Stuart Aken's Blog, page 237

The Bull At The Gate – Writing About Alternate Realities

This weekend sees the launch of Linda Acaster’s The Bull At The Gate , Book 2 in the Torc of  Moonlight trilogy of occult thrillers set in northern England. One of the challenges facing an author is writing with depth, and she’s visiting the blog to explain how she creates multi-layered fiction within a single book and across a trilogy. Do leave a query or comment as a copy of Books 1 & 2 will be awarded to one lucky person.
~~Thanks, Stuart, for the welcome.
Ever witnessed an event alongside a friend and later listened, incredulous, to their account of what happened? And when you voiced your take on what occurred they stood open-mouthed staring at you? It’s all a matter of perception, and everyone’s perception is different.
I use this insight with varying emphasis throughout the Torc of Moonlight trilogy, which follows the resurrection of a Celtic water deity. Nick carries the novels. In Book 1 he’s nineteen, studying at Hull’s university, and like many of his age believes in the indestructibility of youth; Alice is his true love. Or is she? Is his perception coloured by events, both earthly and occult? The ambiguity is drip-fed from an early stage and encouraged by the use of a historical Prologue through which readers perceive the contemporary events.
This ambiguity is carried across to the two parallel storylines, one contemporary, one historical. Is a middle-aged tutor as lecherous as hearsay suggests? Why has he and a girlfriend from his younger days kept in touch if they bicker like an old married couple? Is the Romano-Briton a Gabrovantices Celt or as Roman as his name? What befell him in his own time to trap him in water he envisages as a blessed Pool, despite it now being no more than a muddy puddle?
As have many cultures, Celtic lore held the power of the indivisible three in high esteem. That number is woven throughout the three storylines, and is the reason for a trilogy rather than a series. Not until the ending of Book 1 does the unnamed deity make a true appearance, yet, like the power of the three, it has resonated within each storyline throughout the novel.
In keeping, newly launched The Bull At The Gate opens three years after Torc of Moonlight closes and contains three storylines running parallel. Dragging himself from the grip of post traumatic stress syndrome, Nick moves to York to work at the university, arriving in February just as the Jorvik Viking Festival commences.
Yet beneath the city’s mediaeval minster cathedral sits the foundations of the Roman fortress that garrisoned the infamous Ninth Legion, and the Sixth Victrix. Across the river stood the colonia Eboracum, its Forum, public baths, temples and cemeteries now buried beneath a modern urban sprawl. For the Romans, Februalia is a time for cleansing, and a retired legionary has a pressing need to cleanse the Temple of Mithras. Christ-men are building their own temple and turning covetous eyes on both dressed stone and a spring sacred to the goddess Luna.
When a female student is reported missing, the police suspect Nick of being involved in her disappearance, and as events from Book 1 return to haunt him, he realises that it’s not PTSS that he’s been suffering. Trapped between worlds, Alice is trying to contact him, and in doing so she may have opened a portal that has closed around the missing girl. But who is going to believe that he’s not an over-enthusiastic historical re-enactor? Can Nick reach and free both the girl and Alice, and is it love or guilt that’s driving him?
Whose perception of reality is correct: the police who believe Nick needs psychiatric help? His work colleagues who think he’s trying to pass reproductions as true archaeological artefacts? The Roman who is convinced an Otherworldly force is bent on destruction of everything he holds dear?
Ambiguity need not slow a novel, but it does add depth because it makes the reader work. Get into the mind of each of your viewpoint characters and truly understand their perceived reality. Where does it state that one, or more, cannot be an unreliable narrator?
Book 3 of the Torc of Moonlight trilogy, currently being written, starts three years after the close of The Bull At The Gate , is set in another university city, Durham, and again has two contemporary and one historical storylines. A sense of symmetry creates a background resonance of its own.~~

Linda Acaster has written in a number of genres, and her back catalogue holds seven published books including a writers’ resource, over 70 short stories, and a plethora of articles for writers’ journals. Torc of Moonlight is currently discounted to 99p/99c. The Bull At The Gate is now available on Amazon and in all other eformats from Smashwords while distribution filters through to the iBooks, Nook, and Kobo stores. For more information visit her website.

World Book Day (UK) Today

Just a quick reminder that today is World Book Day in UK. Here are a couple of links for those who
want to get involved in this great enterprise aimed at improving literacy:
 Reading Agency:
World Book Day

The Book is on the Launchpad

If you’re a regular visitor, you’ll know I’ve been signalling the approaching publication of my epic fantasy here from time to time. We now have a launch date.
On Sunday 30thMarch, Fantastic Books Publishing will launch A Seared Sky: Joinings, which is the first book in the trilogy. The picture is a hint at the cover.
There’s a launch party on Facebook. If you’d like to attend, click here and you’ll be whisked off to the spot, where you can investigate and add your name to those attending. The more the merrier. By the way, this is a virtual event, happening online, so you don't need to worry about your geographical location. But, for those of you who choose not to do the party thing, I’ll be adding links later on to guide you to places you can buy the book.
Over the intervening weeks, I’ll be posting bits and pieces relating to the book, so watch this space.
In the meantime, I’m aware that many readers have invested in initial books for trilogies only to discover that the author has run out of steam.  You won’t have that problem with my book. I’ve already written all 3 volumes and edited the first 2. And, I’m currently doing the penultimate edit of book 3 as each chapter comes back from the beta readers. Fantastic BooksPublishing, of course, do the final edit prior to publication.

Ghost in the Gold, by Lilleyn Kaye, Reviewed

Looking for fantasy, I came across this book via a recommendation, and I’m glad I did. Lilleyn Kaye is a new author to me and I’ll certainly look out for more of her work. In this tale of witchcraft and love, she sends the reader on a journey with plenty of twists and turns.
Those familiar with my reviews will know that I’m very keen on good characters. In Ari, Sira and Dion, this writer gives us well-rounded characters with their flaws and idiosyncrasies; people we can relate to and empathise with. But, in Claudia and Edward, she gives us a pair of the most wicked individuals you could ever wish to find on the page; I can only hope never to meet such evil in real life!
The theme of the book allows for plenty of sex, but this is neither intrusive nor excessive, as it’s an essential component of the story. In particular, the sexual awakening of young woman with no experience is handled well, illustrating the theme of the corruption of innocence without straying into prurience.
The story is well written and paced, taking the reader through events that slowly build into a nightmare experience. The final third of the book is fast-paced and tense, culminating in a denouement that is both inevitable and satisfying. Have your tissues handy.

A fantasy romance with edge, this is a book that will hold your attention and reward your time with a story well told. Fully recommended.

Read an Ebook Week: Free Books from Smashwords

Great news! Smashwords, the company that distributes my ebooks, is taking part in Read an Ebook Week. The period starts from today, 2 March, and goes on through to 8 March.What does it mean? That my books are discounted. In fact, I’ve selected the option to make all my ebooks available at no cost. Yes, that means they’re ALL FREE for this period.Why? Because I want to gain new readers. I would, of course, love it if you’d take the time to write a short review and post it everywhere you can. But there’s no obligation: I promise I won’t send round ‘the boys’ if you don’t write a review. Just enjoy the read, and tell your friends.So, mosey on over to Smashwords and get downloading. Just click on the titles below and apply the coupon code RW100 to get the book(s) free of charge.
Heir To Death’s Folly.Sensuous Touches.Breaking Faith.Ten Tales For Tomorrow.Ten Love Tales.The Methuselah Strain.But, Baby, It’s Cold Outside: no code needed – this one’s always been free.Or, click here to access all the books on one page.
Hurry! At the end of the week, only the seasonal tale will continue to be free.

If you have any difficulty downloading the book(s) onto your device, click this link for instructions. Related articles Read an Ebook Week at Smashwords - my links and codes Ebook week at Smashwords - March 2nd - 8th, 2014 Read An EBook Week March 3-9 Smashwords Announces Author Promo for Read an eBook Week Read an ebook week this week!

Two Months In: Where Are We?

February has been a full and interesting month. I’m fortunate to live in a part of the UK that rarely has heavy rainfall, so no flooding here: the eastern half is much dryer than the west. But we’ve had our share of high winds and a few very wet days. I had to spend an afternoon repairing wind damage to the cladding at the eaves; just grateful it’s a bungalow!
My wife was invited to take part in a TV quiz programme, and that took us away for 4 days down south, which made for an interesting interlude. I’d never been to Borehamwood, home of Elstree Studios, before. And, as Sunday was a day off, we took a trip up the road to St Albans; an interesting old town. As always, when I visit new places, I contributed reviews of the various places visited on TripAdvisor, since I use such reviews to make my own selections and think this is a useful service for other visitors. (You'll find my reviews under my real name, Stuart Allison, should you be curious).
Our daughter had a couple of day-long interviews relating to her future studies, so another 2 days out. Only one, in York, resulting in further reviews, since the other didn’t necessitate a stay.
So, what have I managed during this truncated period? 4 books read and reviewed; I’m halfway through a fifth. 7 blog posts written and edited and 5 posted (the other 2 were guest posts on other people’s blogs, one of which hasn’t yet appeared). 2 short stories written and 3 edited. One of these hasturned into a sci-fi novelette, so I’ve done the 8 character sketches for that and made a few notes. A bit of further research and I should start writing it shortly. Had a couple of research sessions to bring the Writing Contests page up to date, and actually entered 4 of the contests myself. And I also contributed a new short piece to Readwave. But, most of the time has been spent editing volume 3 of the fantasy trilogy. For the technical aspects, I’ve been using the very comprehensive online editing suite, ProWritingAid, which I fully recommend. Managed 11 chapters, since the process is a deep edit, requiring some beta reading. Book 1, A Seared Sky: Joinings, is due to be published by Fantastic Books Publishing very soon. But that’s a topic for another post. Watch this space!
Quite a busy spell all in all, and relatively satisfying from a writer’s point of view. How’s it been for you?
The chart, explained: Writing - initial creation of stories, blog posts, reviews and longer works.Editing - polishing of all written work to make it suitable for readers.Research - discovery of info for story content, market research, contests and blog posts.Reading - books and writing magazines.Networking - emails, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and comments.
Admin - story submission, blog posting, marketing, organisation, tax, and general admin tasks.Related articles Melanie's Stuff on ReadWave This Week #Imagine: Penny Grubb Interviews Author Stuart Aken

Making Memes, For Writers

What is a meme? There’s a great explanation on the inimical Wikipedia here. But, in short, for our purposes, it’s a message conveyed via the medium of a picture with words added.
So, what’s it got to do with writers?
Essentially, of course, your book cover constitutes a type of meme. But it’s in the area of promotion that these devices really come into their own. It’s long been the case that visual messages create greater interest and more responses than the written word alone. In the visually biased world we now inhabit, this has become even more the case, and promises to be increasingly so into the foreseeable future.
The idea is that it’s more effective to produce a ‘poster’, with relevant background picture and your words applied, than to simply quote the words in a tweet or short post.
A lot of writers employ cameras to collect information and records for their writing. It’s a fairly simple matter to use the same equipment to collect images suitable for backgrounds for memes. For those who don’t own or use a camera (and don’t forget most mobile phones now contain a camera, as do tablets) there are a large number of sites where you can use images taken by others. On most of these you can make unlimited use of pictures for a small fee and limited use for free. Don’t be fooled by the many claims that all images are free. Almost without exception, such images are either very small or bear a great big watermark. ‘Free’ for this purpose, generally means they are ‘royalty free’; in other words, once purchased, they can be used commercially. Pricing is from around £2.00 a picture, depending on image size. Make sure you read the licencing agreements before you use them. I’ve made use of some of these images for my book covers and they represent a very worthwhile investment. I list some of the sites at the end of this post.
So, how do you apply words to a picture? MS Word allows you to do this in a very basic way. You ‘insert’ a picture in a document and then set the text so that the picture is ‘behind’ the chosen text. However, this is unsatisfactory for a number of reasons; mostly, it’s very limited and not easy to manipulate. Most ‘Painting’ applications will allow the placing of words over or within an image. They also tend to be fairly limited and not particularly straightforward, however.
By far the most effective way of applying text to a picture is to use image manipulation applications, like Photoshop. However, be aware that you need a degree in computer science, the patience of a saint and the intuitive skills of a genius to make full and efficient use of such programs (My daughter is currently studying Photography at university: they don’t teach Photoshop, even though most of their students use the program. Why don’t they teach it? A lecturer, asked the question, stated it would take a full-time course of around 5 years to do it justice!)

But, don’t despair: you don’t need a complex program to produce your memes. Below are some of the applications offered, free and online, that I’ve tried out for you. In each case, I used my own images, but all these sites have libraries of pictures you can use as part of the application. I used Fotofelexer to produce ‘We Travel this road…’ and ‘Breaking Faith’. Picmonkey was used for ‘If we stop..’ And Ipiccy produced ‘Life is…’These I found easy to use, but each works in slightly different ways, so you’ll need to give them a try to find out which one suits your particular working methods.
The accompanying posters are memes I produced specifically for this post and each took me only a few minutes. Many of the sites have bells and whistles to allow you to ‘jazz-up’ your creations, should you feel so inclined. My advice is to have a go and see what you can come up with.
And, what to do with these wonders once you’ve produced them? Well, you can Tweet them on Twitter, add them to your blog/website, make them part of your Pinterest collection and stick them in albums on your Facebook and/or Google+ author page (what do you mean, you haven’t got one?). Obviously, make sure there’s a buying link to those that promote your books. As for the words you use to apply to the pictures, you have a choice of your own pithy sayings, excerpts from the text of the book and, of course, those wonderful words of praise from your reviewers (make sure you credit them, of course).
Have fun and scatter memes all over your world. You never know, you might actually attract some readers and maybe even sell some books!
If you’ve found this useful, stimulating, interesting or experienced any other positive outcome, please use the ‘share’ buttons at the foot of the post to let others know about it. It took me a lot of time and effort to produce this post. Thanks. Oh, and by all means comment, but bear in mind I’m no expert, so I may not be able to answer technical questions!
Photo editing sites:  http://pixlr.com/editor/            Too much like Photoshophttp://fotoflexer.com/app/index.php?integration=upload       Easy to use and comprehensive http://www134.lunapic.com/editor/   Difficult – can’t copy and paste a block of texthttp://www.picmonkey.com/             More variety available if you upgrade at $4.99/month or $33/yearhttp://ipiccy.com/       Useful and comprehensive.
Sites where you can get pictures:http://www.dreamstime.com/  21,500,000 images – small charge and some free. I’ve used this for covers.http://www.shutterstock.com/           30,000,000 images – small charge, some freehttp://www.istockphoto.com/            V large selection – small charge, some freehttp://www.thinkstockphotos.co.uk/ V large selection – small charge – some free.
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/      Large selection – small charge, some free.

The Faber Book of 20th Century Verse, Reviewed

I approached this collection as a reader who rarely looks at poetry, though I did recently enjoy an anthology of Roger McGough’s excellent verse and I’ve always had a deep admiration for Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood. However, as a writer of prose fiction, I’m aware that poetry has a good deal to offer the author. In order to work, it has to condense ideas into few precise words, it employs metaphor and simile to great effect and it frequently ignores the usual rules of narrative prose.
This particular anthology, published in 1953 and reprinted in 1978 with significant amendments, purports to embody the poetry of a century to that point. I found it irritating that many poets were represented by excerpts from longer works, these tasters giving an idea of style without any indication of the full import of the work. There was, for me, much that was impenetrable: so many of the poems referenced previous works with which I’m unfamiliar. Because of this, I was unable to enjoy large sections of the offering.
It was interesting to be re-acquainted with one or two poets I’d studied for my school exams: John Betjeman’s Upper Lambourne coming alive again so many years after I dissected it in class for ‘O’ level GCE under the inspiring guidance of a gifted English teacher. And the mawkish sentimentality of Thomas Hardy’s poetry re-appearing from my days of ‘A’ level studies undertaken at night class during a year’s discovery of some otherwise excellent works.
I enjoyed some of the verse from the First World War poets and a few of the other offerings. And I was introduced to such luminaries as Ezra Pound, A.E. Houseman and T.S. Eliot, for which I’m grateful. But I discovered that my poor opinion of James Joyce remained unaltered. And D.H. Lawrence was a better novelist than he was a poet.

All in all, an unsatisfactory collection for me. But I’ll attempt more in the future. I have a couple more anthologies on the shelf and I’m determined to give this form a real chance to impress me. Unfortunately, this particular collection failed to do that job.

Short Fiction: The Dilemma of Length.

English: Atmosphere of Mars taken from low orbit The Galle "smiley" crater can be seen to the left (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Are you plotter or pantster? I’m the latter, whether writing long or short fiction. This morning, with no thought in mind, other than that I wanted to write a science fiction short story, I sat at the keyboard and turned out 1,000 words, set on Mars, before breakfast. It was a little slower than normal, as I needed to search for international names for my characters (I make this easier by using a table I’ve developed over the years. It holds 10,000+ first names from all over the world, colour coded for gender, and noted with countries of usage for the names listed. It’s easy to search for names for a specific nationality by doing a search on that country. You can access a free copy on my blog, here.)
Later this morning, my wife and I took a longish walk in the local countryside: we enjoy regular fresh air and exercise for mental as well as physical wellbeing). This sort of gentle activity is an excellent opportunity for rumination. I carry a voice recorder to catch those ideas that pop to the surface as we walk, often in companionable silence.
The story I’d started was jostling with the natural landscape for attention. And, as so often happens when relaxed, a sudden idea struck me. The story is more suited to a greater length than the short story I’d envisaged. It’s an obvious candidate for a novelette; I guess at around 30-40,000 words. Now, because of the way I write, this isn’t a problem for me. I’ll have to re-write the beginning, since I no longer have to introduce 8 characters in such a short space, but that’s all to the good. It was the character numbers, an essential element of the story, that had caused me to pause in the writing. The solution was simple. Write a longer story.

And the purpose of this piece? Simply to illustrate that you don’t have to fence yourself in with story length if an idea isn’t working as expected. Examine it at leisure and decide whether it’s simply the chosen length that’s forming a barrier to creativity. My other sci-fi novelette, The Methuselah Strain, started out as a short story but it soon became clear I needed more space to examine the themes and develop the characters. So, don’t let word numbers confine you. Instead, allow the story to find its natural length and then find the suitable market for it. The current sci-fi novelette I’m developing will become a self-published ebook initially instead of the magazine-bound short story I’d started. Be flexible. It works. And the magazine story I’d intended? No matter: I’ll write another when the idea strikes.

Wake Up and Live, by Dorothea Brande, Reviewed

I came to this remarkable piece of work via an offer from another author who’d ‘rewritten’ it. When I saw the original was by Dorothea Brande, I looked for that original. After all, why have a copy? This was especially the case as I’d always admired her other brilliant work, ‘Becoming a Writer’.
This is a ‘self-help’ book; a variety of nonfiction I rarely bother with, especially since reading the over-egged ‘The Secret’. But, knowing Brande’s previous work, I decided to give this a chance. And I’m glad I did.
In common with a great many people, I’ve had the suspicion for some time that something in my approach to life was letting me down. Brande’s perceptive narrative and observations make a great deal of sense. It’s true that many of us, without being conscious of the fact, spend a good deal of time and energy willing ourselves to fail. We do this even as we kid ourselves that everything we do is designed to make us succeed.
As with her other book, the author sets exercises so that this is more a short ‘course’ than a text book. I’ve only just finished reading it, so haven’t yet had time to apply these. However, having read the text, I can see the validity and purpose behind them and will be performing these exercises over the next weeks.

The one thing I’ve already taken from the book, which I can apply at once, is her advice to ‘act as though you cannot fail’. As a bald statement, this lacks the power it generates within the text. In a nutshell, it’s a plea to the reader to be courageous, to act with purpose and deep consideration in all areas of life that matter to you. There is much, much more, of course. But, if you’re one of those people for whom life has been disappointing, for whom life hasn’t come up to expectations, I recommend you read this book. This original version is also cheaper than the copy I was offered, by the way.