcase, getting the submissions formatted and scheduled. I’ve got quite a few people lined up, provided they submit their work on time I should be able to post one Showcase a week. There’s no topic, no list of questions, you can say what you like, tell us about yourself, your writing or what’s on your mind (within reason). If you’re reading this and want to contribute, please let me know.

I’ve recently joined a beta readers group and am critiquing new writing from a variety of sources. As I said last week, there is some real talent out there, it’s very rare to find something that isn’t worth reading.

And I’ve stopped shouting “buy my book” at every opportunity. Although I’d still like you to (Obvs), I’ve realised just how annoying it must have been. So now I will only whisper it, occasionally.

Incidentally, my FREE novel has just passed 3,000 downloads, that doesn’t count as shouting “buy my book” because its free, right?

The post The Indie Showcase starts on Thursday! appeared first on Welcome to my Worlds..

Indie

There’s a whole new world out there, in case you didn’t know. Beyond the confines of Waterstones and W.H. Smith lies a wealth of brilliant writing, on any genre you can possibly think of, and probably a few that you would never have imagined.

I’m referring to the world of Independent publishing. Free from the constraints of the traditional industry, thousands of people are producing work that’s as good if not better than anything you’ll find in a “proper” publishers catalogue. You just have to know where to look for it.

Now I must admit to a bias, I’m an Indie myself, totally self-published. I’ve gone through the rejection of the agents, the months of wondering if I will get as much as an acknowledgement of receipt. I tried submitting to agents for the first couple of books and decided not to bother anymore. I did everything right, I researched agents, got my work edited, wrote query letters and synopses and had those critiqued. And received little in the way of positive response.

A certain literary agent once told me that one of my submissions was “devoid of any merit.” Largely because I believed in the worth of the story, I had it edited, proofread and checked. I got a cover designer, who did a marvellous job. Then I self-published it anyway. And now I don’t bother with the angst, I just publish the stories myself. And I trust the opinion of the readers, after all, they’re the ones that really matter.

And I tend to read the work of other Indies like me. People who you might never have heard of. Crime, Thrillers, Fantasy, Sci-fi. It doesn’t matter what you’re looking for there are some real gems out there.

In another part of my life, I review and blog for Rachels Random Resources, an organiser of blog tours for Indie Authors. This has led me to some amazing work, things that I would never have considered.

At this point, you might be expecting me to start screaming “buy my book” at you, but I won’t, this post isn’t just about me. It’s about all the talented authors out there who are bucking the system, doing their own thing and enjoying every minute of it.

Because I ‘m heavily into the Indie scene, I read a lot of Indie books. I could name drop all day about those that I’ve read and the people that I now tell everyone to try.  Briefly, here’s a selection of the last few self-published titles that I’ve enjoyed. It’s by no means exhaustive, there are so many others that it would be impossible to list them all, these are just the latest ones from my device library.

The Torcian Chronicles by P.J. Reed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Storm Log 0505 by James D Mortain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Same Face Different Place by Helen J Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Redcroft Journals by K.Y. Eden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flashbacks by J.E. Hall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Desert Magnolia by Dedra L Stevenson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would recommend any of them, and I do. Very often, the authors of these and many other Indie books are struggling to get their voices heard, selling a few copies a month and battling the perception that self-published work isn’t very good. Either because it hasn’t got the validation of “experts,” or because self-published authors are somehow not proper authors. Or even, that they are not talented.

Now I’m with Stephen King on talent, here’s his view, it works for me,

“If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn’t bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented.”

I’m shortly starting to promote more self-published work on this website, I want to help give underrated authors a voice. When I started out, there were lots of people who helped me, now, it’s time to return the favour. I’m starting what I call the Indie Showcase, a weekly feature for anyone who’s new to self-publishing to advertise themselves and tell me what they think about…, well whatever they like (within reason).

The showcase will kick off on May 31st. If you’re interested in appearing, let me know.

And finally; while I said at the start that my work has mostly been met with silence from the literary world, I have had a couple of responses to my queries.  As well as the devoid of any merit comment, I have also been asked by one literary agent (who will remain nameless), not to submit anything more unless I can prove that I have successfully completed a course in creative writing. Which I found annoying, to say the least.

It would have been easy to complain, to rail against the ‘unfairness’ of the system. Or to get all stroppy and defensive. Rather than do that, I chose to self-publish and let the market decide the worth of my efforts. In short, let my reviews do the talking.

I would argue that if the same novel of mine that was “devoid of any merit” gets a review like this one.

“Self-published, but just as well-written and interesting as some of the best novels you can get from established authors.”

 

That I would seem to be doing things right. Which opinion is more valid, the “experts” or the readers? I know which I prefer.

If you would like to decide for yourself who was right, you can try the novel in question. And it’s FREE, just click the cover picture to get your copy, available for all e-readers. Indies can do things like that. Try getting a free book in Waterstones!

And please tell me what you think after you’ve read it. I’d love to know your opinion.

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Build me a World

First of all, a couple of pictures from the launch event last Friday. Liznojan in Tiverton was the venue (thanks to Jackie and Kayleigh), and it went well. I described how I came to write about Andorra Pett and treated the assembled throng to a short reading.

Then we moved on to questions about the setting and how my version of life on Mars worked.

I was pleased to get the chance to explain how I see my creation. I love talking about world building and research. Online or person to person, if you get me started I’ll quite happily ramble on until your eyes glaze over and your ears start to bleed.

I’m passionate about creating worlds because I want to make sure that you believe. Believe that the setting exists, believe that its possible to do the things that my characters do. In fact, I think you should be as comfortable reading about life in another place and time as you would be reading about how people live in another country today.

 

All that takes quite a bit of planning. I mistakenly thought that Sci-fi wouldn’t require much in the way of research, after all, how can you research the future?

Then I found that before you can create the future, you have to understand the present. I found out something else as well, but I’ll keep that for a bit later. Every future starts from a present, so if you can pick a fact, you can expand it and twist it to fit your narrative. But only if you understand it first.

I now do as much research as I do writing.  I scour the internet and magazines such as Focus and National Geographic for information on the latest ideas and scientific developments, looking to see where they could fit into my worlds.

The bonus is that you very often come across a fact that seems to be unconnected to your research but on closer inspection provides you with a place to start on another adventure.

I started writing down a lot of notes about the way that I built worlds. As I became more active in writing circles I occasionally presented a workshop on the methods I used. This became quite popular and I’ve been working on a more structured course that I could offer to those who might be interested. I wanted to help people avoid the mistakes I made. Hopefully, I can help them avoid the frustration that so nearly made me give up what was a great plot because I couldn’t get the setting right.

At the moment, it’s still a work in progress. Despite it being just about written, I’m having trouble finding the best way to structure it, depending on which platform I finally decide to place it on. All the hosts seem to have different requirements for content, pricing and video. In the end, I might just offer it as subscription content on my own website, if I can sort the security aspects out.

The whole course is based around my novel Ribbonworld, which uses the techniques that I want to tell you about. It was written after I had spent a long time struggling with trying to combine my plot with the world I had created for it. I learnt a lot of valuable lessons in the process, Ribbonworld was the result. It seems only right that I use the book to illustrate the course, with extracts and commentary.

Here’s the current title page of my course, showing what the course covers.

Contents

Introduction and objectives, Video

The basic layout of the course, PDF

The Main Principles, Video

The Child analogy (Theory of Growth), how to develop the story, PDF

Exercise

Part 1, Creation and destruction, Overview Video

Creation and destruction, PDF worksheet

Research and examples, PDF worksheet

Location as a character, PDF worksheet

Realism, PDF worksheet

Creation and destruction, summary and exercise

Part 2,  Technology and population, Video

Technology, PDF worksheet

Population, PDF worksheet

Technology and Population, summary and exercise

Part 3, Plotting, Video

Plotting, PDF worksheet including. Taking the reader with you. Realism.

Location as a Character. Technology. Characters.

Plotting exercise

Part 4, Summary and recap, Video

            Summary and recap, PDF, the most important points in review.

I also intend to offer a chance to submit the exercises for critique, should anyone wish to do so. As I said, I think it’s fairly comprehensive, I will get it finished soon and then I’ll be looking for volunteers to try it out.

You might remember, I said at the start that there was another thing that I found out when I was researching? It’s quite simple. It’s not all about inventing newer and shinier stuff for your world. There are so many of the things that we do on Earth today that could be done on another planet, tomorrow. So much that would be useful to the explorer of the future. It just needs the odd tweak and a way to get it out there. The great advantage of using familiar stuff is that the reader can immediately recognise it and feel comfortable.

And once they’re comfortable, then you can begin.

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Sourdough special.

As it’s Bank Holiday Monday, I thought I would leave the writing behind and post about another passion of mine. Bread!

I love all sorts of bread, except the stuff that you buy in supermarkets that calls itself bread but is really only a load of chemicals in a plastic bag.

My basic bread has four ingredients, flour, water, yeast and salt. You don’t need any more than that. In the case of sourdough, you only need three. The yeast that makes the dough rise arrives automatically, from the air and the flour. Look at the label on a supermarket loaf and ask yourself why all the other things are there? In fact, I sometimes wonder if the rise in “gluten intolerance” isn’t more to do with intolerance to the chemical additives, and whether we’ve been fooled into blaming the gluten. After all, bread has been eaten for thousands of years, isn’t it strange that only now (when it has more chemicals added and is made so differently), that we’re having a problem digesting it?

Which is not to say that some people aren’t gluten intolerant, just that there seem to be so many more of them than there used to be when bread was made the old-fashioned way, before CBP and ADD (Chorleywood Bread Process and Activated Dough Development).

Rant over (for now), back to the story. When I first retired; for something to do, I started a bakery; in my kitchen. I made a lot of samples and went around pestering people. I ended up supplying quite a few shops and restaurants in Torbay with all sorts of bread and biscuits, both sourdough and yeasted. In the end, I became a victim of my own success, too busy with paperwork and not quite big enough to expand.

My exploits were chronicled in a blog, which you can find here. When I stopped baking commercially, as well as not getting up at half-past four every morning to get the oven on, I decided to keep my sourdough starter cultures going, so that I could still make proper bread for myself and my family, plus a few close friends.

A sourdough starter is so easy to make, just flour and water, less than five minutes work a day for a week and you can have your own. Once it’s established, you need to feed it once a week and keep it in the fridge. When you want to bake, take some of it out and wake it up. I have four, White, Wholemeal, Spelt and Rye. They’re all over five years old now and their flavour has developed in that time. They make different tasting bread than they used to, there’s a much deeper and more rounded flavour than they had at the start.

We must remember that, before the advent of dried yeast, all bread was sourdough. Here are some examples of what I used to make and sell, all made from a sourdough culture.

 

 

People will tell you that making your own bread is a time consuming and tricky business. That’s just not true, I use recipes that utilise the greatest gift to baking. The period from 8 pm to 6 am. That’s when the yeast gets to work and produces the flavour, while you get on with your life.

To give you an example, I started boosting some of my white sourdough starter on Monday evening, by Wednesday it was bubbling and ready to make bread.

 

I made the dough at lunchtime, as I was in all afternoon. Like a lot of my recipes, there’s no kneading involved, just a bit of folding of the dough. The time and the yeast do all the work. Here’s what it looked like after I had mixed everything.

 

When I say folding, you pick up a piece of the dough, stretch it out and fold it over the remainder, rotate the ball of dough through ninety degrees and repeat, until you’re back where you started. Then lift the whole ball of dough and turn it over. It’s that simple

It took less than five minutes to fold the dough at 2 pm and 4 pm. It now looked like this.

Then at 8 pm, I shaped the loaves and put them in the fridge for a rest.

On Thursday morning, I took them out at 6 am to wake up the yeast and put the oven on. At 7, I scored them and baked them for 40 minutes.

The total time I spent physically involved in the process, over the period from Monday to Thursday, was less than an hour. The rest of the time was spent leaving the dough to get on with things for itself.

So, while it’s true that I needed to be around on Wednesday afternoon, with a bit of fiddling you can fit the bread-making in with whatever else you have going on. I actually spent most of the afternoon gardening and writing. It’s not too precise a method either, an hour or so, either way, is immaterial to the overall result. If you had all day, for instance, you could start in the morning, cut out the fridge rest and bake in the evening.

Now, I can hear you say that you haven’t got a spare afternoon, or any spare time at all. OK, but if you have five minutes in the evening and a few the next morning while you’re doing something else, I have a recipe for that. It’s not a sourdough recipe, it uses yeast, but it still tastes superb. Apart from the time, all you need is an oven and a cast iron casserole dish. If you only have an hour and need some rolls, I have a recipe for that as well. Give up ten minutes and you can make a batch of dough which will keep it in the fridge for up to a week. Just take some of it and bake it when you need it. The truth is, there are so many easy ways to make your own bread that fit in with whatever your schedule is.

Strangely enough, a loaf of sourdough bread, or any that I make, will keep soft for at least a week, longer than most of the mass-produced bread that you can buy, and that contain preservatives! And if there’s any left that’s starting to go hard, it makes brilliant toast, or breadcrumbs or croutons.

As you can tell, I get rather passionate about bread! If anyone is interested in the subject in a bit more depth, whether it’s about additives, or the benefits of sourdough, or in any of my recipes, please let me know and I’d be more than happy to help you out.

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