Aiden Bailey's Blog, page 8
February 2, 2018
Thrilling Locations: The Assyrian Contraband
The Assyrian Contraband was written as a short introduction to the hero of The Benevolent Deception, Simon Ashcroft. Its early life was as a James Bond novella set in the 1950s, but I changed it to suit Ashcroft and the modern era. The story is set in the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean and South Africa.
Comoros Islands[image error]
The Comoros Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the south-east coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and northwest of Madagascar. The nation...
December 30, 2017
Top 3×3 Thriller Novels, TV Series and Films for 2017
Here are my favourite thriller novels, TV series and films for 2017. I’m not a big reader or watcher, so I’m not selecting from a huge pool here, rather these stories captivated me and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Also, I also lean towards espionage and science fiction genres.
TOP THREE CRIME BOOKS Fire and Forget, by Andrew Warren[image error]The third in Warren’s exceptionally good Thomas Caine series. Closely following the structure and tropes of an Ian Fleming novel, think of a rougher, American versio...
December 29, 2017
Two new 30 second Book Trailers
After I created the Who is Simon Ashcroft? series overview trailer, I thought I’d do the same for each book. Here are the trailers, 30 seconds so they are short and fast. I hope you enjoy them.
December 26, 2017
New Book Trailer for Simon Ashcroft
Now that I’m on Christmas break holidays, between working on the sequel to The Benevolent Deception, I’ve created a new book trailer for my Simon Ashcroft series. The aim was to keep this one short and sweet, in alignment with the new branding for the series. I also arranged it so the words and key image elements stayed in the middle third from top to bottom so it fits nicely on my Facebook Page.
What do you think?
November 25, 2017
Why writing a James Bond novella was a bad idea
In early 2015 I was approached by a Canadian publisher to write a James Bond novella.
That’s like, Wow, right?
[image error]Actually, no … not really. I quickly discovered that this wasn’t anywhere near as prestigious as it first seemed. At the time, in several countries across the world, the James Bond novels, penned by Ian Fleming, had just passed into the public domain. Those countries which honored the death-of-the-author-plus-fifty-years-until-copyright-expired-law included New Zealand, South Africa,...
November 4, 2017
The Benevolent Deception on sales 99c/99p
For anyone who hasn’t yet picked up my espionage technothriller novel, The Benevolent Deception, it is on sale for 99c/99p. For a short time you can grab the novel from Amazon at these sites at this low price:
Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon Australia Amazon Canada It is also available to read for free on Kindle Unlimited. “A complex and twisting plot that never fails to thrill.” – Rob Sinclair Or if you want a free book, I’m giving away The Assyrian Contraband to anyone who signs up...November 3, 2017
Film Review: Blade Runner 2049: Better than the Original?
The original Blade Runner was one of those films I vividly remember as a kid. It got me interested in a new kind of science fiction movie, very different to the Star Wars trilogy which was ‘the big thing’ of my generation. Blade Runner was gritty, dystopian, sexy and hardboiled. It spawned the generation of cyberpunkers, technothriller fiction, and heavily-influenced anime series like Akira and Ghost in the Shell. It took Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and built upon th...
October 27, 2017
Thrilling Locations: The Benevolent Deception (Part 2)
When I wrote The Benevolent Deception, I knew I was creating a fictional conspiracy that if ever came into existence in the real world, would have profound impacts everywhere. To do the story justice I knew I must write a global novel covering as many regions, economies, cultures and geographies as I could, simply to demonstrate how the mystery is affecting everyone.
In the first book I made a conscious decision to cover five continents and ten countries: Nigeria, Afghanistan, Colombia, Kenya...
October 20, 2017
The Assyrian Contraband Released in Print Format
[image error]On publishing news, The Assyrian Contraband is now available in print format at Amazon US and Amazon UK. I had been considering saving up my novellas until I was ready to print three or more in an anthology, and I still might, but I also thought there was no harm in getting them out in physical copies at the same time they are released digitally.
As for the Kindle or PDF ebook version of The Assyrian Contraband, well you can read that for FREE just by signing up to my mailing list. An email i...
October 18, 2017
American Assassin: Novel vs. Movie
I’ve been a recent convert to the Mitch Rapp novels by the late U.S. thriller author Vince Flynn, starting with The Last Man and then moving onto earlier books. Flynn’s style is realistic action with sharp prose and multi-dimensional characters – even when they are psychopathic terrorists or narcissistic congressmen. But what I like most about the Rapp character is his doggedness to do what is right, regardless of the impacts on the people around him, even his closest all allies and friends....
