R. Jackson-Lawrence's Blog, page 4

IndieReCon 2014

Good morning all!

I'm sorry to say that I haven't got much writing done these last few days because I have been following IndieReCon 2014, a 3 day free (yes, free) Indie-Publishing online conference.  There's been web-chats with authors and marketers, people from Goodreads and Kobo, and a lot of advice about how to make a living as an Indie author.  The page is still live, so head over there to read transcripts of the chats and all of the important gems of information that are available!

Here are some of the great things that I have learned over the last three days.

Marketing

Social media and blogging aren't that great for selling books.  If you think about it, how many of your twitter followers are eager fans waiting for an update on your new release?  How many are fellow authors or follow you because you followed them (and vice versa)?  How many of the spam 'Buy My Book' twitter posts have you ever clicked on and bought a book?

See the point?

Social media is great for connecting with people, learning from each other, making friends etc, but it probably won't sell many books.  True, some of the people you connect with may go on to buy your book, but compare that to the time invested in making that sale.  This post really summed it up for me

http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/if-you-dont-enjoy-marketing-youre-doing-it-wrong/

Authors and marketing people over there offered a lot of far more useful marketing techniques to try that may boost sales.

1.  Promotion
Very few of them recommended paying for promotion, and the ones that did suggested certain sites that have good results (eg before a kindle countdown deal, which anecdotally they suggested was now better than free days).  They mentioned

BookBub
EBookBooster
Kboards

I don't have the funds to try these yet, but it's worth going through the chat transcripts to get more info about what they said.

2.  Podcasts
One author suggested reading chapters of your work and short stories, or author interviews, and posting them as podcasts.  Add them to your blog.  They are another medium for people to find out about you and your work, and there is something about hearing a human voice that aids that connection.  I am going to give it a try, to I will keep you updated!

They suggested a program called Audacity to edit the audio files, and Blubrry to upload them.  Haven't tried them yet, and I'm sure there are many others.

3.  Images
When you do tweet, write blog posts, post on Facebook, use images where possible.  How often do you look at text compared to a cute picture when you scroll through the 2000 twitter people you follow?  It will make you stand out.

4.  Quotes
One person suggested tweeting and posting quotes from your writing.  You can turn these into eye-catching images with a program called notegraphy, so I'm going to try that too!

5.  Permafree
This was a little conflicting, as some people said the opposite.  On one day, someone suggested not pricing your books at 99p/99c as it may suggest low quality with the low price.  I don't know about that, but the first book in my Benjamin Knight series has been priced at 99p/99c for almost a year and sales have been very poor, so I have changed it to reflect the price of book 2 and soon book 3.

However, others suggested making the first book in a series free permanently.  You do this by making it free to somewhere else like Kobo or Ibooks, and then letting Amazon know and they price-match.  This makes people take a gamble on your book, hopefully like it and buy the rest in the series

I don't know.  I am going to leave Knightfall at £2.99 for now and see if sales change, then I may make if free when New Light is released in the next couple of months.

6.  Mailing Lists
Use a mailing list.  Build one using something like Mailchimp.  Don't just try to sell books to your email list, but offer promotions and early access etc that will keep them coming back.  Then, when your next book is out, let them know!

7.  HTML in your Amazon descriptions
This is a little alien to me, not something I have ever done but I am prepared to give it a go.  Someone suggested using HTML code to highlight parts of your Amazon description to make them stand out.  Here are a couple of useful links someone else suggested

http://www.w3schools.com/html/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200441900

8.  Giveaways
Use Goodreads and Library Thing to host giveaways.  Rumour is, Goodreads will soon be able to offer ebook giveaways to save the author the high price of postage!

9.  Keywords.
This was big, a huge component of many of the talks and posts by various people over that three days.  They suggested putting keywords into the title, subtitle, description and the seven keyword phrases.  Experiment with keywords that relate to your book and make it stand out.  There were lots of posts with tutorials of how to do this, so have a look.  It will take time apparently, but will pay off in the end.  Here's one I still have in one of the tabs on my browser

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/02/28/keywords-metadata-discoverability/

That's it for now, so I hope you find this useful.  The whole thing got me really excited about the marketing and promotion side of my writing, and I hope it will you too.

Come back next week for the results of my Literary Experiment that I have been conducting through February!

Benefit Street

Okay, from the title I can already see that this is going to turn into a bit of a rant, but I can't help myself.  Have any of you seen Benefit Street these last 6 weeks?  It was an interesting look into an area of Birmingham, not too far from where I grew up and close to where my sister used to live when she first left home.  It portrayed the people as kind and generous and struggling on the whole, though at times seemed to forgive and glorify their criminal behaviour.

But that's not what I really want to talk about.  What I want to rant about is last night's live 'debate'.

Wow, I have to use the term debate very loosely.  I don't know if it was the presenter and/or channel 4 who had the agenda, but there certainly was one.  Whenever someone tried to say something that didn't fit with the message they wanted to portray, the presenter cut them off and moved elsewhere, or went to someone who had an opposite view and let them shout louder and longer and spout 'facts and figures', many of which I have tried to look up and failed!  In the end, my wife and I turned it off and had a very heated debate ourselves.

It has become a topic that many people have an opinion on, and if nothing else, the television show Benefit Street has done a good job of bringing it into the public eye.  That topic is the Welfare State (here in the UK).

I don't think anyone would disagree that the welfare system is broken?  It was established over 60 years ago, when life expectancies were a couple of years after you retired, and healthcare was relatively primitive.  Families and communities cared for the elderly and sick, and people didn't expect that Sky TV and broadband internet were a right.

What's that you say?  What have retirement and healthcare got to do with people on benefits?

Well, I reply, I believe that one of the reasons the welfare state is so broken is because it has become so fragmented.  Everything is looked at in isolation, with ring fenced budgets and so many bureaucrats and managers that the system is collapsing under it's own weight of red tape.

To try and explain my point, I've decided to take one of the cast of the show, Dee (referred to as White Dee on the show).  That's another point about the show, though.  The intro described 99 houses where 95% of people were on benefits.  We saw people from perhaps 5 or 6 houses on the show?  Young to middle aged or immigrants, but no elderly or low income working families?  That was hardly representative of the street, let alone the population who use the benefit system.

Anyway, back to Dee.  On the show last night, Dee described her benefit entitlement.  She stated that she received child benefit, child tax credit, and employment and support allowance (ESA).  I don't know what that adds up to, but she struggled to support her two children.

Dee stated that her depression was what limited her ability to work.  I can understand that, and I can also relate to the difficulties with assessing patients with depression and their ability to work (I've done it).  They have good and bad days, and certain environments or activities can make their symptoms worse.  Mental illness tends to be chronic, relapsing and remitting, and difficult to treat at times, so I can accept that holding down a regular job can be difficult.

What that doesn't explain though are Dee's other lifestyle choices.  Despite being on a low, fixed income, she still found the money to pay for cigarettes, alcohol and internet.  Why is the state enabling her poor lifestyle choices (not the internet, clearly)?  This brings me back to the idea of unifying the welfare system.

Listening to Dee speak, if she hasn't already been diagnosed with COPD, it won't be long I'm sure.  This smoking related lung disease will greatly increase her use of the NHS, funded for by the welfare state.  Smoking will also increase her likelihood of heart disease, stroke and cancer.  These are often chronic conditions these days, requiring long term NHS medical care, as well as long term supportive care e.g. when she is too breathless to get washed and dressed so needs carers two to four times a day, yet again funded by the state (this time the social care budget).  Added to that is her morbid obesity (I don't know how much she weighs, but I would estimate that her BMI is >35).  This again greatly increases her risk of cancer, heart disease, and also causes problems to joints which may need surgical intervention in the future.

So, to look at Dee, over the next 20 years or so, her cost to the welfare system is likely to increase, using benefits, NHS and social services.  Early intervention, and more importantly EDUCATION (yes I put that in capitals on purpose), can change that.

In the UK, smoking cessation treatment is free on the NHS.  Yes, free.  That means nicotine gum, patches, tablets etc are available to the public for free to get them off cigarettes.  This will not only have a huge impact on their current and future health, reducing the amount of use they make of the welfare system in the future, it will also increase the amount of money in the individuals pocket.

I was very interested when a member of the audience mentioned this, and raised the question of food stamps.  However, as it didn't seem to fit with the channel 4 agenda, it was immediately ignored.  Why?

I see the basic human needs as food, shelter, and in a modern society gas/electricity/clean water.  I do not accept that it is a basic human right to have Sky TV, broadband internet, cigarettes, alcohol, nights out etc.  Those, to me, are luxuries, and when budgets are tight, surely the luxuries have to go first?

Why can't the welfare system pay people's rent directly to a landlord?  A fair price based on the number of rooms and the area, a market price, and not an artificially inflated price as the programme mentioned some landlords charge?  Why not give people food stamps?  The local councils can negotiate with the local supermarkets, getting a good deal for the council and good PR and probably tax benefits for the supermarket chains?  The people go in, can select so many items form a list, take them home.  They won't be able to buy cigarettes and alcohol, but there will always be healthy food to feed them and their families?  Utilities paid for centrally, again in bulk cost cutting deals with the major energy and water companies?

From then on, the health of the individuals increases.  Their future use of the welfare system decreases. They educate their children what's healthy and what isn't by example, the way most young people learn things from their parents (good and bad).  They incentivise people to work because they don't have the luxuries that other people have.  They are only available to those in work.

I accept that there aren't enough jobs for everyone, but that has as much to do with the population as it does with the state of unemployment.  The UK is a relatively small island, yet it houses over 60 million people.  There just isn't enough work and enough money for all of them.  One man on the programme last night made the statement 'we're not in China' (or something similar) when another person mentioned about the state paying for children.  In the UK, contraception is available, for free, on the NHS.  Therefore, why should the state be paying for X number of children?  Surely, this also has to be brought into the argument?

Benefits should not be a long term solution.  They should be short term for the most in need members of society.  There needs to be an increase in the living wage, and small businesses need tax reliefs (similar to those big businesses receive) to ensure that they pay their workers a living wage.  There needs to be less bureaucracy and more action.

There is no quick fix, and I suspect that the welfare system will collapse and disappear over the next few years, but it doesn't need to.  It needs to be redone, rethought, employing a birth to grave philosophy that tackles education at the bottom, encourages stable populations through free contraception, rewards healthy lifestyle choices and stops enabling poor ones, offers realistic expectations on what the welfare system can and can't provide for, and enabling people to get into work.

The beginning has to be Education.  It's the building block on which the rest of the system will stand.  If children and young people are taught in a way that allows them to achieve and make good decisions as they leave educational environments, their need for a welfare system will decrease.

This leads me to the point that led to the heated discussion with my wife last night.  I firmly believe that one of the reasons the education system fails children is because of a lack of discipline, that is, teachers are no longer empowered to control the pupils in their class and encourage learning.  I have two children, one who has just left secondary school and one mid way through junior school.  I also remember my time at school.

I have heard too many times of teachers stripped of powers to discipline children, and I'm sure you've all heard the same.  The noisy and disruptive child, who stops others learning and takes up the teachers time.  All they seem able to do is say 'please stop doing that'.  The child responds with something like, 'no, you can't make me', and they're right, the teacher can't.  I've heard other pupils say phrases like, 'you can't touch me, that's assault,' and, 'if you touch me, I'll sue'.

They may get sent to the headmaster, who is equally powerless, who threatens to exclude them from school.  The child is happy, no school, perfect.  They don't care that their future job prospects will be effected, because there aren't any jobs anyway and they're going to live on benefits....

The system is broken and it propagates this behaviour, which can lead to criminal behaviour in teens.  When I was a teenager, the usual things my classmates did was steal from cars (stereos and speakers and the 'stuck-on-you' Garfield's - now I'm showing my age) and shoplifting.  This led to petty theft and burglary for some as I remember, and afterwards I don't know because I didn't socialise with them.  I suspect though, that those with criminal tendencies continued and their crimes increased in severity.

Their early crimes went unpunished and un-investigated because the criminal justice system (also paid for by the state) is  under resourced.  They are unable to follow up on what are perceived as 'petty crimes'.  This in turn leads to validating those who commit the petty crimes, as there are no consequences to their actions.  Those who are caught have minimal sentences or fines/community service and cease to be adequate deterrents.  Similar to the problems in school.

There needs to be discipline, and there needs to be consequences to poor behaviour and rewards for good behaviour.  It's simple Pavlovian conditioning.  By the time they're teenagers and continually disrupting classes or committing crimes, their behaviour is more difficult to change.  Starting early with discipline and consequence has to be at the start.

I've told my wife the story before of how, in one of my first history classes at secondary school, the teacher dealt with a talking pupil by throwing a board rubber at him.  It struck him square in the head, made him cry, and no-one spoke out of turn in that class for the rest of the year.  He had to do it once, and it was an adequate deterrent to future poor behaviour.  These days, he'd be prosecuted.  The parents would be up in arms about the treatment of their child.  The child would continue to behave poorly and their behaviour would escalate.

I'm not advocating throwing board rubbers at people or bringing back the cane, but I am saying there needs to be a discussion about empowering educators to deal with such pupils that it stops such behaviour and allows and even encourages learning.  Even if a pupil actively stops listening, some of what is being taught will sink in, and others will learn more from the healthy learning environment.  Most of all, though, they will accept that actions have consequences.

I firmly believe that, at present, people have so many rights, and are acutely aware of them, that they no longer care about their responsibilities.  Everyone has a right to smoke and drink and have as many children as they want.  Okay, that may be true, but they don't have the right to the state paying for it.  That's where responsibility kicks in.

These policies wouldn't be popular.  They'd take twenty, thirty, forty years or more to see a benefit to the country and society as a whole.  They wouldn't win votes.  They could well lead to civil unrest.  The alternative, though, is to continue as we are, until the cost is so astronomical the entire country collapses under the weight of it.  You may say it couldn't happen, but I'm sure Greece felt the same.

There needs to be a decision to change, and it needs to me made soon.  Government need to make it, but then it needs to be taken out of their hands.  Governments work on a four year cycle, because that is their expected term.  If they want to win votes, they would change and go back on such policies, and you are back to square one.  This would need to be accountable to government, but not controlled by it once the decision had been made.  They would not be able to change the policy once it had been made, and this would have to apply to the NHS, social care, welfare and benefits and most likely criminal justice.  It would need significant investment at the bottom, and the benefits would not be seen for a very long time.  It would be tough, and it would take perhaps another 60 years to see the benefits, but in the end it would be worth it.

Rant over.  Discuss!

Only three to go!

Chapter 9 is done and dusted!  Only three chapters to go and then New Light is done!  I'm aiming to be done for the end of March, then to edit and proof read and hopefully released in May/June!  Here's hoping Thief on the PS4 doesn't completely overtake my life at the end of February...

On a side note, I actually found myself laughing at an episode of Dads!  Weird or what, eh!  Don't worry, I've checked myself in with the doctor to find out what's wrong with me...

Ben's Laboratory

For those of you who are interested, at the point I have just gotten to in New Light, Ben and his friends have had to return to the Laboratory for reasons that will become clear if you read it!

While they were looking for anything of use, they came across this floor plan on the wall of the Mess Hall, so I thought I would share it with you.  Now you all have an idea what the Laboratory looks like, at least in part.  The mainframe and maintenance levels (i.e. fusion reactor) are both security clearance Alpha 9, so no floor plans for them I'm afraid.

Anyway, here it is!


Let me know what you think in the comments below.  Was it how you imagined?

Chapter 8 is done!

Another milestone met, another reason to celebrate!

Chapter 8 of New Light is finished!  By my calculations, I have another four chapters to go (and an epilogue, but it's very short), until the entire novel is done and dusted!  Chapter 8 is of particular note as it is the chapter in which Ben works out where he is and what is going on!


I took three stabs at the first draft of that scene, so I hope people like it.  If not, let me know why!  Still eager for the feedback here, people, just so you know.

In other news, I have also been preparing an experiment which I will be discussing at a later date, once I have some results.  It's a literary experiment (sort of), as you would expect from my blog about writing and such, so stay tuned!

Oh, also, I passed an English and Maths exam last week, proving that I am not a total dunce.  I scored lowest on my grammar, as I'm sure my editor can attest to!  That's one more step on my road to teacher training, so here's hoping I get called for an interview.

If only my novels would pay my bills....

Character death

So, I've just killed one of the main characters in my Benjamin Knight series.  I didn't know he was going to die, he just sort of did.  There was no way out, and I couldn't save him.

Sorry, spoilers and all that.  Yes it was a he, but I won't be saying who.  If you're like me, it probably wouldn't matter, I'd miss any of them at this point.  After all this time writing about these people, it's hard to let one go, especially when it was so unexpected.  I thought I had an idea about how the scene was going to go, and then it completely threw me.

So much for all my plans.

I keep looking at the chart on my wall and the piles of paper on my desk, and wondering who else I am going to lose before this is done.  I am just about done with chapter 7, which leaves 5 or 6 chapters left to write in New Light (depending on how it finally pans out).  That's a lot of words to get through.  Who else won't make it to the epilogue?

I know what you're thinking - "Shut up, I'm bored already."

No?  Okay, maybe you were thinking - "You're the one writing the story, just change it so he doesn't die!"

I could, but part of me would feel like I'm cheating.  I've established these characters, their motivations and personalities.  I've set up the rules for how the world works.  If I go back and add something now, is that really fair?  As the reader, you have a certain expectation by now, almost 300 thousand words into the story (I am 65k words into New Light).  If I pull a metaphorical rabbit out of the hat, won't you feel cheated too?

I don't know, I think I'm going to sleep on it, and see what tomorrow brings.

Not that I think I'll be getting much sleep....

Antagonize cover reveal!

Today I am in the lucky position to reveal the cover for the second Daniel Quinn novel - Antagonize.  You may remember that I read and reviewed the fist book in the series, Energize, in 2013 and awarded it 4 stars.  Well worth a read if you haven't gotten to it yet!

Now, onto Antagonize:-

Two worlds are at war, their destruction close to reality. Only one man can stop the bloodshed, but only if he survives the deadly game he’s been forced to play with a ruthless mercenary. Captain Daniel Quinn returns in Antagonize: From the Logs of Daniel Quinn by Thomas R. Manning.

Welcome to the official cover reveal and release announcement of Antagonize! Last June, Thomas made his debut in the literary world with the first Daniel Quinn novel, Energize! Since that time, there have been some amazing reviews of the book, calling it “electric, sorrowful, inventive, astonishing, and ultimately totally unpredictable and original”, and “superb and leaves you waiting to find out what other adventures are in store”.


The official synopsis:
The planets Terra and Gaia have been at war for generations. Now in a last ditch effort, a council is formed to usher in an era of peace. But when members are ruthlessly killed, lines are drawn, sides grow hostile, and mutual destruction seems inevitable.
Far away on a desolate planet, Captain Daniel Quinn of the Kestrel Belle is summoned in the hopes that he can help stop the bloodshed. With armies of soldiers around every corner, and a deadly mercenary determined to stop him, Daniel is the only man who can help unite the two worlds.
It's a war that he didn't start, but one he will have to stop in order to save lives, including his own.
Thomas has also confirmed the release date for Antagonize: From the Logs of Daniel Quinn.
March 28th2014!!! Available on Kindle, Nook, Smashwords, and more!
Check it out on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20422255-antagonize, and to stay up to date with all of Thomas’s latest updates regarding Antagonize and future projects through his blog, http://authorthomasraymann.blogspot.comand his website, http://www.thomasrmanning.com

It looks good, doesn't it, and I'm here to tell you that it is even better than it looks!  Thomas has granted me the special privilege of being one of his beta readers, and I have read the first 2 chapters.  It's a great read, and I can't wait for more, believe me.  Energize was good, but I can already see that Antagonize is going to be even better.

Make sure to check back around the 28th March for the full review.

Choice of POV's (points of view)

As I was sat at the computer today, hard at work on book 3 of the Benjamin Knight series, I was reminded of a comment from a review some moths ago about the number of points of view in my novels.  The reviewer felt that I had too many, and it made if difficult for them to follow the story.  I was reminded of this because I was writing the 4th scene in chapter six, which relates to a different character from scenes 1-3.

For those who haven't read my books (please do, they're quite good apparently and very cheap on the kindle), my chapters don't follow the most common format in fiction.  I blame this on the fact that I watch a lot of TV.
What my nan would have called an 'idiot box'.
Bear with me here, and let me explain.

If I take the first book, it is split into 10 chapters, and then each chapter is split into a number of scenes, separated by roman numerals.  The first scene may be about Ben's story arc, the second perhaps Matthew's or Catrina's, and the third about the villain of the story.  Then back to Ben, then the villain again, and so on.  These aren't the same scene from a different persons point of view, but distinct parts of the story that all connect together.

Now, back to TV.

When I watch a television programme (and I really do watch a lot), I don't expect the 'main character' to be in every scene, and so many shows these days have a large cast of 'main characters' who all have interconnected stories (think Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead).  I don't have a problem following them, as they all tie together in some way.

Take Haven.  Last night, I watched the season finale (very good, with a cliff hanger as you would expect.  I hope they make a series 5).  Thinking about it, there were scenes from at least 4 different points of view.  There were the two 'main' characters scenes, scenes with the villain and his henchmen, scenes with the two newspaper men, scenes with the new girl and her magic book etc.  They all told different parts of the story that came together as a whole.

That's kind of what I am trying to do with my novels.  I'm trying to tell a big story that effects a lot of people, and I want the reader to really get a feel for how big the whole thing is.  If I wanted to describe it from the points of view of one or two characters, I could, but I worry something would be lost in the detail.  Good guy goes from A to B, some conflict on the way, gets there anyway and beats the bad guy, the end.  In my story, I have a lot going on, and I want the reader to appreciate that it has huge consequences for a lot of people in a lot of different ways.

As an added bonus, it also allows me to give a lot of 'screen time' (page time?) to the villain.  I really enjoy writing the villains scenes, not just because he is so fun to write, but because it gives me a chance to show that he wasn't just born bad.

A lot of fantasy stories have a villain who is bad just because.  He might just be 'The Dark One', or he lives in the part of the world where the sun never rises, or maybe he's the subject of an ancient prophecy, etc.  All fairly standard fantasy villain types.

I'm evil because I'm evil....
Writing scenes from the villain in my book has allowed me to explore where he comes from and why he does the things he does.  He was born, like everyone else.  He had a tough childhood, but eventually he overcame it.  He made choices, lots of choices, and often for what he thought were the right reasons, but still he ended up where he did.

Isn't that just life?

One of the things that you learn as you get older is that there is less and less right and wrong, and a lot more shades of grey (certainly more than fifty....).  It's a bit like the question we might put to our children - Is it right to steal a loaf of bread if you're starving?

Simple, right?

"No," my daughter would say, "stealing is wrong."  There you go.  Easy.  Next step, world peace.

"But you're starving," I say.  "You don't have any money, and if you don't eat, you'll die."

"Then yes, it is okay to take the bread," she might reply.

So I follow up with, "But if you steal the bread, the baker doesn't get any money to buy more flour, so he starves instead."  (I can be a complete and total b*****d at times)

"Oh," she says, "so you don't steal, but you have to steal, but stealing is wrong, but then you'll die, but the baker will die, so......what if you just take half the loaf?"

And that's about the time that I send her to bed for answering back.


You don't get to be smarter than me until you no longer poo in your pants!Then there's the 'heroes', the ones the reader is rooting for and wants to win and all that.  If I take time to think about the heroes of my story, I have an unscrupulous trader who would sell his mother if it would turn him a profit, a man who killed his brother in a fit of rage and who fled before he could be tried and convicted, a grieving mother who is mentally unhinged, and a complete fish out of water who is always making a mess of things.  These are my 'good guys'.

This is part of what I have been calling 'The Batman Effect'.  Sounds cool, right?

It has Batman in the name, so it has to be cool.

This is referring to the rise of the anti-hero in modern books/films/comics.  The kind of guy who just gets the job done, because the ends justify the means.  The man you think, 'yeah, that'd be me, kicking ass and taking names'.  If only life were that easy.

This brings me back to the question of choices.  Again, a lot of fantasy novels have a 'hero', all flowing blonde locks and a noble steed, born of royal blood and bestowed with a magic sword blah blah blah.  He's good because he is, and that's what the reader expects of him.  He might be off to slay the evil dragon, but he can stop and rescue the fair maiden because there's no consequence to his being late, because he always wins, no matter what.

Perhaps if you're my daughter's age, that's great and that's what we want our children to believe the world is really like.  At some point, however, they do learn the truth.

In the really real world, some of the time, it's the bad guys who win.

If you're reading to escape the real world, perhaps you want a nice, clean, black and white world where everything works out perfectly in the end.  I've read many stories like that, and they make you feel good, but they also leave me feeling a little empty at the same time.  A huge war ravages the land, but it's ok because the prince and princess get married and the evil dragon is slain.  So what about the tens of thousands of people dead or left homeless and starving????  They don't get to live happily ever after.

Now, I'm not saying that the good guys fail in my story.  They totally rock and defeat the bad guy and everything.  It's just that, throughout the story, as in life, they make choices.  And those choices have consequences.  There might be a victory, but at the same time, I want them to think about the cost, and I want the reader to think about it too.

I really wanted the characters in my novels to feel alive, to do things because that's what that character would do.  I want them to make good decisions and bad decisions, and usually for all the right reasons.  And I want them to deal with the consequences of those decisions and come through the other end, changed, both for good and for ill.

Will I succeed?  I hope so.  At the end of the day, it's the reader who makes that final judgement.  I do have a bit of a cop out, writing a series of books as opposed to a single story.  I can always just tell you that I am going to resolve that in a later book.  Chances are, I was, but I might  also have forgotten and I'm actually really grateful that you reminded me.

Anyway, that sort on rambled on for a bit.  I did have a point somewhere, but I seem to have misplaced it.  If you got this far, good for you!  Give yourself a cookie or something.  And leave a comment, please.  I really like the feedback, especially if you've read either of my books.  Go on, be honest. 

How am I doing?

Help with New Light

This post is part thank you and part research for me for some of the closing scenes of New Light (SPOILERS ahead - beware!).  First, the thank you!

As readers of this blog will know, I have been struggling to tie New Light together with the previous novels and make sure the timeline is consistent and that everyone gets satisfactory closure of their story arcs.  As you may or may not know, New Light is the 3rd book in The Chronicle of Benjamin Knight, and ends the story of Alexander's war, but it isn't the final book in the series.  Books 4, 5 and 6 are already sketched out in my head, and I will get to them at some point in the future (hopefully near future!).

Yesterday, my good friend Thomas Manning agreed to let me send him the detail of what happens to each of the characters in New Light, and hash out the details and story arcs to make sure everyone gets the ending that they deserve.  Let me just say, he was excellent!  As any writer knows, it's important to have someone to bounce ideas off, someone who won't hold back and tell you that a story or plot point is wrong or needs work.  Tom was that person for me yesterday, and I can't thank him enough.  Hopefully, now, all of the kinks have been worked out and what you will read in a few months time will be all the better for the conversation that we had.

Also, if it isn't, you now have someone else to blame!  (Only joking....)

Tom is a writer of sci-fi, fantasy, urban fantasy, and now apparently a romance novel I discovered yesterday!  His first book, Energize - From the logs of Daniel Quinn, is available here, and I have previously reviewed this great read and awarded it 4 stars.  The second story is well on the way and should be with us early in the new year!

Now, the research bit (and the SPOILERS).

As part of the conversation yesterday, I came to realise that Ben needs to use some more of the technology in the laboratory, and we decided that one of the things he would use is the ATV mentioned at the beginning of book 1.  I won't go into specifics, but after comparing images of military vehicles on google to the picture of the ATV in my head, I have worked out that the ATV in question is the German-Dutch made Boxer Multi-Role Armoured Vehicle (MRAV).


This vehicle can carry 3 crew as well as 8 passengers into very hostile environments.  It is shielded to withstand ballistics fire, IED's and even a tactical nuclear explosion at medium distances!  Here's hoping Alexander hasn't gotten his hands on any nukes.  (He hasn't, don't worry).

As well as the cool survivability options, it also has a top speed of 105km/h and a maximum road range of 1000km on one tank of fuel, so with some extra fuel in the back, it could get all the way to....SPOILER!!!!

The version in the laboratory isn't fitted with the 44mm grenade launcher or 12.7mm machine gun, but that doesn't mean it can't do plenty of damage on its own.  I wonder who'll get to drive it?

Failed marketing strategy

So, it's just over 2 weeks since I posted out my unusual and hopefully eye catching marketing press packs, and so far I have hade absolutely no feedback or contact from any of the firms I posted them to.

Zero

Nil

The scientist in me assures me that a failed experiment is as important as a successful one, but that doesn't mean I have to like it!  On a slightly better note, I now have the cover of New Light to share with the world, check it out below.


It's the first cover to feature one of my characters, Ben in this case, but he looks enough like the description in book 1 that I was happy to put a face to him.  The shadows still give the reader the chance to put their own details to his face.

I am back to writing more of New Light today, still behind schedule but hoping to have the first draft completed early next year!