A little about me!
Welcome to the first post on my official blog. Having been writing as a self-published, independent author for almost a year, I’m finally branching out to the world of social media and online blogging.
WRITING NEWS
I’ve recently finished writing my third novel, featuring my central character, Adrian Hell, which will be released in a few weeks’ time and is entitled One Last Bullet. I’ll get to that in a moment. First, I want to show you where it all began.
Crucible was my debut novel, and introduced the world to Adrian Hell. He’s a hitman who travels North America, assisted by his best friend, Josh Winters, carrying out contracts for a variety of unsavory people. Released back in February, and recently re-released as a second edition (following some extensive re-editing), it tells the story of how a standard contract in the city of Heaven’s Valley, Nevada quickly went wrong – resulting in him becoming the target of the mafia who hired him, an extremist militia intent on starting World War 3 and a government defense contractor who has a vested interest in everything that’s happening.
I followed this up in April (and again with a re-edited second edition recently) with Hunter’s Games. This performed extremely during it’s week-long Free Amazon Promotion, hitting 6,500 downloads and reaching Number 1 in it’s relevant charts as well as the general Thriller chart on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. I was overwhelmed by the feedback I received for this book as well, getting some really great reviews.
The story is set a year after Crucible, and focuses on an individual carrying out attacks on San Francisco at the same time Adrian Hell happens to be there on job. The terrorist seems to have a vendetta with Adrian and plays a deadly game with him to exact whatever revenge he feels he needs. Adrian finds himself relying on the help of the FBI to stop this maniac before more people die.
With the help of http://www.booksgosocial.com, Crucible will be receiving a nice marketing push this coming week, in the hope of gaining some visibility ahead of the release of One Last Bullet in a few weeks’ time.
This latest offering follows on immediately from the end of Hunter’s Games, and sees Adrian finally confront the demons from his past that have haunted him for so many years. It’s a violent yet emotional journey for him and one that I know fans will have anticipated after reading the earlier books. I’m excited about releasing it, as it took the same amount of time to write.edit as the first two did together. For me, I started planning Book 3 at the same time as Book 1, knowing where Adrian would inevitably end up, so to get to that point and finish telling that part of Adrian’s life is a big thing for me, and I genuinely hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
I’m well into the first draft of Adrian Hell’s fourth book, entitled Brave New World. I don’t want to give too much of the plot away at this stage, for two reasons. One, it will spoil Book 3 for you, and two, I’ve not finished deciding how the story will pan out and eventually end myself! What I will say is that Adrian is very much out of his comfort zone in this latest book, and conflicted by what he wants from life. But there’s already been plenty of action, with plenty more to come, and the added political aspect of the story opens up new avenues for me to explore creatively. Needless to say, it’s very exciting to be writing once again and I look forward to bringing you more Adrian Hell adventures very soon.
ABOUT ME
Seeing as this is my first blog, and I might as well tell you all a little about myself.
I’m a regular guy with a regular job. I live in the UK and I’m married with a wonderful son. I write in my spare time, as much as possible. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, and toyed with many ideas over the years that never really came to anything. I think it was an age/maturity thing, to be honest. But having recently turned 32, I’m in a good place and I’m happy and it feels very natural to me now to write seriously.
I’ve always been a fan of the thriller genre, and I always enjoyed reading books that gripped me quickly, kept a good pace and held me ’til the very end. I’ve followed Lee Child’s career since his first Jack Reacher novel, as well as discovering John Locke’s Donovan Creed series in recent years. He was very much my inspiration, as he’s a very successful, self-published author and I liked his style of writing. I thought I could do the same, but with my own ideas, in my own style, so I picked up the pen and started writing. And here I am, three books later. Am I ready to retire? Not quite! Making those millions happens to a small few, but being successful can happen to anyone – it just takes hard work and patience. I’m getting there, slowly but surely, one step at a time and I’m loving every second of it. My only hope is that you, the loyal reader, does too.
If you wish to contact me, I can be found on Twitter (@TheFirstHellion), although I’ll be honest, I’ve not been that active as yet. I’m also on Facebook, and you can drop me a line any time at iamadrianhell@gmail.com. I always answer any questions personally, and love a chance to interact with my fans!
That’s it for this week. It’s been a blast, folks! Take care!
JPS
