Rod Tyson's Blog, page 45

New illustrations for The Orphan Stone - YA Dark Fantasy novel

Hello everyone,
I've been busy this past week creating some cool new artwork for my latest YA Dark fantasy/ mystery novel The Orphan Stone. However, the substantial amount of mouse clicking involved in the process has, admittedly, left me with a sore index finger, but I feel it was all worth it! :P
I really love doing this kind of thing and am very much a visual person - the pics below show characters or scenes within the novel as Salem and her cousin Tim uncover the strange mysteries surrounding the legend of Red Meg in a race against time to prevent the completion of a hideous ritual.
Click on each image for a larger version.Enjoy! :)



© copyright Rod Tyson 2012 all rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced or used in any format without the author's permission.

Beautiful blogger award!

[image error] My wonderful friend (and fellow Pingu enthusiast) Bernadette Davies  has just informed me that she's awarded me the 'Beautiful Blogger' award! Woohoo! Thanks B! x :D
(never thought of myself as beautiful though - more sort of unshaven and gnarly).

Check out her cool blog by clicking the link below. She's always posting interesting stuff that makes a great read -

http://bernadette-davies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/beautiful-blogger-award-woot-go-me.html

Now, I have to select 7 fellow bloggers to pass on the reward to, as well as come up with 7 random facts about myself. So here goes -

Seven magnificent bloggers who's legends the bards will tell tales of for many years to come-

http://www.christiesbookreviews.com/ - Check out Christie Cote's excellent book review blog.
http://proserpinecravedfor.blogspot.co.uk - Proserpine Craving book reviews -quirky and fun.
http://goingforcoffee.net/ - Jo-Anne Teal from Vancouver - wonderful soul and excellent writer.
http://www.morganprince.com/ - Morgan Prince - I wish everyone had her great optimism.
http://nyxbookreviews.blogspot.co.uk/ - Celine at Nyx Book Reviews- check out her awesome new V-logs.
http://lilliemcferrin.com/ - Lillie's blog is home to the Five Sentence Fiction challenge - Fun!
http://rjropsen.blogspot.co.uk/ - R.J Ropsen is an interesting blogger who has just finished 'The Silenced'

Seven (very) random facts about yours truly -
 1) I am a spongebob fan.
 2) I recently played through all three Gears of War games in a series of evening sessions that took me over a week. I admit it, I am a nerd. I am at peace with this.
 3) I do not own a suit.
 4) I like cooking dinner for my family and singing at the same time (usually with a glass of red in one hand and a skillet in the other - I would probably make a great fry cook.)
 5) I sculpt Moshi Monsters out of Play Dough for my daughter - we have a fine collection.
 6) I think brightly colored socks are important to make you feel good.
 7) I often use the people in my life as inspiration for the characters in my novels. Upon being informed of this recently, my father-in-law, who is, to a large extent, the inspiration for Phillip in 'Curse of Ancient Shadows' appeared shocked and said 'Oh dear!' which gave us all a good chuckle.

Shortlisted for the Kidwell eFestival Awards!!!

Right now I'm speechless, but have about calmed down enough to type: just received an email from the Kidwell e Festival admin that 'Curse of Ancient Shadows' has been shortlisted for the premier e-book award in the UK!! Yikers!
Along with four other great authors (good luck - can't wait to meet you! :D )-
the final winner will be revealed at the Kidwell e festival in Wales on 28th/ 29th July!
The Kidwell e-festival is really unique - it truly blazes a trail for the future of literary festivals worldwide, by addressing the nature of the rapid changes that are taking place within the publishing industry today - which is pretty mindblowing.
But don't take it from me :) -
To quote:

'The Kidwell-e Festival is designed not only to richly reward the best contemporary popular fiction but also to serve as a focus for, and incentive to all writers throughout the English-speaking world, especially those as yet unpublished' - 

Check out the Kidwell-e festival! 

Oh yes, and there's ten grand at stake - that's an awful lot of comic books and bubble gum! (though judging by the amount the cat eats we're going to need it...  :P)

Where's my top hat and suit? We're off to Wootsville baby!

The Orphan Stone has just been released!

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My second novel :D Completing it and releasing it on Kindle and Smashwords has reminded me why I love writing so much! <Puffs chest proudly> Right now I'm working on some new art for the story which will be posted very soon. Here's the 'back cover' description -

Red Meg, Red Meg come out to play…
Salem Drake and her hippy mum Ruby are nearing the end of their crazy summer road trip around Britain. They drive into the quiet English village of Baverstock and soon discover that the place has a dark secret. A murder on the grounds of a local country hall draws them into a series of events that are part of an ancient and terrible legacy and soon Salem and her cousin Tim find themselves in a race against time against a hideous entity from the past.
Using her deductive powers, and an affinity for the spirits of the dead, Salem embarks upon a bizarre and dangerous mission that risks both her and Tim becoming trapped for all eternity in the nightmare of the Unworld.

Please check out The Orphan Stone by clicking the appropriate image below - if you like horror & dark fantasy, you're sure to love this action packed, suspense filled tale!

Take care and be sure to check back shortly for fresh updates! ;)


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Kidwell eFestival

Just submitted 'Curse of Ancient Shadows' to the Kidwell international ebook awards! It's a fun packed weekend in Wales involving all sorts of family fun on July 28th and 29th 2012.
First prize is £10,000 -
Woot! Fingers crossed! :P
Click here to find out about the Kidwelly Festival.

The Orphan Stone - Preliminary Cover Art

Here's the preliminary cover art for 'The Orphan Stone' which is about to be released.

Have to admit,  I am hugely proud to introduce this first installment of the series: a Dark Fantasy/ Horror YA novel featuring Salem Drake, a tenacious teenage paranormal investigator with an affinity for the spirits of the dead.
This is the first novel in what will be an extensive series where Salem finds she must survive and fight for her family, and everything she holds dear, while investigating the mysteries surrounding the strange world of demons, ghosts and secret societies.

After six months of writing, brainstorming and jumping up and down in the cerebral attic to shake the creativity monkeys loose from the rafters, it has certainly been through a few incarnations (and some heartfelt incantations too), as readers of this blog might figure out. (The monkeys are very well fed btw - banana sandwiches mostly).
The Orphan Stone was originally intended as a tie in for Curse of Ancient Shadows, but a mad brainwave one rainy afternoon brought about the creation of Salem Drake, so this new series can develop completely unfettered and in a totally new creative direction. (Which is why I've been running around the streets like a bonkers person and howling at complete strangers over it.)
I really didn't want to restrict the world of Curse of Ancient Shadows, and Cat Celeste, either (along with the rest of her gang) during the process of writing COAS 2. 'That' is another world that is morphing into something very cool, but has different 'roots' and a very different feel to the much darker world of Salem Drake.

The Orphan Stone has intentionally been kept shorter. At 45,000 words the story carries deeply, quickly and fluidly through the events surrounding Salem's first adventure to its climactic conclusion. Provided it doesn't get snapped up by an agent beforehand <cheesy grin> it will be appearing for sale as an e-book for the Kindle, Nook and Sony Reader very soon.
Thanks for checking it out! Check back shortly for more updates.
Happy reading
Rod :)


© copyright Rod Tyson

Tornado sighting

[image error] I was driving home from Norwich a couple a weeks back, after having dealt with a string of demanding customers in the city centre. On the way out of town, shortly after shooting the ‘green monkey’, (which is where I get to buzz through busy rush hour traffic with my foot to the floor, straight through the set of four traffic lights heading South out of town while they’re still on ‘green’ – happens about once a year so I was all ‘made up’) I only gone and sees me a real tornady!The weather in the UK lately has been weird. Around our way we’ve had some pretty crazy thunder storms and this was no exception. I pulled over and for a moment felt like a real tornado hunter, then it started moving toward me which, considering it was only a couple of hundred yards away, could have easily turned into a ‘torna’D’oh!’ so I beat a hasty retreat.That's one more thing I can scratch from my life 'To Do' list.

Ghost stories...

[image error] After I posted a while back about a possible ghost sighting I had many years ago several people have expressed curiosity about exactly what happened.
Misha Gericke's comment (you can visit her blog here) yesterday under the 'Versatile Blogger' nomination HERE has now prompted me to write this article in the hope that other folk will be kind enough to share their own experiences of similar strangeness. In my line of work I get to meet lots of different people and over the years I've heard several of my clients tell me their own very personal accounts.

For me, what I saw that evening nearly twenty years ago didn't seem strange at the time. I was with a small group of friends at a beach party (it was more like a gathering around a small fire than a real 'party') on a fairly remote stretch of coast, north of the town where I grew up. The weather was warm and the sky perfectly clear, the sun having set some time ago. I distinctly remember the last vestiges of yellow light slowly disappearing over the western horizon and the night sky drawing in. The sort of sky where Venus often appears alone for a brief time.
We had been there for a while and were talking quietly among ourselves when one of us (my brother, I think) drew our attention to a man standing very close by. I turned to look and saw a dark silhouette against the fading light, no less than ten feet away, with its back slightly turned toward us, looking out to sea. There was also a dog standing beside him on a leash like a small, black Labrador. I could tell the man was dressed in a long overcoat. Both were perfectly still and very clear. I turned away to talk with the others, (some of whom have told me in later years they don't remember what happened, or never noticed), then when I looked back moments later. Literally only a few moments. The man and the dog had vanished.
[image error] The beach was very stony and we should have heard him crunching across the gravel, but he left (and arrived!) without making a noise. We shrugged and carried on talking, glad that the strange person had left and didn't think anything more of it.
It was years later that I came across a booklet, created by a local historian, mentioning the ghost of 'Tramp's Alley', a short, sandy road that leads straight down to the beach.
The party that night was right at the bottom, out on the beach a little way beyond the end of the road. The local legend mentioned how a tramp and his black Labrador were both murdered there in the early 1900's (the killer was never caught) and their ghosts seen on occasion over the years ever since.

Was it a ghost? I have no idea, but that's my story. Anyone else had similar weird experiences they'd like to share?

New Author interview on Christie's Book Reviews

Author interview over on Christie Cote's blog 'Christie's Book Reviews'.
Wootings! <'robot dance'>
We're also giving away THREE copies of 'Curse of Ancient Shadows' in a Rafflecopter draw. The draw ends on Sat MARCH 3rd, so skedaddle on over to Christie's pad and sign up for your chance to win, win, win!
[image error] (Please take a mo to follow Christie's awesome blog too.)
Best regards and good luck!  Oh, and here's the link -

Teleport me now, Oh magic Genie of the lamp!

Fourth Writers' Platform-Building Campaign...

Next up - I'm off to join Rachael Harrie's writer's blog campaign, which sounds like lots of fun!
Tonight I'm gathering whatever I need, and the deadline draws so very close (always like me to leave things until the last moment!) so this post is about to change in nature very shortly.
Here's the link - more later -
http://rachaelharrie.blogspot.com/2012/02/fourth-writers-platform-building_06.html
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