L.E. Fitzpatrick's Blog, page 8

Good Karma

It's hard being a writer, even harder trying to get your work published. Don't get me started on how difficult it is to actually publish your work yourself. I've published five books, three of them are still out there and I did it all pretty much alone.

No need to get out the violin strings - authors are genetically a solitary bunch. We live in our own world most of the time, venturing out only in search of food and the latest episode of Justified. When we invite people in we expect them to be nice and respectful and when they're not we want to charge at them with a legion of our own creation.

We have no control outside of our heads, and some of us don't even have that. So it's hard for any writer to take the bold step and publish their work, cementing their talent for the world to scrutinise. It's a lonely place and although there's no real competition, there's also no community we can turn to.

Writers don't help other writers. Why? Well because we're too damn busy. We have to help ourselves - no one else will... No one else will.

It's a lonely place and yet our numbers are growing and instead of familiar faces, even friends, the faces are just becoming more vast, more widespread, more out of reach. When I first started here I knew names, veterans I could trust, but they're gone now, to a quieter place where the screeching sounds of "buy my book!" can't be heard.

I wished - I still wish - there was a hand to guide me. Someone there to lead me away from the danger zones, to push me forward when I started to waver. But there wasn't and I began to wonder why. Writers don't help other writers... It's true we don't, even though we want to.

But then I fell into my own hypocrisy. I ignored those who wanted help because I didn't have the time. I was part of the writers circle - churning alongside my peers and ignoring them as best I could. Then one day my words dried up. My luck ran out and the three books I had left became stagnant. It gave me time to think.

Why should we expect help if we're not prepared to give it? Why should we be looking for mentors when we are not prepared to steer others? I am not the greatest author in the world, but I read and I love books, I have passion, I have knowledge and now - more than ever - I have time.

So without my writing I turned to others. I started answering cries for help. I posted suggestions about blurbs, covers and a ball started rolling. Then I started beta reading, started proofreading, started writing again.

This is my first blog in so, so long. And I am inspired by those I've helped - those that have helped me. So this is what I do now - give me your work and I will help in any way I can. There's no catch - no charges - no like for like - I will do what I can and hopefully you will be inspired to do what you can too.

Cheating

What do you do when you're too busy to sit down and write a blog about your work... well you get someone who is a damn sight better organised to do it for you.

Allow me to present Geoff Wakeling, indie sci-fi/fantasy author and blogger who has done all the hard work and interviewed me.

http://geoffreywakeling.com/2012/10/16/get-to-know-the-author-l-e-fitzpatrick/

Of course I have an excuse - Flames and Blood First Draft is finished and the new website is up and running. All work no play, All work no play, All work no play, All work no play, All work no play, All work no play, All work no play....

http://l-e-fitzpatrick.moonfruit.com/

Blurb - ering Idiot

Guess what I hate doing. I hate writing blurbs. Blurbs – it sounds like the bursting mud bubble in the middle of a stinking swamp.

Traitors Day has been finished for a few days now. When I say finished I don’t mean I put the final full stop in, I mean it has been edited within an inch of its life (or if you’re a critic – badly edited), I have formatted it, typed the copyright, finished the cover (as you can see). The book, as it should be is a finished product – yippee – except for the bloody blurb.

[image error] Traitors Day: Part Two of the Dark Waters
seriesThis is the hardest part of writing. I see it all the time on various writer forums. Lots of “help me my blurb sucks” and the like. I’ve clicked on a lot of these and do you know what – their blurbs did suck. I’m not being mean, in fact I am the deputy chair for Blurbs Suck Inc, but it emphasises my point that these few paragraphs will be the hardest a writer has to produce and everyone seems to struggle with it.

I have to sum up 70,000 words in a few paragraphs. Length, like most girls are aware, is very important. If it’s too short you won’t entice your readers, but heaven help you if it’s too long and they fall asleep before the end. I’m thinking, and as I believe I have proved already, I am in no way a guru on Blurbs, 3 snappy paragraphs should be about right and have served me well in the past.

Then you’ve got to work out what to divulge, obviously mentioning the ending might not be the greatest idea, unless you’re Quentin Tarantino, so how far do you go? This is what’s really hard, especially with fantasy books. So far I have just tried to pick up two threads, ignore every side plot I can and just focus on two of my main characters and their antics.

Finally, there’s the hook. What is going to draw people in? Unfortunately I’ve been watching a lot of the old Batman series on TV and keep wanting to add:

“Finn and Wey have found themselves in another tight spot, will they be able to get back to the inn for rum and shanties? Find out in our next episode...”

Trying to steer away from clichéd nonsense is very hard and possibly not even beneficial. There has to be an amount of “Will they do this?” “Can they do that?” because obviously these questions can then be solved by reading the book. But you can’t make it too cheesy. Sounds easy doesn’t it.

Putting the above together I eventually finished the blurb for part one: Harvest, which has been published a month:

Finn is a simple priest living a life of solitude in the Temple until the night his dying father sends for him. Finn learns that, not only does he have a half-sister, but that she is a captive in the Vaults – a prison reserved for the most heinous criminals. Vowing to save her he enlists the services of the scoundrel pirate, Egan Wey. Together they set off to commit treason.

But their adventure only starts with a rescue. Across the ocean a plague is coming, dead men are walking and blood is like gold. Someone is behind this, but can they find out who in time…

This epic fantasy adventure is pulsing with adrenaline and dark humour, with swashbuckling pirates, raging zombies and copious bottles of rum…

What’s annoying me now is I have a bloody template – one I’m happy with and I still can’t seem to get my head around what I’m going to write. For three days I’ve been doing this, three days! That’s going to be less than 1 paragraph a day! Deep breaths, calm down.

The most frustrating part of this process is once you sign off on your book, pat yourself on the back and declare it ready for the double figure masses, a little hourglass appears over your head. The countdown for publishing begins and it’s a bit like Christmas, all anticipation and excitement. Only now the Scrooge Blurb is threatening to put off Santa until summer at this rate.

Of course I could just put it out – rubbing hands together in a mischievous manner – a mediocre blurb would excuse any potential poor sales and it’s not like I haven’t done it before. NO – not this time, this time I will be 100% happy before anything goes anywhere and if that means Christmas comes in summer then I will ask Santa for a pair of sunglasses and new sandals.

It’s so hard battling with impatience, but if a product isn’t right it shouldn’t be out there. There are no excuses in this game, just missed opportunities. Like with all my other blurbs I will reach a point where it feels right and that, my friends, is the time to publish. I feel it with my books, with my blurb, formatting, editing, everything and, if I’ve learned anything, it is to wait for that one satisfactory moment when the little voice inside your head says “yeah, you’re there mate.”

The voice has supported everything so far, I’m just waiting for a pass on this final stage. This is what I’ve got so far:

Plague has savaged the islands, killing thousands. Finn has escaped the Red Prince, but the genocide continues and the dead are still rising. He knows their only chance is to find a cure, but when he arrives at the City of Sands, the origin of the plague, he finds nothing is what it seems.

The Prince’s army is swelling. War is on the horizon. Across the water Wey and Adiah try to unite the survivors. But trusting their old enemies could prove to be more dangerous than facing the Prince alone.

This epic fantasy adventure series has even faster adrenaline, darker humour, with more swashbuckling pirates, raging zombies and bountiful bottles of rum…

Let me know what you think. I’m going to have six more cups of coffee and try again.

Oh, god I’ve still got at least two more books in this series to go!!!!

(Just to hammer home any point that Blurbs are hard – I wrote this in less than an hour - in between Blurb paragraphs – there is no justice in this world)

Harvest

It’s been a while since my last confession… I mean post. For what seems like months, in fact for what has been months I’ve been working on getting Dark Waters split into a series and at last book one Harvest is now out there – little pat on the back methinks.

It’s funny, Harvest was published nearly a year after Dark Waters and you’d think I’d have gotten the hang of it by now. I guess I didn’t pay much attention in class because I made the same stupid mistakes: published the wrong file, forgot to add links to my new website (not forgotten now though www.l-e-fitzpatrick.moonfruit.com – another pat if you please), messed up my synopsis and totally forgot how to advertise.

Obviously I’m still a novice with a few hundred book sales underneath me. Although Dark Waters didn’t take the world by storm it did so much better than I ever thought was possible and at least publishing it has taught me how this process feels. To publish a book, whether it’s your first or fortieth is like the birth of a new child. It’s exhilarating and terrifying. The potential for it to be the best thing you ever did is levelled with the possibility it could ruin everything. You want to give it the best start in life and when it goes wrong it hits you hard.

In my experience, once I’ve fumbled through the actual publishing process, the next stage is the hardest: Promotion. Now you’ve poured your heart and soul into an e-pub it’s time to tell the world how amazing it is. I’m naturally an understated individual. When I’m asked how I am, it doesn’t matter if I’m bleeding from a severe fracture of the skull or doing back flips through the supermarket, I will always say “not too bad.” But “not too bad” is not going to sell books.

Last year I got bogged down in advertising and it sent me a bit doo-lally. I found myself so concerned with what others thought that I began to lose my identity altogether. Modesty became uncertainty and then fear. It didn’t matter that most of my feedback was excellent, nor that the nastier undercurrent of snipes I got were from people who hadn’t read my book. What mattered was I was told I should take writing classes. What mattered was that 1 return out of 200 sales. What mattered was people saying March was a great month and I had sold 2 books!

For my own already shaky sanity, I have to approach this next step with caution. You see I love my book, deep down I think it’s brilliant, but it’s so hard to openly say that without feeling like you’re setting yourself up for a fall. I would never publish anything I wasn’t happy with, but what if other people aren’t happy with it? What if it doesn’t meet their standards? What if? What if? What if? Your opinion counts to me, of course it does, that’s why I published, but your opinion will not affect my opinion, because, like the love for my son, the love for my work is unconditional. It can’t let me down because it has already exceeded my expectation.

This has to be my new mantra. I’ve posted Harvest here and there, but after some research I have decided that the best promotional technique is to just keep writing. Traitors’ Day is book 2, it’s in draft and it is exceptional (getting easier to say the more I say it). If you like Harvest, hell even if you don’t, when book 2 is published you better buy some new socks because your old ones are going to be blown off (tongue may be in cheek or it could just be the swelling from the head butt my son gave me mid handstand – his not mine – unconditional love eh?)

I think if you’re embarking on a publishing adventure, or thinking about it, you need to be strong willed and confident, not to the point of arrogance, but to a stage where the spiteful rain will fall off you. We writers seem to spend so much time and effort trying to get reviews and sales for our work we forget that we have to still be in love with our books. It’s vitally important before you expose yourself to the world that you accept your weaknesses for what they are. At some point you get to a stage where you are ready to take the plunge and publish your work and it will not be perfect, but that’s life. You will have to deal with that missing comma, that passage that people read as incredibly dirty when you really didn’t intend it to be, it will be you they are critiquing and this is about as personal as it gets.

The lesson I would stress the most is we are here to write. Whatever happens to you if you are embarking on this journey my advice is to just keep putting words down. You will only get better and this is one of the few occasions time is on your side. For every bad review, poor months of sales, dip in self-confidence knock out a page of something. Every paragraph will be a step further, a practice run, a learning curve. Don’t give up!

Minus Coffee = Kindle Crazy

The wisps of steam are dancing above my cup, spelling an end to the coffee drought of 2012. It's 8.30 in the morning and I've been up two hours already, this is the first cup of the day, still too hot to drink, but the aroma alone is enough to arouse my consciousness. The Johnny Depp mug is looking a bit worse for wear from the intensive use throughout the past few years, but I swear today, it looks happy to be back.

Okay a little heavy for this hour.

Lets try something a bit more my style:

Last week, to stop the highly strung, crazy I tend to share my life with, I decided that my six cups of coffee a day were growing into a little insomnia army. So I went cold turkey (sweats and all) for a week - a whole week - waiting for normality to settle soundly into my world. Patiently, by the rain blemished window, I waited for the Green Tea Guru to reward me with moments of clarity and inner peace for my valiant efforts and what did I get...

No guru, no sleep, no inner peace! In fact as it transpires coffee is my tranquilizer, without it not only do I lose my sense of control, but I go even crazier than my usual stroll around insanity. I was forgetful, spacey and once on my way to work drove straight past my office. Needless to say, scientific study has now deemed it unsafe for me to give up coffee. I have increased my daily dose to ten to be on the safe side.

This should hopefully now reduce the impact that the new British Kindle advert is having on me (think Incredible Hulk on a period). If you haven't seen it:



Oh there's nothing wrong with it... that's what you think huh? Well you're not looking closely enough. Watch it again and look out for the girl on the lilo... see her... yes on a lilo... in a pool... of water... with a Kindle... Is she bloody crazy!

Forgive me if my GSCE science is about to let me down here, but water and an electrical appliance... Good idea? No it is not. She could drop it and then what would happen to her library - her fantastic assortment of mainstream and indie books would be gone forever. So lets say she doesn't drop it, how does she get out of the pool without getting it wet. Yes she could stay there for hours, but at some point those cocktails are going to make their way down to her bladder, or worse, the kids are going to get in, or they turn on the wave machine!!!!

Deep breaths. In. Out. Sip. Sip. Sip. Ahhh. This probably wouldn't have bothered me to quite the extent that it has if I was safely sedated with caffeine, but I'm sure there are people, crazier than me, who are thinking the same thing. I've always struggled to read in the bath, let alone in a swimming pool and I don't even own a Kindle. At least if I drop my £5.99 paperback into the water I can sit with a hairdryer and dry the thing out. Kindle's aren't cheap, £89+ is a lot of money to drop in a pool of water.

Perhaps I'm mistaken, perhaps there is an anti-gravity mechanism that the Kindle initiates when it's near water, but for nervous, coffee deprived individuals like myself, this is too much to worry about when wanting to relax with a good book. Maybe Kindle can do an advert especially for us highly strung ebook enthusiasts - sell us an armored car and body guard to go with our Kindles so we can read in absolute safety - or better still a Kindle underground bunker.

The fact is I would do things with a paper book that I would never consider doing with a Kindle, because a Kindle is expensive and stores a lot of date. If I left my paperback on the bus I wouldn't lose much sleep over it, after all it's one replaceable book - I can get another. Leave my Kindle on the bus! Now I've got to go to the depo, find they've already delved into my side folder of zombie romance erotica, and have to ask for the damn thing back! A Kindle and paper book are not the same, lets stop pretending they are.

I'm a big fan of e-books - obviously I'm an indie writer - but lets not get ahead of ourselves Kindle, it has advantages over a paper book but it is no where near a direct substitute. In a world where Rap and Rock can exist in one song, I think the Kindle can stand up for its own uses without having to stand in for the trusty paperback - sell that to me and my £89 is yours (which I will claim on expenses). The Kindle is great for people who can't hold large books, who have trouble reading small print, who live in tiny apartments, who read four books at the same time, who have bookmark phobias - sell these points and rap-rock that reader market.

First cup down, 1/10. And relax.

Progression?

I've been a way for a while, said in a gruff, cockney accent. Sadly the possibilities for my absence are far more exciting than the reality. No, I was not abducted by aliens, or arrested, nor have I found God (haven't tried behind the fridge yet though) and no publisher has found me. Instead I have been working! I know it seems unlikely but I swear it's true.

[image error] After finishing the first draft of a new book, which is still very much in progress, I turned my attention, finally, to my older more neglected child. Dark Waters did need some TLC and, after some scratching of head, I decided that it should be split into a series. So after a few weeks of editing, taking out some dodgy typos and ironing out my inconsistencies, I am nearly ready with book 1....feedback on cover would be appreciated.

Oh, you noticed the nearly, well that at least is not totally my bad. Good old, dependable Captain Huwzo the infamous illustrator, who provided me with this lovely cover, took to proof reading the masterpiece in a hope that he would attribute some inspiration for a few illustrations in the published piece. All was going well until poor Huwzo was savagely bitten by a hamster... this is a true story and he not only had an ambulance out, but he later went to hospital. As it was touch and go whether my illustrator would make it, I decided to enlist (and continue to enlist) beta readers to ensure that book 1 is ready for action.

I'm signed up for KDP Select, which, after previous positive ravings, I am now growing to loathe. Nothing much has been happening through it and I really feel the exclusivity I have given to Amazon had brought me very little in return. Still this will be over on 11 July and thereafter I can publish The Harvests, yippee.

In the meantime book 2: Traitors' Day is ready to go to Huwzo - who, thanks to some miracle from our illusive deity, has recovered -  and thereafter any beta readers I can find (offers always welcome) can poke it into shape. Then that too will be unleashed (hopefully by August).

[image error]
The other exciting news is the new website which is dedicated to Dark Waters as a series (look a banner created by me!) and will be launched next month. I'm pretty smug with myself, or at least I was, as I designed it all by myself, I even managed to manipulate the art work - get me - then I came on Blogger and once again feel like a twenty something cave creature with more knuckles than fingers.

What the hell has happened here? I was going to play with my blog design, harnessing my new found computer wizardry and the Eblogger dark overlord has moved things!!!!!! This is worse than when the supermarket swapped the beer and the soft drink shelves around (there were tears and "why gods!" echoed throughout the shop).

Some progress is good, like for instance my work on the Dark Waters series, but why spoil a good thing Blogger - I guess I'll get used to it in time for them to change it all again.

Anyway I'm off to get creative. As a writer of pirate fantasy good old nature has provided a great source of inspiration. This was my road into work on the weekend...

Any carpenters feel like coming down this way and setting up the Aberystwyth Ark, I can pay you in pairs of animals!

Will not leave it so late next time. Out.

A to Z Challenge

The new book is 55,000 words in, not bad going for two months serious work. I always write the story through to the end first, being as detailed as I feel at the time of typing, which means there are some chapters full of imagery and one or two of little more than dialogue. This stage is always the hardest for me, I have ideas of what I want in my head and in this case I even wrote a plan (binned after the first week mind), but I find as I fumble my way through the chapters most of what I had in mind won't work in context of what I've already written.

This means that currently I'm on the last dance of the writing waltz: one step forward, one step back and two steps to the side. It sounds more frustrating than it actually is and in fact I prefer my books to evolve naturally, it usually means I have credible characters if they start objecting to the decisions I force them to make. As I said this is the last dance and once it's over I will have the spine to the new book, maybe even a credible title if I am lucky.
[image error] First Draft of Dark Waters: Part One (minus the blood)
The book itself is a kind of futuristic, sci-fi/fantasy adventure story. I wanted to do something a bit different from Dark Waters, when the sequel hit a brick wall, but upon reflection this new book is filled with the same dark humour and tragic, lawless characters, which probably says more about me than anything else.

I may be engrossed in the new work, but I haven't forgotten Dark Waters. With my sales soaring to 1,615 last month it's difficult to put it to one side. The feedback I have got from my debut has been great and I am really looking forward to polishing it up and maybe even doing a bit of extra work on the ending... Captain Huwzo is currently scrawling away at some new covers and I am hoping the Dark Waters Trilogy will be ready soon.

Everything in the pipeline is bubbling away excitedly and this month on the eighteenth I am featuring on the following blog with a little piece about pirates and book piracy. There's a blog for each day, all written by indie authors, so check it out and discover some indie talent. http://indiebookblogger.blogspot.co.uk/p/z-challenge-2012.html

For this week and next Dark Waters will be available for free and this will probably be the last ever promotion of the original draft. I am really eager for feedback as I tackle the re-draft and anyone that emails me (lefitzpatrick@hotmail.co.uk) their opinion/review/criticism/suggestion will get the trilogy free when it's released.

You know what they say all work and no play keeps me out of mischief so I should press on (breaking only briefly for the Pirates Adventure with Scientists - awesome book, fingers crossed for the film!).

Time to Step Back

Since June 2011 I have published a debut novel and graphic prose, sold over 1,100 books and made about £50 (which is enough to buy the largest jar of Jelly Beans on Amazon I thank you). Reviews for Dark Waters range from promising to good and my confidence as an author has not yet been shattered to tiny fragments. All in all I'd say this self-publishing lark has gone fairly well, taking into account the foxtrot of errors I made on the way of course.

What's more is my affair with indie writing has inspired my to push on into my ambitions. A new series of novels, publishing Dark Waters as an illustrated trilogy and maybe even getting around to a sequel are all jumping on the sideline, screaming "pick me! pick me!" and there's no reason why I can't get them all done this year if I focus.

Unfortunately I'm a self-publisher and any break from advertising/promotion severely damages my sale figures. I may be grand slamming (Da Iawn Wales) the creative side of writing at the moment, but each win in that field leaves me with a wooden spoon in my marketing success.

With only £50 to show for my strenuous efforts so far I am not in a position to give up my day job. So I wake, I work, I give my family the dinner hour and then I set to writing. It's two hours a night, maximum three to promote and write. Juggling the two fairly is like trying to stand on tennis balls whilst wearing stilts.

It's time to order my priorities. Sales or product? Actually this is an order predetermined a long time ago. I am a writer first, an author second. My passion is in words not sales figures and watching numbers crawl upwards will never be as satisfying as constructing sentences, paragraphs and chapters. Having very little time to fulfil my passion I have no option but to run the creative try and worry about marketing a conversion when the work has been done.

(It's a rugby metaphor - if you don't know anything about the sport just remember Wales rocks and everyone else can lump it).

Basically there comes a time for every self-publisher when they must return to the isolated, but comfortable hibernation of creative construction. The outside world will have to wait a while, but I promise it will be worth it.

This week is my last push at promotion. Dark Waters will be free for two days (19th March - 20th March) and this is your last chance to download it for free for a while. I think I'm long overdue scrawling my imagination all over this blog... So things are going to start to get messy.

KDP Select

Even in my most optimistic hour I never, in my wildest, and it does get pretty wild, imagination, ever imagined I would sell over 1000 books. For six months I have been tirelessly pushing my book to reach 100 sales, failing at Christmas by the hair of a white Santa Claus whisker and now. Well now things have changed significantly.

I signed up for KDP Select about two weeks ago, mainly because I was busy with the other life (yawn, yawn, stretch) and I figured going on there was a bit like playing the lottery, potential pay out for low effort and given that I doubt I could have sold a kidney the way my luck was going in December I figured I had nothing to lose.

[image error] Of course I had nothing to lose but I had a lot to gain. Now I've racked up over 1000 sales, which happened in less than three days! Okay most of these were part of a free promotion, but if I was in this for the money I'd be writing short, sexy vampire stories and churning them out by the dozen. The ultimate goal for my first book is exposure, not the desert kind that kills you, but the kind that might make my next book smoothly slip onto the Amazon electronic shelves. So I've achieved it. Yippee. But... and there is always a but...

Where do I go now? Do I split the book into three and broaden my market? Do I push the current book and try to hit a million? With a surge of 1000 book in three days, will I ever be satisfied for this one a day nonsense I would have killed for three months ago? Find out in our next episode...

Here's a little something from Captain Huwzo, he's been on the quiet side for a while, but due to a spout of out of character good behaviour I have seen fit to unshackle one of his hands so he can commence some doodles fitting a new book cover. It's once again bordering on brilliance and madness and I am still to make up my mind whether he needs to be locked up or praised for this.

The Passage

It's been a while since I let my rambling roll uncontrolled across the Internet. I'd like to say it was because I was busy working hard on my latest book, or because I had put my long suffering family first. Neither unfortunately are the culprit for my absence.

When December hit Wales, with its disappointingly mild temperatures, I had the foolish idea that I would reach 100 sales before Xmas. It would mean a lot of marketing and hard work, with a sprinkle of Christmas magic, but nevertheless I thought I could do it.

Week one - I campaigned harder than a Republican's wife and wow, would you look at that five immediate sales, only another eight to go and I'm singing Jingle Bells with half a bottle of Jack Daniels in a Reindeer costume.

Week two - minor upset - a bad - no scratch that a horrific review from an English professor who wanted me to unpublish, buy some self-help books and come back when I've learnt how to write - ouch, ouch, ouch! She had made it through the first three chapters and couldn't take anymore of my torturous assault on English literature (no she didn't say that - but if she did I would quote it on my front cover).

She did say that the book was far too long and that no book should ever be over 100,000 words and that I should think about editing it. Of course this was a blow (I had edited it for a start) - I had been happy with my 180,000 words. I liked the way, when printed, I could hide my cat behind my manuscript. Here I began to slide into author depression, self-doubt and loathing. Yo ho ho.


Week three - I got given a book, a big book - 802 pages big - never mind my cat, this one was beginning to freak out the dog. Allow me to present to you: Justin Cronin's the Passage.

I read this book every hour I was able, staying up into the early hours of the morning, skipping meals and missing Christmas. Ask me what I got for Christmas? I have no idea, because when I read this mammoth book nothing else existed around me. (Sorry family)

Nothing about this story should have worked. The premise was horrifically cliched, but delivered in a fresh new way that makes you forget that you are reading a vampire Apocalypse story spanning 100 years. The memory of this story still leaves me breathless and I finished it a week ago!

This is what I want from a story - this is what I want to create. Let my readers be left with the lingering erratic heartbeat of an exciting novel and to hell with what is proper. I've read a few Booker Prize winners and nominees and none of them come close to the Passage.

Literary snobbery is a plague on writers and for some illogical reason it always means more to us than the great reviews we get from genuinely pleased readers. As an indie writer I have no boundaries, my work is produced by my warped mind and delivered the way I want it to be. It's taken a month but finally I feel once again proud of my assault on English literature - so much so I've got a flanking attack waiting in the wings.


New Year resolution: Write what you want, Read what you want and listen to your good reviews!

If you need to get away, have a month to spare and if you don't operate heavy machinery, then read the Passage.

Happy New Year every one.

Read my full Review at Good Reads