Gareth Williams's Blog, page 8

A big thank you and Merry Christmas!

I am so grateful to everyone who has bought a copy of Needing Napoleon. It is such a wonderful feeling to know the words I wrote are now being read by people outside my immediate family!

My principal reason for writing is that I love the process but it would be a hollow sort of activity if I was the only one who ever saw the combinations of words I have crafted.

So, this is just a short post as Christmas approaches to share my gratitude and ask that, if you enjoy the book, you leave a review wherever you can.

Season's Greetings and very best wishes for the New Year!

So pleased with early reviews for Needing Napoleon

As my first novel is now available on most online sales platforms, I am beginning to get some initial reviews. Thank you so much if you are one of those lovely people!

Here are three highlights:

1. Hey Gareth, and I've read 75 pages in one sitting. It's a good read - it comfortably carries me along, lovely detail, great descriptive language all round. I used to play with my tiny hand painted toy soldiers and re-enact the battle around La Haye Sainte - so it's great to have your insightful account. Yes, here's to the sequel! Antony - see his photo with 3 copies - for him and his two brothers!!!

2: The story begins with a tone of experiment and with an aura of suspense. The author does not instantly reveal his motive and the plotline. Richard gets a chance to travel to the past and change the narrative events that happened to the great Napoleon Bonaparte. Grab this book to know more about the experiences and interaction of Richard with the great French Emperor. There are a lot of characters displayed in the story. Each character is given an important role to play. Even the minor characters are responsible for moving the plot forward.

Moreover, this book resembles the theme of Shakespeare's plays which revolves around the historical subject. The interactions with Napoleon resembles the scenes in Doctor Faustus where he interacts with Alexander the Great. The usage of modern concepts like time travel and reverse situations adds intriguing effects while reading the fiction. Henceforth, this book is recommended to those who love to read stories with a blend of history and imagination. Grace.reads

3: I have a complaint to pass on ….started reading his book last night on Kindle and was still awake at 5am!!! Couldn’t put it down He’s such a good writer! Will defo be leaving a review when I’ve finished. His descriptions are fab and I just keep wanting to get back in the present/past….lol hoping to get a better sleep tonight xx

Page Turner is exactly how I would put it…. And his descriptions make you feel you’re there! Freezing cold, tired and wet, trying to light fires….so good! Love a good book! And also love that it’s book 1 of more to come? Claire

Finally... my paperback is on Amazon!

Just a quick blog to announce the appearance of Needing Napoleon as a paperback to purchase on Amazon. It has taken a while but it has happened. My editor said this would be the moment I felt like a real writer. Little does he know, that was when he rang me up and told me he really liked my synopsis!

Still, I am keen for the book to be widely available, so this feels like a step forward. Now it is showing there, I am going to approach local bookshops newspapers etc. to see if they will feature the book.

Can I ask any of you who are kind enough to buy the book to post a review on the relevant website/app? If you happen to like Needing Napoleon, please recommend it to your friends and relatives!

Confronting the awkward truth

Hello all, having completed the third instalment of the Richard Davey Chronicles, I am currently writing a standalone novel about the life of William Augustus Bowles. I first came across him in a portrait I saw at a National Trust property. He was clearly a European dressed as a Native American.

Cultural appropriation, I hear some of you cry! Well, as a boy growing up in the Sixties and Seventies, I was just as likely to be seen sporting feathers and waving a tomahawk. Whenever there was a Western on BBC2 - usually Friday early evening - I was glued to it, rooting for the Indians, even though they rarely came out on top as we know.

Leaving my own, questionable childhood fantasies to one side, there is a serious question here. William married into the indigenous culture of the American south-east. The truth is, he did so twice. Does that alter how we view his image?

I live on the Isle of Skye but have not a drop of Scottish blood, unlike my wife. But that does not stop me sporting a kilt on occasion. That is, after all, what the Isle of Skye tartan is for, a pattern for those who have no clan to claim.

So, what to make of William Bowles' appearance. Does the fact it was 230 years ago make a difference? We all agree that slavery is an evil. But was that always the case? Was there not a time when no-one in Britain raised an eyebrow at the practice? Does that mean everyone alive before the start of the anti-slavery movement was evil?

Is it reasonable to expect an ordinary person, raised in the social mores of their time, to see through their upbringing and spot what it took hundreds of years for most people to realise?

Thomas Jefferson, founding father of the United States, 2nd President of the United States, is described on his Wikipedia page as 'an icon of individual liberty, democracy and republicanism'. But he owned slaves!

Now, before you get the wrong idea. I readily accept Jefferson was riddled with contradictions, as, I fear, most of us are. I am not arguing that he was right. Indeed, he was an individual equipped to see the absolute wrongness of slavery long before the majority.

Back to William Bowles, he was a product of his time. Many whites were living among indigenous tribes, a good number became chiefs, married locals and saw their children live lives of influence. These are historical facts.

He lived a remarkable life. I don't condone bigamy or the web of lies he deployed. But I am going to write about him. After all, people write about Hitler and Stalin. I have written sympathetically about Napoleon Bonaparte - another deeply flawed character.

What you make of him when I have finished will be interesting. If you think you might be upset or offended, that is quite properly your right and you can avoid my book with a clear conscience.

Cover art for Serving Shaka

So I am trying to source images to go in the background of my front cover. In the foreground is the only known sketch from life made of Shaka Zulu, which I included in my last blog on the subject (published Nov 8).

I need something that draws on a theme in the book. Spoiler alert! The book involves a lion attack, the introduction of firearms to the Zulus and several witchcraft scenes.

I am thinking one of these might be a good choice and have sent some images to the wonderful creative team of Rachael and Nat Ravenlock at www.thebooktypesetters.com

So here are the images - Rachael and Nat are great at manipulating images so thee are just for inspiration. What they come up with will look very different... and a lot more professional!

Let me know what you think.

Working on a sequel

I am now working with Nat and Rachael Ravenlock at www.thebooktypesetters.com on the cover of Serving Shaka, the sequel to Needing Napoleon, which should be available from 18th November (perhaps two weeks later on Amazon) as a paperback and ebook.

Because they are such a great team, Rachael and Nat mocked up a possible cover for Serving Shaka when we were finalising the design for Needing Napoleon, to check if we could have some consistency across the series.

I should mention that I have almost finished editing the third instalment of The Richard Davey Chronicles, which has a working title of Remaking Richard.

I have now sent Nat and Rachael three possible themes for a background image to be the equivalent of the fob watch on Needing Napoleon's cover. I am awaiting their response with interest.

I thought you might like to see the initial image which is likely to be in the foreground - it is the only image drawn from life of Shaka Zulu known to exist. Obviously, this is just the starting point!

It's here... but delayed!

Just a brief post to share my excitement. I have just received copies of my book, Needing Napoleon. They look great. See my photo below. This is the book sitting on the desk where I wrote it! Everyone has done a great job from James Essinger at The Conrad Press https://theconradpress.com along with Karla Harris for quality assurance. Rachael and Nat at https://thebooktypesetters.com came up with a great font and a wonderful cover that is really atmospheric.

Although I had initially hoped the book would be on sale by mid October it is now likely to be the end of November before it is available on Amazon, perhaps a week or two earlier elsewhere - I will keep you posted!

Remember it is the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's death in 2021 - so what better year to buy a book where he is a major character?

The sequel, Serving Shaka has passed the quality assurance stage with Karla Harris at The Conrad Press and should soon be with the typesetters and cover design team of Rachael and Nat at The Book Typesetters soon.

What they wear matters

In my forthcoming novel Needing Napoleon there is a lot of period detail. Probably the most obvious element is clothing. Particularly when writing about a battle like Waterloo, there were a wide range of units from many countries fighting on both sides. Wellington's army was as German and Dutch as English and Scottish. Napoleon's army was also made up of myriad regiments, each with distinctive or subtly different uniforms.

I do not claim to be an expert on these details. So, how did I try to get them right? Well, I read extensively about the battle - see my previous post for some of the excellent books I relied on. That ensured I was referring to units that were present during the battle. I then relied on a range of books depicting and describing the uniforms of the Napoleonic Wars before homing in on some very detailed publications on specific elements of the forces involved at Waterloo.

My starting point was in the series Brassey's History of Uniforms: Rene Chartrand's Napoleonic Wars - Napoleon's Army and Ian Fletcher's Napoleonic Wars - Wellington's Army.

I dipped into many other books and used more for the sequel to Needing Napoleon, also due out before Christmas Serving Shaka. More about this book in my next post as it nears the end of the editorial process.