David Roy's Blog, page 14
October 30, 2021
Cold
In the winter, the door would sometimes freeze shut. The caravan's shower stopped working which meant I walk to the shower block each morning regardless of the weather. These were not the worst conditions a human had ever had to endure but nor where they what I had planned for middle-age.
At weekends I went home to be with my little family but my weeks were often grim.
I was writing at least a thousand words a day - often much more - and that equated to several books a year. But, if no one buys the books then what is the point? Writing was never a hobby for me. Rather it was just an extremely badly paid job.
One morning I woke in the caravan and discovered that my work shoes were full of Maltesers. On a normal day, they were not full of anything, so this seemed odd. Now, I had bought a couple of boxes of Maltesers as stocking fillers for Christmas but that didn't explain how they had ended up in my shoes. On closer inspection I found that my shoes had been chewed. Then I noticed that my flying jacket had likewise been chewed and my briefcase.
The caravan - my little aluminium bungalow on wheels - had a new set of inhabitants - mice.
It could have been worse. Rats or... gazelles would have been more devastating but it spelt the beginning of the end.
At weekends I went home to be with my little family but my weeks were often grim.
I was writing at least a thousand words a day - often much more - and that equated to several books a year. But, if no one buys the books then what is the point? Writing was never a hobby for me. Rather it was just an extremely badly paid job.
One morning I woke in the caravan and discovered that my work shoes were full of Maltesers. On a normal day, they were not full of anything, so this seemed odd. Now, I had bought a couple of boxes of Maltesers as stocking fillers for Christmas but that didn't explain how they had ended up in my shoes. On closer inspection I found that my shoes had been chewed. Then I noticed that my flying jacket had likewise been chewed and my briefcase.
The caravan - my little aluminium bungalow on wheels - had a new set of inhabitants - mice.
It could have been worse. Rats or... gazelles would have been more devastating but it spelt the beginning of the end.
October 29, 2021
Friendless and cold
Friendless and cold, I set about writing books which were very loosely based on my experiences as a soldier in Northern Ireland. I was hoping to write something which spoke intelligently about that confusing conflict. As ever, initial sales were good but tailed off as the number of books available on Kindle swamped the market.
If my books were any good it didn't matter because they were simply lost in the vast e-market of Amazon Kindle. I mean, imagine going to a bookshop with six million books on the shelves. Where would you start? So, although Amazon was, on paper, a great outlet for new writers, for those who had already made inroads it became an unwieldy disaster.
Before too long I had written thirty books, then forty. I had worn out countless computers, committed millions of words to e-paper. And all for what?
Well, I had honed my skills as a writer and I had created an impressive back catalogue just waiting to be discovered. But in truth I was no further on.
If my books were any good it didn't matter because they were simply lost in the vast e-market of Amazon Kindle. I mean, imagine going to a bookshop with six million books on the shelves. Where would you start? So, although Amazon was, on paper, a great outlet for new writers, for those who had already made inroads it became an unwieldy disaster.
Before too long I had written thirty books, then forty. I had worn out countless computers, committed millions of words to e-paper. And all for what?
Well, I had honed my skills as a writer and I had created an impressive back catalogue just waiting to be discovered. But in truth I was no further on.
Friendless and cold
Friendless and cold, I set about writing books which were very loosely based on my experiences as a soldier in Northern Ireland. I was hoping to write something which spoke intelligently about that confusing conflict. As ever, initial sales were good but tailed off as the number of books available on Kindle swamped the market.
If my books were any good it didn't matter because they were simply lost in the vast e-market of Amazon Kindle. I mean, imagine going to a bookshop with six million books on the shelves. Where would you start? So, although Amazon was, on paper, a great outlet for new writers, for those who had already made inroads it became an unwieldy disaster.
Before too long I had written thirty books, then forty. I had worn out countless computers, committed millions of words to e-paper. And all for what?
Well, I had honed my skills as a writer and I had created an impressive back catalogue just waiting to be discovered. But in truth I was no further on.
If my books were any good it didn't matter because they were simply lost in the vast e-market of Amazon Kindle. I mean, imagine going to a bookshop with six million books on the shelves. Where would you start? So, although Amazon was, on paper, a great outlet for new writers, for those who had already made inroads it became an unwieldy disaster.
Before too long I had written thirty books, then forty. I had worn out countless computers, committed millions of words to e-paper. And all for what?
Well, I had honed my skills as a writer and I had created an impressive back catalogue just waiting to be discovered. But in truth I was no further on.
October 28, 2021
Caravan Life
My new job involved me working away from home. Initially I stayed in a relative's house but after a year and a half I moved into a caravan.
Travelling home for the weekend was fun, but going back on a Sunday night was not. When the winter took hold I discovered that touring caravans were not ideal for cold weather. I slept under a double duvet with another six blankets on top. Sometimes I put a sheepskin flying jacket and a parka on top of that.
This arrangement had the advantage of giving me time to write. I bought a pair of fingerless gloves to facilitate my writing in sub-zero temperatures. All in all it was a miserable existence. I continued to write, producing perhaps five or six books per year and publishing these on Kindle. The more books I had the fewer I sold. My increased productivity coincided with a deluge of books being dumped on Kindle. Whereas I might have sold a hundred books a month now I was selling perhaps six.
It was hopeless.
Travelling home for the weekend was fun, but going back on a Sunday night was not. When the winter took hold I discovered that touring caravans were not ideal for cold weather. I slept under a double duvet with another six blankets on top. Sometimes I put a sheepskin flying jacket and a parka on top of that.
This arrangement had the advantage of giving me time to write. I bought a pair of fingerless gloves to facilitate my writing in sub-zero temperatures. All in all it was a miserable existence. I continued to write, producing perhaps five or six books per year and publishing these on Kindle. The more books I had the fewer I sold. My increased productivity coincided with a deluge of books being dumped on Kindle. Whereas I might have sold a hundred books a month now I was selling perhaps six.
It was hopeless.
October 27, 2021
New Books
As usual, I didn't let mere failure interrupt my creative flow. Just because virtually no one read my books was no reason to stop writing them. It probably should have been but when you're an undiscovered genius you don't see things that way.
I wrote more books in the Lost Man series, my hero not always triumphing in his fight against tyranny. Ted Dexter fought the Germans, the Italians and the Japanese and even did a few shady jobs closer to home. A few people read about his adventures on their KIndles.
In an effort to boost my literary career, I printed up copies of some of my books and hired stalls at craft fairs. The cost of printing far outweighed the money I made and it was a dispiriting experience. Essentially, people go to craft fairs to buy homemade scones and cakes, not self-published books.
Then, I got a teaching job in the frozen wastes of North Yorkshire.
I wrote more books in the Lost Man series, my hero not always triumphing in his fight against tyranny. Ted Dexter fought the Germans, the Italians and the Japanese and even did a few shady jobs closer to home. A few people read about his adventures on their KIndles.
In an effort to boost my literary career, I printed up copies of some of my books and hired stalls at craft fairs. The cost of printing far outweighed the money I made and it was a dispiriting experience. Essentially, people go to craft fairs to buy homemade scones and cakes, not self-published books.
Then, I got a teaching job in the frozen wastes of North Yorkshire.
October 26, 2021
Supply
I went through a period of renewed unemployment, always hoping to get 'snapped up'. Eventually, I became a supply teacher, which I hated. It was the perpetual uncertainty which got to me. My first impression of one school I visited was of a sort of reverse tug of war taking place at the main doors with a member of staff pushing a child out and the parent pushing the child in. It wasn't a great start and my day was suitably miserable.
I kept writing.
I created a new character called Sam Painter who was a private investigator based in Belfast.
Sam took the cases no one else wanted and appeared in the books no one wanted to read. He was my biggest flop to date.
I kept writing.
I created a new character called Sam Painter who was a private investigator based in Belfast.
Sam took the cases no one else wanted and appeared in the books no one wanted to read. He was my biggest flop to date.
October 25, 2021
Sam
I created a new character called Sam Beattie and his career started off almost the same as that of Ted Dexter. When I created him I genuinely had no idea how things would work out for Sam, although I must have known he couldn't be a clone of Ted.
Sam Beattie's war took a very different course, in that we lost the Battle of Britain and the UK mainland was invaded. Over the course of four books, the Germans over-ran the British Isles and Sam became a POW. In time the USSR invaded the new German empire and rolled it back westwards until only Ireland remained unconquered. At this point the Germans forged an alliance with the remainder of the British Army and held on until the US was able to send forces over to take on the Russians.
The first book was called 'Island Redoubt'. It was one of the first books I published on Amazon Kindle and it sold well. But that was in the days when the complete stock of books on Kindle numbered in the hundreds of thousands rather than the countless millions it has now. It was encouraging to sell dozens of books and to receive good reviews but it was not to last.
Sam Beattie's war took a very different course, in that we lost the Battle of Britain and the UK mainland was invaded. Over the course of four books, the Germans over-ran the British Isles and Sam became a POW. In time the USSR invaded the new German empire and rolled it back westwards until only Ireland remained unconquered. At this point the Germans forged an alliance with the remainder of the British Army and held on until the US was able to send forces over to take on the Russians.
The first book was called 'Island Redoubt'. It was one of the first books I published on Amazon Kindle and it sold well. But that was in the days when the complete stock of books on Kindle numbered in the hundreds of thousands rather than the countless millions it has now. It was encouraging to sell dozens of books and to receive good reviews but it was not to last.
October 24, 2021
Next
Encouraged by my relative success in the People's Novelist competition, I quickly penned another book which I would enter in the same competition the following year. I took the view that what might be termed women's fiction was the dominant genre and so I came up with 'The Guillemot Club', a story loosely based on my mother's experiences as a trailblazing deep-sea angler in the sixties and seventies.
It had all the ingredients of a sure fire hit: romance, humour, triumph over adversity and I have to say I was pleased with the result. There was, of course, a snag. It had nothing to do with the quality of the book or the content and rather more to do with the fact that the competition for which it was being written was not being held.
Yes, the Alan Titchmarsh Show People's Novelist competition had been a never to be repeated one-off.
Still, I had created one of my favourite books so I began the process of hawking it around various agents who would obviously want to sign me up.
When I say 'obviously', what I mean is, it was obvious to me.
It had all the ingredients of a sure fire hit: romance, humour, triumph over adversity and I have to say I was pleased with the result. There was, of course, a snag. It had nothing to do with the quality of the book or the content and rather more to do with the fact that the competition for which it was being written was not being held.
Yes, the Alan Titchmarsh Show People's Novelist competition had been a never to be repeated one-off.
Still, I had created one of my favourite books so I began the process of hawking it around various agents who would obviously want to sign me up.
When I say 'obviously', what I mean is, it was obvious to me.
October 23, 2021
The Lost Man
At some point I had begun writing a book called 'The Lost Man'. I started with a name - Ted Dexter - not realising there was a famous cricketer of the same name, and then began creating an adventure for him.
Ted, I decided, was in the Royal Irish Fusiliers in 1940, serving in France just as the Dunkirk evacuation was about to get underway. Left behind with three other soldiers, Ted makes his way to the coast, eventually arriving on the beaches the day after the last British serviceman has been lifted off.
His daring escape brings him to the attention of Winston Churchill who chooses Ted to be his personal agent, with a brief to wreak havoc on the Germans.
Recently published by Hobart Books, this was the first in twelve (to date) adventures for Ted. In time I hope to publish these other books.
The Lost Man was apparently good enough to get me to the heats of a televised writing competition on the Alan Titchmarsh Show. I didn't win my heat but afterwards a top London literary agent expressed an interest in the story.
However after weeks of hope, it was decided that 'The Lost Man' wasn't good enough.
A decade would pass before my next brush with success.
Ted, I decided, was in the Royal Irish Fusiliers in 1940, serving in France just as the Dunkirk evacuation was about to get underway. Left behind with three other soldiers, Ted makes his way to the coast, eventually arriving on the beaches the day after the last British serviceman has been lifted off.
His daring escape brings him to the attention of Winston Churchill who chooses Ted to be his personal agent, with a brief to wreak havoc on the Germans.
Recently published by Hobart Books, this was the first in twelve (to date) adventures for Ted. In time I hope to publish these other books.
The Lost Man was apparently good enough to get me to the heats of a televised writing competition on the Alan Titchmarsh Show. I didn't win my heat but afterwards a top London literary agent expressed an interest in the story.
However after weeks of hope, it was decided that 'The Lost Man' wasn't good enough.
A decade would pass before my next brush with success.
The Lost Man
At some point I had begun writing a book called 'The Lost Man'. I started with a name - Ted Dexter - not realising there was a famous cricketer of the same name, and then began creating an adventure for him.
Ted, I decided, was in the Royal Irish Fusiliers in 1940, serving in France just as the Dunkirk evacuation was about to get underway. Left behind with three other soldiers, Ted makes his way to the coast, eventually arriving on the beaches the day after the last British serviceman has been lifted off.
His daring escape brings him to the attention of Winston Churchill who chooses Ted to be his personal agent, with a brief to wreak havoc on the Germans.
Recently published by Hobart Books, this was the first in twelve (to date) adventures for Ted. In time I hope to publish these other books.
The Lost Man was apparently good enough to get me to the heats of a televised writing competition on the Alan Titchmarsh Show. I didn't win my heat but afterwards a top London literary agent expressed an interest in the story.
However after weeks of hope, it was decided that 'The Lost Man' wasn't good enough.
A decade would pass before my next brush with success.
Ted, I decided, was in the Royal Irish Fusiliers in 1940, serving in France just as the Dunkirk evacuation was about to get underway. Left behind with three other soldiers, Ted makes his way to the coast, eventually arriving on the beaches the day after the last British serviceman has been lifted off.
His daring escape brings him to the attention of Winston Churchill who chooses Ted to be his personal agent, with a brief to wreak havoc on the Germans.
Recently published by Hobart Books, this was the first in twelve (to date) adventures for Ted. In time I hope to publish these other books.
The Lost Man was apparently good enough to get me to the heats of a televised writing competition on the Alan Titchmarsh Show. I didn't win my heat but afterwards a top London literary agent expressed an interest in the story.
However after weeks of hope, it was decided that 'The Lost Man' wasn't good enough.
A decade would pass before my next brush with success.
