Alexander S. Findlay's Blog, page 2
December 9, 2019
The New Series – Historical Fiction
The first draft of my fantasy sequel has been placed on hold. I am unsure as to what has come over me but I have had an insatiable urge to read and cover history. My goal for my next work is to open the series of my “Memoirs of the Veturii” series with a novel set in Roman Britain.
My aims in this project are to produce works between novella and novel length which are unique unto themselves. So, like any genre, Roman HF has its tropes to avoid:
Sword and Sandal ‘boy novels’ – I do not wish...
November 10, 2019
REVIEW: Online Book Club
If you have a friend who is an author, ask them how important reviews are to them. You will find – if they wish to be successful authors – that they welcome feedback and the criticism just as much as they welcome the ranks and ratings.
I am no different. I received a 3/4 star rating recently from The Online Book Club and the feedback was incredibly helpful. In addition to this, it is rather fun to see that someone else who I have never met in my life enjoyed my story:
As a fantasy reader who has alwa...
October 29, 2019
The Release of the Print Version!
Dearest Readers and Potential Readers
It has been an interesting foray into self-publishing as of late and the adventure is only beginning! The time has finally arrived for me to release my first self-published (and self-formatted) novel in print format.
“The Redemption of Anaìr” is now available as a print novel through amazon for only $6.99 along with the e-book which is priced at $0.99. Both versions are on sale until the end of 2019.
In addition to this, I have also compiled a mailing list for whoever is...
September 19, 2019
THE E-BOOK LAUNCH: “The Redemption of Anaìr”
The day has finally arrived!
My e-book version for “The Redemption of Anaìr” is now available from amazon from this buying link below:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y2KQP7Z/
If you are a reader of fantasy and a supporter of Indie artists, please download it and give it a read and a review on amazon and/or Goodreads.
I am sure that you will find it an entertaining story!
The Cartography of S.E. Davidson
I knew that when the time came to put forth my world onto paper, it would need some sort of map to help people develop an idea of the land itself. Solatus is a small island nation, the mainland is barely fifteen thousand square kilometres and the population numbers something like half a million people if one were to include pure blooded Solati, half-blooded Solati and permitted residents.
Most of the Mainland is inhabited by the upper caste of Solati society: The Pureblooded group. This is a...
Cover Reveal
Oh My! But this cover from the talented Fiona Jayde Media was totally worth the investment!
[image error]Fiona was prompt and professional when it came to answering questions and adjusting a design to my needs. I am really happy with the results and I encourage any other Indie Author reading this, regardless of the genre, to browse Fiona’s website and portfolio.
August 26, 2019
Cover and Updates
Okay, so this site has been inactive for a while. This does not mean that I have stopped writing or given up at all!
I am waiting for the last round of editing to arrive from Thoth Editing, a battle map to arrive from Sarah Evelyn Art and I am in the finishing stages of my Print Cover with the talented Fiona Jayde of Fiona Jayde Media (as soon as I know the page count it’s all good to go). Two ISBNs have been paid for and registered – one for an e-book in English and the other for a print copy in English.
Now, that said...
August 5, 2019
Editing – Part II
Draft 4 is on its way!
Let’s have a recap shall we?
I drafted the Novella of the Redemption of Anair in a ‘Three Act” structure. My mum – an English Teacher – proofread it for mes by scene. I made a few grammatical changes and worked on my punctuation, thus producing “Draft 1”
This was then submitted to Thoth Editing for the “first round edits” wherein the content and quality of the work in general was scrutinized, thus leaving me with Draft 2.
Draft 2 was submitted to my beta readers and most...
August 4, 2019
Beta Readers – Part II
Much praise can be lauded upon those who take the time to go over your prose and see where things do not quite add up.
One of the most dedicated beta readers of TROA (“The Redemption of Anair”) was a tremendous help. He asked me questions about the cultures and the peoples – things which one cannot cram into one novella, but it is a great deal of extra material for future novels in the series. The antagonists are not the stereotypical “bad guys.” They are not Orcs or Uruk-hai but people.
The no...
July 29, 2019
The Cover – Part 1
The old adage “never judge a book by its cover” seems to be an unheeded one – if one were to ask me. The public do judge books by their covers. When it came to choosing a cover artist I had to consider a few things:
Pre-Read Introduction – This allows me to tell a little bit of the story without it being read as well as to set the tone of the novella. People can see that there is a darker veneer to the story, that it is a story which has violence as an element to it and is not about a happy-...
