T.S. Sharp's Blog, page 13

Kindle revisions.

I finally managed to get a slightly revised version of Unfamiliar Country uploaded to Amazon. I actually paid attention to the various guides and websites about how to format a book for Kindle publishing and am confident it works properly now.

My major gripe was the use of the word 'chords' instead of 'cords'. I noticed this quite early on, but all my uploads of the changed Word version did not resolve the error. But now that I have worked out how to change the text in an html document, I have actually uploaded the corrected version to the web. The formatting is a bit better now, but I'm still not entirely happy with the way some of it looks when viewed on a Kindle or one of the Kindle reader variants. This is all part of the learning curve I suppose, but it is scarily easy to throw a novel up on the Kindle system and let the world (potentially, anyway) buy and read it, complete with all its flaws and typos and formatting errors.

Part of me didn't want to read it again once it was delivered to Kindle, for fear of seeing all its defects and shortcomings, whether perceived or otherwise, but generally I am pleased with the results.

How it came to be.

Unfamiliar Country

This is a short story I wrote over late 2010 and early 2011. The story blossomed from an idea I had about a man calmly commiting murder, disposing of the body and dealing with the psychological fall out. I deliberately wanted to leave out the backstory of the who/why/how/when to tantalise the reader, to keep an edgey element to the narrative.

Similarly, the protagonists are left shadowy and vague, providing only mere glimpses of who they are and what motivates them. We only know the second name of the main character, and we know more or less nothing of the victim. We don't know why Boyd does the work he does, or who he does it for. We don't know who he killed or why he had to die or if he deserved it. That's the way I wanted it.

I like short, sharp, economical writing, and while there's evidence of it my novel, Seven Seconds, I couldn't keep it up for 73,000+ words, but I felt more able to maintain the style with Unfamiliar Country.

If you buy Unfamiliar Country, I hope you enjoy the style and pace I've employed here.

Cover Story – my short story gets a new look

This is the new cover for Unfamiliar Country as devised by friend and graphic designer Nick Brown. It replaces the rush job I did myself, which was little more than a photo with text written over the top of it, very flat and unprofessional looking.

This new cover is excellent. I was provided with a selection of colour schemes to choose from, but I think this one befits the dark nature of the short story within. I've already uploaded it to Amazon for the Kindle version, and worked out how to reduce the price to 70p by linking it to the US price, so it's now there alongside 'real' books and now at least it looks the part. Now to get people buying it…

Unfamiliar Country

Writing rooms

Do any other writers out there have a room they use for writing in? Not necessarily a room used exclusively for writing, but a room where you go to do your work in?

I've recently moved house and there are a couple of possible locations, albeit once the household is a little more settled. For me it's more of a notion than a real ambition, but the idea of having a specific room to write in is very appealing, even if it is highly unlikely I'd actually go in there to sit at the laptop and churn out thousands of words. I'd probably just do it wherever I happened to be with the laptop at the time, or more likely, not actually do that much writing in the first place. If the latter was the case, having a room set aside for writing in that simply gathered dust would be little more than physical testament to my lack of productivity.

Or maybe it would spur me to do some writing. It would have to be free of the Xbox 360 for a start. Entertaining distractions are the last thing I need. A space at the end of the garden is another possibility in this house, too. I mean a shed/office building, not sitting amongst the stinging nettles with a laptop, of course. That would be weird. Unless it helped to create the next Booker prize winning book, that is.

'Unfamiliar Country' to get a new cover.

My recently created and released short story, Unfamiliar Country, is adorned by an admittedly shoddy front cover, devised by me. I rushed the job to give the story a cover so that it could go on authonomy and smashwords, but it was, well, crap. Now that it's on amazon it needs a better cover to accompany it.

A friend of mine who's a graphic designer offered to knock me up a quick cover and I saw the results the other day and was blown away. They look great. Regardless of the story itself, the cover will make it look really professional. I just need a slight tweak to the text and it's ready to go. Watch this space (and amazon, authonomy and smashwords).

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest, ABNA, announced the first 2,000 writers who had made the cut from the initial 5,000 who entered their novel. I entered my synopsis and sample work. Did I get through?

 

 

 

No. But then I didn't want to win anyway. Stoopid competition.

So here it is…

Everyone else has a blog, so why not me?

Villanova Junction – one of the finest pieces of Jimi Hendrix's guitar playing. Check out the end of his Woodstock appearance, coming out of the confused mangling of strings after his version of Star Spangled Banner is Villanova Junction – a piece so beautiful it takes me to a special place everytime I hear it. You can see him slipping from the Jimi everyone expected to see and hear, the flamboyant showman with squealing feedback, to the eloquent, sensitive musician he really was. This was him signing off at Woodstock with something he had lovingly crafted, it's just a pity everyone remembers the raucous hystrionics and Purple Haze.

I've often mused that if I ever owned a house near a junction, I'd name it Villanova Junction. Or if it was red, I'd call it Red House. My house is made of bricks, which are pretty red, so I suppose I could call it Red House.

So in tribute to Jimi and one of his many fine creations I've decided to call my blog Villanova Junction, and cram within it (hopefully) lots of writing related posts and musings.