Greg Hamerton's Blog, page 10
July 22, 2010
Free books for Goodreads winners!
I've had a fantastic response from the community of readers on Goodreads. I started a competition two weeks ago, to spread the word about the upcoming release of new fantasy novel Second Sight. Today was the draw, and 812 people entered! Seems like everyone wants a copy. Five lucky winners will soon have their free books.
It's a great system … I (hopefully) get some enthusiastic reviews of the book to help the publicity, and readers get the kind of books they are interested in.
If you're not a...
July 15, 2010
Useful books for writers
AC&Black, Writer's & Artists Yearbook
The complete directory of all the agents and publishers in UK (and also USA).
Carole Blake, From Pitch to Publication
Understand what an agent does and how the whole process of manuscript submission works.
Strunk and White, The Elements of Style
Write better. Simpler. Without extra words.
Stephen King, On Writing
A very honest insight into how the master crafts his stories and the writing life.
Lynn Truss, Eats, Shoots and Leaves
A funny little book that...
July 13, 2010
A reading of Second Sight
Sometimes, it is really lovely to be told a story. I recorded an audiobook of The Riddler's Gift, which plays out over 22 hours. But I'm not planning an audiobook for Second Sight, because of the many tricky voices and dialects involved in the story. I think I need the professionals on this one, to do it justice. I'm happy to offer you a reading from the first chapter, nonetheless. Join me for a few minutes of fireside story-telling.
July 12, 2010
A reading of The Riddler's Gift
Writing a fantasy novel involves years of silence, and talking to the small stone dragon on the top of my keyboard would probably get me committed to the loonybin. So I don't utter a word, for a very long time. Now that The First Tale of the Lifesong is released, I'm delighted to share a few spoken words with you from the first chapter of The Riddler's Gift.
July 10, 2010
Why is it so hard to get a fantasy novel published?
Fantasy is a genre wherein most books are produced by a very few (big) publishing houses in the UK and USA. These are the houses that can afford to take the risk on large print runs because they have many other titles too. They also have significant advantages in economies of scale (cheap distribution, discounted printing, efficient representation to the stores). They produce a few fantasy titles (bad luck, authors) in big volume. Big volume is necessary for most kinds of book printing, but f...
July 9, 2010
The Riddler's Gift review winners announced!
Did you win a free copy of the new fantasy novel, Second Sight? Only 22 days to go! Thanks to all the readers of The Riddler's Gift who sent in their short reviews as part of the Readers' Review Competition. Their names were collected in Twardy Zarost's hat. I held a random draw today. It didn't matter what you wrote: if you responded, you had a chance! My assistant was there to judge the fairness of the draw. He may be small, but he is tough and he has a sharp eye. He even caught a cheater.
W...
July 5, 2010
On writing a fantasy novel
A question and answer session on what it's like to write a fantasy novel (written when the first tale in the Lifesong fantasy series was released).
Q : How long did it take you to write The Riddler's Gift?A : Two years, full time. I find it impossible to write something with this scope in a 'few stolen hours a day'. So I didn't work on anything else for two years. It gets easier when you're isolated. On a normal writing day I'm in my writing room by 8am and I don't come out until 5pm...
July 2, 2010
Who writes the best fantasy?
I've wandered through a hundred books, searching for a good tale. What is it I am looking for in a story? More than entertainment (or I'd just switch on the TV). I want to have my reality replaced, redrawn. Reinvented. I want that sense of discovery. I want to become someone new. And so I search, for a touch of mystery, an edge of danger, a spark of intrigue and that doorway into the world beyond this world. I have yet to find all the elements I love in one book … which is probably why I'm a ...
June 25, 2010
How to make magic happen
The hunger for magic is universal, most people have it in some way or another. People pray, hoping their thoughts will influence reality (or hoping that God will intervene on their behalf, which is kind of the same thing, except that someone else performs the magic). The Secret (by Rhonda Byrne) was enormously successful, which mostly proves that people wanted to hear its message. It made over 1 million sales soon after the DVD was released, and its primary message is 'what you think creates ...
June 22, 2010
The real magic of fantasy writing
When I was thirteen, I went to the College of Magic, to learn all I could. It was kind of a Harry Potter school for stage magicians – there are rabbits coming out of hats, white doves flapping about and silk scarves that turned into ropes. I sat down eagerly to my first class, apprentice wizard that I was. I was told there is no magic. I was told it is all illusion, all trickery, all a sham. I couldn't have been more disappointed.
What followed were three years of interesting sleight of hand t...
