David Callinan's Blog
November 2, 2015
Should I write as a six-foot five inch woman with a moustache?
When I trawl through the listings of literary agents to check out what they are looking for (and, to be fair, they don’t always know), I am surprised at the number of (mainly female) agents that specify a preference for female authors.
Not that they’ll reject a male author’s query, it’s just that they must think that there is a bigger market out there for female authors. And there may be.
Does anyone out there have any hard and fast researched evidence?
Not surprisingly, given the proliferation of gender studies, women’s interest courses (the men can take care of themselves obviously) and selection employment procedures to ensure a fairer spread of men and women; it’s hardly surprising that agents and editors might profess a mild bias towards female writers.
So, I thought, why not? Many men and women write under pen names, and write as the other gender. It’s nothing new. Or they use initials to avoid being stereotyped.
I wouldn’t mind being stereotyped if it got me another book deal. They can stereotype me as much as they like if it opens the door to a deal.
Here’s the rub. What about querying an agent as a woman? I’ve read some opinions and most say you must, must, must query under your real name because contracts etc have to be inked legally. But, steady on, isn’t that jumping the gun. A query from either a man or woman might get rejected anyway.
It’s the first impression I’m talking about.
If I write a tense thriller as a man and it gets rejected but only just. They love it but… What if they read the same opening chapters written by a woman? Would that make a difference?
Subliminally and psychologically, would a woman editor respond differently to the same story written by a man or a woman? Always assuming, of course, that the quality is high and the book has real commercial potential.
I think I might try to find out.
Not that they’ll reject a male author’s query, it’s just that they must think that there is a bigger market out there for female authors. And there may be.
Does anyone out there have any hard and fast researched evidence?
Not surprisingly, given the proliferation of gender studies, women’s interest courses (the men can take care of themselves obviously) and selection employment procedures to ensure a fairer spread of men and women; it’s hardly surprising that agents and editors might profess a mild bias towards female writers.
So, I thought, why not? Many men and women write under pen names, and write as the other gender. It’s nothing new. Or they use initials to avoid being stereotyped.
I wouldn’t mind being stereotyped if it got me another book deal. They can stereotype me as much as they like if it opens the door to a deal.
Here’s the rub. What about querying an agent as a woman? I’ve read some opinions and most say you must, must, must query under your real name because contracts etc have to be inked legally. But, steady on, isn’t that jumping the gun. A query from either a man or woman might get rejected anyway.
It’s the first impression I’m talking about.
If I write a tense thriller as a man and it gets rejected but only just. They love it but… What if they read the same opening chapters written by a woman? Would that make a difference?
Subliminally and psychologically, would a woman editor respond differently to the same story written by a man or a woman? Always assuming, of course, that the quality is high and the book has real commercial potential.
I think I might try to find out.
October 13, 2015
Ghosts manifests and the Memory Matrix
It's really funny how some memories, however far distant they may be, have the power to resonate throughout your life.
Maybe not as 'in your face' traumatic recollections that keep you awake at night but in more subtle ways that are hard to define until you really practice some serious self-analysis. That’s when you realize that things that are happening to you today may have in some mystically hidden way been influenced by past events; events that were completely out of your control. I call it The Memory Matrix.
It’s like there is a personal shadow force stalking all of us lurking in the deep recesses of our minds and souls.
Maybe you feel the same.
When I played in folk-rock bands for a living, long before I wrote thrillers and YA fantasy, I remember messing around with ouija boards and other esoteric or spiritual pursuits. I suppose I was like a lot of people, desperate to discover if there was more to existence than just one lifetime and eventual death.
This led to a great deal of research into metaphysical matters as well as science – but that is another story.
I recall being in Edinburgh with a girlfriend staying in the apartment of a school friend of hers. The two girls were insistent on having a ouija board session so I was outvoted (although secretly enthusiastic).
Sometime before this I'd come to the conclusion that I could influence the movements of the glass (not by pushing and cheating) but by mentally sending out streams of thought messages. I could even close my eyes and do it.
On this occasion I was wrong.
We attracted a 'presence' that I can only describe as terrifying. She told us her name was Mary Tyler and she claimed to have been a witch who had been murdered near Cardiff in Wales in the seventeenth century. The glass whizzed around the board and the language was mediaeval. I have never heard such foul and vile outbursts and it takes a lot to shock me. She claimed, amongst a litany of other things, she was wedded to the Devil. I will spare you the unprintable dialogue. Even though the glass was ‘spelling’ this diatribe it felt as if we could hear her voice.
I pulled my hand away but the girls continued. Something told me this just wasn’t a good idea but the two girls were utterly transfixed, almost hypnotized.
For reasons I cannot explain I picked up my guitar and began to play an old folk ballad from the seventeenth century called 'High Germany’ (about a girl who dresses a man and follows her lover to war).
This proved to be some sort of catalyst, as if this (presumed) spirit form could actually hear me. There may be some other explanation to do with auditory impulses impacting on some kind of spiritual membrane (I’ve always retained an open mind about the rich tapestry of spiritual beliefs) but when this sort of thing is happening there isn’t much time for logical discussion.
The song seemed to heighten the presence of Mary Tyler who declared that she had possessed the body of the other girl. The effect was shocking and instantaneous. She shook and she wailed and she cried, unable to remove her finger from the glass (which was hurtling around almost to the point of shattering).
I stopped playing and pushed the table, board and glass over. The girl who was ‘possessed’ was having hysterics and it took a long time and a few tranquilisers to calm her down.
‘That was all your fault,” my girlfriend said to me later.
“How come?”
“If you hadn’t sung that weird song none of this would have happened.”
I thought about arguing but then what was the point?
I was never able to understand her strange logic and I thought better of trying at that moment.
I am certain that those type of recollections influenced me years later when writing books such as ‘The Immortality Plot’, ‘Bodyswitch’ or ‘The Kingdoms Of Time And Space’.
And, that was not the last time I was to come into contact with Mary Tyler – but that’s yet another story.
All I say to myself was: ‘Thanks for the memory’.
PS: Diverging: What's the most memorarble book you have read on Kindle?
Maybe not as 'in your face' traumatic recollections that keep you awake at night but in more subtle ways that are hard to define until you really practice some serious self-analysis. That’s when you realize that things that are happening to you today may have in some mystically hidden way been influenced by past events; events that were completely out of your control. I call it The Memory Matrix.
It’s like there is a personal shadow force stalking all of us lurking in the deep recesses of our minds and souls.
Maybe you feel the same.
When I played in folk-rock bands for a living, long before I wrote thrillers and YA fantasy, I remember messing around with ouija boards and other esoteric or spiritual pursuits. I suppose I was like a lot of people, desperate to discover if there was more to existence than just one lifetime and eventual death.
This led to a great deal of research into metaphysical matters as well as science – but that is another story.
I recall being in Edinburgh with a girlfriend staying in the apartment of a school friend of hers. The two girls were insistent on having a ouija board session so I was outvoted (although secretly enthusiastic).
Sometime before this I'd come to the conclusion that I could influence the movements of the glass (not by pushing and cheating) but by mentally sending out streams of thought messages. I could even close my eyes and do it.
On this occasion I was wrong.
We attracted a 'presence' that I can only describe as terrifying. She told us her name was Mary Tyler and she claimed to have been a witch who had been murdered near Cardiff in Wales in the seventeenth century. The glass whizzed around the board and the language was mediaeval. I have never heard such foul and vile outbursts and it takes a lot to shock me. She claimed, amongst a litany of other things, she was wedded to the Devil. I will spare you the unprintable dialogue. Even though the glass was ‘spelling’ this diatribe it felt as if we could hear her voice.
I pulled my hand away but the girls continued. Something told me this just wasn’t a good idea but the two girls were utterly transfixed, almost hypnotized.
For reasons I cannot explain I picked up my guitar and began to play an old folk ballad from the seventeenth century called 'High Germany’ (about a girl who dresses a man and follows her lover to war).
This proved to be some sort of catalyst, as if this (presumed) spirit form could actually hear me. There may be some other explanation to do with auditory impulses impacting on some kind of spiritual membrane (I’ve always retained an open mind about the rich tapestry of spiritual beliefs) but when this sort of thing is happening there isn’t much time for logical discussion.
The song seemed to heighten the presence of Mary Tyler who declared that she had possessed the body of the other girl. The effect was shocking and instantaneous. She shook and she wailed and she cried, unable to remove her finger from the glass (which was hurtling around almost to the point of shattering).
I stopped playing and pushed the table, board and glass over. The girl who was ‘possessed’ was having hysterics and it took a long time and a few tranquilisers to calm her down.
‘That was all your fault,” my girlfriend said to me later.
“How come?”
“If you hadn’t sung that weird song none of this would have happened.”
I thought about arguing but then what was the point?
I was never able to understand her strange logic and I thought better of trying at that moment.
I am certain that those type of recollections influenced me years later when writing books such as ‘The Immortality Plot’, ‘Bodyswitch’ or ‘The Kingdoms Of Time And Space’.
And, that was not the last time I was to come into contact with Mary Tyler – but that’s yet another story.
All I say to myself was: ‘Thanks for the memory’.
PS: Diverging: What's the most memorarble book you have read on Kindle?
August 30, 2015
What will we be writing one thousand years from now?
Language changes and develops over time, particularly language that is exposed to the 'modern world'. Some languages spoken by remote tribes have hardly changed in the last thousand years.
In all the speculative fiction written in current times, I can't recall attempts at guessing what English will sound like a thousand years from now. That is not to say it hasn't been done just that I haven't come across it.
The website Futurese has made a brave attempt at dissecting language and predicting its development.
And it makes fascinating reading. But, what will writers be writing about one thousand years in the future?
Will they look back through well documented events, lives and internet records and write historical fiction based on our lives now? Will we seem like primitive, unenlightened barbarians compared to our future selves? Or will the apocalyptic future thrillers prove to be right. Books like 'Mortal Engines', for example, that predict tractor cities forever on the move unearthing old technology, when mobile phones will become prime museum pieces, as will all forms of communication and current leading edge technology.
Below is a single sentence repeated in what it could sound like in middle English and a thousand years from now.
2000 AD: We children beg you, teacher, that you should teach us to speak correctly, because we are ignorant and we speak corruptly…
2000 AD: (as Middle English): Wi txìldran beg yu, titxar, đat yu xùd titx as tu spik karektli, bikaz wi ar ìgnarant and wi spik karàptli…
1000 AD: Wé cildra biddaþ þé, éalá láréow, þæt þú tǽce ús sprecan rihte, forþám ungelǽrede wé sindon, and gewæmmodlíce we sprecaþ…
One thousand years from now:
3000 AD: *Zᴀ kiad w’‐exùn ya tijuh, da ya‐gᴀr’‐eduketan zᴀ da wa‐tᴀgan lidla, kaz ’ban iagnaran an wa‐tᴀg kurrap.
Or perhaps our generation of sci-fi writers has got it right and proven to have been prophetic with man becoming like superman communicating by touch and telepathy.
And what will romantic love stories be like in the far future; or thrillers; or nursery rhymes? I'll bet you one thing and that is that some things never change. There will still be writers trying to get published and then get visible, probably using a future version of Amazon.
Make your telepathic comments in future speak.
In all the speculative fiction written in current times, I can't recall attempts at guessing what English will sound like a thousand years from now. That is not to say it hasn't been done just that I haven't come across it.
The website Futurese has made a brave attempt at dissecting language and predicting its development.
And it makes fascinating reading. But, what will writers be writing about one thousand years in the future?
Will they look back through well documented events, lives and internet records and write historical fiction based on our lives now? Will we seem like primitive, unenlightened barbarians compared to our future selves? Or will the apocalyptic future thrillers prove to be right. Books like 'Mortal Engines', for example, that predict tractor cities forever on the move unearthing old technology, when mobile phones will become prime museum pieces, as will all forms of communication and current leading edge technology.
Below is a single sentence repeated in what it could sound like in middle English and a thousand years from now.
2000 AD: We children beg you, teacher, that you should teach us to speak correctly, because we are ignorant and we speak corruptly…
2000 AD: (as Middle English): Wi txìldran beg yu, titxar, đat yu xùd titx as tu spik karektli, bikaz wi ar ìgnarant and wi spik karàptli…
1000 AD: Wé cildra biddaþ þé, éalá láréow, þæt þú tǽce ús sprecan rihte, forþám ungelǽrede wé sindon, and gewæmmodlíce we sprecaþ…
One thousand years from now:
3000 AD: *Zᴀ kiad w’‐exùn ya tijuh, da ya‐gᴀr’‐eduketan zᴀ da wa‐tᴀgan lidla, kaz ’ban iagnaran an wa‐tᴀg kurrap.
Or perhaps our generation of sci-fi writers has got it right and proven to have been prophetic with man becoming like superman communicating by touch and telepathy.
And what will romantic love stories be like in the far future; or thrillers; or nursery rhymes? I'll bet you one thing and that is that some things never change. There will still be writers trying to get published and then get visible, probably using a future version of Amazon.
Make your telepathic comments in future speak.
October 14, 2014
All things must change
I've decided it's time to make some changes.
Firstly, my fingers are crossed that agents will respond well to my pitch for a new thriller, with a new character. Title is 'Or Else She Dies'. The lead character is Harry Chance, a safecracker, jewel thief and former cage fighter but with a heart of gold. He likes to rob rich people and help the downtrodden (after he's helped himself to a few trinkets) and he has a few emotional issues.
I won't be self-publishing this title at this point.
Because I was heavily involved in a property project this last year my marketing of self-published titles took a dive along with sales.
And publishers look at low or no sales when you pitch a new book and get all sniffy. If you have a poor track record (irrespective of the quality of your books) then they are inclined to dismiss your new pitch out of hand.
Short sighted and unfair but in the dog eat dog world that is publishing today maybe it's understandable.
It's an uphill battle to find ways to become visible to buyers and readers with the overwhelming number of titles to choose from and the regular changes made by Amazon to its algorithms.
So, it is time to breathe new life into my self-published titles: new book titles, new covers, restructured website etc.
Then it will be time to pay much more attention to launching books properly, maybe even advertising.
So the longest journey begins with one small step.
Firstly, my fingers are crossed that agents will respond well to my pitch for a new thriller, with a new character. Title is 'Or Else She Dies'. The lead character is Harry Chance, a safecracker, jewel thief and former cage fighter but with a heart of gold. He likes to rob rich people and help the downtrodden (after he's helped himself to a few trinkets) and he has a few emotional issues.
I won't be self-publishing this title at this point.
Because I was heavily involved in a property project this last year my marketing of self-published titles took a dive along with sales.
And publishers look at low or no sales when you pitch a new book and get all sniffy. If you have a poor track record (irrespective of the quality of your books) then they are inclined to dismiss your new pitch out of hand.
Short sighted and unfair but in the dog eat dog world that is publishing today maybe it's understandable.
It's an uphill battle to find ways to become visible to buyers and readers with the overwhelming number of titles to choose from and the regular changes made by Amazon to its algorithms.
So, it is time to breathe new life into my self-published titles: new book titles, new covers, restructured website etc.
Then it will be time to pay much more attention to launching books properly, maybe even advertising.
So the longest journey begins with one small step.
July 24, 2014
Show don't tell is a golden rule
It's been a long time since I blogged on this site. The fact is I have been involved in a labour intensive house and garden renovation that has left me pretty much no time for writing, editing or book marketing. As a consequence book sales have dwindled and my attempts to land a literary agent or a mainstream publishing deal have run aground.
I did have a brief involvement with one major agent who really liked 'The Immortality Plot' (the book I have been concentrating on for some time). He used words such as 'gifted' to describe my writing which did my ego no end of good.
But...
There is always a but somewhere. He felt the book needed work. In particular he said I should streamline it by reducing the involvement of some important but periphery characters and focus on the cat and mouse hunt by protagonist Mike Delaney (The Monk) for the antagonist Lucius Gynt (The Priest). He also felt that the reader was being given too much advance information that meant they enjoyed the ride, because the story is pretty orginal, without experiencing much suspense.
I wasn't sure if he was entirely right because I drip-fed information throughout the book rather than dumping heavy chunks of information on the reader. But not enough, obviously. He said there was a little too much telling and not enough showing. Now I am very aware of this and try to make sure I show action rather than make my presence felt as the author.
So I rewrote a good fifty percent of the book and, you know what? He was partly right. I put new scenes in, explored new avenues and pretty much tightened up the thriller.
Still not enough, says the agent. Still too much telling not showing. Where, I said? He even pointed out a scene early on where Mike Delaney brings his colleague Bob Messenger up to speed on the recent murder of his wife; filling in the gaps and explaining what's been happening. I do actually drip feed that material elsewhere in the book, here and there through the eyes of her killer.
Now, realistically, you cannot show absolutely everything. In order to show that information I would have to have gone into flashback, write his wife's murder in gory detail and increase the word count. And if I did that each time a character explained something the book would have been as big as the Bible.
I have read countless crime thrillers (particularly true in the case of police procedurals) where masses of information is explained, discussed, argued about etc. If you had to show every aspect of a police investigation the book would be a million words long.
But, I do intend to make some changes. I might archive the book, withdraw it from publication temporarily, work on it, focus on other books to market and write a new book.
I did have a brief involvement with one major agent who really liked 'The Immortality Plot' (the book I have been concentrating on for some time). He used words such as 'gifted' to describe my writing which did my ego no end of good.
But...
There is always a but somewhere. He felt the book needed work. In particular he said I should streamline it by reducing the involvement of some important but periphery characters and focus on the cat and mouse hunt by protagonist Mike Delaney (The Monk) for the antagonist Lucius Gynt (The Priest). He also felt that the reader was being given too much advance information that meant they enjoyed the ride, because the story is pretty orginal, without experiencing much suspense.
I wasn't sure if he was entirely right because I drip-fed information throughout the book rather than dumping heavy chunks of information on the reader. But not enough, obviously. He said there was a little too much telling and not enough showing. Now I am very aware of this and try to make sure I show action rather than make my presence felt as the author.
So I rewrote a good fifty percent of the book and, you know what? He was partly right. I put new scenes in, explored new avenues and pretty much tightened up the thriller.
Still not enough, says the agent. Still too much telling not showing. Where, I said? He even pointed out a scene early on where Mike Delaney brings his colleague Bob Messenger up to speed on the recent murder of his wife; filling in the gaps and explaining what's been happening. I do actually drip feed that material elsewhere in the book, here and there through the eyes of her killer.
Now, realistically, you cannot show absolutely everything. In order to show that information I would have to have gone into flashback, write his wife's murder in gory detail and increase the word count. And if I did that each time a character explained something the book would have been as big as the Bible.
I have read countless crime thrillers (particularly true in the case of police procedurals) where masses of information is explained, discussed, argued about etc. If you had to show every aspect of a police investigation the book would be a million words long.
But, I do intend to make some changes. I might archive the book, withdraw it from publication temporarily, work on it, focus on other books to market and write a new book.
August 8, 2013
Should I slit her throat? You decide.
I plan to slit her throat.
The fact that she's a nun and a bride of Christ makes little difference.
Or rather, I plan to have my nasty, twisted, weird creation Oswald Dante (who keeps his long dead mother embalmed in a viewing coffin in his basement) creep in and cut her white flesh. And feel her pulse of life ebbing in a tide of blood.
Before you run away with the idea that Oswald is my alter ego, I must tell you that he is only one of the characters in my new Mike Delaney thriller 'Good Girl Bad Girl'.
And therefore I have multiple alter egos.
I turned to beta readers for their opinion on the manuscript and was unprepared for the floodgates of conflicting opinions about the death of such an endearing, beautiful main character, someone readers had loved and identified with throughout the book.
"You can't murder her," some screamed. "How could you even dream of killing her, you monster."
Others were far more practical. "I can live with that,' they said. "One of them had to go so it mght as well be the nun."
It's a tricky balancing act and t has set me a dillemma. If I stick with the current storyline it might go against me with publishers and agents. Or it might have the opposite effect.
What do you think? Have you ever read a book when an important character (not the lead) has been brutally murdered when you least expected it? Someone you had grown to love and who you thought was one of the heroes or heroines.
It happens on TV. It happened in 'Luther' the other night when his partner was blown away by a bolt action shotgun. But then, I don't think viewers had the same connection with that character than they would with my innocent bride of Christ.
If you would like to help me out and give me your opinion you could offer to beta read the manuscript (a free copy for you to report on) although I have rather given some of the game away (there are many other unexpected twists and turns in 'Good Girl Bad Girl'.
The fact that she's a nun and a bride of Christ makes little difference.
Or rather, I plan to have my nasty, twisted, weird creation Oswald Dante (who keeps his long dead mother embalmed in a viewing coffin in his basement) creep in and cut her white flesh. And feel her pulse of life ebbing in a tide of blood.
Before you run away with the idea that Oswald is my alter ego, I must tell you that he is only one of the characters in my new Mike Delaney thriller 'Good Girl Bad Girl'.
And therefore I have multiple alter egos.
I turned to beta readers for their opinion on the manuscript and was unprepared for the floodgates of conflicting opinions about the death of such an endearing, beautiful main character, someone readers had loved and identified with throughout the book.
"You can't murder her," some screamed. "How could you even dream of killing her, you monster."
Others were far more practical. "I can live with that,' they said. "One of them had to go so it mght as well be the nun."
It's a tricky balancing act and t has set me a dillemma. If I stick with the current storyline it might go against me with publishers and agents. Or it might have the opposite effect.
What do you think? Have you ever read a book when an important character (not the lead) has been brutally murdered when you least expected it? Someone you had grown to love and who you thought was one of the heroes or heroines.
It happens on TV. It happened in 'Luther' the other night when his partner was blown away by a bolt action shotgun. But then, I don't think viewers had the same connection with that character than they would with my innocent bride of Christ.
If you would like to help me out and give me your opinion you could offer to beta read the manuscript (a free copy for you to report on) although I have rather given some of the game away (there are many other unexpected twists and turns in 'Good Girl Bad Girl'.
May 18, 2012
Good Girl Bad Girl meets Angela's Ashes
If you haven't read Frank McCourt's 'Angela's Ashes' then you are missing out on a literary tour-de-force.
It conjures up a time in Limerick, Ireland, when poverty was rife and the workhouse was full. It was a time my parents knew well. It was a time of 'No Irish need apply' in the UK for jobs of any kind and a time in Limerick of violence, religion and wild passion.
Frank McCourt caught the atmosphere perfectly, evoking the clamour, bustle, energy and despair of a city typical in Ireland at that time.
It is the city where I was first given life by parents who could barely read and write. But I was soon swept over the Irish Sea in my mother's arms to a new life in England where conditions were just as bad for the poor but which was a country of great wealth and prestige and opportunity if you prepared to stick the prejudice and ridicule.
So it was a strange experience to return to Limerick albeit courtesy of Google maps. I haven't been back there in person for many years.
But I've been doing some basic plotting for a new Mike Delaney thriller as a follow up to 'The Immortality Plot' and for some reason set the story in the US and then over to Ireland. It must have been a subconscious decision to set the climax of the action in Limerick. It could have been Dublin, Waterford, Galway or anywhere. So I needed to remember the geography, the distances, the street layout and in so doing saw the street where my mother grew up and where I spent some formative years when I returned there as a child.
The old 'corporation' type houses are now painted like new pins and the city itself has grown and expanded.
Google maps is an invaluable tool, I discovered, for a writer to get close to a location. I needed to check out the positioning of King John's Castle and track back to a point where a sniper would be in sight of a target.
In the end it was a good choice of location because it is a city fixed in my memory and in a mental time zone; a compartment of my psyche that still evokes an inexpressible emotion that is hard to define but which will never leave me.
So Mike Delaney will tangle with a truly terrifying adversary who follows him from the US to Ireland. I will say no more except that the provisional title is 'Good Girl Bad Girl'.
It conjures up a time in Limerick, Ireland, when poverty was rife and the workhouse was full. It was a time my parents knew well. It was a time of 'No Irish need apply' in the UK for jobs of any kind and a time in Limerick of violence, religion and wild passion.
Frank McCourt caught the atmosphere perfectly, evoking the clamour, bustle, energy and despair of a city typical in Ireland at that time.
It is the city where I was first given life by parents who could barely read and write. But I was soon swept over the Irish Sea in my mother's arms to a new life in England where conditions were just as bad for the poor but which was a country of great wealth and prestige and opportunity if you prepared to stick the prejudice and ridicule.
So it was a strange experience to return to Limerick albeit courtesy of Google maps. I haven't been back there in person for many years.
But I've been doing some basic plotting for a new Mike Delaney thriller as a follow up to 'The Immortality Plot' and for some reason set the story in the US and then over to Ireland. It must have been a subconscious decision to set the climax of the action in Limerick. It could have been Dublin, Waterford, Galway or anywhere. So I needed to remember the geography, the distances, the street layout and in so doing saw the street where my mother grew up and where I spent some formative years when I returned there as a child.
The old 'corporation' type houses are now painted like new pins and the city itself has grown and expanded.
Google maps is an invaluable tool, I discovered, for a writer to get close to a location. I needed to check out the positioning of King John's Castle and track back to a point where a sniper would be in sight of a target.
In the end it was a good choice of location because it is a city fixed in my memory and in a mental time zone; a compartment of my psyche that still evokes an inexpressible emotion that is hard to define but which will never leave me.
So Mike Delaney will tangle with a truly terrifying adversary who follows him from the US to Ireland. I will say no more except that the provisional title is 'Good Girl Bad Girl'.
April 8, 2012
I just made my first million self publishing
Yes, it's happened at last!
I really can't believe it.
Sales of my thrillers ' 'The Immortality Plot'; 'An Angel On My Shoulder'; 'Knife Edge' and 'Bodyswitch' PLUS my YA fantasy 'The Kingdoms Of Time And Space' IN ADDITION TO my superfast selling children's book 'The Weather Kids And The Rainbow Superhighway' have generated just short of a million bucks, pounds and euros.
And not all from Amazon Kindle, Nook or smart phones.
No, I came upon a number of other avenues in addition to these mainstream outlets that have been almost as lucrative.
Promotion and social networking has been an important factor as has, much more importantly, writing the best books I could - books that have been turned down by majors and agents.
It just goes to prove - nobody knows anything.
Now, I look at my bank account offshore and permit a small smile of satisfaction to land on my face.
What's more, and this is really ironic, as soon as news permeated through the fissures of the publishing world, publishers and agents have been calling me. So, now comes the big one. Do I stay as an indie or take the deal (when it eventually arrives)?
Oh, well, one can dream. What was that about April fools? Hey, I'm quite a few days too late. Damn! could mean I might not sell any more books.The Immortality PlotAn Angel On My ShoulderBodyswitchKnife EdgeThe Weather Kids And The Rainbow Superhighway
I really can't believe it.
Sales of my thrillers ' 'The Immortality Plot'; 'An Angel On My Shoulder'; 'Knife Edge' and 'Bodyswitch' PLUS my YA fantasy 'The Kingdoms Of Time And Space' IN ADDITION TO my superfast selling children's book 'The Weather Kids And The Rainbow Superhighway' have generated just short of a million bucks, pounds and euros.
And not all from Amazon Kindle, Nook or smart phones.
No, I came upon a number of other avenues in addition to these mainstream outlets that have been almost as lucrative.
Promotion and social networking has been an important factor as has, much more importantly, writing the best books I could - books that have been turned down by majors and agents.
It just goes to prove - nobody knows anything.
Now, I look at my bank account offshore and permit a small smile of satisfaction to land on my face.
What's more, and this is really ironic, as soon as news permeated through the fissures of the publishing world, publishers and agents have been calling me. So, now comes the big one. Do I stay as an indie or take the deal (when it eventually arrives)?
Oh, well, one can dream. What was that about April fools? Hey, I'm quite a few days too late. Damn! could mean I might not sell any more books.The Immortality PlotAn Angel On My ShoulderBodyswitchKnife EdgeThe Weather Kids And The Rainbow Superhighway
March 25, 2012
Are vampires dead and buried – permanently?
The vampire boom may be drawing to a close according to some publishing pundits.
But if you scan through the posts in many reader forums, the bloodsuckers with the looks of an Angelina Jolie or a Johnny Depp are still attracting hosts of readers (mainly female).
These paranormal romantic vampires tend to be extensions of Mills & Boon type heroes and heroines - square jawed, sensitive, rakish, seductive and so on. Not like 'real' vampires at all.
Some time back I read that true vampires in the mould of Vlad The Impaler and other 'families' in certain parts of Eastern Europe where the vampire myths originated were actually suffering from a form of congenital haemophilia - which would explain a lot if true.
Today's fictional vampire has become an iconic stereotype, albeit a hugely successful one as series such as 'Twilight' proves beyond a shadow of a doubt.
But, are publishers becoming disenchanted with the fangs and the undead? If not, just what is the attraction? Have there ever been any disgustingly ugly, dissolute, savage and brutal vampire heroes and heroines in popular fiction? Or are the undead only seductively attractive because they perform an esoteric form of rape - sucking the life blood in an agony of pleasurable excitement.
Thoughts?
But if you scan through the posts in many reader forums, the bloodsuckers with the looks of an Angelina Jolie or a Johnny Depp are still attracting hosts of readers (mainly female).
These paranormal romantic vampires tend to be extensions of Mills & Boon type heroes and heroines - square jawed, sensitive, rakish, seductive and so on. Not like 'real' vampires at all.
Some time back I read that true vampires in the mould of Vlad The Impaler and other 'families' in certain parts of Eastern Europe where the vampire myths originated were actually suffering from a form of congenital haemophilia - which would explain a lot if true.
Today's fictional vampire has become an iconic stereotype, albeit a hugely successful one as series such as 'Twilight' proves beyond a shadow of a doubt.
But, are publishers becoming disenchanted with the fangs and the undead? If not, just what is the attraction? Have there ever been any disgustingly ugly, dissolute, savage and brutal vampire heroes and heroines in popular fiction? Or are the undead only seductively attractive because they perform an esoteric form of rape - sucking the life blood in an agony of pleasurable excitement.
Thoughts?
February 27, 2012
I never knew Whitney Houston - but
The chances of my ever meeting the late Whitney Houston would have been a couple of million to one but, nevertheless like legions of other people I was in awe of her fabulous voice.
Her untimely death (cause not known at time of writing) managed to make me stop and think. One of those 'what's it all about?' moments.
It's probably exactly the same anytime a well-known figure you admire passes away. I cite James Dean, Freddie Mercury, Amy Winehouse, River Phoenix and Heath Ledger and John F Kennedy as examples. Such is the way icons and legends are created.
But my writer's curiousity was piqued sufficiently to ask (for me at least) some interesting questions. The reason the good (and the not so good) died young may have been down to their own demons and life karma – or even some celestial roulette wheel that clicked into a blank space directed by some unseen finger of fate.
A thought struck me forcibly. This iconography (in its current and broadest sense of the term) is essentially a Western phenomenon with some notable exceptions. I am sure the same emotional reaction erupted recently for a Bollywood star whose name escapes me. And Benazir Bhutto is another exceptional name that comes to mind.
But, are there equivalent outbusts of collective grief and fan mourning in other, non-Western societies? I ask because I don't know. Please comment if you do.
For instance, are there Mongolian, Iranian, tribal African, Maori, Inuit or Saudi Arabian equivalents. I mention these societies and cultures purely at random. I discount state organised grieving for the likes of North Korea's Kim Jong 11 and also wonder if the early demise of Vladimir Putin would result in icon-making outbursts of genuine emotional grief in modern Russia?
Heroic characters in fiction, the meat and drink of a popular novelist's trade, can also convince readers and fans that these characters are real enough to warrant similar collective mourning. I think of Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty as prime examples.
This is powerful ammunition for a writer. I would love nothing more than for fan status to bless Mike Delaney, my charismatic and unusual Irish American protagonist in 'The Immortality Plot' or the nerdy 15-year old Morgan Lane in 'The Kingdoms Of Time And Space'.
Of course, I am incredibly humbled by the thousands of readers who have developed emotional ties to these characters judging by my email postbag.
It means I must be doing something right.
I am tempted to say 'I Will Always Love You' but fear it may be misinterpreted. But, the sentiment says it all.
Her untimely death (cause not known at time of writing) managed to make me stop and think. One of those 'what's it all about?' moments.
It's probably exactly the same anytime a well-known figure you admire passes away. I cite James Dean, Freddie Mercury, Amy Winehouse, River Phoenix and Heath Ledger and John F Kennedy as examples. Such is the way icons and legends are created.
But my writer's curiousity was piqued sufficiently to ask (for me at least) some interesting questions. The reason the good (and the not so good) died young may have been down to their own demons and life karma – or even some celestial roulette wheel that clicked into a blank space directed by some unseen finger of fate.
A thought struck me forcibly. This iconography (in its current and broadest sense of the term) is essentially a Western phenomenon with some notable exceptions. I am sure the same emotional reaction erupted recently for a Bollywood star whose name escapes me. And Benazir Bhutto is another exceptional name that comes to mind.
But, are there equivalent outbusts of collective grief and fan mourning in other, non-Western societies? I ask because I don't know. Please comment if you do.
For instance, are there Mongolian, Iranian, tribal African, Maori, Inuit or Saudi Arabian equivalents. I mention these societies and cultures purely at random. I discount state organised grieving for the likes of North Korea's Kim Jong 11 and also wonder if the early demise of Vladimir Putin would result in icon-making outbursts of genuine emotional grief in modern Russia?
Heroic characters in fiction, the meat and drink of a popular novelist's trade, can also convince readers and fans that these characters are real enough to warrant similar collective mourning. I think of Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty as prime examples.
This is powerful ammunition for a writer. I would love nothing more than for fan status to bless Mike Delaney, my charismatic and unusual Irish American protagonist in 'The Immortality Plot' or the nerdy 15-year old Morgan Lane in 'The Kingdoms Of Time And Space'.
Of course, I am incredibly humbled by the thousands of readers who have developed emotional ties to these characters judging by my email postbag.
It means I must be doing something right.
I am tempted to say 'I Will Always Love You' but fear it may be misinterpreted. But, the sentiment says it all.
