Jim McGrath's Blog, page 5
November 18, 2016
A Death in Spring: 1968 is awaiting publication
Hi,
The final M/S file went to the publishers today. They will now convert the Word document into an epub file and it will be loaded onto Amazon and all other platforms.
It's a longer and more complicated book than the first and it was difficult to cross all the t's and dot all the i's but I think I got there in the end.
The book will be out around 6 December. It maybe a week early or a week later I can't control that. But whenever it appears I hope you enjoy it and that it's a worth successor to A Death in Winter.
If you do download it, please think of writing a review and/or sharing your views of the book with family and friends either in person or via social media. Word of mouth recommendations are essential for new writers. And you can always leave a comment on this site.
Take care,
Jim
The final M/S file went to the publishers today. They will now convert the Word document into an epub file and it will be loaded onto Amazon and all other platforms.
It's a longer and more complicated book than the first and it was difficult to cross all the t's and dot all the i's but I think I got there in the end.
The book will be out around 6 December. It maybe a week early or a week later I can't control that. But whenever it appears I hope you enjoy it and that it's a worth successor to A Death in Winter.
If you do download it, please think of writing a review and/or sharing your views of the book with family and friends either in person or via social media. Word of mouth recommendations are essential for new writers. And you can always leave a comment on this site.
Take care,
Jim
October 25, 2016
A Death in Spring: 1968 publication date
Hi Folks,
We have a publication date for A Death in Spring: 1968, it's the 6th December 2016.
It's the a shame the book is only available in ebook format or else I could have bought a copy for every friend and member of the family and inflated my sales figures and saved money.
Mind you, only two people in my family have read A Death In Winter: 1963 so it probably wouldn't have been that popular a present.
If I don't post anything before the 31 October do enjoy Halloween. The night of ghouls, vampires and unclean spirits is one of my favourite nights of the year and set to play a significant part in A Death in Autumn: 1970
Cheers,
Jim
We have a publication date for A Death in Spring: 1968, it's the 6th December 2016.
It's the a shame the book is only available in ebook format or else I could have bought a copy for every friend and member of the family and inflated my sales figures and saved money.
Mind you, only two people in my family have read A Death In Winter: 1963 so it probably wouldn't have been that popular a present.
If I don't post anything before the 31 October do enjoy Halloween. The night of ghouls, vampires and unclean spirits is one of my favourite nights of the year and set to play a significant part in A Death in Autumn: 1970
Cheers,
Jim
October 19, 2016
A Death in Autumn: 1970 Started
I started writing A Death In Autumn: 1970 yesterday. If you add in the 'taster' that I provided for the book at the end of Spring: 1968 I have just under 3,000 words drafted. Not finished, just a good draft.
I decided to start the new book last Saturday. I was on my way to the Albion v Spurs game at the Hawthorns and decided to drop into Handsworth Cemetery and tidy up my parents' grave.
As I was walking I noticed that the authorities were clearing away a dense copse of trees and bushes to make more room for graves. I immediately realised that 46 years ago the copse would have been an ideal dump site for a dead body.
So it was that chance thought that got me going. Not some well planned schedule linked to a publication date. But now that I've started I'll find it impossible to stop until I've written the full story of big city corruption, illegal payments, murder, sex and sleaze that's in my head. And all this from a man who has never even been invited to an orgy let alone attended one.
The book will be out around June 2017. Meanwhile publication of A Death in Spring: 1968 is getting closer.
best wises,
Jim
I decided to start the new book last Saturday. I was on my way to the Albion v Spurs game at the Hawthorns and decided to drop into Handsworth Cemetery and tidy up my parents' grave.
As I was walking I noticed that the authorities were clearing away a dense copse of trees and bushes to make more room for graves. I immediately realised that 46 years ago the copse would have been an ideal dump site for a dead body.
So it was that chance thought that got me going. Not some well planned schedule linked to a publication date. But now that I've started I'll find it impossible to stop until I've written the full story of big city corruption, illegal payments, murder, sex and sleaze that's in my head. And all this from a man who has never even been invited to an orgy let alone attended one.
The book will be out around June 2017. Meanwhile publication of A Death in Spring: 1968 is getting closer.
best wises,
Jim
October 18, 2016
The Book Blurb for A Death in Spring: 1968
Hi,
I've just finished the book blurb for A Death in Winter and thought I'd share it with you.
'Michael Collins, Clive Clark and Agnes Winter, that most quirky, funny and dangerous trio of crime fighters, are back.
It’s spring 1968 and Detective Constable Michael Collins is enjoying his time in CID while working hard to convince Agnes Winter to marry him. That is until a routine stake out goes wrong and he starts to suspect that something big and very dangerous is stirring in the Birmingham underworld.
Meanwhile his friend and mentor Constable Clive Clark is looking forward to the birth of his first child and West Brom winning the FA Cup until an old comrade from the war asks him to look into the murders of four young homosexual men.
What follows is mayhem and death on the streets of Birmingham. But as the body count mounts and the risk to their own lives grows Collins and Clark find themselves increasingly obstructed by Birmingham Central CID.
As initial skirmishes turn to all-out war, both men know they are in a fight for survival which can only end when either they or their quarry are dead.'
let me know what you think. It's not too late to change it!
Jim
I've just finished the book blurb for A Death in Winter and thought I'd share it with you.
'Michael Collins, Clive Clark and Agnes Winter, that most quirky, funny and dangerous trio of crime fighters, are back.
It’s spring 1968 and Detective Constable Michael Collins is enjoying his time in CID while working hard to convince Agnes Winter to marry him. That is until a routine stake out goes wrong and he starts to suspect that something big and very dangerous is stirring in the Birmingham underworld.
Meanwhile his friend and mentor Constable Clive Clark is looking forward to the birth of his first child and West Brom winning the FA Cup until an old comrade from the war asks him to look into the murders of four young homosexual men.
What follows is mayhem and death on the streets of Birmingham. But as the body count mounts and the risk to their own lives grows Collins and Clark find themselves increasingly obstructed by Birmingham Central CID.
As initial skirmishes turn to all-out war, both men know they are in a fight for survival which can only end when either they or their quarry are dead.'
let me know what you think. It's not too late to change it!
Jim
October 17, 2016
Department Q.
GO TO THE BBC 4 IPLAYER AND WATCH DEPARTMENT Q IMMEDIATELY!
Why? Because the first episode aired last Saturday and there are only three episodes in the series so you can't afford to miss any. Its the best Scandinavian crime show since the first series of The Killing and makes the various nutters in the Bridge seem ordinary.
The lead character is definitely not trying to win any popularity contests. His partner is a Muslim from North Africa who likes to see the good in people and the writer came up with a truly horrible scenario that would give any self respecting psychopath nightmares ( I wish I'd thought of it - I guess I'm just not warped enough - yet). Wonderful. Watch it. But don't turn the light out.
Cheers,
Jim
Why? Because the first episode aired last Saturday and there are only three episodes in the series so you can't afford to miss any. Its the best Scandinavian crime show since the first series of The Killing and makes the various nutters in the Bridge seem ordinary.
The lead character is definitely not trying to win any popularity contests. His partner is a Muslim from North Africa who likes to see the good in people and the writer came up with a truly horrible scenario that would give any self respecting psychopath nightmares ( I wish I'd thought of it - I guess I'm just not warped enough - yet). Wonderful. Watch it. But don't turn the light out.
Cheers,
Jim
Tut, Tut, Tutankhmun
I've been thinking about this for a while. I'm thinking of launching a twitter account called The Critics, Critic. Why because I can't work out what planet most TV critics are on?
I've come to despair of most critics in the last few years. If MPs and those who rule us live in the Westminster Bubble most critics live in a bubble of their own ego. They have little if any idea of what ordinary people like or enjoy on TV.
The latest example which got me chocking on my cornflakes was Andrew Billen's review of Tutankhamun in The Times on Monday 17 October. he gave it two stars and suggested that it was poorly written, childish, more like a dramatised documentary than a drama and badly acted.
Now listen Andrew, it's a Sunday night. People are getting ready for bed and the start of a new week. They do not want to watch a reimagining of Macbeth, set in a mining community on an asteroid populated solely by women (Although it might be daft enough to be worth watching).
People want to be entertained by an interesting story line, attractive characters and an exotic setting. And no Andrew most people watching an ITV drama at 9pm on a Sunday are not familiar with Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon's story as you suggest.
Personally I found it very enjoyable and I'm looking forward to the second episode.
So there.
Cheers,
Jim
I've come to despair of most critics in the last few years. If MPs and those who rule us live in the Westminster Bubble most critics live in a bubble of their own ego. They have little if any idea of what ordinary people like or enjoy on TV.
The latest example which got me chocking on my cornflakes was Andrew Billen's review of Tutankhamun in The Times on Monday 17 October. he gave it two stars and suggested that it was poorly written, childish, more like a dramatised documentary than a drama and badly acted.
Now listen Andrew, it's a Sunday night. People are getting ready for bed and the start of a new week. They do not want to watch a reimagining of Macbeth, set in a mining community on an asteroid populated solely by women (Although it might be daft enough to be worth watching).
People want to be entertained by an interesting story line, attractive characters and an exotic setting. And no Andrew most people watching an ITV drama at 9pm on a Sunday are not familiar with Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon's story as you suggest.
Personally I found it very enjoyable and I'm looking forward to the second episode.
So there.
Cheers,
Jim
October 13, 2016
He's not important. He's only the author
There is an old Hollywood joke about the wannabe film star who was so dumb that she slept with the screen writer. Basically the joke shows what little power writers have in tinsel town.
The same is true of authors. Unless you are a top best selling writer you have no power. All the power in the writing business resides in the hands of the agents and publishers. It is they who decide who they will represent and what will be published. You can't hope to succeed in main stream publishing unless you have one or both of them on your side.
Is it any wonder that increasingly new writers are self-publishing their work as ebooks. They do this because they want to get their work out into the public domain and to receive at least some feedback from real readers.
Whatever people say publishing an ebook; paying for a good Copy Editor to do their magic, converting word files, uploading onto Amazon and other platforms and buying in some publicity is not cheap. Most writers will not recover their costs no matter how good their book is because they are generally unknown and don't have a publicity machine behind them.
So why choose to do it? The one in a thousand chance that your book might be picked up by a publisher? Possibly. But, more likely it's because the motivation for writers is to communicate with others. To share their stories and in doing so to share something of themselves with the hundred or so people who buy an unknown writer's ebook.
My next non-fiction book The Little Book of Big Management Wisdom will be published by Pearson's in November and A Death in Spring: 1968 is with Troubadour and will be out soon - I promise.
Regards,
Jim
The same is true of authors. Unless you are a top best selling writer you have no power. All the power in the writing business resides in the hands of the agents and publishers. It is they who decide who they will represent and what will be published. You can't hope to succeed in main stream publishing unless you have one or both of them on your side.
Is it any wonder that increasingly new writers are self-publishing their work as ebooks. They do this because they want to get their work out into the public domain and to receive at least some feedback from real readers.
Whatever people say publishing an ebook; paying for a good Copy Editor to do their magic, converting word files, uploading onto Amazon and other platforms and buying in some publicity is not cheap. Most writers will not recover their costs no matter how good their book is because they are generally unknown and don't have a publicity machine behind them.
So why choose to do it? The one in a thousand chance that your book might be picked up by a publisher? Possibly. But, more likely it's because the motivation for writers is to communicate with others. To share their stories and in doing so to share something of themselves with the hundred or so people who buy an unknown writer's ebook.
My next non-fiction book The Little Book of Big Management Wisdom will be published by Pearson's in November and A Death in Spring: 1968 is with Troubadour and will be out soon - I promise.
Regards,
Jim
September 25, 2016
Artwork for A Death in Spring has been uploaded.
Hi Folks,
I'm really sorry that I failed to upload the artwork last Wednesday as promised but there was a slight delay in the completion of the picture.
Dave Brown is a great artist, which means he's a perfectionist. He wanted to varnish the finished painting before passing it over to me. Unfortunately, delivery of the varnish was delayed by 3 days.
To view the artwork click on my photo, that will bring up My Profile and you need to click on my picture again to see the two photos I've uploaded. Then just click on the small images.
Dave has been a huge part of my writing over the last 2 years. I know that readers have loved his artwork but he doesn't get much direct feedback. As a favour to me can you please leave a comment on this post and I'll make sure Dave see's them all.
Cheers,
Jim
I'm really sorry that I failed to upload the artwork last Wednesday as promised but there was a slight delay in the completion of the picture.
Dave Brown is a great artist, which means he's a perfectionist. He wanted to varnish the finished painting before passing it over to me. Unfortunately, delivery of the varnish was delayed by 3 days.
To view the artwork click on my photo, that will bring up My Profile and you need to click on my picture again to see the two photos I've uploaded. Then just click on the small images.
Dave has been a huge part of my writing over the last 2 years. I know that readers have loved his artwork but he doesn't get much direct feedback. As a favour to me can you please leave a comment on this post and I'll make sure Dave see's them all.
Cheers,
Jim
September 19, 2016
Quotations from my books
I hope to start loading a few quotations from both my fiction and non-fiction books onto Goodreads over the next few weeks.
I thought I might share with you the following which is from A Death in Spring: 1968. It reveals Clarkee's poetic side.
Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
If you lie to me,
I'll kick the s***out of you.
best wishes,
Jim
I thought I might share with you the following which is from A Death in Spring: 1968. It reveals Clarkee's poetic side.
Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
If you lie to me,
I'll kick the s***out of you.
best wishes,
Jim
A Death in Spring: 1968. M/S sent to publishers
I sent the M/S for A Death in Spring off to the publishers today. There is a theory called the Pareto Principle that suggests that in any task 80% of the job can be done in 20% of the time, while the remaining 20% of work will take up 80% of the time. That's definitely the case with writing.
The book has been finished now for a month but proof reading, corrections and minor changes have taken an age to do. That's my way of saying that the book will probably now be out in November and not October. My apologies.
All I can say is that the editing and polishing that has gone on in the last month has improved the book.
Cheers,
Jim
The book has been finished now for a month but proof reading, corrections and minor changes have taken an age to do. That's my way of saying that the book will probably now be out in November and not October. My apologies.
All I can say is that the editing and polishing that has gone on in the last month has improved the book.
Cheers,
Jim
