Keith Robinson's Blog, page 22

Lake of Spirits available on Kindle and Nook

As the title of this post suggests, Lake of Spirits is now available for all those who read ebooks:

On Amazon's Kindle (UK edition here)
On Barnes & Noble's Nook

If you don't have a Kindle or Nook device, you can always download the free software to your computer or phone -- just follow the links on the Kindle or Nook pages. I have the free apps on my phone and the ebooks look great.

(I'm aware of a typo in the Kindle description, and will fix that in due course.)

Also available now is a free preview of the first three chapters.

I've updated my Buy Books page accordingly. Note that you can now pre-order signed printed editions of Lake of Spirits if you want to get an early copy! That's because yesterday I uploaded the files to Lightning Source (my printer) and am now awaiting submission approval, after which I can push the big fat red button that says "Publish."

Once published, the book will start showing up as available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and at that point I can stock up. So if you plan to buy a printed copy, please feel free to pre-order so you can be sure of an early copy from that first batch (probably in 2-3 weeks from now).

And when you've read Lake of Spirits, PLEASE let me know what you think by posting feedback or reviews. Ta muchly, folks! :-)

Third Writers' Platform-Building Campaign

This is a short post to mention a brilliant networking idea for writers. Why couldn't I think of this? Basically, it's like a writer putting out an announcement to say, "Hey, I've got this hall booked for writers, come on in and introduce yourself," and every writer in town showing up to say hello.

http://rachaelharrie.blogspot.com/2011/08/third-writers-platform-building.html

So I'm showing up to say hello as well. After all, the sausage rolls are free and I get to talk about self-publishing!

(Incidentally, Book 4 of my Island of Fog series, Lake of Spirits, is now being "processed" by Kindle and Nook, so it should be available shortly. I'll post separately about that.)

Lake of Spirits proofreading and editing is finished!

As the title of this post suggests, I'm finally finished with Lake of Spirits. Well, almost. I just want to read it through one more time before I publish it. Experience has shown that I always find additional typos on that final read-through!

So this post is to say that I'm about to post to say the book is published. I expect Lake of Spirits to be available on Kindle and Nook by the last day of August, and in print within the first week or two of September (that process is a little slower). I'll post further announcements on both momentous occasions.

I said long ago that this book would be published "sometime during summer 2011" and, later, "sometime in August 2011," and I'm happy to say I managed to keep that promise... but only just. It's been a tough couple of months -- too much work and not enough time to write. (This is a complaint from the writer in me; obviously there's no such thing as too much work in the real world. I just wish I had a clone. When is a clone-making machine going to be available to the general public? Come on, stem cell researchers, get on with it!)

I want to give my ego a boost and post the following words from Iguana Proofreading. To avoid spoilers, this is a snipped version of the summary. There are also lots of other comments and notes, and these have helped me clean up the manuscript where needed. Sometimes, things that are perfectly clear to me are a little vague to readers, and that's why writers need proofreaders.

Well, you've outdone yourself this time...! This is excellent! In many ways, your best yet. This is a different kind of adventure... not a physical adventure, with a quest or a journey. This is a psychological adventure. This fourth installment engages the emotions like no other before it, and is really a rollercoaster of anger, jealousy, resentment, revenge, fear, pain, and sorrow. This shows that you don't have to send the main characters on wild and wonderful journeys battling fantastic creatures and monsters; you can beguile the reader in a much more personal, intimate way.

Jolie is your tool, your key, to this -- and she proves to be a masterstroke. All throughout, I was kept guessing as to whether she would prove to be a good egg or as nasty and conniving as the gradually building suspicions allude to. Was she doing all those things on purpose? Was she just a little bit immature and naive, and not realising the extent of her behaviour? Was she misunderstood... or was there something else going on?

This reads very much like an Enid [Blyton] book -- I remember the occasional 'special' character popping up in, say, Famous Five tales and forming the focus as a befriended stranger. Edgar springs to mind, the son of a nasty uncle and auntie that the kids always had run-ins with. (I think that book was about the kids running away to go live by themselves on an island, or something like that.) Jolie is very much like that, with not everyone warming to her, and treating her with suspicion.

This has a different feel to previous books in the series, but certainly not unwelcome. This is an insightful look into daily village life -- their daily lives -- and gives you a chance to see what things are like back home when the children are not on a wild adventure or mission in dark and dangerous lands. [The village of] Carter is starting to become familiar, and I felt as a reader that I myself was starting to settle into my new home and learning the layout of the buildings, the woodland trails that surround the village, and the people that live there.

There are some areas that need some clarification, a little more detail, all of which are detailed below and within the Comments throughout the manuscript itself, but all in all, there's not a lot wrong with this at all! Try as I might, I couldn't find any areas that needed a major rewrite and in my mind, apart from the little bits and bobs I mention, it's just fine as it is! Nicely balanced, exciting, tense and emotional, and a bloody good read!

Thanks, Darren! I had to laugh at the comparison to an Enid Blyton book. On the one hand, I feel like my books are far darker in tone than Enid Blyton's adventures for children. But I do see Darren's point and I can easily imagine Blyton readers enjoying the play-off between the characters in Lake of Spirits. For all those Blyton readers out there, this is probably more like the introduction of Ragamuffin Jo and George's instant dislike of her, only a whole lot more serious.

Next stop: Kindle and Nook. Stay tuned!

Reviews and featured spots for Island of Fog series

Basically, what it says above -- this is a listing of websites and blogs that have featured one or more of my Island of Fog books. I'll continue to update this "sticky" post and use it like a scrapbook. :-)

Main book pages on Amazon with reviews...

Amazon Book Page and Reviews (Island of Fog)

Amazon Book Page and Reviews (Labyrinth of Fire)

Amazon Book Page and Reviews (Mountain of Whispers)

Special reviews, interviews, features and spotlights...

Spotlight by Daily Cheap Reads (trilogy)

Spotlight by Daily Cheap Reads (Junior) (trilogy)

Spotlight by Daily Cheap Reads (UK) (trilogy)

Interview by Open Book Society

Review by Open Book Society (Island of Fog)

Review by Torch Under The Blanket Books (Island of Fog)

Review by Piers Anthony (Island of Fog)

Review by Piers Anthony (Labyrinth of Fire)

Review by Torch Under The Blanket Books (Labyrinth of Fire)

Review by Piers Anthony (Mountain of Whispers)

Review by Torch Under The Blanket Books (Mountain of Whispers)

Why I write a chapter summary for the next book

I'm still sluggishly working my way through proofreading edits for Lake of Spirits. I've decided that I hate commas. Just when you think you have them nailed in place, they squirm free and start moving around. Worse, someone slips you a slightly altered rulebook and you end up second-guessing everything you've done.

I won't go into actual examples, because I'm pretty sure very few of you care as much as I do. I'll just say that my proofreaders have found a whole bunch of commas that should be there and a whole bunch that shouldn't -- or, as I said above, they've just squirmed free and moved to different positions in the text.

Also, should I write "fore hoofs" or "fore-hoofs"? Or just "forehoofs"? Or should it be "hooves" rather than "hoofs"? ...although this is more of a British vs. American thing, and I decided long ago to go with "hoofs" and "roofs" and so on. Sigh. I can spend ages looking for an answer to the stupidest little thing, and sometimes I just end up changing the wording.

Anyway, I digress. The point of this post is to say that Lake of Spirits is still in the editing stage but should be ready for publication this month as planned, and meanwhile I'm starting on a chapter summary for the fifth book.

The next installment, continuing directly where Lake of Spirits leaves us dangling, has been rattling around in my head for ages, and now I've started a written summary to get it clear. Writing a summary forces me to think hard about details, about how the story progresses from one stage to the next, instead of having a collection of only vaguely related scenes floating around. Often the story changes quite dramatically from what I had originally imagined, making me realize that what was floating around in my head earlier just wasn't practical.

Years ago, I would have started into the manuscript without much thought about how the plot gets from A to B and eventually to Z, and I'd find, after ten chapters, that I was writing myself into an impossible corner, or sending myself off the beaten track. This is what happened during Island of Fog. I wrote the first third of the book countless times, changing it around and ditching stuff I'd spent ages on; for instance, the fourth chapter became the first, while the first three chapters were dropped entirely. If you'll recall, Hal and Robbie wandered deep into Black Woods and found the fog-hole, but in my first draft I started out with a lot of fun but ultimately slow and pointless stuff. One example I remember is when the children (and originally there were twelve of them) snuck out at midnight to meet in a secret place around a campfire, as they did on a regular basis. I thought it was fun and interesting, but really all they did was talk and it all seemed a bit blah when I stepped back and thought about it.

Another scene, which came around Chapter Eight in my original manuscript, was when Hal crept out of the house one night, climbed into his dad's pickup, and waited. His dad was planning to go off for one of his monthly meetings Out There, in the dead of night. And so he did, with Hal hiding in the back of the pickup as his dad drove to the edge of the island. There, a bridge appeared, rising up out of the water as if by magic. They drove to the mainland, and eventually stopped in a field where there were other "dads" waiting. They'd talk about their secret communities and question whether any transformations had started taking place...

There was a bit more to it than this, but the fog itself was originally something "different" to what's in the published book. I still like the idea of it to some extent: a sort of magical cloak that hides the inhabitants but not the island itself. Hal and his friends would see "wraiths" in the night, ghostly figures that they couldn't understand. These wraiths were actually real live people wandering around the island in the real world, and they, too, would see wraiths from time to time -- only they were seeing Hal and his friends. So it was like one island with two realities occupying the same space.

Another part I really liked was a tunnel under the lighthouse. You remember where Emily found those crates stuffed with smart clothes, at the base of the lighthouse? Well, in my old version of the story, under those crates is a hatch leading down to a man-made tunnel that stretches under the sea to the mainland. What better way to reach Out There? When the children got the generator working, the fluorescent strip lights in the tunnel flickered on and off, and it was altogether creepy down there... especially when a distant figure started running toward them.

And there was a scene on the mainland with an exploding boat, that a critic told me was too James Bond-like. He was right. The thing is, in that old version of Island of Fog, there was no virus and everybody lived normal lives -- but Hal and his friends were effectively invisible.

Ultimately, I couldn't get it to work. I wrote and rewrote that first third of the book, around eight chapters, and "wasted" a lot of time on it. No wonder it took six years, on and off!

That's why, with Labyrinth of Fire and Mountain of Whispers, and more recently Lake of Spirits, I used a chapter summary. Once I'd ironed out the story, it took only four or five months to actually write it.

And this is why I'm now writing the summary for the fifth book, entitled something like [Unknown] of Dust. Here I am again, trying to find the right word. I might have used "Land," but it's too close to "Island" and also begins with an L (the same as two other books in the series). I would use "City" but City of Dust has been used way too many times, and plus, the story isn't really about a city! Anyway, it'll come to me eventually. The "Dust" part is important, but I reserve the right to change it. World of Hurt seems appropriate, in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way...

This reminds me of the suggestions I received from kind readers when I was trying to think of a title for Mountain of Whispers:

Replacement order, watery events, and ideas for book title

Back to the idea of a chapter summary. One other reason to do this, and to do this now, is to make sure I'm clear about what kind of setting up or foreshadowing I need to include while I'm still editing the previous book. For instance, in Lake of Spirits, Hal has an object (which I won't divulge here) that he carries with him to the end of the book. At that point he could either throw it away or carry it with him. It kind of served its (small) purpose in that last chapter, but in the back of my head I always saw a bigger purpose for that object in the next book. So, now that I'm writing the chapter summary for the next book, I can decide for sure whether that object will be used or not. If not, then I guess I can ditch it quite easily at the end of Lake of Spirits; or, if I decide to use it, then Hal can slip it back into his pocket. I've already made up my mind about this, and therefore the finished book has been edited accordingly.

This is the advantage of thinking ahead. I've been accused by two readers of deus ex machina regarding Abigail's glass ball (in that it seemed to be a convenient answer to a problem), but I don't see it that way because I planned it like that all along, and the glass ball continues to serve the plot in later books. Then again, what's been in my head all along doesn't necessarily translate to the page, so the readers' opinions are valid and, although I stand by my guns on this matter, I'm well aware of the danger of having sudden, convenient solutions presenting themselves. It reminds me too much of Enid Blyton's adventure books: when a group of children ended up quite literally in a hole and needed to climb out, it transpired that one of the children happened to be carrying a length of rope looped around his waist under his shirt -- just in case! It was never mentioned prior to that scene, and was a terrible case of deus ex machina that should be avoided at all costs.

I'm really excited about the summary for Something of Dust. Some of the young shapeshifters will end up running around the streets of a city filled with Crazies, so it has a zombie apocalypse feel to it. And if we're putting a zombie tag on Book 5, it's fair to say that Book 6 is looking like a werewolf story. I can feel it in my bones.

I should be finished with the Book 5 summary by the time you're able to buy Book 4 later this month. :-)

What blog posts do you like and dislike?

I received a fantastic email yesterday. More on that in a moment! But first, a bit of routine self-doubt...

Like most authors, I often wonder about the point of blogging and self-promotion and all that stuff. Obviously it's worth doing, because every little bit helps and I won't get anywhere at all if I crawl under a stone and never emerge. But even though I'm committed to blogging like this, I wonder what kinds of posts are the most interesting. I tend to target this blog at adults and other writers, which is odd when the books I write are primarily for younger readers. But as far as I can tell, far more adults have bought my books than younger readers, and most of the feedback I get is from adults.

So maybe I should ask YOU what I should be blogging about... or not. What kinds of posts do you roll your eyes at and skim over? Which ones do you find most interesting? What would you like to see more of? Is there anything you'd like to see that I've never done before?

There are plenty I could name who comment on my posts on a fairly regular basis, and I'm very grateful to those readers for making it seem to the outside world that people are actually reading! There are also those who read these posts but never chip in, and that's fine; just knowing you're reading is good enough for me. And then there are the rest, probably the vast majority of subscribers, who may or may not read these posts. I have no way of knowing! Hmm, maybe I should introduce an anonymous "LIKE" and "DISLIKE" button...

Anyway, back to that fantastic email I received:

I was given a print out of your blog by my Landlady, whom had been told I was writing a novel. I am ashamed to admit this, but I stuck it in my desk and forgot all about it, until I was in a car wreck and had nothing to do or read. Once I started it a couple of things came to mind: First, that I am extremely excited to read your work and as soon as I have the funds I will be purchasing them. Secondly it was really helpful in getting me back to my computer and finishing my manuscript. So in that alone, I had to write this and thank you from the bottom of my heart.Sincerely, KM Anderson

Thank you, Karen, and thanks also to all those others who continue to read my posts. Message to all: Don't be afraid to tell me if I'm being boring. My idea of an interesting post might involve nerdy facts and figures, or the ins and outs of punctuation, which might please about 1% of you. Feedback is useful from time to time -- positive or negative is fine, as long as it's constructive.

Creepy and not great for impressionable children

With the fourth book in the Fog series, Lake of Spirits, due out later in August, I've rekindled my efforts to push the series around on the internet.

To be honest, I've not done a whole lot of marketing for the electronic editions in the past, and I need to, because there are lots of excellent websites and blogs out there that review ebooks just like mine. So I'm currently submitting Island of Fog to various reviewers and hope to start seeing some reviews popping up here and there over the next months or so. I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I went to visit Barnes & Noble's website today for the first time in a while, and found that I'd garnered a few more ratings. I also got a negative review for Mountain of Whispers:

1/5 stars: "Creepy and not great for impressionable children"
I have always wondered about the mind of someone who writes about the most inocent creature on the face of the Earth, a child, as if they are a focus for attacks from the evil one. Creepy story in a whole creepy series, I would not recommend this for your children. —Mary Ellen Gobel Pierce

Assuming this is genuine and not a certain disgruntled pastor from Tennessee rearing his ugly head again (see previous post), it strikes me as odd that a reader would struggle through all three books in a series even though they're only worthy of one star. Or, if all three books were enjoyable enough to read and the only beef is that they're not recommended for children... well, a "poor" rating seems a little unfair. On the other hand, I do like the description "Creepy story in a whole creepy series," so thanks for that, Mary Ellen Gobel Pierce, whoever you are!

Of course, there will always be negative reviews, and that's fine. It's up to the reader to decide what are genuinely helpful comments and what are not. The best reviews are those that provide detailed comments about what's good and, where necessary, what's not so good.

If you've read the books and haven't reviewed them or given them a rating, I would be eternally grateful if you would. Below are some helpful links. It doesn't matter if you review the electronic or printed edition, as they're automatically combined:

USA Amazon


Island of Fog
Labyrinth of Fire
Mountain of Whispers

UK Amazon


Island of Fog
Labyrinth of Fire
Mountain of Whispers

Barnes & Noble (USA only)

Island of Fog
Labyrinth of Fire
Mountain of Whispers

Thank you!

Lake of Spirits is being proofread

Lake of Spirits is currently being proofread by four very smart people and I hope to get all edits back by the end of July so I can polish and complete the book early August.

Because of the nature of book printing, it takes a little while to get a printed proof back, check it over, then receive a first batch of stock copies (that is, assuming the proof is good enough to approve in the first place). But there's no reason to hold up the electronic versions, so Kindle and Nook readers can expect to see it available a little earlier.

After that, I'm torn. Aside from finishing The Impossible World, I want to write Book 5 of the Fog series as well as a completely different standalone novel. But which first? Hmm. Well, the answer is both. I going to attempt one of those "write a book in a month" things again, probably through September, while I take my time on Fog Book 5.

These standalone novels will each be a little over half the length of the Fog books and will be part of a series named Unearthly Tales. Yes, finally, after many years I'm planning to use my publisher name as an umbrella title. Think of the Goosebumps series. Think of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

The first in line will be The Impossible World, which as you may remember was written last November as part of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). It's fitting, then, that the next in line for this series of Unearthly Tales will be another that I plan to write in the space of a month (or thereabouts). And who knows, maybe all of them will be written this way. The thing is, when I scan through The Impossible World, it's really not bad at all considering how quickly I wrote it. I mean, all modesty aside, and once I've ironed out a few wrinkles, it reads pretty well and (according to beta readers) is pretty creepy and effective. And it's certainly weird enough to be included as part of my Unearthly Tales series. I need to redo the cover and polish the text, and maybe even think of a different title, but otherwise it's ready to go!

When it comes to non-Fog books, I swing like a pendulum between self-publishing and finding an agent. Right now I'm thinking of self-publishing again. After reading about the success of a fellow author (whose first two books I helped to proofread) I'm awed and inspired enough to kick myself up the backside.

So here's to the next few months, which are shaping up to be ridiculously busy. Fun -- but busy.

Thinking about Island of Fog: Book 5

Look, I just said I was THINKING about it; don't get all excited yet! After many months of possible titles knocking about in my head for the fifth book in the Island of Fog series, I'm still not completely decided. Sadly, the titles I would be happy with are already used -- and recently, too -- so I need to avoid them like the plague.

But in any case, having completed Book 4, Lake of Spirits, almost exactly as I envisioned back when I started, I'm now rubbing my hands, stroking my chin, and plotting the chapter summary for Book 5 with a maniacal giggle. It's going to be interesting as, throughout most of the book, I'll be working with only four shapeshifters as they set off on a mission to... well, now, that would be telling.

I plan to start writing Book 5 in September. Before then I need to finish editing Lake of Spirits, publish it in August, and then polish the totally separate standalone novel The Impossible World so that this unfinished manuscript is not hanging around my neck like an unfinished manuscript.

Meanwhile, I continue to receive nice comments from readers and I really must add them to my review section. Here's one from Jenna in Colorado:

I love your books, they're some of my absolute favorite books. I couldn't put them down once I started. I can't wait untill you write the next books. You're one of the best authors and I hope you continue your books for generations to come.

Speaking of generations, I've been asked several times if I intend sticking with the same characters throughout the series. In short, yes. Will they remain the same age? Again, yes. Everything that happened in the first three books took place within a couple of weeks, and the fourth book starts shortly after. Books 5 and 6 will follow as part of an ongoing storyline.

Will there be a Book 7? Not sure. I've toyed with the idea of a spin-off series, set in the same world(s) but a generation later... or perhaps with Miss Simone and her friends when they were undergoing their first transformations. I think that would be fun. What do YOU think?

All right. Back to work...

On the search for a literary agent

A few days ago I was informed by my agent, Whitt Brantley, that he needs to "let me go" for the time being. He represents a lot of projects that he firmly believes have great potential, but right now he needs to focus on those that are actually moving forward and generating income rather than those that might one day find a buyer. It's a case of too many properties and not enough time to devote proper attention to them all. I understand where he's coming from and we're parting on good terms, with the understanding that if he happens across an interested party in the future and my books still happen to be available, then we'll hook up again.

That said, I'm not about to sit around twiddling my thumbs. When I've finished editing Lake of Spirits and published it (probably in August) then I'm going to start looking for another agent. Also, I have another project to edit and fine-tune, namely The Impossible World, and I intend shopping that one around at the same time.

So I expect to be busy from September onwards finding a literary agent... although honestly my focus will likely be on The Impossible World and other projects, because I actually enjoy self-publishing the Island of Fog series. If I happened to find an agent in September, and he said, "Okay, take the Fog books off the market so I can pitch them to publishers," I'd be both excited and sad -- especially as Lake of Spirits ends on a bit of a cliffhanger!

Speaking of Lake of Spirits, I'm halfway through a first edit. Later this week I'll be sending it off to proofreaders. I should be about ready to publish it sometime in August.

In other news, I read that J. K. Rowling ditched her agent, Christopher Little, and switched to Neil Blair -- who used to work for Christopher Little and recently set up The Blair Partnership. I can imagine that's a bit of a blow for Christopher! Still, reactions like this one on the Express website are plain stupid:

Now she has millions, the man who took her all the way to the top is no longer needed. I have not read any of her books, or seen any of the films. Now I would not even consider reading the books or watching the films. Money has gone to her Head!!!!

Your loss, pal. What, so Rowling's genius at storytelling didn't have anything to do with the success of Harry Potter? It was all down to the agent? Hmm. The agent was smart enough to represent her and find a publisher, but ultimately it was Rowling's writing that earned her millions of fans, not Little's literary representation. And let's face it -- Little got rich off this too, at 15% of probably everything Rowling's earned to date. It was a mutually beneficial relationship. But if Little had rejected Rowling's manuscript in those early days, the author simply would have moved on to the next agent. She could have been just as successful without Little's help, but Little couldn't have had the same success without Rowling.

On the other hand, and as my dad suggested: Since Christopher Little now has a vacant spot in his agency, maybe he'd consider my Island of Fog books? Hehe. He can take ME all the way to the top, yes sirree.