Steve McHugh's Blog: Steve McHugh - Writer, page 27

Publishing Advice From a Newbie, to a Newbie.

So, your book is ready and you are poised to take the literary world by storm with your incredible work. But before you press ‘publish’ there are a few things you may want to consider.

Once again these are in no particular order.

1. Create a Company – I can only talk about the UK here, but I’m sure anyone in the USA will be able to do it too. The idea behind this is to make your life easier by having your work published by a company you control. When you publish your book, you’re going to want to get a EIN number from the IRS. Having a company name to do this, takes about an hour. I wrote a piece about it in June, here.

If you don’t have a company name it takes about six weeks.

Setting up a company is incredibly easily.

Step 1. Decide on your name (check to make sure no one else has it – Google is your friend here).

Step 2. Call your bank and arrange a meeting with their business manager.

Step 3. Set up a business account under the company name.

Step 4. Call the tax office and inform them of this.

Seeing how you need to call the tax office anyway, and you’ll probably want to set up a business account too, you may as well do the rest of it.

HM Customs are very helpful on the phone. Mostly. The IRS were very helpful too. Eventually.

2. Format Your Book – It may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s incredibly important that you follow the rules for formatting your e-book before you publish it. If you have Scrivener, feel free to be exceptionally smug as this takes about an hour once you figure out what goes where. If you don’t…. ummm, well it’ll take you a lot longer.

There’s a piece of software you can download from Amazon to check how your book looks (Kindle Previewer) . I advise you to use it. And use it often. Check the pages are all formatted correctly, check that the chapter headings actually go to the right chapters and check that the cover looks right.

It looks like this.

3. Pick the Right Categories – When you finally upload your book, you’ll get the chance to select two categories. These will be the genres you’d like your book to be part of. My advice here is to find the two categories you think fit and then go take a look at the top 100 of each. Get a good idea of how many you’d need to sell before you get into the top 100 of those two genres. If you need to sell loads before you even hit them, then it’s probably a good idea to pick another category.

4. Select the Right Price – I personally think the 99c (69p) market is over-crowded and have read many blogs that suggest finding a foothold with that price is actually harder than doing it with a larger price. If you set a price and it’s not working, change it. It’s up to you to decide what you do and don’t charge, so see what fits best.

5. Sit back and be Happy – Once you’ve finally clicked publish, you have earned the right to sit back and enjoy it. Yeah, your work is only just beginning, and you’ll need to arrange interviews, reviews, blog tours and a variety of other promotional things, but for that moment in time, savour that you are now a published author.

That’s it for another week. I hope some of this will help. Next week I’ll look at the ‘thick skinned’ part of being a writer. It’s all about reviews.

Book Advice From a Newbie, to a Newbie.

So, you’ve finished your book and you’ve decided that you want to publish it yourself. Congratulations. It’s a big step, but you’re determined and you think your book is good enough that someone, somewhere must like it, so why not try?

I published my first book on the 30th April this year and since then I’ve learnt a few little pieces of info that I’m going to share. One newbie to another. Some of these things I’ve mentioned before, but they’re worth mentioning again because there important. These are in no particular order.

 

1. Get a good cover – Yeah, I know the old saying about judging a book, but that’s the whole point of a cover. To judge the book. A crap cover will cost you sales. And worse still, an inappropriate cover will cost you just as many. Now by inappropriate, I don’t mean a cover of an orgy or something (although that might sell with a certain demographic), I mean a cover that goes against what the story is about. Having half naked men or women on your cover is all well and good if you’re writing Romance (in fact I think it’s probably one of the laws of the genre), but if you’re writing a piece about a character who survives a genocide, or a science fiction book about aliens and man’s place in the universe, you may want to reconsider.

This will cost you money. You have to decide how much you’re willing to spend to get a cover done.

2. Get some crit partners – You’ve finished your book and, if you’re smart, you belong to a writing group so that people will read your work. But you also need people who will read all of it at once. These are the people you should be sending your book to before you even think about publishing. They may well find a dozen faults with it, but they’re one of the most important groups of people a writer will ever meet.

You will need crit partners.

3. Get a copy-editor – Apparently this is a step a lot of indie authors ignore. I’ve not noticed it myself, but it’s worth mentioning anyway. A good copy editor will go through your work and point out all your mistakes or bits that probably want changing. This isn’t the same as the crit partner (although some people fill both roles). This will also cost you money, but it’s money well spent.

4. Write the blurb – Okay, I hope everyone does this bit. But write the blurb. Then do it again. And again. And… well you get the idea. Keep doing it until it’s ready. And then have people read it (preferably the crit partners from above as they actually know the book).

5. Write your author bio – Again, a no-brainer. Make it interesting though. Unless you’ve lived under a rock for ten years, you must have an interesting part of your life. And if you have lived under a rock, put that in, people love weird shit.

Look how interesting the rock is, how green the grass is and how… yeah, I’ve got nothing.

6. Start teasing your book on your blog – Show people your cover, post the first few chapters. When I did this back in March/April time, it had two good effects. Firstly, people started to ask when the book was coming out and said they liked it, and secondly it got the cover out there for people to get used to so that when they see it on Amazon, they think ‘hey, that’s that book I thought was interesting’.

7. Research other books/authors in your genre – See how they’ve gone about getting sales and read anything on their blog that might help. They posted that stuff to help people. Use it.

8. Get a thick skin – We’ll look more at this next week. But be mentally prepared for what is about to happen. If you don’t have a thick skin, you’re probably going to tear your hair out at various points in your writing career.

 

I’m sure I missed a few steps, but those are the main ones I can think of. Next week I’ll go through my advice when you’re about to finally push that publish button and bathe in the warming glow of being an author.

Until then have a good weekend.

 

 

The Past Week

The past week has been one of editing. Editing is a solitary job and sometimes it’s a depressing one. But it needs to be done, so you just get on with it. When the book is ready, I’ll post the Prologue and first two chapters like I did with Crimes Against Magic.

Until it’s ready, I figured I’d go through what impressed me and what didn’t during the past week. And something that didn’t.

The good.

Batman #13 – Death of a Family part 1.

I imagine most people have seen Heath Ledger’s excellent portrayal of the joker in The Dark Knight. He captured the insanity of the character very well.

Scott Snyder goes one further. This is a joker I would be terrified of. It takes him 3 sentences to turn the Joker into the kind of character that wouldn’t be out of place in a horror movie.

If anyone out there wants to know how to write suspense or horror, read the first 5 or 6 pages of this book. And then read the rest of it. This is only the first part, but I can imagine it’s going to be a hell of a nasty journey for the reader. And I can’t wait.

Oh and the art work is incredible. Easily the best book DC puts out.

Avengers Vs X-men

It’s done. Over. Finished. And I enjoyed it. It was probably the best ‘summer event’ from comics I’ve read in a long time. Yeah some of it was stupid, and some of the character work was… off. But other than that, well worth your time.

Uncanny Avengers

Well that was great. Firstly the art is superb. Incredible work from John Cassaday, who makes everything look like fantastic.

The story was good too. Rick Remender is an excellent writer, and I for one am very interested in seeing where it goes. Judging from the end of the book, it’s going to go to somewhere very interesting.

The Bad

 

Dark Shadows

I watched this the other day and basically it’s saved by two things. Jonny Depp is great. Eva Green is stunningly beautiful. I mean she can act too, but it’s her beauty in this film that wins out. Other than those two things, it was dull and didn’t seem to know what it wanted to be, horror or comedy and it didn’t really work as either. On the plus side, once more… Eva Green.

 

 

There’s no ugly, because nothing I watched or read was that terrible, and I tend to avoid reality TV like the plague.

I did get some writing done on book 3 (With Silent Screams), although not enough to consider it impressive. I’ll be doing Nano this year, because I’m insane apparently. My plan was to get a lot done then and finish book 3 in Jan/Feb when I take time off work. But they turned me down to take the time off, so I need to re-think it.

Until next week, have a good weekend. And it’s almost Halloween soon. That’s something to look forward to.

Sales

On 30th April I launched Crimes Against Magic to the world, with no idea how it would be taken. I didn’t know if it would sell, get good reviews or vanish quietly into the realms of Indie-publishing, never to be spoken of again.

Turns out it did okay. So after having April to September’s complete sales figures, I thought I’d share them with you all. 6 months of sales figures (if not 6 months in actual complete months) is a pretty good selection of data.

Now, I’m not showing this to everyone to show off, I’m fully aware that I’m nowhere near the upper echelon of sales, but maybe someone will read this and they’ll see that if I can do it, then they’ll have some hope that they can too.

So, to do this I’m going to break the figures down into three categories.  We’ll do UK sales first, then EU and we’ll save the American sales until last because that’s where most of my sales have come from.

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the figure for sales in the US is astronomically larger than the UK or EU. And I haven’t changed the price (except for 1 week at the end of Sept), so nearly every one of these sales is based on the $4.99 (£3.11) price tag.

So, there’s probably a few questions that you might have from this.

 

Where did these sales come from?

Well, I blogged like a crazy person in May and June, doing spotlights, interviews and anything else I could to get the book out there, so that probably helped. And I’ve gotten some incredible reviews. But the thing that I believe helped the most is the cover. Everyone who has seen the book has told me how good the cover is, and I believe that my sales are certainly helped by having a good cover.

Does this mean I have agents asking for my hand in partnership?

Ummm… no. Not even slightly. In fact, I haven’t heard from any agents, at all. Not that I was expecting to.

 

Where does Crimes Against Magic sit now?

 As of writing (10am UK time), it sits about the 47,000k mark in the UK Kindle store.

 

In the US, it sits here:

 

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,474 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

#13 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy >  Magic & Wizards
#54 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy >  Contemporary
#58 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Fantasy >  Contemporary

 

Despite the fact that sales have really dropped off, it’s still pretty damn good. Especially for a first-time, unknown writer.

And to answer a question that I’ve been asked a lot recently.

 

Where are you with Born of Hatred?

Editing. I’m about half way through the editing process and hope to have that done within a week. Then a few people need to read it and we’ll go from there. Basically, it won’t be too long.

 

 

And that’s it for another week. I hope someone found the figures I’ve posted interesting or helpful. Have a good weekend.

Interview with The Ink Babes

I’ve got a treat for everyone today, with an interview with the fantastic Ink Babes. The Ink Babes are 3 talented women-Pat Hollett, Lisa Forget and Tammy Crosby-who put together the Bleeding Ink anthology -  60  dark tales by 40 authors – from short stories to poetry.

Here’s a small excerpt:

Through The Eyes of Him – By Christian Riley

 

He walks these same streets of this city in which I live in—San Francisco. I know this, because I’ve recognized certain familiar features. Store fronts. Buses. Street names. And he’s here now, in this day and age of which I also live. I know, because I read about the work he does in the San Francisco Chronicle. Or, I watch it on the evening news. And the perversion within this particular detail is that I don’t really need to follow the news in order to learn about his work. I don’t need to read about what he did the night before. And that’s because, I’ve already witnessed it.

I see it glowing on my bookshelf now, in the spot I’ve made for it next to a wooden bowl; the mask of death I picked up at a yard sale last year. Rightfully so, I thought it’d make an excellent addition to the decorum I’ve got going on in this home of mine; a one bedroom studio right above Marley’s Dark Roast Cafe.

It is made from what I think is cocobolo wood, with shades of brown, and hints of red. Although I’m no anthropologist, I believe this thing was crafted by some witch doctor from the jungles of South America. Or the plains of Africa. It’s got that kind of look to it, you know, roughly hewn, tribal.

It’s a mask for crying out loud, so of course I’ve worn it. I held it up to my face the first time I found it, looked through those gaping holes as if they were my own eyes. No big deal.

But then I noticed it was glowing red one evening, like it’s doing now. And yes, I held it to my face on that night as well. And yes, I saw something much more than the confines of my apartment. I watched in lurid horror, as a nightmare unfolded in the streets of this city . . .

Him.

I don’t know this man. Don’t know his name, or where he lives, or what he does for a living. Hell, I don’t even know what he looks like. But I know what he does when the day grows black, and the night crawls out from the sewer to bathe the citizens in the stench of decayed debauchery common to a beautiful city like this one.

I’ve seen how he stalks young women, barely-dressed prostitutes standing on corners, eyes scanning passing vehicles and walking patrons, searching for that next meal. He usually stands between two buildings, black trench coat, studying his victims. Yes, he kills these women. He’s a murderer. A predator. A hunter of the weaker beings within our species.

But what does that make me?

Sometimes he gets bold with this hobby of his—killing more than one person in the same evening. On those nights, this mask glows fire red, like a smouldering ember. Warm to the touch, as I place it over my face, sit back on my couch, and then watch him jerk people around with his strong arms, gag, and bound them in the back of his car, rip at their clothes. After he strangles them, when their last breath comes to a complete gasp, he drags them out onto the street, or parking lot, and then buries a two-foot long piece of rebar into their back—the signature of his work.

I see it all.

There’s plenty more where that came from.

And here’s an interview with the lovely ladies, themselves:

The Ink Babes

 Tammy Crosby

Lisa Forget

Pat Hollett

1. So, why don’t you tell us all a bit about yourself?

We’re three women who sought a way to bring together wonderful writers, great stories, and package it into something dark and delicious.

2. What made you decide to self-publish?

So many things, but a big part of was that we wanted creative control over it, and the learning experience as a whole. An anthology seemed like a fun manageable project to tackle. Since it’s so unique from anything we’ve seen so far, it would have been even harder to place with a traditional publisher. Not to mention we wouldn’t have gotten to know so many amazing authors! J

3. Do you have a favourite book or author? What are they?

Well it’s a given that we all like Kelley Armstrong, since we all met up as members of her OWG writing group.

 

4. What do you do for fun when you’re not writing?

(Pat) Having just bought a new home, I spend a lot of time unpacking and working on the house.

(Tammy) Well, when I’m not a full time working mom, I love to get out and play hockey once a week and possibly take the dog out for the occasional trail run when I have the energy for it.

5. Do you have any other projects in the pipeline?

Currently, we’re all working on our own manuscripts which we put aside while working on the Bleeding Ink Project.

6. What has been your favourite part of this writing/publishing experience? The scariest?

Favourite part has to be working together. We get along so well, it’s like working with best friends. We laugh together and agree on most things. We also challenge each other as well. The scariest? Same as it is for any author I suppose, will they like it? That’s always the big fear.

7. Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it?

(Pat)I guess it happens. I just work on something else if it does. The ideas always seem to flow, if not for one story, then for another.

(Tammy) Since I have so little time to devote to writing I’ve never had a block. *knocks on head*

8. How did you come up with the title?

Tammy has always liked the quote “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” By Ernest Hemingway. So Bleeding Ink just seemed to be a natural fit for our first work

9. Do you have any advice for other writers?

Keep putting those fingers on the keys. Never quit. You could be the worst writer on earth, but if it FILLS you up, heart and soul, then by all means, keep writing.

10 . Best and worst writing tip you’ve learned?

(Pat) Grab a hold of the reader and make them hang on for the ride has been the best writing tip I’ve learned.Can’t really say there are any bad writing tips, just different opinions about how to write.

(Tammy) Best tip is to read your work aloud. It’s amazing to me how you can ‘hear’ the pacing of the words when you read them aloud. Never had a ‘bad’ writing tip. Some work, some don’t, but it’s different for everyone.

11. Tell us about your cover. Where did the idea come from?

Tammy designed the cover. She’s great with Photoshop and she’s done many banners and icons for us writers and bloggers.

12. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

Just that we really hope you enjoy the anthology. We really did our best to pack it full of a wide variety of pieces to the reading both short and thought provoking.

13. When did you first consider yourself a writer?

(Pat) I think when I first started writing. Anyone can be a writer. But, you strive to become an author. I believe that’s what most writers hope to accomplish through their work.

(Tammy) When I wrote the first draft of my first manuscript. That was when I truly thought, I’m a writer. Good or bad…yet to be decided.

14. What is the last book you read?

(Pat) Currently reading Game of Thrones.

(Tammy) Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong, are you seeing a pattern here? Lol

15. You can be any comic book superhero – Who would you be?

(Pat) Definitely Thor

(Tammy) Lara Croft. I want big boobs and bigger guns.

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16. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to your 16-year-old self?

(Pat) Don’t let other people hold you back from doing what you want to do. Listen to your inner guide, and do everything you dream of doing. (Tammy – yup that about sums it up! J )

17. If you found a time machine, where would you go, and when?  (What time period)

(Pat) Either back to the time of knights and castles in England, or ahead to see the future here in Canada.

(Tammy) – I’d stay put. For women there was never really a ‘good’ time to be one so I’ll just stay right where I am and hope for the best.

18. What TV shows do you enjoy?

(Pat) Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Game of Thrones, Dallas.

(Tammy) – Mentalist, Vampire Diaries, Project Runway, and I’m really looking forward to Elementary starting soon.

19. Someone wrongs you. Do you get revenge or allow Karma to do it for you?

(Pat) like Karma biting people in the ass, but then again, Karma sometimes needs a little help… LOL!

(Tammy) Depends if it involves my kid or not.

20. You get turned into a werewolf, who do you pee on first?

(Tammy) – Without a doubt, our new puppy Max. He’s peed on pretty much everything I own, so it’d be only fair.

21. What was the last movie you went to see?

(Pat) The Hunger Games. (Tammy – yeah me too, I don’t get out much.)

And that’s the end of the interview. Thanks to the Ink Babes for taking part, and I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I did. If you want to learn more about The Ink Babes, you can go:

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And Now the Winner

This is going to be a quick post, because I’m neck deep in edits for Born of Hatred. So, I just came in to thank everyone who took part in the competition to win a signed copy of Crimes Against Magic.

The last time I did this, I got my daughter to pick the winner. Well, she wasn’t in the room at the time, so my wife did it.

This is something else stunning in place of my wife. If I posted a picture of her on my blog she would kill me. And no one would ever find my body.

And the winner is:

Kelly Lawrence

Congrats to you, Kelly. You now have 1 week to let me know your address, so I can send it to you.

And to those of you who didn’t win, I’m sorry. But maybe next time.

And that’s almost it for this week. I just have time to say that the superb writer, Paul Tobin, has given me an excellent interview on his blog.  Go here to read it in all its fantastic glory.

Have a good weekend all.

I’m Back. And a Chance to Win.

It’s been a long time since I last wrote my own blog posts. So, it’s been a little difficult to figure out what I’m actually going to talk about. Instead of imparting whatever pearls of wisdom I happen to think of, I thought I’d just talk about what I’ve done in those last 5 weeks.

First of all, thanks to every single person who gave their time to be interviewed or write blog posts for me. I have a few more coming up in the next few week, and if anyone wants to take part in an interview or guest blog post on my blog then you’re more than welcome to contact me. And bribes work great. Just saying.

So, what have I been doing for the last 5 weeks? Mostly I’ve been taking care of my new baby daughter, Harley. She was born on 16th Aug and the time since has flown by. Her two older sisters, Keira and Faith, have both been very good with her, although that interest vanishes the second she needs a nappy change.

My beautiful daughter. She has quite the set of lungs on her.

So, my family has taken up the majority of my time. My 7th wedding anniversary was a few days ago, for which my lovely wife got me The Avengers on Blu-Ray and an impressive canvass with some old comic book art on it. She came to terms with being married to a geek a long time ago. Although I think my comic book collection is starting to take up a little more space than she’s always happy with.

My eldest daughter, Keira also started Junior School (I don’t know what the equivalent is elsewhere), which depresses me greatly as the past years appear to have flown by. It’s her birthday tomorrow, so she’ll be 8 going on 16 (at least in terms of attitude).

I saw Dredd the other day and it’s excellent. They’ve captured the character very well, along with the brutal world he lives in. It’s a very violent film and certainly doesn’t shy away from some very graphic scenes. It’s definitely not one you want your kids to watch. Unless you like the idea of screwing them up for a few weeks.

The film also has a great poster. Which is somewhat of a lost art these days.

The one thing I will say a night feed allows me to do is catch up on my TV watching. I finished the first series of Newsroom, which is excellent and caught up with the latest seasons of Castle  (about bloody time with that ending) and Leverage. I also finally got round to making my way through Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Soul Eater. I’d seen about half of them, but am now near the end for both shows and they’re equally good to watch, although Soul Eater is more than a little weird and offbeat in places.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is probably one of the best Anime TV shows ever made.

See the girl with the Witch outfit on? She’s actually a cat and likes to walk around naked. And that’s not the oddest thing that happens in the show.

And on to the writing side of things. Crimes Against Magic is currently doing quite well, although sales have dropped from July. I’ll do a full post about the sales side of things in a few weeks. Hopefully someone out there might find it interesting. Amazon.com has 36 reviews, 33 of which are 4 or 5 stars. Amazon.co.uk has 17 reviews, 16 of which are 4 or 5 stars. It’s an incredible reception and I’m glad so many people have enjoyed the book.

Speaking of books, Born of Hatred is back from my wonderful crit partners, Michelle Muto and D.B. Reynolds and they both liked it. In fact they both said it’s much better than Crimes Against Magic, with better writing and a tighter story. Which is just about the best news I could have received.

I’m currently making lots of edits and then it’ll go to some other wonderful people to have a read. I’m aiming for a Halloween launch, but best laid plans and all that. Which means that if I can’t manage Halloween, it’ll be launched sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving (not that we celebrate it over here), but at least that gives you an idea of the timeframe.

My talented friend, Eamon, is currently getting the cover to Born of Hatred ready, which I’ll show as soon as he’s done.

I have tried to get some writing done on book 3, With Silent Screams, but have managed about 5k. Which isn’t great, but I’m hoping that I’ll get more done once my edits to Born of Hatred are finished.

 

Lastly, it’s competition time. 

If you’d like to win a signed copy of Crimes Against Magic, then read on:

There are four things you can do to get an entry:

1. Like my Facebook Author page https://www.facebook.com/Hiddenrealmspublishing

2. Follow my blog (click on the ‘follow’ button on the top right of this page).

3. Tweet about this competition or RT my tweets (if you tweet, you’re going to have to include me so I can keep track – there’s a widget at the bottom of this page with a link to my Twitter account).

4. Share my posts on Facebook (Look for contest posts on my Facebook page).

Every time you do one of the above, your name goes into a hat. Each additional action, means an extra entry. So in theory, if you do all the above and then share and re-tweet every day, you’ll get loads of entries.

In one week’s time, on the 27th September, my daughter will draw one name out of the hat, and I’ll announce the winner on my blog. They then have one week to contact me with their address.

If you already follow me or like my author page and don’t want to take part (maybe you don’t like free stuff) then let me know and I’ll make sure to remove your name from the hat.

So, until next week. Good luck and have a good weekend.

Distractions…

And we reach the end of the excellent guest blog posts and interviews for the time being, and we end with a bang. The superb Keri Lake, author of the excellent Halos Book 1: Somnium.

The floor is all yours Keri.

 

 

Distractions…

…those annoying little forces that always seem to pop up when we’re smack in the middle of something important.  If they’re welcomed, we call them ‘a shift in focus’.

I’m plagued by distractions.

As a flash fiction addict, it’s inevitable that my brain will wander off from time to time into the middle of a totally unrelated scene.  Dialogue.  A kiss.  A fight.  All completely random and usually out of place in what I’m writing at that moment.  And since I never know when they’re going to hit, I can’t say they’re welcomed.  Often times, I do my best to ignore them.  I’m more of a novelist, preferring the long haul over the instant gratification of something short and sweet.

Completing a novel though, comes with its challenges and takes a lot of perseverance.

It’s not easy, sitting down to the same thing day in and day out, agonizing over every word (every 100K words, that is).  If it’s a tough scene, it can be like sitting down to the same dinner every night for a week.  Ugh.  Do you even taste the individual flavors after a few days?

This is where the danger for distraction is at an all-time high.

When the ideas just aren’t flowing easily, you could become resentful toward your muse, bored with the writing and angry at the stubborn characters who refuse to cooperate.

Oooh look!  A shiny!

And just like that, you’re swept away by something totally different…

But is there ever a time when these interruptions are a much-needed change in focus?

Back in December, I published Somnium (Halos, #1).  This is book 1 of a trilogy, and unlike some writers, I didn’t have books 2 and 3 polished and ready to go.  I’m still writing, tweaking, editing.  I took an easy pace, since Somnium was riddled with a number of mysteries.  I wanted to be meticulous about plotting and addressing the answers.

So there I was in January, not even a full month from the publication date of Somnium, toiling away on Requiem, when all of a sudden it struck me.  Hard.

What was it?

Well, I’ll tell you what it wasn’t:  it wasn’t just a simple flash story like most of my usual distractions.  It wasn’t a short story, maybe forcing me to explore the characters a bit more.  It wasn’t even a novella – just something to satisfy this ridiculous craving I suddenly had for distraction.  No, no.

Call it nervous energy or a need to sate my inner badass, I sat down and drafted 100K-word book in about 6 weeks.

I hated myself for it.  It felt as if I’d abandoned my beloved characters for some rockstar life.  How irresponsible!  The ideas poured out of me like I’d swallowed the evil pill and was having an exorcist moment.  I cursed myself for being so easily tempted by my muse.

At the same time, I couldn’t stop.  I’d become some kind of writing junkie, flying high on a winning streak.

Worse?

I involuntarily plotted out additional books – eight of them! – making up an entire series of this foreign invader that’d taken over my brain.   No!!!

A mutiny I tell you!

Ah, but alas, something else happened…

Something odd.  Something wonderful.  Something I hadn’t anticipated when I offered up my guilt-laden mind for this new project.

Feeding this distraction somehow bred new ideas for Requiem.  Hot damn!  That vigor trickled into the slow and easy pace I’d adopted for my second book of the Halos trilogy.  And now the words are flowing like a fountain of…uh, words.

I dare not call the lull I experienced after publishing Somnium a ‘block’ because the story was there, waiting to be written (seriously you should see my writing wall – it looks like a murder investigation is going on with all the character profiles).  For some reason though, I’d been working against myself, allowing it to stay locked inside a small cramped cage in the deep recesses of my brain, screaming as I held the key in my pocket the whole time.

Now that I’ve proven to myself that I can, in fact, write a decent story in a month’s time, my mind has grown hungry for this feeling of accomplishment.

Does this mean I intend to write a book every couple of months?

No, no.  I’d be writing crap.

What it means to me is that there are going to be times when writing comes easy and times when no matter how hard I tug and tease, it’s not coming out.  This experience has taught me to ride the high when it happens and not feel guilty if it takes me in new directions.  When things slow down and it feels like I have no story left in me, to give myself the permission to surrender to these distractions, shift focus, and come back to the old and familiar when it feels right again.

What do you do when distraction hits?

 

Thanks Keri for taking over my blog and discussing something so central to so many of us writers. If you want to learn more about keri and her work:

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Interview with Sean Patrick Traver

Welcome back to what what is almost the end of the legion of excellent guests who have taken part on interviews or blog posts on my blog. Today I’m pleased to welcome author, Sean Patrick Traver in his first ever interview. Sean is the author of Grave’s End.

Here’s the blurb:

Los Angeles PI Dexter Graves was pretty sure his life ended back in 1950, after femme fatale Ingrid Redstone shot him through the head. When Graves involuntarily rises from his grave sixty years later, he finds himself drawn to freelance sorceress Lia Flores, who introduces him to an underworld he never could’ve imagined—a place where magic and crime intersect. Suburban shamans, rogue necromancers, criminal cabals and computer-savvy mages all co-exist (often uneasily) within the secret cityscape Lia has learned to call her home. She and her spirit familiar Black Tom set out to discover the meaning behind Graves’ unheralded intrusion into her enchanted life, but neither the witchgirl nor the skeletal detective has any idea they’re being set up by an old-school player on the LA scene: mobster/monster Mickey Hardface, also known as Mictlantecuhtli, the ambitious king of the Aztec realm of the dead.

Funny and fast-paced, this genre-bending love letter to the City of Angels blends surreal magical fantasy with the narrative drive of a taut crime story. Epic in scope and rooted in California history, GRAVES’ END adds a new chapter to the mythology of the post-Halloween holiday known as el Dia de los Muertos—the Day of the Dead.

 

And after showing you the excellent cover, here’s a small excerpt:

GRAVES’ END

Chapter Four

The Bindercotts’ aged Latina housekeeper was vacuuming, alone, mid-morning, in bitchy Bethany Bindercott’s outgrown frillygirl bedroom. She bumped the noisy vacuum against the leg of Bethie’s canary-yellow dresser, dislodging a baggie of mota that had until now been taped up underneath it.

Pilar, the housekeeper, shut off her roaring machine and picked up the baggie, considering it in the bright, suddenly silent bedroom.

***

Ten minutes later Pilar was parked out on the Bindercotts’ back deck, toking up in the clear autumn sunshine.

The hills just outside the irrigated housing development in Santa Clarita that her employers called home looked dusty brown and about as dry as kindling. As little as ten years ago, she remembered, this whole area had been a waterless wasteland, fit for little more than the surreptitious disposal of inconvenient corpses.

On the big green lawn in front of Pilar—right out in the center of Big Bill Bindercott’s personal practice putting green, in fact—something broke through the sod.

A gopher, maybe?  If so, it was a damn big one. Whatever the thing was, it seemed to be forcing its way up from underneath the lush, professionally-tended lawn. Pilar squinted to see better, shading her eyes against the sun’s glare.

Out on the putting green, skeletal hands and arms emerged from what looked increasingly like a small sinkhole, clawing and scrabbling at the grass around it. A grimy skull popped up, one with a distinctive exit wound above the right eye socket.

Pilar’s own eyes widened.  She looked down at the ineptly-rolled joint in her hand.

***

Dexter Graves (or what little remained of him after sixty years in the earth) hauled himself out of his grave and came staggering across the broad back lawn he found himself on, holding his cracked braincase like a drunk wallowing in the throes of crapulence. Up the steps and onto a redwood deck he went, where he stopped, looking down at an older woman in a light-blue uniform with bulky white sneakers on her feet who was parked in an Adirondack chair. A maid, Graves surmised, judging by her attire. The housekeeper was frozen, looking back up at him with a forgotten smoke dangling from her fingertips.

Must’ve scared the living shit out of her, Graves thought, wandering in from the backyard like this. Hell, he could’ve been anybody! A certain comfort level in the face of wild absurdity had often helped him keep hold of his wits, both during the war and several times thereafter in his current line as a PI, but he knew not everybody could roll with the punches in a similar fashion. He was still a little confused himself after waking up underground, not quite sure of where he was or exactly how he’d gotten here.

“Estoy muerta?” the maid whispered, looking up at the dirt-encrusted skeleton who wasn’t yet up to speed regarding his own situation. “Usted es la Santa Muerte? Esta esto la Apocalipsis?”

“Sorry, sister,” Graves’ reanimated bones replied, in a predictably gravelly voice. “Never did learn to habla the old es-pan-yol. Wouldn’t mind a puff on that smokestick, though. I have never had a hangover like this before.”

Graves plucked the hand-rolled cigarette in question from the lady’s fingers and put it between his teeth. He expanded his ribs as if to inhale, but with no lungs to pull air, nothing happened. Graves examined the joint critically while patting around the region where his pockets should’ve been. “Guess it went out,” he said absently. “Don’t know where my lighter got to, either.  Hell, I’d hate to lose that thing now…”

Graves offered the joint back to its original roller. She stared at his skeletal hand. “De nada,” she managed to croak.

Graves thought she looked sort of shellshocked, for some reason. She had that sort of half-comprehending stare. He shrugged and went to stick the reefer behind an ear that’d turned to dust years ago. It bounced off his collarbone and tumbled to the deck.

“What the…?” he muttered, turning to look at his reflection in the house’s glass back door. His appearance came as a bit of a shock, to say the least.

“Holy hell, wouldja look at that?” he shouted, reeling back in bewilderment. He was nothing but a string of bones, literal bones, and the smooth, soil-blackened plate of his forehead was marred by what looked suspiciously like an exit crater. “Geez, no wonder my head feels like it’s got a goddamn hole in it. Now how in the—?”

He remembered.

“Oh, yeah. Ingrid.”

 

If that doesn’t whet your appetite for more, here’s an interview with the man himself, Sean Patrick Traver:

1. So, why don’t you tell us all a bit about yourself?

Let’s see…  I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California—an experience that left me with the ability to sleep through moderately severe earthquakes. Today I live in a fortress made of piled-up books with my wife Tam and our cat Tyler, where we watch movies and TV and sometimes try to wedge in little things like human relationships or going to the store, as time allows.

2. Can you tell us a bit more about your book? Where did the idea come from? How long did it take to write?

Graves’ End is the title of my book, and I’ve been describing it as ‘a magical thriller.’ It tells the story of a modern-day witch who helps an undead detective solve the mystery of his own resurrection. It’s got action, humor, horror, and even a romantic moment or two. The inspiration for it came together at the crossroads of several things that I obsessively love, including the lore surrounding the practice of witchcraft and the hidden history of Los Angeles. The images of lively, celebrating skeletons associated with the Mexican holiday called el Dia de los Muertos have always fired my imagination, and they became my jumping-off point. The Day of the Dead is still observed here in the City of Angels—California was a part of Mexico not so very long ago, and the heritage remains. Later on LA evolved into the classic setting of the noir genre—the native habitat of hardboiled private eyes and sexy femmes fatale. I wanted to write a story about reanimated skeletons and homegrown witches. Something with a weird sense of humor and a unique take on magic.  Something set in my own neighbourhood and in my own era that would dig down through the sedimentary layers of local history to stir up old ghosts, and Graves’ End is the tale that grew out of that mix. There were about three years between typing out the words ‘Chapter One’ and holding a printed book in my hand.

3. Do you have a favourite book or author? What are they?

I have many favourite books and authors, including Neil Gaiman, Tom Robbins, and Elmore Leonard, but I’ve been reading Stephen King the longest, since I was about eight years old, and I still plunk down my money for his new books as soon as they come out. There have been highs and lows over the years, but I still respond to his sly humor; the valor his characters tend to display in the face of horrors both supernatural and man-made; and his powers of description, which for me can be so evocative that they sometimes border on hallucinatory. Deep immersion in other worlds is one of the best tricks a writer can offer, I think.

4. What do you do for fun when you’re not writing?

Sleep? I like to sleep. I find it relaxing.

5. Do you have any other projects in the pipeline?

I do, I have two new novels that I’m working on now, both set in the same enchanted Los Angeles as Graves’ End and starring some of the same characters. Brujachica: The Education of a Witch delves into the relationship between Black Tom Delgado and his student Lia, while Red Witch: The Tales of Ingrid Redstone chronicles Ingrid’s adventures in the land of the dead and across LA’s timeline, too. I hope to release one or both of them in the next year.

6. What’s your favourite genre to read?

Novels by practicing magicians are a fun sub-genre. Two of my favourite graphic novel authors, Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, have each written extensively about their personal experiments with occultism. Gerald Gardner, one of the founders of modern Wicca, wrote a book called High Magic’s Aid back in 1954, and I thought it was a surprisingly fun read. The infamous Aleister Crowley wrote a novel called Moonchild in 1917. More recently, Lon Milo DuQuette (a contemporary explicator of mystery traditions and mystical philosophies) has brought the whole thing full circle by making Crowley a character in a novel of his own, titled Aleister Crowley – Revolt of the Magicians. I find that fiction written by real-world advocates of magic is filled with insights I can apply to my own witchy characters.

7. What is your writing process? Do you follow a regular routine?

To me writing a novel is like nurturing a recurring daydream. I’ll play music that reminds me of my characters in order to get inside their heads. I also have a habit of collecting objects that my characters own within the story. While writing Graves’ End I gathered up an antique cigarette lighter that matches the one owned by Dexter Graves in the story, as well as Black Tom’s walking stick and a large garnet that Ingrid wears on a necklace. They’re like totems that keep a part of my mind anchored in the fictional world. Accumulating Star Wars toys did something similar when I was a kid. I do most of the typing involved in my writing mid-morning, but then I’ll also randomly tweak and screw around with what I’ve written throughout the rest of the day, as the mood strikes me. I don’t aim for a set number of words or pages per sitting—I just try to advance the plot enough that I know where it’s going next, so I can jump back in the next time I plop down at the keyboard. Holding on to the mood and keeping up momentum are all-important, once I get a story rolling. I also like to give my most recent pages one last glance before going to bed, so they’re on my mind as I fall asleep. I’ll often wake up with new ideas or narrative knots untied that way, as though my subconscious has worked them out for me in the night.

8. Who inspired you to write your book?

I’m going to say Russell T Davies, the showrunner and head writer on Doctor Who during the Christopher Eccleston/David Tennant years. I’ve never met Mr. Davies (and I know I’m crediting one person with something that many helped create), but it was his particular take on the character that first drew me in. The wit, the logical complexity, and the emotional power that he brought to the show all inspired me. In fact, I doubt I ever would have found my way through my novel if the Ninth Doctor hadn’t shouted “Everybody lives!” at the end of ‘The Doctor Dances’ and reminded me, right when I needed it, of what matters most to me in fiction.

9. You can be any comic book superhero – Who would you be?

I wouldn’t mind being as rich as Bruce Wayne, but I’m neither homicidal nor civic-minded enough to be a conscientious Batman. Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen has practically godlike powers, so that might be as close to wishing for unlimited wishes as I can get.

10. What skills do you possess that would help you survive a zombie apocalypse?

Absolutely none. I’m toast. Unless those superpowers kick in…

11. What TV shows do you enjoy?

There’s some amazing stuff on TV at the moment. Game of Thrones has been just awesome—Tyrion Lannister has my vote, if democracy ever comes to Westeros. True Blood is funny and creepy and clever, and of course I’m looking forward to the next series of Doctor Who. Breaking Bad is probably my favorite of the moment, though. It has a real narrative elegance to it, as well as fascinatingly complicated and ever-evolving characters, not to mention a sense of humor drier than the gorgeous New Mexico desert it’s filmed in.

12. You can pick one series to return to the TV. Firefly or Angel?

Firefly! Without hesitation. I think I’d give up the rest of television in its entirety to have Firefly back. I’m holding on to a last flickering hope that Joss Whedon might have a chance to revive it again, now that The Avengers has gone and made all the money.

13. What’s your favourite Monty Python film/sketch?

Eric Idle’s Galaxy Song. “So remember, when you’re feeling very small and insecure / how amazingly unlikely is your birth / and pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space / ’cause there’s bugger all down here on earth!” Ha! If those aren’t words to live by, then I don’t believe I know any.

 

Thanks very much to Sean for taking part in the interview, I hope everyone enjoyed it. If you want to learn more about Sean and his work:

 

Links:

Website: www.SeanPatrickTraver.com

Graves’ End on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B007RKKVCS

Like the Graves’ End Facebook page

Follow me on Twitter: @SPTraver

Interview with Mark Underwood

Welcome back to another blog entry. Today, I’d like to introduce Mark Underwood, author of the excellent ‘The Lives of Nobody Important’.

Here’s the blurb: 

I can’t die, at least, not in the traditional sense. Every time I’m killed, I wake up with a new body, in the same place. Over and over and over again. How did I discover this? I was forced to kill myself by the evil bastard who I used to call my boss. He knew the struggles I was facing, and he exploited them. But he didn’t know I would be coming back. This is my story. This is my revenge. This will not end well.

I’m sure you’ll agree the book sounds superb. And to whet your appetites even more, here’s a small excerpt:

  

00:PROLOGUE

I fucked up. It was a stupid plan, stealing those drugs. Like it would make a goddamn difference anyway, they were too big, too powerful. Who was I? Just one man, one man against a Company that could crush me in a heartbeat.

So here I found myself, pacing down a narrow, cobbled street. Every groove and mislaid cobble reaching through my trainers and caressing the soles of my feet. French Lane, hidden behind Saint Helier’s central market, a shadow lifeline for the beating heart of commercial materialism.

By day, it’s a bustling cut-through leading to a treasure-trove of shops, restaurants and bars. Not tonight though.

By night, it becomes dark, quiet and foreboding. Barring the occasional kid making his way to McDonalds, there wouldn’t be much foot traffic. Maybe a couple pissheads, getting in their last supper, with me, their own personal Jesus.

I could feel the cobbles underneath my feet, every step an uneasy stumble towards the safety of my home. But home was so very far away, and I was sure that somebody was following me. Ever since the first time, I had developed a kind of ‘sixth sense’ about this sort of thing.

The streetlights flickered, a warning of the demons that were approaching. A snap, crackle, pop. Glass exploded and pieces fell to the floor, their impacts a symphony of despair. They must have caught up with me.

A gloved hand clutched a butcher’s knife, cold, hard steel.  Must have been nine inches from base to tip.

Rust and dried blood. Signs of previous malice. A dark presence, stalking down the alley, remaining unseen. Waiting for the right moment, the perfect time to strike, to take my life.

That time was now. It’s a strange feeling, a cold, sleek sensation, almost distracting from the pain, shooting from my waist straight up my spine. A taste of dirty steel, an unwanted flavour in my throat making me wretch and gag a little, and then the warm, thick blood started flowing and the cold was gone.

How many victims had fallen at this blade? He had been sent for me, that much was clear. He must have been a professional. Nobody should have been able to get the drop on me that easily. Then again, I had been getting a bit sloppy recently. I’d been watched, ever since this whole sordid affair started. Surely it was just the black ones following me, it couldn’t be the Company as well, could it? Do professionals re-use their tools?

The blade twists, jerks, thrusts deeper, cuts through sinew, muscle, and blood vessels. My back exploded in agony, as the blade severed the nerves. The blade continued, scraping back and forth against my spine, its motion carving a notch that would be with me forever. One more triumph.

The metallic taste intensifies, creeping up my throat. Some more gagging, some more wretching, but I have to keep breathing. Just get a look at his face. Just one look.

Why is he taking so long? Is he enjoying this?

As soon as the thought enters my head, he pulls the knife from my back. It rips out a chunk of flesh, a gaping hole left behind in it’s place. An emergency exit: the escape route for my life. My blood flows out of the wound, a torrent of crimson, my own personal red-carpet.

My life appears to be slipping away. My consciousness evaporates and for one, slim second, my cold, lifeless corpse is lying on the ground in front of me. Finally, I’m free.

It’ll have to wait until morning before someone stumbles past on their way to work and discovers my body. Hoped it would be some evil bastard who’d been treating his wife badly, maybe a child abuser. A dead body would sort ‘em right out.

Chances are though, it would just be some fresh-faced kid, out to earn a living, out to change the world. Not much to be done about that really. I should probably feel sorry for the poor bugger, it’s not right for good people to find a murder victim first thing in the morning. Or any time of day, for that matter.

Their boss, assuming he isn’t a complete bastard, will probably give ‘em the day off, maybe some counselling. The police will be interested, what time they found the body, why didn’t they call straight away. Probably take ‘em into custody for a while, for questioning. Find a murder victim, you’re the first suspect. “Whoever smelled it dealt it.”

This whole street would be shut down, taped off, a crime scene. The shops, pubs, bars, they’d all make a loss today, a lack of customers will do that to you. And people will think twice before using shortcuts at night. Collective fear.

Like one murder will make it more likely that you’ll get murdered. Your time is your time. Stop fucking worrying about it.

Forensics will be swarming before the sun has fully risen, trying to glean some kind of clue as to what happened to me, another John Doe. It’s all just pissing in the wind – they have no idea whats going on and I don’t half doubt they ever will.

They don’t know the half of it: I’m no John Doe and this isn’t the first time I’ve died.

That’s a hell of an end to the Prologue. And now, on with the interview:

1. So, why don’t you tell us all a bit about yourself?

I’m a 27 year old, born and raised in the lovely island of Jersey. I’ve spent my whole life here, except for the three years I was studying at Nottingham University. Apart from writing, I also care for my disabled father which is more than a full-time job – I’m on call 24/7!

 2. Can you tell us a bit more about your book? Where did the idea come from? How long did it take to write?

The book’s genesis is a bit of a strange one really. My father was at the time in a very bad state and I had just been assigned a new boss at my job, a boss that I really didn’t get on with. Soon enough the chance to move on and start caring for my father came to me so I leapt at the opportunity. This gave me the free time to start writing the book and vent at some of the treatment I received at my previous job (which legally I can’t go into I’m afraid). Peppered throughout the story are real life situations, which I hope help to ground the pretty outlandish storyline. The Lives of Nobody Important took around 6 months to write, with another 6 months of re-writing, polishing and fixing things. I then sat on it for a while before looking at it and giving it one final pass.

3. Who’s your favourite character in the book?

The protagonist. I’m not sure that it’s possible to have any other favourite. With his many references to pop culture and his penchant for ultra-violence I think he’s the character that most people will enjoy. It helps that the whole story is told through his perspective!

4. Do you have a favourite book or author? What are they?

Chuck Palahniuk is my favourite author, he’s most well known as the writer of Fight Club but I have to say I’ve enjoyed all his work so far!

For my favourite book, I’d have to say ‘Kill Your Friends’ by David Niven. I think it must be the only book to make me laugh out loud. It’s absolutely hilarious.

5. What do you do for fun when you’re not writing?

I have two main loves outside of writing – videogames (on any system!) and indie music. I run an indie music channel on IRC and also a facebook group for new music finds. On the gaming front, I’m currently playing through Castlevania – Lords of Shadow again (I never completed it first time round) and can’t wait for Darksiders 2 to arrive at the end of August.

 6. Do you have any other projects in the pipeline?

I’m working on another novel which is tentatively called ‘The Chaos Room’. It’s pretty different to ‘Lives’, as it is pretty grounded in reality with some sci-fi/conspiracy stuff thrown in. Project MK-Ultra fits into the storyline to give just a hint. Unfortunately work on this one is going a lot slower than ‘Lives’, and will probably take up to the end of the year to complete the first draft. It’s also a lot less violent and bloody than Lives was, so hopefully will have greater appeal to those who are squeamish.

7. What has been your favourite part of this writing/publishing experience? The scariest?

My favourite part has to be finishing the novel! The sense of satisfaction from seeing something to completion. The scariest part is setting it loose on friends and family to gather their feedback, as up until that point I had to wonder, ‘am I just absolutely mad?’ Fortunately the feedback was (mostly) positive – as are the reviews coming in so far.

8. Which character from your book would you most like to meet?

I wouldn’t like to meet any of them, they are all horrible, horrible people and I’m glad that they are limited to a work of fiction.

9. Do you have a favourite scene from the book?

My favourite scene has to be the ultimate climax, in the chapter called ‘Inferno’. To say anymore would be a complete spoiler but it takes a completely different style to the rest of the book and I think that makes it stand out, and all the more special as a thrilling conclusion.

10. Do you have any advice for other writers?

Don’t be scared, just jump in and follow your gut!

11. What is the last book you read?

Damned, by Chuck Palahniuk. It’s about a girl who has been sent to hell.

12. What skills do you possess that would help you survive a zombie apocalypse?

I’ve watched enough zombie movies that I’d have the knowledge to help anyone out, if not the practical skills. I feel like I would make a good leader in a zombie apocalypse.

13. What TV shows do you enjoy?

Wow, I watch almost anything, as long as it entertains me. This can go from TV-fluff such as the new Hawaii Five-0 to more serious stuff such as The Wire. Game of Thrones is a current favourite, but my favourite TV show so far is probably 24.

14. Someone wrongs you. Do you get revenge or allow Karma to do it for you?

Karma will get them one day. I’m not one for direct intervention, despite revenge being the central theme of my novel.

15. If you could choose any one book to be made into a movie, what would it be?

MINE!

16. What is your favourite band?

The Maccabees. I think they just get better and better with every album and their live sets can’t be matched in my opinion.

17. What’s your favourite drink?

I can’t live without Coca-Cola. I know it rots your teeth and it’s terribly unhealthy but so far my teeth are all fine and well, it’s my coffee equivalent. That said, I’m definitely trying to cut down!

18. You can pick one series to return to the TV. Firefly or Angel?

Firefly, and I will shoot anyone who chooses Angel. Wait, no. Karma will shoot anyone who chooses Angel.

 

Thanks very much to Mark for taking part. If you want to learn more about Mark an his work you can go to the below links:

Kindle page: UK  America

Lulu Page: paperback

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