Luke Walker's Blog: https://lukewalkerwriter.wordpress.com, page 8

July 12, 2018

The Unredeemed - a sneak peek

As The Unredeemed is published tomorrow, I thought it might be nice to share a snippet to give you an idea what to expect. So, here's a look at the opening chapter. And I know I (and just about every other writer in the world) have said it before, but if you do buy it, honest reviews are more than welcome; they're just about essential for a book to have any chance of selling. Ta muchly.

THE UNREDEEMED


I could say this began back in the old days when I committed my first murder. I could say it began more than fifty years ago when I started spending my time in the park close to Azalea Drive. I could even say it began when I died. But I think saying any of that would be a lie.This began when I met Hayley.
###
The woman entered the park at half past five that evening, exactly as I’d known she would. For the last three days, she’d approached from the entrance on Bedford Avenue at around the same time and jogged through the green in four complete circuits. Dennis and I watched her from a wide cluster of oak trees in the centre, sitting up there on the high branches to study her speed, her grace. She was no older than thirty, tall, thin and had the look of a woman who didn’t take much pleasure in exercise. She wore those dangling wires in her ears, the ones that connect to a device playing music. After watching her complete her jog that first night, I’d wondered about speaking through the wires in her ears, whispering right into her head.That wasn’t my style, though. I’m not a fan of modern technology. Instead, the situation called for something a little more old-fashioned. On the third night, a Wednesday, Dennis and I watched and waited until she drew closer before asking Dennis to keep an eye out. While he wasn’t particularly happy with my plan (a cautious fellow, Dennis), he agreed to keep watch.The woman passed our trees on her second circuit and I swooped down, letting her see me from the corner of her eye. She turned but all she made out was her long shadow, trailing off into the bushes and gravel that formed a curving trail around the pathways. There was no reason she should think anyone was in those bushes; if someone had been behind her, they couldn’t possibly have made it out of sight so quickly. She jogged on; I followed, keeping to the spiky leaves, slipping through them and ignoring their stupid mutterings that I should leave, that I wasn’t welcome there. What little intelligence living in the greenery and trees had never cared for me, and had spent much of the previous fifty plus years moaning on the wind for me to leave.The woman and I went around the park for another moment, passing a group of teenage boys who shouted unpleasant comments to the woman, then level with a sleeping man who gripped a bottle of cider while spittle soaked into his matted beard, before we hit an empty section of path. It was perfect. I shot from the bushes, streaked behind her and crashed into half a dozen weeping willows directly level with her. She heard nothing, but did see the tremors in the long branches several feet above, despite the lack of wind. She came to a jerking halt, panting hard and staring at the nearest tree. By this time, I’d moved to float right behind her. Her thoughts sped in a blur of images: a bird hitting the tree trunk, a falling branch, conkers (which made no sense since it was late May and the willows were obviously the wrong type of tree), or an animal in the bushes. For a second, her mind froze. I leaned in closer and caught a thought that wasn’t much more than a flashing image.Snake.She wiped her mouth while perspiration on her forehead and neck cooled rapidly and her thinking kicked back into life. Snakes. Stupid idea. No snakes in the park. Even if there were, they’d be grass snakes. Small. Frightened of human noise. Stupid idea. Interesting, I mused, although it wasn’t with much surprise. Homing in on someone’s weak spot has always been a strength of mine. The woman took a final look in all directions and resumed jogging. Dennis had followed and waved at me from the willows, his little face pinched and strained. Are we alone? I called to him and he nodded, still clearly not happy with my minor haunting. To be honest, I knew it was risky. I hadn’t remained on Earth for so long by causing trouble or giving myself away, but sometimes, old habits do indeed die hard.I waved back to Dennis and followed the woman. She’d barely covered any distance before I brushed against her shin.She let out a frightened shout and fell, tripping over her own feet. Hitting the ground hard, she rolled to the earthy flowerbeds and held her knees, panting and struggling not to weep. Blood ran in thin streams from cuts on both her knees, and her mouth trembled more in shock than pain. Her eyes rested on the spot I occupied on the other side of the path; she squinted and in the shadows cast by the trees and bushes, she saw the suggestion of my shape. Despite it being only for a moment, it was long enough. She gave a tiny squeak and one hand blocked her mouth as if wanting to keep any noise inside. I remained still, letting my energy return. Gliding and floating took a fair bit of effort. Walking was easier but not quite as effective when it came to this sort of thing. Enjoying yourself? Dennis asked and while the woman couldn’t hear his exact words, she caught something in the breeze, something she instinctively recognised as unpleasant – like a bad smell from miles away, blown in by a gust of wind. Still, her eyes didn’t move from the area I filled. She was sure something was there, sure of it but unable to see it. As always, I replied and Dennis’s worry travelled through the trees. Don’t get carried away, he warned. The woman stood, still watching for me. Wincing she took her hand from her wounded knee; dirt and earth spread over the grazes, turning the white of her skin into a grubby red. She glanced down the pathway to the brighter area not overhung by the old branches. Her feelings were clear: she didn’t want to be here. Not right here on this section of path, but in the park at all. She wanted to be at home with the television on loud and the curtains closed against the approaching night. “Snakes,” I said to her. She froze. Her eyes were stuck to the flowerbeds opposite. I flapped at the greenery; it shook slightly, creating a whisper in the stillness. “Snakes.”She couldn’t hear my word as Dennis would have and that didn’t make a bit of difference. She sensed it and there may even have been a bit of her mind, some part she no longer needed to use, that knew what had spoken to her. The breeze freshened abruptly which was superb timing for me. The fine hairs on her forearms rose; she hugged her arms across her breasts and limped a few steps away. As soon as her eyes were off me, I breathed to her ears. Snakes. Her focus flew back to the bushes across the path. She saw them shake, and saw the first snake slither from the earth. It didn’t matter that there was nothing there. She saw it.***   You can pre-order The Unredeemed in ebook and paperback over here - THE UNREDEEMED
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Published on July 12, 2018 02:55

July 8, 2018

Writing in the same universe

While a fair bit of what I write is its own story with no connection to anything else, I do like to occasionally have a link, however small, between tales. Case in point, The Unredeemed shares more than a slight connection with Dead Sun and Hometown with setting and a side character. Not that you need to have read either book to enjoy my new one; the stories are stand alone. Think of them as taking place in the same world - and worlds are big, after all. Plenty of room for more than story to be told and to be occuring while you're reading a book.

With that setting, it's a fictional version of my hometown (you can see how long it took me to come up with that title) - a fairly standard city in England that, in all fairness, could be just about anywhere in the country. Geographically, Dalry is the same as my hometown which my friends had fun pointing out when they read Hometown, and ditto on the feel of the place. Probably why I've come back to Dalry a few times in my tales. And for what it's worth, Dalry has a lot of sides, some of which are darker than others. In some, the sun never shines.

Dalry is an old city. Men like Benjamin Harwood have called it home for a long time just as the group of friends in Hometown know it as their past and a certain someone from Dead Sun knows its history. If you want to come along with the ghosts from The Unredeemed, I hope you'll see something you know in its streets and in its secrets.

THE UNREDEEMED
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Published on July 08, 2018 02:31

July 1, 2018

The Unredeemed - published 13th July

It's all happening at my end. The Unredeemed will be published on 13th July in paperback and ebook. You can pre-order it now over at Hellbound's site. I had a lot of fun writing this one probably because Benjamin Harwood makes no apologies for being who he is. Or what he is. Obviously, more guff to come about this one over the next few weeks. For now...

Pre-order LINK

Four hundred years ago, Benjamin Harwood butchered whoever he saw fit to kill, knowing that sacrificing his murder victims to a demon would keep him safe from eternal punishment.
But now, their agreement has been torn in half and the demon is coming for Harwood’s soul, coming to set him to burn.

Preparing for war, Harwood gathers the worst of the worst, the monsters and murderers he calls friends.
With this group of damned killers, Harwood must return to the crimes of his past and seek help from his most recent prey: a teenage girl whose family he destroyed, a girl with more reason to loathe him than anyone in his life or death.
Only then he can try for a redemption that may be impossible or face a universe of suffering.

But Harwood doesn’t know there is a hole in the floor of the world. And something much worse than the dead is down there...
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Published on July 01, 2018 03:07

June 21, 2018

The Mirror Of The Nameless - cover reveal

Presenting the cover to my upcoming novella The Mirror Of The Nameless which will be published by Kensington Gore on 1st September (links to follow). If you've been paying attention, you'll know why I'm extra chuffed with this one being published in print as well as ebook. And while I'm not at liberty to go into details just yet, I can say Mirror will contain a little something extra special. Lastly, the prequel novel, The Day Of The New Gods, will also be published by KG. So, if you like Mirror, you'll definitely like the prequel.

Anyway, enough talk. Cover time.



In a world controlled by three tempestuous gods ready to destroy all human life on a whim, Dave Anderson knows he should follow the herd and not make waves or he may end up sacrificed to the monsters from the darkest reaches of the universe.
All that goes up in smoke when he discovers his teenage daughter is risking her life in the resistance movement against the demonic tyrants.
Dave, an unlikely hero, joins forces with her boyfriend in a frantic hunt to save his beloved daughter before the authorities feed her to their dark-overlords.
Their sole hope of overthrowing them and bringing peace to this totalitarian society is finding a secret weapon which, legend says, is the only way to defeat the gods.
But unleashing the weapon may risk opening a doorway to something much, much worse.
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Published on June 21, 2018 11:01

June 10, 2018

Dead Sun - reformatted, resized, repriced

I've uploaded a reformatted and resized version of Dead Sun mainly because the original paperback was just too big. It's now a more reasonable 325 pages which means a price reduction. Hurrah. The ebook is still free on KindleUnlimited, but if a print copy is more your bag, then you know what to do.

DEAD SUN UK PAPERBACK

DEAD SUN US PAPERBACK



In other news, I should have something pretty sweet to post about another book soon. Watch this space.

Have a good Sunday, all.
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Published on June 10, 2018 03:12

June 2, 2018

Dead Sun free for a limited time

As I'm so amazing, I've made Dead Sun free on Kindle this weekend. Yep, free. No catches. Head over to Amazon to get it without spending a penny until midnight tomorrow.

DEAD SUN

Of course, if you wanted to post a review after reading it, I could dig that.
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Published on June 02, 2018 02:38

May 17, 2018

The Day Of The New Gods (and other stuff)

You know I said recently that I'd sold The Mirror Of The Nameless to Kensington Gore a year or so after the original publisher went out of business? And a second piece to KG which turned out to be a prequel to Mirror entitled The Day Of The New Gods?

Well, I've written the first draft of New Gods. 63k in about five weeks which is pretty fast for me. I'm completely unashamed to say I'm playing to my strengths with this one (which is partly why I managed to write it so fast). I'm starting work on the second draft next week to give it a good tidy, beef up a couple of subplots and make sure the whole thing hangs together. It's a fast-paced, violent action horror that I think of as Lovecraft meets The Long Good Friday even though the finished book went its own way in a few places. Basically, if you like Mirror when it's re-published, you'll love New Gods.

Outside of writing news, one of our cats has developed diabetes which is a shock (I didn't know cats could get it) and no fun for anyone. We're hoping Eddie improves now he's on two injections of insulin a day. Basically, if you have a cat that rapidly loses weight and drinks way more than usual, take him to your vet.

Back on the writing news front, Dead Sun is still free on KindleUnlimited DEAD SUN and while it's not free in paperback, it is massive so you can use it as a doorstop after you've read it. (And once again, all honest reviews are more than welcome - GoodReads, Amazon, wherever).

That's about it for tonight. Be cool.
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Published on May 17, 2018 12:47

May 2, 2018

Where Dead Sun came from

Short answer: I can't remember.

Longer answer: I wrote the first draft of what was then called 'Set around 2008 (and possibly the year before) and after roughly a thousand edits and rewrites, it was published in early 2013 before going out of print a year later. Not that long ago, I know, but I've written a lot more since then and before reading through the original book last year, I hadn't done more than skim it in in the time since. My tale of angels and demons and a threat to all of reality felt like it had been written by someone else other than a few lines I knew were all me. I still liked it, though, which is where the new title and whole doing it myself thing came in. But for where it started ten or more years ago...

Hmm.

I think I had a vague idea for a short story about a guy with a terminally ill daughter who gets involved in a battle between mythical creatures. Events would take place over the course of a single night and he would gain some way of treating his child. Pretty vague and not that original, I'm sure you'll agree, but a concept I was fond of as I've always liked putting the supernatural right beside the familiar. At the time, I wrote a lot more fantasy than horror although my fantasies were becoming quite a bit darker as I went on. 'Set obviously took that basic idea and changed it to a mother who's lost her child. Ditto a change to the other characters, the timescale and the stakes. Instead of a one night fight between whatever creatures they were going to be, I ended up with a joint effort between Heaven and Hell to stop a blockage in death which will eventually lead to the potential destruction of everything.

Structurally, one of the biggest influences was the TV series 24 with Jack Bauer blowing the shit out of the bad guys. While nobody in my book demands to know who anyone is working for or for Chloe to open up a socket, damn it, the growing scale of events and threat 24 was so good at came to mind often while I was writing. That's why the my threat keeps getting worse. Also because it's fun to really fuck things up for your characters, as well.

Ultimately, the book that began as 'Set and became Dead Sun has been a long time in the telling and while I can't remember where the basic idea came from, maybe that's not as important as the tale finally being told.

Dead Sun is free on Kindle Unlimited over here.
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Published on May 02, 2018 04:55

April 30, 2018

Dead Sun - first review

Just a couple of days after publication and the first review for Dead Sun is in and I think you'll agree it's a good one. Like I said the other day, books pretty much live or die based on reviews especially in cases like this, so if you could help me out with spreading the word, that would be splendid.

Cheers.

REVIEW
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Published on April 30, 2018 11:16

April 28, 2018

Dead Sun published

Today's the day - Dead Sun is now published so it's available from an Amazon near you in print and ebook. I've sorted a universal link so these should take you to the Amazon of your country (which saves me posting several separate links - result). As always, I hope people like my tale; whether you do or not, all honest reviews are more than welcome. Books, especially ones from authors who don't have the backing of a big publisher behind them, sink or swim based on the reviews. Even if a reader thought a book was crap, that review still helps. Although I prefer the nice ones, obviously.

Anway, I'm thrilled to have my tale of angels, demons, dead people and the possible destruction of all reality back in the world. And while Dead Sun is quite a bit lighter than my usual stuff, it's still me. (Bonus points if you spot the cheeky ref to Hometown because, yes, they take place in the same world).

Print copy:
mybook.to/DeadSun

Ebook:
mybook.to/DeadSunEbook
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Published on April 28, 2018 02:15