Peter Cooper's Blog, page 2

While We're on the Subject

Another day, another drawing. This is Fib Digonius, a character from Shamblers.



It may well be true that his best days are behind him. Just don't let him hear you say it.

A Short Wait

After many feverish hours I've finally finished Shamblers and sent it off to the publisher. My timing wasn't brilliant as I found out after I sent it that she's having a week off, so I won't find out whether it's publishable until sometime next week. At least it's not as long as the 3 months I waited the first time round.

Speaking of holidays, I'm on holiday myself this week, and seeing as I now have some evenings free I've been getting into some character drawing. Here is Monsieur Le Ponce D...

Holidays

This is the week every year when my wife and sons go away with the inlaws and I have the house to myself. As has been the case for the last few years, this means some dedicated writing time, and today didn't disappoint. I've been beavering away at the latest draft of Shamblers for the past six months, and for a while there I was hooting along and it looked like I'd be ready for submission in no time at all. Then I hit a wall and for the past few weeks I haven't been able to get myself back in...

Time for a Jolly Good Moan.

Goodreads have this great idea where authors can list their books as free giveaways and people can vie to get copies. The idea is that authors submit their books in the hope they might raise awareness of their work and also garner a few more reviews than they might otherwise get. I've been involved in two giveaways now, one for Jeweller and one for Ghost of Ping-Ling. In both cases I sent out three copies of the books to various locations around Australia and New Zealand. For the mathematical...

Feelin' Philosophical

Well the dust has settled, the books are published, and in many ways I'm back where I was four years ago, trying to scrape together a novel and hoping it'll be good enough to get accepted. It's funny how the whole giddy ride of editing manuscripts and signing books and speaking at conferences seems like a distant memory, perhaps even a dream I had once that blurred into reality. At least I can look up at the books on my shelf and know it was real. 

And the writing goes on. I'm about to h...

The Plot Thickens

I'm in the middle of plotting a new story at the moment, using a whiteboard and notebook. I bought the whiteboard about two years ago exactly for this purpose, but so far the only people who've used it are my three sons, mostly to surreptitiously write rude words on when nobody's looking. I can't believe how useful it is to be able to set out ideas and sit back and look at them on a board, as well as to be able to easily rub them out and write new thoughts in. It gives a sort of bird's eye vi...

Not Dead Yet

Well my golly gosh it's been a while. So much for the New Year's resolution to be more consistent here and so forth. Anyway, here I am again as another year grinds rapidly to its conclusion.

And it's certainly been a busy one. By my count I've written two first draft's of two separate novels, plus 20,000 words of another, as well as 2 junior novels at 7,000 words each. None of them are finished, and I won't be submitting any of them anytime soon. Instead I'm busily plotting yet another story,...

Time is Ticking Away .... Tick Tick Ticking Away....

There's only about 7 hours left in the Jeweller of Rassylon giveaway (see widget on the right hand side of this blog). If you live in Australia and you haven't entered, you best get in fast (as the sales people say: "Hurry! Time is running out!").

I thought I should briefly explain why the giveaway is only for people in Australia. My aim in doing a giveaway is to raise a little bit of awareness of the book, but seeing as at this stage the book is only available in Australia in New Zealand, it...

Video Interview

I did an interview on camera recently at Pegi Williams Bookshop. You can see it here if you're interested. I push waffling to new limits, but it's a neat summary of my process of getting Blue Jade into print. Thanks to Rebecca and James for inviting me to come.

Giveaways Galore

Well, only one really, but still worthy of your attention, I hope.

I'm doing a Goodreads giveaway of 3 copies of Jeweller of Rassylon, although practicalities mean it's only for people who abide here in Oz (AKA Australia). You have until August 6th to indicate your interest, and if Goodreads' mysterious algorithm picks you out as one of the lucky recipients you'll be getting a signed copy sent to your very own mailbox, post-haste. It's easy! It's free! It's book three! So why not toddle...