Sarah Barnard's Blog, page 13

Psst…. wanna write a book?

The first day of November, 2005, only just past midnight. My very first NaNo challenge began.

Seven Novembers have passed since then and I’ve entered into the madness every year without fail. I’ve also won, every year, without fail. It’s one heck of a achievement. From those seven Novembers I’ve produced four published books.

Wait, what’s NaNo?

Take a look here. Go on, I’ll wait. It opens in a new tab so I’ll be here for you to come back.

Confused? I was too. In a nutshell, the NaNoWriMo challenge has many functions and faces. For someone who has always wanted to write it’s a motivator and can drive you to actually sit down and get on with it. For an established writer it can kick you out of a rut and produce beautiful moments of clarity and drive. Either way, the pace is frenetic and it will help you turn off that internal editor who is constantly on your shoulder, telling you your writing is weak, spelling is poor and so on. The pace forces the unlocking of your creative side and unleashes the flow of words like never before.

NaNoWriMo takes your “I’d like to write a book one day.” and turns it into, “Go on then, do it today.” NaNoWriMo will grab you by the scruff of the neck, give you a shake and then suddenly, it’s December and you’re staring at that Winner’s bar on your profile and grinning like a loon because…. You did it!

And, I wasn’t ever going to do it again.

I didn’t enjoy it last year. I dragged myself over the finish line a few days early and I didn’t get the rush of winning. The buzz was missing.  I was in the throws of getting rid of clutter in the house and starting to pack in preparation for a possible imminent relocation.

We moved in March. I’ve been maintaining ever since that this is a new home, a new life, a new me. NaNo was never going to be part of that.

Then I made a new friend and we sat chatting over a cuppa, and things changed. It was like the first couple of Novembers for me. The excitement was back, the ideas started to flow and I have a head filled with peculiar new species, families, woods and mysteries. I have Elois Young, her parents and brother, exploring a new home and on the edge of a discovery where they might realise their home isn’t quite what they thought.

I have a week to decide. Do I take this one to NaNo and start writing like a mad woman next week? Or do I stick to my initial thought that I’ll quit while it was fun and not risk that buzz turning into something that I’ll regret pushing too far?

And, if I do start NaNo next week… do I blog a bit every day?

Feedback in the comments please.

Lily; The Portal Sundered: #samplesunday

A quiet moment from the middle book of my Portal series, The Portal Sundered. This is the scene that got me thinking more about Lily’s past, and some of the secrets she might be hiding.

Kate idly reached out for the leather spine of the book that had caught her eye. It was old. There was no title on the cover but the leather was embossed with a floral design. The pages inside were thick rough paper and were covered with carefully mounted photographs. She had the first pages open when Lily came through with the tea. Lily put the tea mugs down with more force than she intended, spilling some of it.

“It’s only an old photo album.” Lily shrugged and reached out for the book.

“Is this one your Mum, Grandma even?” Kate asked as she pulled the book away “You have to be related, you are the spitting image of her!” Lily reached out again to take the album from Kate and stopped. Her face was frozen and unreadable. Kate frowned but Lily composed herself quickly.

“No, that’s the Aunt I inherited this place from. You can see that’s the back door behind her.” Lily pointed out the door frame and the metal lantern that still hung there. “She was a farmer’s wife. He had sheep and sold the wool. She used to sit and spin in the kitchen, by the fire.” Lily’s eyes glazed slightly as she found the image in her memory. Her eyes dropped to her own hands. She shook her head to clear the past.

“She is very like you.” Kate observed, looking thoughtful. “Or maybe you are like her. If this photo wasn’t so old I’d swear it was you.” Lily startled at that but Kate didn’t see it she was absorbed in examining the picture. Kate turned a few pages and her eyes wandered over the pictures there. “There are some strong genes in your family Lily. Most of these women could be you.”

“Fresh tea?” Lily asked.

“You just made one.” Kate replied, pointing at the steaming mugs on the table, but still engrossed in the photo album. “I don’t suppose there would be any biscuits?” Kate asked hopefully as she looked up. Lily shrugged at the tea, grinned widely at the mention of biscuits and got up to go through to the kitchen to fetch some. Kate frowned slightly at Lily’s unusual distraction. Then she went back to browsing through the photo album. Now and then she glanced up. The house was relatively unchanged although modernised.

Lily rooted through the kitchen cupboards for her tin of biscuits. It was reassuringly heavy as she’d baked the day before. As she turned back to the dining room table she caught Kate looking at her with a quizzical expression. Lily followed Kate’s eyes as she looked from the picture in front of her back to Lily standing in the doorway clutching an elderly biscuit tin. Lily’s head was canted to one side and her hair was loosely held up by a large clip at the back of her head. Strands had escaped and wafted round her face.

“Did you do that on purpose? Kate asked. She held up the album and Lily felt like she was looking in a mirror. Her own face looked back at her, leaning on the doorframe, hair pinned up, clutching the old battered biscuit tin. The similarity stopped there. The woman in the photo had a long sleeved ankle length dress on with a white lace edged apron over it. She was smiling broadly and her cheer radiated from the image, frozen in time. Lily’s face was creased in the edges of a frown and her jeans were torn at the knee. A plain white, slim fitting t-shirt clung to her torso and left her arms bare. The face, tin and posture were almost identical. Lily shrugged and stepped away from the door-frame, breaking the moment.

“Can we please put that away now?” Lily softly asked Kate, placing her hand on the album. “I don’t like looking at old photos. There are too many people in them that we can no longer see.” Kate looked up to see the plea clear in Lily’s eyes and nodded. She took up the album, carefully closed it and slid it back onto the shelf.

“Sorry.” Kate said as she reached for her tea. “I love old photos. I just can’t resist them. I have all my family’s old albums at home. I’ve been wondering about seeing if I can put them into a family tree one day. But it’s all very complicated.” Kate sipped at her tea. Lily remained tight lipped on the other side of the table.

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Paperback

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The Portal Sundered

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The Portal Sundered

All ebook formats

On the run.

I woke around 1am with this image in my head, the remnants of a dream.

Believing in no deity at all, he thanked God for digital technology. The silent shutter on his camera hadn’t given him away. He wasn’t sure what had, but he suspected a motion sensor at the edge of the fence.

Doubled over, trying to stay out of sight, his fingers picked at the memory card slot on his camera. If caught, that was the first thing they’d do, confiscate the camera and destroy the card. It had to be kept safe.

The tiny piece of plastic came free as he stumbled, foot sliding on slick grass and mud. The memory card flew from his hand.

I know where he is, I know what he’s seen and photographed and I know what happens next. Exactly where this fits within the Earthlink series is a bit vague just yet.

For younger readers, and for #samplesunday

I haven’t done a Sample Sunday in ages, it’s about time you got another one, don’t you think?

I’ve just had one of my books given a new lease of life. The Map and the Stone has had a fresh edit, the cover has been given a wipe and polish and a new paperback edition has been released.

Although it is part of the Portal series, The Map and the Stone was written with younger readers in mind and is suitable for any confident reader, regardless of age. My 9 year old is currently reading it and I know adults who have enjoyed it. I hope you do too.

Here’s the opening scene for you.

The boy’s name was Rhys Newton and he was ten years old. He had dark curly hair and brown eyes and he lived with his mum, whose name was Lou, in a council house in a market town right in the middle of England.

Rhys found things.

He found things when no-one else could; it was as if they jumped out at him.

“Where have you put it?” Rhys’’s mum asked him with that look that only mums can do. “I need my phone, what have you done with it? I know it’s you. You’re the only other person here and I know I left it by the kettle. Where is it?” She advanced on him across the kitchen, face turning deeper red as she got herself all worked up and he braced himself for the anger that was welling up in her. The worktop beside the kettle was conspicuously empty with no sign of the phone.

“I don’t know where your phone is, Mum. I didn’t move it.” Rhys backed away slowly, trying to think where the missing pink phone might be. He knew he would be the one to find it but he didn’t know how. It would just turn up. He also knew that would mean that she’d blame him for its disappearance in the first place.

In his last year of primary school, Rhys had already learned to be very careful. He was a bright boy with an over-active imagination, or so his class teacher said and she said he’d have to stop daydreaming when he went up to the big school, Claypits.

Rhys’ dark curly hair refused to lay flat. His mum wouldn’t let him have it cropped short because she said she loved his curls and liked to ruffle them when she was in a good mood, which wasn’t very often these days. Rhys knew that his hair and eyes reminded her of his dad and that was also the reason she was always short tempered. He couldn’t talk to her and he couldn’t tell her that he missed his dad too, she just got angry. So Rhys kept it all inside and he could feel it building up in his head as if it’d explode out of him at some point if he let it.

“Oh, go and look again.” she told him as she stamped upstairs to look in her bedroom, again.

Rhys breathed a sigh of relief. This usually meant that she’d given up being angry, would go and cry until her hazel eyes were red. Then she’d tell him it was hay fever, even though it was November and there was no chance of pollen anywhere. Then she’d brush her short brown hair that lay flat and lifeless against her scalp and she’d pull herself together for a while.

He glanced round the kitchen and sure enough, the pink phone was laying exactly where she’d left it and exactly where it hadn’t been only moments before, as if it had waited until he was alone to reappear. It lay accusingly beside the kettle and Rhys sighed. Now the phone had turned up they could go shopping. Rhys hated shopping. His mum would still glare at him as if to say he’d moved the phone and then put it back and he knew he hadn’t.

Amazon Kindle

Paperback

Kobo

The Map and the Stone

Smashwords

The Map and the Stone

All ebook formats

The Man Who Never Would.

Last Saturday I sat down with my nine year old, Harry Potter mad, daughter to watch the new series of Doctor Who. We’d enjoyed the completely bonkers offering of the previous week, and we’re still thinking up ways Oswin the Dalek could possibly be the Doctor’s next companion. Actually, a Dalek companion would be rather fun….

This week’s episode was Dinosaurs, on a Spaceship! With the added bonus of some familiar Potter faces in the form of Mark Williams as Ron’s Rory’s Dad, and David Bradley. Arthur Weasley and Argus Filch, on a Spaceship, with Dinosaurs!

We giggled, we laughed, I avoided explaining some of the closer to the bone jokes. We loved Trici the Triceratops chasing golf balls. Neffie was fun, Riddell was obnoxiously fun, Indira was appalling….. Brian was wonderful, Solomon was nasty. Good guys and bad guys and a darned good romp in a spaceship, with dinosaurs. Plot… Well, there was one but not desperately convoluted, unlike last week’s which made my head hurt, but that doesn’t matter. On the whole Dinosaurs was a good episode. It had most things that Doctor Who needs.

But one thing did bug me, and still does.

Way back among the wibbly wobby timey wiminess, a few years ago, around tea time… a Doctor stood with a gun in his hand, pointed at a man’s head and declared himself to be, “The man who never would.” Eons before that, when I was hiding behind the sofa and before the internet… another Doctor held the fate of the Daleks, then the most feared force in the universe, and asked, “Do I have that right?” He was sent to destroy them, to stop them and he’d found a way, yet he still hesitated and refused to kill.

But, Solomon, last Saturday. Locked into a tiny spaceship and knowingly sent to his death. No, worse, deliberately set up to be the target for a barrage of missiles sent up by the caricatured Indira of UNIT and told he was going to die. Effectively executed without trial.

From either side of the Time War, the Doctor has always shown more mercy than is possible, he’s always spared life, he doesn’t carry weapons and he doesn’t use them.People die for him all the time, they place themselves on the line and take the hit. He never sweeps in to wreak revenge for each one. He’ll rescue in dramatic fashion and at the last minute, with a beaming grin. Some of the bad guys might die in the process.  But the deliberate taking of a life?

What he did to Solomon was so far from character, for me, that it annoys me.Yes, I mean He Did To. He put Solomon in that ship, he set it loose and he left that green thing to attract the missiles, and he told Solomon what he was doing and walked away. He judged and he executed the man. I don’t care how nasty and evil the Solomon character was. This is the man who refused to shoot the man who killed an innocent girl in front of him. This is “The man who never would” (The Doctor’s Daughter) This is the character who refused to destroy the Daleks. (Genesis of the Daleks) There are other examples, but those two spring to mind from either side of the Time War so you can’t argue that he changed while that was going on.

When a fictional character acts out of character that suspends the suspension of disbelief, and that’s bad for the story. Yes, the Doctor as a character is different now compared to his earlier incarnations, but he’s not that different.

The Wizard’s Tower.

There, clinging precariously to the side of the valley stood a tower. Well, stood is a loose term, it sort of didn’t fall even though it looked like it should have toppled into a heap of rubble years ago. Mismatched slates failed to slip from the roof, despite the angle at which they hung. A path wound between large boulders and straggly trees as if no-one had wanted to cut a proper road, or maybe the valley hadn’t wanted to harm any of the things living there. Either way it meant the walk to the tower was four times as long as it could have been.

But somehow you stayed on the path and didn’t even contemplate trying to clamber over the boulders or try to push through the branches.

It was in the tower, they said, in the valley. It won’t be guarded but it’s a bit of a walk. The door will be unlocked but careful it doesn’t swing shut on your fingers – the wood is old and has the weight of centuries in its grain. And the latch is a bit stiff.

The door creaks alarmingly as it’s pushed open. Sure enough, it’s very heavy and hits the inside wall with a thump and you’d expect a cloud of dust, right? No dust. Inside is gleaming clean with freshly swept tiled floors and polished marble walls. The windows are bright, flooding the space with sunlight and dreams.

Then there are the shelves.

Wall upon wall, row on row of sturdy wooden shelves all laden with books.

There are worlds, dreams, spaceships, vampires and so much more hidden within this Wizard’s Tower. These are not spell books, these are the creations drawn from the furthest corners of the sane mind of an assortment of authors. Pick one, read it, you’ll be lost in another world within a few pages.

Proud to be among those authors, stocked in the Wizard’s Tower.

I didn’t realise it was broken, sorry.

I’ve had a page here, offering signed paperbacks for a while. There was never much activity on it and I mostly ignored it. There was a slow trickle of orders now and then, usually around the time a new book came out and as I’ve not released anything in paperback for a while it’s been very quiet. Honestly? I sell more ebooks so I left it alone.

Earthlink: Impact was released in paperback format unexpectedly, I hadn’t planned to do that but was offered the chance to do so, so it happened.

Now I was faced with the prospect of updating that paperbacks page, and adding the Earthlink book.

The whole page was broken. I hadn’t realised, sorry. I have no idea how long it’s been broken, but I imagine it’s been a while. It looked fine, but it just didn’t work. You couldn’t add any books to the cart, let alone get as far as any form of checkout. I suspect the cart software provider changed something and I still had the old code.

I’m pretty confident it’s now been fixed, but if you find any more problems then please do just let me know. I’d rather get a few emails complaining the cart is broken than have you lot frustrated. If I know, then I can work on getting it fixed. If I don’t know, then I assume it’s all fine, which it clearly wasn’t.

All 5 paperback editions are now on the page so if you do want a specially signed one, all you have to do is go and place your order and I’ll get on with it.

Link for EarthLink

Go on, click the pic. If you’re as impatient as I am you can buy the paperback NOW. If you’re more inclined to wait then the Amazon links will be coming in a week or so.

Exciting news.

The first Earthlink book, Impact is being prepared for paperback release!

There’s a modified cover, some slight tweaks to the story – mainly light edits and layout issues – and it’s being approved right now.

I’ve kept the same core image but the layout had to be altered for print, and we changed the font too. What do you think?

I’ll post links as soon as it clears the approval process and goes live to buy. Might be a couple of weeks, but it’s on the way!

Arrival at Kobo Books.

My books are now available on the KoboBooks.com website, for all of you with Kobo ereaders. Seeing as the Kobo ereader is now sold in WH Smith in the UK, and the range is reasonably priced and look good to use too, I suspect there are more of you out there than we think.

So many of us focus solely on the Kindle, on Amazon and treat that as if it’s the ONLY ereader in existence, but it’s not and the others deserve just as much of our attention. Having played with a Kobo in a local store, I’m quite tempted to add to my ereaders.

So far, four of my six titles are live in the Kobo Books website and the remaining two will be coming very soon.

Take a look.

They’re all in epub format and, where appropriate, include a fully interactive contents menu.

I hope you enjoy them.