Rod Tyson's Blog, page 44

KDP Select giveaway - Thank you!

Many thanks to all the good folk who downloaded 'Curse of Ancient Shadows' during the giveaway last week! After two days of hectic online promotion over 2,500 copies of COAS were distributed to Kindle owners worldwide, which, from what I've read elsewhere, seems to be fairly good for an experimental first try at marketing through KDP select 'free days'. :P
Ok, I freely admit that I'm still learning the ropes bigtime and it could take a lot of research and time for me to fully master the art of KDP, if ever, but I have to say that I'm really pleased with the results and think, for now, KDP select is the way forward.
More good news -  a few days after the promo, genuine sales are starting to hit a little boost too, which means I might even get paid one sunny day, Woohoo!
Lastly, but by no means least - for all my online (and offline) friends who have shown kindness and enthusiasm for my work -  know that I am incredibly grateful for your wonderful support. You all know who you are and you rock.

@ MorganPrinceCom @ SandraLindsey
@ jtvancouver @ SmithEClaire   ‏@vzambito
Chris Grey - http://flightofthegriffin.blogspot.co...
WLC Tweet teams - http://www.worldliterarycafe.com/ 
'Book your next read' - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Book-Y...  ('on the ball' this lot!)
The awesome 'Ruth' for sharing thoughts and motivations. 
x

Amazon Curse of Ancient Shadows GIVEAWAY!

Discover another world...STOP PRESS: 'Curse of Ancient Shadows' is now available FREE on Amazon Kindle for 48 hours only- starting 00.01AM Nov 1st and ending 11.59PM Nov 2nd.*

A fanatical evil has lain in wait for six hundred years.
Cat Celeste has no idea of the dark events surrounding her family’s ancient history. Her parents tried to protect her by moving to London shortly after she was born. Thirteen years later, the family curse has followed them, and her mother and father have disappeared in strange circumstances.
Now, with the help of her estranged grand-father Phillip, and her best friend Hetty, she must fight for her life to discover the bizarre truth, in a supernatural struggle that is a legacy of her ancient ancestors’ fallen kingdom.
Time is short. There can be only one winner in the deadly game.
The Dance of Fear has begun. 


Make sure you don't miss out and please remember to leave a review on Amazon :) Thank you and enjoy!

AMAZON UK LINK AMAZON US LINK




(*That's based on Pacific Standard Time, so for Europe/ UK the giveaway starts at 8.01AM GMT Nov 1st and ends 7.59AM Nov 3rd.)

Halloween ghosts!

To celebrate Halloween here's a scary excerpt from 'Ghastly Coincidence' - the sequel to the first Salem Drake novel 'The Orphan Stone'. As they investigate a series of strange events, Salem Drake and her friends find themselves spending a rainy night in a dark and spooky house in Central London...

Alistair woke abruptly and lay still, trying to recall the sound that his unconscious mind had just heard. An unnatural stillness pervaded the darkness, as if time had stopped and he was somehow caught between passing moments.       Was it a dream?       He felt around for the torch but couldn’t find it.      Something was wrong.      Hannah lay unmoving on the couch, her breath silent, her face a pallid grey in the dim light.      As he rose he saw that Salem had gone. He moved over to the window and with the palm of his hand felt the seat and duvet where she had rested.       All cold.       From outside he heard the subtle squeal of the little garden gate at the front of the house. As he positioned himself to see, instinct told him to hang back from the window. Remain unseen by anyone outside while he tried to ascertain who, or what, had made the noise. The street lamps were all out except for one, way off up the road, its light shining through the branches of intervening trees, casting vague shadows that moved back and forth across the wet tarmac and parked cars.Somebody was out there. A black silhouette, standing across the road on the opposite pavement. Watching the house.      From nowhere another appeared, closer, beside the garden gate. Unmoving, staring at him through the window.      Then others began materializing from the shadows further down the street. Difficult to make out at first. Indefinable, but unmistakeable. As his eyes adjusted he saw them gathering from every side, forming a sinister congregation outside the house. Though their features were hidden, every one of them seemed to stare right back at him, as if they knew he was there.      Quickly he went to Hannah and began trying to wake her.       ‘This isn’t right. This isn’t right at all,’ he hissed quietly. ‘Come on Hannah. Nap time’s over, we need to leave.’      She was cold, her lips blue.      He shook her vigorously, desperation mounting in his heart.      The movement broke the spell. Her mouth opened and she gasped, drawing deep breaths as if she had been drowning. Alistair gave a terrified prayer of thanks, just as noises came from the door at the back of the house.       A crash. The sound of breaking glass.      Someone was coming in.



Ghastly Coincidence is due for release in the new year. © copyright Rod Tyson 2012

An interview with Chris M Grey

 Hi Folks, Here he is!
Today I have a guest on my blog who is a great bloke, excellent author (of both 'Shadowland' and 'Flight of the Griffin') and, as an aspiring fellow YA fantasy writer, somebody who I feel I share a lot in common with. Namely, Chris M Grey. So, without further ado, let's get on with it!  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Rod, thanks for having me here on your blog, I’m thrilled to be chatting with you today... nice place!
Cheers Chris, glad you like it. :) Thanks for popping by.
1)Why do you write fantasy? Is there a deeper motivation that guides you?I guess I write fantasy because I find it hard to take life too seriously, so I can’t take my stories too seriously either. I like strangeness so I throw fantastical things into my stories because it makes it a lot more fun. I write to entertain myself first and foremost, so even when writing my book Shadowland, which is the story of Uther Pendragon, father to Arthur I had to throw a big dollop of fantasy at it; after all, who knows what is real and what isn’t? With things like crop circles, the northern lights and UFO sightings, who knows what is fantasy and what is ‘normal’ anyhow? Just maybe there really is magic and dragons and things... we just collectively ignore it as we believe it doesn’t exist!

2) Can you tell us anything about your next novel?Right now I’m finishing my third book, it’s called Chaos Stormand is the sequel to my book The Flight of the Griffin. I’m almost done, I’m about three... maybe four chapters from the end, but it’s taking time to get juuuuuust right... I’m actually itching to get to the next book. I can’t wait to start something fresh. I’ve got lots of ideas, I think it will be something historically based again like Shadowland and of course there will be a fantasy, fantastical side to it, I just can’t resist! I’m tempted by the Victorian age, or maybe something set a little earlier, but I also like the idea of a story set during the Second World War... I can’t wait to see which way it will go!
I can sympathize - endings can be tricky to tie up!

3) Are events in your novels ever based on someone you know, or events in your own life?I’ve been lucky enough to have travelled an awful lot and some of the places I’ve been do indeed form the backdrop in some of my scenes. To give an example, in The Flight of the Griffin there is a desert city that I name as Dhurbar, but the inspiration for it comes from a mixture of places, certainly both Fez and Marrakesh in Morocco with probably also a bit of  Jaipur and Fatehpur Sikri, the deserted city in India thrown in as well. As for people, well I’m sure some of the characters in my books have some basis in the people I’ve met, but not from any close friends or family.

4) Name one entity that you feel has supported you in your writing outside of family members.Outside of family, probably Amazon. When Amazon opened its KDP programme allowing indie writers to place their books on the same platform as fully supported published writers it personally gave me a boost. I don’t necessarily ‘need’ to make loads of money writing, it would be very nice, but as a writer I need my books to be read.It wouldn’t be fulfilling enough for me to write a book, have it bound and printed and then put it up on my shelf. I crave the feedback of readers and Amazon gives me the chance to put my work in front of readers like no other platform, so they support my efforts like nobody else can! It would help, however, if they paid UK authors by wire transfer on US sales rather than send a cheque which costs more to cash than it’s actually worth... suppose I just need to sell more books and get bigger cheques!I do also love Goodreads. Of all the author/reader places to go it is simply the best online community.
If I can just mention that ‘inside’ of family members my greatest support comes from my children, I do after all write for a younger audience. My daughter, Yasmin lily hasn’t actually read or been read either of my books yet as she is only seven, but she still tells me I’m the best writer in the world, which s wonderful to hear! My son, Dylan has read both books and tells me they are indeed the best books ever written and is grabbing chapters of Chaos Storm to read even before I’ve edited them. He’s twelve and his support means absolutely everything to me... well it would wouldn’t it! 
5) Do you see writing as a career?I would absolutely love to write full time and do hold onto the belief that one day I will be selling enough books to be able to do just that. As it stands at the moment, however, I’m a long way off from that so no it’s not my career its more my not so lucrative vocation, but I’m pushing in that direction. For the moment I’m just delighted knowing my books are being read and when a total stranger takes the time to write me an encouraging review it gives me reason to keep going.
6) Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?I find it all both a delight and a challenge. At the moment tying up all the lose strings and coming up with a ‘big’ ending for Chaos Storm is a huge challenge. I don’t write to a set plan and have no idea where my stories are leading. I so want to get it right and it is flowing at the moment, but there is always a nagging doubt, ‘will it do the job?’ It’s a bit like telling a good joke with everyone smiling, huge expectation and anticipation on their faces... only you fluff the punch line... big pressure!  Do you go through the same process?
I tend to write 'organically', which means I make up a lot of the content of my novels as I go along. I totally understand the punch line analogy, coming up with something clever and unique right at the end is the hardest single thing about writing a story in my opinion.

7) Who designed your covers?I did. I’m no control freak but when it came to finding someone to do my covers, I looked and looked but didn’t come up with anyone I was happy with or could afford, so I had a go myself. The cover to Shadowland is a picture I took in France with a little Photoshop work done to it and the cover for The Flight of the Griffin is a montage of my own sketches with a few objects placed on, then I took a picture... Of the two I would like to get a better cover done for Shadowland and maybe some day I will.I have noticed that when I look around at other books in the YA genre it seems that having some young twenty something male ripping his shirt off to expose a six pack sells books... but then the readers may get disappointed when they start reading and there isn’t some smouldering stud just a few grubby kids throwing magic or talking with wolves... Rod, do you have a six pack and will you be using it on the cover of your next book?
Ahem...of course I do. Though if I placed it on the cover of my novels it probably wouldn't help them sell. Wait...we are talking a six pack of beer here, right?

8) Do you intend to kill off any of your chars for your next book? (Don’t tell us who…of course.)Oooh, that’s a good idea! I might kill them all off so I don’t have to make it a trilogy! There will of course be a few deaths, at this point I’m still trying to decide who is annoying me the most!
9) While you are writing, do you ever feel as if you were one of the characters?No, I feel more like some omnipotent being looking down and merely reporting on the trials and tribulations of my characters. Of course as an omnipotent being I have the power to cast a few lightning bolts or sink a ship from my characters to liven up the plot which is fun! Freaks them right out! I especially like toying with Bartholomew Bask, the fat greedy merchant in The Flight of the Griffin. He is also in Chaos Storm where I mess with him royally! Maybe I’ll give him some horrible death...
Ooo - can't wait. I never liked him either...

10) When you sit down to write, in which location or environment do you feel most productive? I tend to grab moments, especially when I’m editing but the best time for me to really get down and write is late at night, when my family has gone to sleep and the dogs have quietened down. I’m lacking a really good spot to write, I write on a laptop so tend to move about. I sit at the kitchen table, or outside on a warm evening and then close to the log fire in the winter. What I would really like is a study, lined with books and a desk and comfortable chair at just the right height, but I’m still working on that.

11) Have you ever approached literary agents for representation? Have you done so recently? Tell us about your experiences.Hmmm...  okay...well yes, that’s a story in itself, but you did ask. I did have an agent a few years back after I had written my first book.  After her representing me for a couple of months she said she had two of the ‘big six’ publishers interested and was auctioning the rights; going back and forth between them. I was getting calls from her asking if I was happy including US rights... then film rights... and then I got a call at home directly from a third smaller publisher telling me not to sign anything until they could make an offer... very exciting times and at that point I totally believed I was the next J.K.Rowling, I had been ‘discovered!’ But then it all fell totally flat, everyone backed off and I was left thinking, what the f*&^%! It was very sobering, brought me down to earth and I stopped writing for over a year. I don’t know if other authors have gone through this and it’s normal, but that was my experience with an agent and the publishing community. I haven’t approached anyone else and I don’t know if I will. My plan is to have three books up on Amazon, build up sales and... get discovered, or make my fortune first as an Indie - either will do!
Crikey, exciting stuff. We're all rooting for you Chris!

12) How do you market your work? What avenues have you found work best for you?I tried Smashwords and despite loving the platform and the idea that they can market to people like B&N and Sony books etc, but unfortunately I didn’t sell many books at all. I gave a whole bunch away during their summer madness giveaway and I got some fantastic reviews, but sales didn’t follow.
Right now I’m a big Amazon fan, I recently offered Shadowland as a free giveaway for two days and got 8,403 downloads! One week later I have had three really nice reviews and 142 book sales, the most I’ve ever had in a week. I did a lot of preparatory work  before and sent details of the free days to a whole bunch of websites to ‘get the word out’ and it seems to have worked. I use twitter, but I don’t really see how it is helping me. I can’t stand facebook, but I do have a facebook page... least I did last time I looked. It always seems full of irrelevant chatter about how many chicken McNuggets someone ate last night or what a simply wonderful weekend auntie had in Wales. Bah humbug...I have a blog, not as nice as yours... *grins* unfortunately, I guess I’m socially inept.
You're getting lots of attention on Goodreads right now I notice, maybe the word is finally getting out about your work. I tend to struggle a bit with FB too, I hang out on Twitter and Goodreads mostly for similar reasons. :) 
13) Do you have any advice to give aspiring writers?Write for the fun of it, there isn’t a lot of money in it! Be yourself and be original and most important of all, get a good editor. However good you think you are you never see all the typos and rogue commas. Hyphens are my nemesis and those little dots... that I keep putting everywhere, exclamation marks are also tempting but usually not necessary! A good editor will get rid of them all, I can recommend a fantastic one if anyone out there is interested, she certainly sorts my manuscripts out!

14) Is it just a coincidence that you have the same name as the male lead in Fifty Shades of Grey? Is this an issue with your online presence?So you’re a big fan of female porn eh!  <Umm...actually no. My wife is though :D >For quite some time I had no idea why female teenage bloggers were sending me giggly emails delighting in my name, then one broke through the blushes to mention that the main protagonist in the fifty shades was a certain Christian Grey. So, being a writer with a wild fantasy imagination, I happily tell them all that of course that’s me, just don’t tell my wife!

15) When and why was the last time you got really pissed (angry) about something?I don’t really get angry, I honestly don’t remember the last time. I get upset about the environment or the mess our society is in, but not really angry, more just resigned to doing my best in my little corner of the world. My day job is raising capital and awareness for a company that replants the rainforest in places like Brazil and Nicaragua, so I hear about all the bad stuff going on with illegal logging and corrupt governments, but this is at least a company trying to do something positive about the problems.

16) When and why was the last time something made you laugh out loud with joy?I laugh a lot, especially with my kids. I have a very strange sense of humour I think and will often laugh at things that others look at straight faced. In the same regard, I don’t laugh at those video programmes that show people falling over at weddings or making fools of themselves on stage, which my wife and kids think are hilarious.

17) What would you do if you woke up one morning next to an Ewok?I would probably figure I had been smoking forbidden substances and berate myself for returning to sins from the past. Then I would figure it must be my wife dressed up for another of our ‘fifty shades’ experiences and spank her soundly with my lightsaber!
Yikers! Hey...did they use lightsabers in Fifty Shades? 

18) Do you have any ‘Harry Potter’ type injury scars? If so, how did you get them?No, miraculously I have no lightning shaped scars, awful broken bone irregularities or even unsightly moles... which is pretty boring of me and I apologise profusely for being so uninteresting! I’ve done my best, honest. I’ve jumped out of planes, dived to dizzying depths on shipwrecks and visited some decidedly dodgy places. I had a gun pulled on me in the Negev desert and a knife in the backstreets of Istanbul, but could I get a decent scar? Could I  *&$”&^! 
LMAO
19)  You live in Barcelona, in Spain. How’s that working out for you?Barcelona is great, I love it here. I live in a house in the middle of the forest, but just a half hours drive outside the city. I’ve been here twelve years now and this is the longest I’ve been in one place since I left the UK in 1982... I’ve lived all over the world from Hong Kong and Manila to rural France and Amsterdam, where I met my wife. The funny thing is that when I go back to England, to Braintree in north Essex, not too far from you I think? I feel more like a foreigner than I do anywhere else, it’s a weird feeling. 
Just down the road in fact - I never knew you were from Essex! I hear you about feeling like a foreigner. I used to get that when I lived in the USA. Coming back to the UK for a week and everything looks really odd.

20) Is it sunny? Can I come visit and help myself to stuff out of your fridge for a couple of months?Lots of sun but because its the north of Spain it also has a good winter, its snows at my house most winters and there is good skiing just two hours drive away. I would be delighted if you came to visit and the fridge is yours to raid. Plenty of beers and wine but you may want to bring your own British bacon and sausages as I’m vegetarian... There are abundant wild boars in the woods around us so you could always chase them and prepare your own!
Thanks for reading folks - and cheers Chris, my suitcase is packed and I'm booking a flight right now :) (The wild boars are safe btw!) Great answers, it's been lots of fun. You sure lead an interesting life, thanks for telling us about it. All the very best for the future mate!
Chris M Grey is the author of two (nearly three) Young Adult Fantasy novels. I read both of them and thought they were great - check them out here -

Shadowland by C.M Grey Flight of the Griffin by C.M GreyChris's Blog Chris on Goodreads Chris on Twitter - @cgray129

Thoughts on successful self publishing

Welcome to the asylum! As a self pub author, I've been engaged in a little soul searching of late - plumbing the depths, searching for universal meaning, dodging the strait jacket...
Here goes - 

Self published authors, in general, do not pick up the pen because they see themselves as becoming rich and famous. They do so because they have a story that needs to be shared, love the feeling of accomplishment that comes from writing, gain enjoyment from the escapism or any number of other humble and worthwhile pursuits.

I love it when I sell a few novels. We self pubbers are like that…we take comfort in the little things. Like counting beans. But, after proudly listing our work on Amazon and/or Smashwords (complete with eye catching cover!) the question that haunts us then is: how to market our ‘precious’? 

First on the agenda has to be defining and then finding your market. It’s not as easy as it sounds. I’ve been writing for the young adult market for a while; one that is notoriously difficult to pin down. Though let's face it: this can be true of any market or genre, particularly when approached through the medium of online social networking, but for self pub authors it is vitally important to grasp this nettle - but where to start? There are many, many blogs around that cater for genres and offer reviews. These can be helpful if you are truly confident in your writing, but they are too often swamped with requests to review.

Goodreads is the best single vehicle for promo I have found so far - despite its non- intuitive interface, it's a huge playground for folk who love books - what more could you want? Keep at it and you'll get used to the weird way it deals with the, largely genre driven, interest groups. It could be just me though, but I found Goodreads difficult to comprehend at first, but then, after playing around for a while, something finally ‘clicked’ and I developed the kind of mental map that avid social networkers need to assist them as they navigate their way around. 

Also, consider offering your novels as free downloads on Goodreads. In fact, don’t just consider it. Do it! It’s a harsh reality: you won’t make any money – but people appreciate this and it will inevitably attract folk (many of them fellow authors) who love what you do and are only too happy to leave positive comments and reviews that act as useful signposts to travelers passing through your neck of the woods.

The daunting reality is that there are a huge number of self published novels out there, some of them excellent, many of them not so, but this constant flood, along with the propensity of many authors to get their friends and family to five star review their work on Amazon & co. has created a sea of white noise that potential readers have to wade through to find the good stuff (i.e: yours).
To a reader, this is not necessarily a problem, but to an author, these vagaries present almost insurmountable odds of becoming noticed in any way and catching the magic ‘word of mouth’: an exclusivity not too dissimilar to the seemingly random subjective screening process found among agents and the traditional publishing industry.

!anemonehp nwo ruoy gnitaerC


A Dalek. With a moustache.Successful ideas like Harry Potter, Doctor Who & co. have become phenomena – in the sense that they have, ultimately, created their own market and have ceased to rely upon genres that fit into conventional market groups (YA, Fantasy, Dystopia, Crime Fiction etc.). They have become, in essence, their own genre. This phenomenal redefining of boundaries is also partially responsible for crossover markets, where fans of the original material feed off of stuff aimed at a slightly different audience. e.g: the now familiar adult/ young adult crossover where adults seek material aimed at teenagers. (This is why, in my opinion, the concept of traditional, well defined ‘genres’ can be a slightly misleading concept.)

The effects of this unique genre building phenomena can be felt by any self published author, even on a tiny scale - it's where it all starts.
Recent successful self pubber Jon Locke advocated what he has coined 'loyalty transfer' where personal communication and friendship, through social networking, creates word of mouth about your writing by encouraging individuals who like your particular 'style'.
Many authors instinctively know this already, and supportive online friends are a beautiful thing, but the problem for many of us (including me) is fitting effective online promotion consistently around family, spouse and day job.

So, I’m pushed for time. How do I make this work? 


The answer is -  write!

Yup, all that social networking can make you forget that you are an author. Sounds obvious, you don't need me to tell you. But with an ocean of possibilities and people out there, your time and inclination to do so may be gobbled up by late night Twitter & Facebook sessions. Even if your social networking suffers, the most important thing you can do for yourself is to build a ‘platform’ of several novels. Develop your writing and work towards excellence: 'the big idea', and ultimately, that mind bendingly compelling series of novels that will make folk sit up and take notice of YOUR phenomena.

BUILDING A WORLD & THE BIG IDEA

Most successful self pub authors, (Jon Locke, Amanda Hocking & co.) all had a deep back list of work written before they became famous. Creating a 'world' that people subscribe to is very important. This world consists not just of the ideas, characters and settings in your novel, but also pace, chapter length, word count, writing style. These elements, taken as a whole, create a recognizable product that people can relate to others and also come back to, in anticipation of a repeat of the positive experience they discovered when reading your first novel. 

So, something for debut self pub authors to consider is that the first novel is only the beginning - stick at it, create that world. Build it and they will come.
As you write, don’t pay too much attention to traditional genres. The boundaries defining them have, especially in recent years, begun to metamorphose in line with the demands of readers who are expecting ever more compelling and groundbreaking content. FYI - JK Rowling didn’t write to a genre when she began scribbling back in the nineties. Write and let the joy of doing so guide you – it’ll really come through in your work. 


If anybody (agent, publisher, reader or even lowly author) were to proclaim that they had a sure idea of which authors will be successful after their first publication, or what 'world' will become the next big thing, I’d have to say they were bonkers. These trends are traditionally unpredictable and resilient to premonition. They will remain so. 
However, the one consistent element that returns time and again with successful authors is the extent and quality of the ‘world’ that they develop. The greater attention paid to this, the more likely it is to be a great story, catch peoples’ imagination and have them subscribe to it. (That is, believe in it!). This doesn't mean throwing everything including the kitchen sink in  - stick with quality over quantity - otherwise things can get bogged down. 
It also helps if your novels contain bucket loads of tension – but that’s something I’ll address in a future post.

CONCLUSION’Y’ BIT

From day one my own approach to being an author has been a long term plan. Up until now the goal has been to write more than I promote. I’m half way through my third novel (the sequel to The Orphan Stone) and am actively world building. As an intermittent blogger, twitterer, and Google + person, depending on which way the wind is blowing and whether I have something to say, I’ve also been gradually building a promotional platform through reviews, blog posts, interviews and giveaways, which will hopefully serve me well when I feel comfortable enough to bring a collection of novels to a wider audience and begin promoting them in earnest as a single product. Having a bunch of novels available means that each one will benefit from the attention gained by the others – something a lone novel cannot achieve. That’s the plan anyway, so far, it’s going well.

That's it for now - thanks for reading! Hopefully this post has been able to provoke within you a few thoughts and contemplations of your own. If so, let’s hear them! :)

In the near future I’ll be posting articles similar to this about hints and tips I’ve learned on building tension in a story, along with other useful insights and technical help with (free) methods that can enhance your online promotion.

More later!

R  x

Five Sentence Fiction Challenge!

My good friend Jo-Anne from Canada has prompted me to re-enter the five sentence fiction challenge over on Lillie McFerrin's blog - it's a lot of fun - how could I resist?
How does it work? Lillie provides one word a week - the aim is to write a short piece of flash fiction in only five sentences around the word. This week's word was 'Faces'.

Here's my entry - :)

They were just tribal wooden masks, the faces of long forgotten gods. Hung in the rear of the shop, just above the filing cabinet filled with rare birds' eggs.
The African gentleman who had sold them to him - so softly spoken and genuine, seemed relieved to be rid of them.
The price had been good, and he already had several collectors interested in buying them. But now he sat, frozen with fear at the counter, in the dark, long after he had closed the shop, listening to the masks whispering among themselves.

Strange Newspaper Articles

I'm always on the lookout for reports of genuinely strange and unusual events that seem to have been missed by others. Here's a series of odd articles from Hampshire in the UK that I discovered which seem to tell a tale. If you click on each newspaper you'll see the full size scan which should make them easier for you to read. Make of them what you will.

The Summer Haiku Challenge giveaway!

Welcome to the summer haiku challenge giveaway! The aim of the game is to have fun and create a humorous, insightful or just plain crazy haiku poem to do with a subject that is close to your heart, such as a pet, a work in progress, a favorite food or anything else that floats your boat.

The winner will receive a free e-book copy of the YA fantasy novel 'Curse of Ancient Shadows' as well as YA Dark fantasy 'The Orphan Stone' along with a free Amazon gift certificate worth UK£10.00! (Or the equivalent in Europe, US, Canada or Australia.)

As a general guide, Japanese Haiku verse follows the format of 5-7-5 pattern (when translated to English) - so that's 5 syllables on the first line, 7 the second and 5 the third.

For example - here's my haiku verse about our cat -

Outside, my cat mews,I feed her well, she grows fat,Soon, I'll let her in.
Ok, the word 'I'll' could be construed as two syllables  :P - so the rules aren't too hard and fast. Though points will be given for trying to adhere to the format the main aim is to just have fun! Enter as many verses as you like as comments to this post.
The winner will be announced in a week on Sat 11th August. :)
Here's a couple more just to whet the appetite -

Haikus are easyBut sometimes they don't make sense Refrigerator
and one of my faves -

In deep sleep hear sound cat vomit hairball somewhere will find in morning
Be aware they don't have to be funny :D

The literary festival that never was (and using the 'Spongebob' as a unit of measurement) -

This post is in divided into halves – the first bit, and then…the ‘other’ bit…about the Kidwelly ebook festival in Wales this past weekend, for which ‘Curse of Ancient Shadows’ was shortlisted, along with five other excellent self pub authors, for the £10,000 author award.After posting on twitter and Google + the past couple of weeks how happy I was that I’d been shortlisted for this prize I now feel the responsibility to those who follow my work the need to explain the gory details of exactly what happened at the festival.
The first bit - It’s worth noting, to those who have the ‘sock sight’ that before we set off on our journey I deliberately wore my colorful Harlequin socks to ‘shake up the bag’ and usher some good magic into the proceedings. However, evidently Harlequin socks (pic) are agents of chaos – their unfathomable nature being responsible for introducing strange and unpredictable currents into a person’s life… The dread socks of chaos
Never one to do things by halves (and having not had a holiday for a very long while) – we made the weekend a family adventure that would take in a few of the ancient pre historic sites around Britain before we got to the festival in South Wales. The journey across the UK was measured by my daughter in terms of ‘Spongebobs’ – a way of measuring time in terms of how many episodes of Spongebob Squarepants (at 10 mins each) it would take before we arrive. Hence – ‘We’re nearly there – only four more Spongebobs’ would be an apt use of the term. The giant pre historic standing stones at the Avebury stone circle were truly awe inspiring and we had a perfect afternoon picnicking and wandering around in the oh-so-very-rare and beautiful sunshine. Afterward, we buzzed down to the West Kennet long barrow a couple of miles away - and in sight of Silbury Hill (a huge man made hill created in pre-history for an entirely unknown purpose). It was fun to see the kids playing hide and seek in the 3650 year old long barrow as they ran around the chambers underground where the ancient people buried their dead. I couldn’t help feeling that those who built the place would have approved – after all, they spent their difficult lives building their own families & communities in the face of the vagaries of nature, and would have surely been appreciative of the life and purpose that their own children brought to their families. 
Anyway, enough of all that. After taking the M4 into Wales we found our hotel for the night near Kidwelly in anticipation of the ebook festival. We were having a great time and were looking forward to more fun and games (and some beer for Dad) the next day, regardless of who won the prize.
Ok –here’s ‘The other bit…’ – I warned you…So what the fuck happened at the Kidwelly ebook-festival?!We knew it was a bad sign when, at around 11.30am, we pulled into the huge car park at the venue and saw not even twenty cars. We let out a simultaneous gasp and knew what it meant (the wife and I are veterans of many trade shows and know the signs of an event that has crapped out). Little did we know that for the next hour we would be transported to a Twilight Zone which would eclipse any previously understood concepts of the dreadful scourge of ‘show organiser incompetence’. As we came to a stop next to a van, one of the trade stand folk wound down his window (so sorry bud that I didn’t get your name) and told us ‘If you’re here for the e-book festival it’s been a total flop…you might as well turn around and go to the beach because nobody’s turned up!’And that’s exactly what happened – shoulda listened to his advice and left right there and then. Because for an event that was billed as anticipating 20,000 visitors, quite literally, NOBODY turned up! You don’t need to read that again…but here it is…Nobody!When we got there on Sunday it was like a ghost town. The only people who were present were the security staff and the poor trade stand folk (who I sincerely hope are going to get their stall fees back for sitting around on their asses staring at each other for a day and a half) and a band, who were really good but only played a couple of tracks before they decided to call it a day.
I’m just telling exactly how it happened. We were amazed! For the hour that we were there we stepped into a surreal form of limbo where the few people at the festival/ event/ thing had no idea what the hell to do. A rare situation so bizarre, so intangible that, in the same morbidly voyeuristic way in which rubber neckers slow down for a car crash, I stood beside the face painter’s tent and watched with a grandstand view of this brief moment of complete collapse, widespread bemusement and utter desolation for so many hopeful individuals (including myself and my family).As word filtered through among the few people present that the event was closing immediately, stall holders wasted no time getting their vehicles onto the site so they could pack up and escape, the band almost fled and the surly security guards stooged around aimlessly in gaggles. I could see the large marquees around the site that had been set up for author talks, all of which were entirely empty – devoid of both authors and attendees. (At least the authors lined up for those talks had the sense to stay away. That’s where an agent comes in handy no doubt…)
Finishing off a pint of Wales’ finest real ale that I only narrowly obtained from the bar five minutes before it closed, I watched the burger van shut its hatch and began to wonder if I was the only shortlister that had turned up, and that the other shortlisters had gotten wind of what was happening somehow and wisely left to go home the day before. This wasn’t so - I’ve read on Tin Larrick’s blog (another shortlister) that, while my family and I were obliviously getting our faces painted and awaiting some kind of announcement, the award giving had already begun in the main building, without any warning/ announcement and two hours earlier than billed. Admittedly, to pass the time while things developed my daughter and I were chasing each other around the huge, empty tents on site like crazy people…I mean, how often do you get to do that in life?   They probably should have announced the award giving over the tannoy, but realistically it sounds like Julian Ruck, the (somewhat beleaguered and massively embarrassed) festival organiser, just wanted to get things over with as quickly as possible and had no time for such things, even though we’d met and shook hands very briefly ten minutes earlier at the gate.Tin Larrick describes what happened at the awkward prize giving very eloquently and captures the overall atmosphere far better than I ever could  – you should check out the bit of the festival that I (thankfully!) missed on his blog here. 
Read that, laugh & weep – and then get back here afterwards.
(BTW – Congratulations to Zelda Rhiando on her excellent novel Caposcripti for winning the award! Wishing you all the very best for the future! :))
Naturally enough we quickly got out of there, taking away with us a feeling of disappointment (I mean, if someone was going to actually celebrate ‘disappointment’ as a festival, they might consider taking a few notes from the organisers of the Kidwelly ebook fest!)  Disappointment in no way because we didn’t win the e-book award - I was way, way beyond that and was fully expecting the organisers not to honor it in the light of the rapidly unfolding events, but disappointment because of the failure of something we believed in. Namely – the promotion of self published authors and ebooks as a viable alternative to print books, to the wider public. But I think that was a big part of the reason no one came: poor promotion.
There were also IMHO many other factors that contributed to the festival’s zero attendance.
My spidey senses were tingling even before we left Suffolk to make the 320 mile trip to Wales that the ebook festival was taking place on the same weekend as the Olympic opening ceremony in London. National sports events and weather can both have a drastic effect on event turnouts – I’ve experienced this many times at various kinds of fairs in both the UK and the USA.Another negative factor: bad location. Kidwelly, though it is a beautiful part of Wales, it’s not located centrally enough to encourage people to travel from the primary centres of population.Lastly, the admission cost of the event was WAY over priced for what it was: one burger van, one small stage and around twenty trade stands? People aren’t daft – that shit just isn’t going to ride with folk…sorry…Whoever Julian Ruck was taking his marketing and promotion advice from, he should be taken out and buried in a deep hole somewhere – this stuff isn’t rocket science.
What did make the day enjoyable in spite of its catastrophic failure was the fact that the small number of entertainers who we met were good fun – from Sir Field-Mouse, the lonely eleven foot tall knight on stilts who gently took our young daughter’s hand and led us to the main area, to the most incredible face painter and make-up artist ever to wield a brush (I think she was Sir Field Mouse’s girlfriend?). Also counting our friend the circus jester and her impressive selection of hula-hoops (man, she’s good – her hips barely move!) I would be amiss if I didn’t mention the band. Even though their audience could be counted on one hand, their jaunty folk groove made what was otherwise a dismal affair into something that was enjoyed by just a few who were still trying bravely to ‘make it happen’ before the plug was pulled.
None of this is motivated by sour grapes, that’s just not my style. Having had trade stands at many, many fairs (including Gen Con and Origins in US), I know how it works and the factors that go into why they fail. It’s clear that, due to the gross incompetence of the organisers, a lot of people lost their investment of time, money and hard effort, which is simply unacceptable. But the motivation for the festival was, in its basic concept as a promotional venue for the new phenomena of self pub authors, a noble one and is something that should not be lost. I do feel it will likely be picked up in some alternate form by some other person/ organisation who has the vision to see the value in such a thing over the next few years and handle it all in a much less incompetent way…
The wife, who is never one to mince her words, said of Julian Ruck ‘I could kick him for fucking this up – it was a golden opportunity to bring something great to the world of self pub authors.’What to put it down to? Me? – I blame it on the Harlequin socks…;)





















all images © copyright Rod Tyson 2012

Kidwelly E-Book festival - here we come!

It's funny that the logo for the Kidwell e-book festival has a black cat in it because right now, I feel a bit like Schrodinger's Cat. Along with four other hopeful shortlisted authors, only one of whom is in line for the Kidwell ebook £10,000 award for best self pub author in the UK. Any one of us could win, but we won't find out until they announce the winners on Sunday night! Yaargh!
A cat in a box - not dead BTWRight now the possibilities and the future feel full of potential - but we won't know until someone opens up that box to see what's happened to poor old moggy.

Can't deny it though, we are going to have a blast. All packed, food bought, Lily's toys for the journey sorted and route thoroughly and 'obsessively' (I have been informed by the wife) investigated using Google Street View. All in readiness for our gruelling drive across the UK to Wales! We're avoiding London and the M25 London orbital road like the plague because of the complete uncertainty surrounding the inevitable traffic gridlock that will occur (let's face it, the M25 suffers from this regularly under normal conditions. Throw the massive increase in traffic due to the Olympics into the mix and to my eyes it looks like bad news around London for the whole weekend, but especially for the opening ceremony...)
We even splashed out on having that annoying grinding noise from the back end of our old car fixed (turned out we needed a new suspension spring) - which in retrospect was a good idea, as losing the back axle on the M4 motorway between London and Wales would suck big time.
Avebury Stone Circle in Wiltshire
& West Kennet Long Barrow (top) Yup - it's Kidwelly e-book festival time! We're off to the very first festival in the UK to celebrate the self published author! Woot!On the way we're going to stop off and do some sight seeing - the stone circles at Avebury, Wiltshire - the 3650 year old West Kennet long barrow/ burial mound close by - (and, of course, the bar at the Harvester restaurant next to our hotel..:)
The fact that Curse of Ancient Shadows has been shortlisted for the £10,000 Kidwelly e-book prize is just wonderful...we'll be posting pics and an extensive description of our family quest across the UK when we get back.
Please wish us luck - you never know  - we might even win the prize!....:D