Jim Webster's Blog, page 66

The Horns of Elfland, softly blowing.

I was minding my own business. Honest. I was there with a chainsaw cleaning up an old hedge. It’s one of those jobs that my Grandfather really should have got round to, and my Dad never had time to do. So we have a hedge which consists of clumps of Sycamore. They come up from …

How to make money from Indie writing!

Eventually even the shyest and most self effacing indie author feels that they ought to do something to promote their book. Spamming Amazon produces few sales whilst there are only so many copies family members will buy, even to give as Christmas presents. So you look round in growing desperation. You feel you have to …

Welcome to Mirkwood

I’d probably be about fourteen when I first heard of Mirkwood. It was on a walking holiday in North Yorkshire and as we entered a forestry plantation the chap who was leading us said ‘this always reminds me of Mirkwood.’ So I asked what Mirkwood was and he mentioned ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The …

Looking for a job playing honky tonk piano in a bordello

When you do freelance writing it always pays to keep an eye on the markets. You no sooner get your feet under the table with one magazine than the editor moves on. The new broom who comes in wants sparkling new talent and you’re not sparkly enough. So in reality as a freelance you’re always …

A Story for Christmas?

The thing about Christmas, it’s such a chuffing faff. Charging about getting everything ready, it’s just far too stressful. Yet somehow stuff keeps leaking through out of the past. If you aren’t careful the real Christmas creeps up on you and before you know where you are the commercialism is lost and the retailers have …

Selling out!

Over the years I’ve said quite a lot of things about Tesco. Some of them printable. Indeed some of them have been printed. In one article in a farming magazine I advised ‘if you want to support Tesco, ask your wife to shop there. Don’t ask her to go out to work so that you …

What the hell are we supposed to use man? Harsh language?

You sit down to write the book, and suddenly dialogue tends to happen. Your characters speak to each other. Sometimes they get upset, sometimes they get angry. Sometimes they’re just being bitter, ironic, or perhaps bitterly ironic. But what do they say. You as the writer are the one who puts their words down on …

On-line spending frenzy

I have just been informed; (by Brenda who knows these things) that today there is expected to be ‘an on-line spending frenzy’. As it’s all due to happen between 8pm and 9pm and we will be out, I suppose I won’t be contributing. Yes I know you can now do the whole ‘spend spend spend’ …

‘Dead Man Riding East’

At last, after a lot of faffing about, editing, re-editing, and then having a genuine professional editor look at it (which means I had to then go through it and deal with the issues he’d raised) ‘Dead Man Riding East’ is out. Available as an ebook, from Amazon and available in a score of other formats …

Respectable? Probably not

Someone once asked me how I managed to imagine the different cultures and different societies that make up a fantasy world. I suppose the easy answer is that I’ve lived in them. Now this isn’t entirely true. (In that it’s like most fantasy novels so we’re off to a good start.) But when I look …