It's over a year since I updated this blog. So much for harnessing social media to help promote my books and win more readers. I ought to pen a blog entry on how best to crawl under a stone and not market yourself. I fear I am something of an expert on how not to do things. I haven't touched my Twitter account in months, nor Facebook.
Anyway, I'll beat myself up over this another time. Here I am, the prodigal blogger returning, repentant, to finally give an update on my progress as an author. In one sense, I have more time than ever to write now, having taken redundancy from my newspaper job in January. Unfortunately that decision - more forced upon me than voluntarily made - played havoc with my need to have an untroubled, calm frame of mind in which to write.
As George Orwell once said, through his character Gordon Comstock (an impoverished wannabe novelist) in Keep The Aspidistra Flying, only a writer can say that that he literally cannot work. It' true - you need to have calm both externally and inside your head in order to be able to write fiction well (apart from all the other requirements to writing good fiction, that is).
In more recent weeks, I think that sense of calm and a desire to write has come back to me. Since I last wrote a blog entry in August 2012, I have penned books two and three in what I now call my Lou Elliott Mystery Adventure Series, namely: The Missing Treasure and Something Strange in the Cellar.
I am now embarking on book four in the series which I hope to have published by Christmas this year (2013). I have just published a short story for Halloween (about 20,500 words) called The Mystery of the Misty Woods, which I have currently got on Amazon for free until this Saturday (October 26th) and thereafter at 77p / $1.24 (approx).
It's getting quite a few downloads in America - nearly 200 in the first 24 hours and has already picked up its first review - a 4-star one from a lady who recommends it for readers in second grade through to fourth grade. I think that's aged about eight to 10 or 11. She herself is 70 and enjoyed it a lot so one might infer that the book is suitable for all ages from eight to 70+!
I hope so, anyway. It is an unusual take on Halloween, I believe - seeking to look into the myths and legends behind the festival and touching on the competing claims of Christianity and paganism to 'ownership'. It's my first foray into the fantasy genre and I enjoyed straying into that category.
I will write more very soon on other aspects of my work and also to give updates on book four in the Lou Elliott mystery adventure series. A number of readers have contacted me to ask when they will next hear from Lou, Jack, David and Emily and are keen to find out how they are getting on.
The answer is they are having a great time and looking forward to sharing their latest escapades with you!
I will blog again very soon . . . (now that I've got back into it!)
Showing posts with label George Orwell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George Orwell. Show all posts
Friday, October 25, 2013
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Another sale, and my thoughts are turning to reviews . . .
I had the fourth sale of Smugglers this afternoon and it is a funny feeling to think that, with the exception of my first buyer, who hails from Canada, I have no idea who the other three are.
Could they be the next door neighbour but one, could it be a family member? A work colleague? The fact is, almost nobody knows about my ebook and all members of my family are under instructions not to buy it off Amazon which is currently the only place I have my it for sale. I simply want to feel that any purchase is a genuine one, ie. one made by a stranger or a sworn enemy or something - not my best mate, or a sympathetic neighbour, or a kindly in-law who feels I need a little encouragement.
And the other thing is, will the book get reviewed - I can be pretty sure one of those buyers will review it but not necessarily the others. I do feel a slight feeling of unease that anyone anywhere in the world can download my book and just read it for themselves. My first buyer, who is himself writing a book, expressed that very emotion in an email to me and it made me realise I feel the same way.
I suppose it is easy to be nervous about any possible criticism but it is through critical appraisal that we all learn and all fledgling novelists should remind themselves that the greatest writers in history have their critics and indeed, from Shakespeare through to the likes of Thomas Hardy, have stuff to their name that is, shall we say, not their best.
It's interesting that my favourite author, George Orwell, so disliked his early two novels A Clergyman's Daughter and Keep The Aspidistra Flying that after early print runs, he refused to allow them to be reprinted in his lifetime. I enjoyed reading both, but in particular, Keep The Aspidistra Flying - a harrowing tale of a struggling writer who could barely make ends meet and felt worthless in the process. There is some very powerful, and at times poetic language by Orwell and I only wish he had written more of this type of book.
Anyway, enough of Mr Orwell for one evening, it is already nearly half past midnight here in North Wales and I could go on about him all night, and after another tiring day on the paper (working from home today though, not the office) I probably ought to get to bed.
Could they be the next door neighbour but one, could it be a family member? A work colleague? The fact is, almost nobody knows about my ebook and all members of my family are under instructions not to buy it off Amazon which is currently the only place I have my it for sale. I simply want to feel that any purchase is a genuine one, ie. one made by a stranger or a sworn enemy or something - not my best mate, or a sympathetic neighbour, or a kindly in-law who feels I need a little encouragement.
And the other thing is, will the book get reviewed - I can be pretty sure one of those buyers will review it but not necessarily the others. I do feel a slight feeling of unease that anyone anywhere in the world can download my book and just read it for themselves. My first buyer, who is himself writing a book, expressed that very emotion in an email to me and it made me realise I feel the same way.
I suppose it is easy to be nervous about any possible criticism but it is through critical appraisal that we all learn and all fledgling novelists should remind themselves that the greatest writers in history have their critics and indeed, from Shakespeare through to the likes of Thomas Hardy, have stuff to their name that is, shall we say, not their best.
It's interesting that my favourite author, George Orwell, so disliked his early two novels A Clergyman's Daughter and Keep The Aspidistra Flying that after early print runs, he refused to allow them to be reprinted in his lifetime. I enjoyed reading both, but in particular, Keep The Aspidistra Flying - a harrowing tale of a struggling writer who could barely make ends meet and felt worthless in the process. There is some very powerful, and at times poetic language by Orwell and I only wish he had written more of this type of book.
Anyway, enough of Mr Orwell for one evening, it is already nearly half past midnight here in North Wales and I could go on about him all night, and after another tiring day on the paper (working from home today though, not the office) I probably ought to get to bed.
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