20200425 – 5th weekend in lockdown

This weekend is the 5th weekend in lockdown.

I am back to preparing my second book to be formatted into a Paperback. When the pandemic lockdown started, and all the Festivals were cancelled, like many folks, I just lost the will to write. I am now making progress on the work needed to be done and in planning my work for the rest of the year.

I finished “Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Golden Samovar” by Olga Wojtas earlier this week. I got halfway through by reading a chapter or two each evening and then had to binge read the second half in one sitting. Definitely a lockdown read. I will be purchasing the second book by Olga Wojtas, “Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Vampire Menace” when I can get to a bookseller. I want it in paperback rather than the digital version.

This is Princes Street, Edinburgh in the lockdown

 

 

#fantasy, #darkfantasy, #epicfantasy, #storytelling, #swordandsorcery, #writerslife, #amwriting, #authors, #dragons, #books, #Kindle, #Amazon, #AppleBooks, #Kobo, #Lockdown,

20200412 – Pandemic isolation update

It has only been a couple of weeks since the lockdown came into effect. I have been doing spring cleaning, re-watching several DVDs from my collection and I finished reading Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman.

I am now reading Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradury.

I went for my daily exercise in the ghost town on Saturday. George Street Edinburgh.

A sign of the times.

The Grassmarket pubs all boarded up, the streets empty.

The West Bow, the pavements deserted and no cars. You can breath and smell the air.

Let us hope by the end of this pandemic that East Princes Street Gardens are restored and the Council stop allowing it to be used for commercial purposes, i.e. the Christmas market. It has been 4 months and the gardens are still closed to the public.

Stay safe everyone.

 

#fantasy, #darkfantasy, #epicfantasy, #storytelling, #swordandsorcery, #writerslife, #amwriting, #authors, #dragons, #books, #Kindle, #Amazon, #AppleBooks, #Kobo,

20200328 – my writing goals for 2020 update

 

As I said in my last post, I’m not into doing new year resolutions as they tend to get broken shortly after they are made. However, I never expected a pandemic when I wrote that. All my plans for this year have had to be abandoned. Edinburgh is in lockdown, heck the whole country and the rest of the world is in lockdown. Wherever you are reading this, I hope you and your family are safe. If you have lost loved ones to this pandemic, my condolences and prayers are with you at this time.

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We live in difficult times. Theatres, cinemas, restaurants, Festivals including Book Festivals have been cancelled including the Cymera Book Festival which I had hoped to have the paperback versions of my 2nd and 3rd books ready to sell there. I had sold book 1 in paperback at the festival last year. A lot of authors are having the book launches for their new books cancelled. Some have been doing online book launches. I will have to plan a virtual book launch for when I finish my current work.

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Like a lot of people in lockdown, I have started spring cleaning. I am sure there are behavioural scientists out there who could give us a 70,000-word book on why people do this. I am, however, blaming it on procrastination now that I am stuck inside rather than being here willingly. When I stop procrastinating I will get back to doing rewrites of book 2 in preparation to get it into paperback. Once that is done I will move on to preparing book 3 to go into paperback. All the reasons for my deadlines have gone out of the window, now I have to make myself new deadlines so I can make progress on my work. I think my best option will be to split my time between preparing books 2 & 3 for paperback and doing the drafts on books 4 & 5.

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One thing I did not expect the panic buyers to clear off the shelves was black pepper, I went to 4 supermarkets today before I got a small jar. 😦 who the heck is stockpiling black pepper?

Whatever your goals are for this year, I wish you luck in achieving them.

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Stay safe.

 

 

#fantasy, #darkfantasy, #epicfantasy, #storytelling, #swordandsorcery, #writerslife, #amwriting, #authors, #dragons, #books, #Kindle, #Amazon, #AppleBooks, #Kobo,

20200105 – New Year Resolutions

I’m not into new year resolutions, they tend to get broken shortly after they are made. So instead here are my writing goals for 2020.

1. Get the first draft of book 4 finished by the start of April.

2. Write the first draft of book 5 by the end of the year.

3. Get book 2 and 3 into paperback by May.

I will have to see if I achieve these goals before setting any more for this year.

If you have set yourself any new year resolutions or any other goals for this year, I wish you luck in achieving them.

 

#fantasy, #darkfantasy, #epicfantasy, #storytelling, #swordandsorcery, #writerslife, #amwriting, #authors, #dragons, #books, #Kindle, #AppleBooks, #Kobo,

 

20191208 – Christmas gifts for the Fantasy fan in your life

It’s almost Christmas just 17 days to go,

 

 

#Books, #Authors, #actionandadventure, #fantasy, #darkfantasy, #epicfantasy, #storytelling, #swordandsorcery, #dragons, #swordandsorcery, #demons, #witches, #amwriting, #writerslife, #Amazon, #AppleBooks, #Kindle, #Kobo, 

20191204 -It is now instore

I was notified this morning by email from amazon that my paperback is now on sale, it will take up to 7 days for all the keywords, details and links to my other books to be made. However, I have managed to get it on the store in time for dark fantasy readers to either give it or receive it as a Christmas gift. If you already have it or it’s not your thing or the person you are looking for is not into Dark fantasy, I suggest having a look through The Books I am Reading blog posts. I recommend any and all those books as Christmas presents.

 

 

#Books, #Authors, #fantasy, #darkfantasy, #epicfantasy, #storytelling, #swordandsorcery, #demons, #witches, #amwriting, #writerslife, #Amazon, #Christmas,

20191203 – Amazon paperback

I ordered a proof copy of “And Hell Followed After” Sub-title: “The Witch Hunters of Otnasnom” in paperback from Amazon. I finished uploading the files a few days ago and it arrived yesterday. As I cannot see any problems in the proof copy, I will approve the book for sale later today, it will take about 3 days to show up on Amazon’s online stores. As those of you who follow my blog will know, I have already had book 1 printed here in the UK through Ingram Spark/Lightning Source, those paperback books have only been available at events I have attended in Edinburgh this year.

 

 

#Books, #Authors, #fantasy, #darkfantasy, #epicfantasy, #storytelling, #swordandsorcery, #dragons, #Amazon, #AppleBooks, #Kindle, #Kobo, 

20191202 – writing update

Since the Edinburgh International Book Festival, I had been procrastinating over my writing. I had been having trouble getting back into the swing and getting my word count up. I may not have solved my problem, however, for the moment I am back to writing. Just one problem, I am now working on my manuscript for book 4 and book 5. So I am happy to say that work on both first drafts is progressing. I have picked up my fountain pen again and I am back writing in my note books as well as on the computer.

All you need when writing notes, coffee, pen and notebooks.

#fantasy, #darkfantasy, #epicfantasy, #storytelling, #swordandsorcery, #writerslife, #amwriting, #authors, #dragons, #books, #Kindle, #AppleBooks, #Kobo,

 

 

 

 

 

20191201 – Books I am Reading

Back in September of this year, I read “What You Pay For” in a week, a great read.

 

Claire Askew won the Scottish Crime Debut of the Year 2019 for “All The Hidden Truths”. Congratulations.

“In a House of Lies” is the second of my Edinburgh International Book Festival book reads.

 

Started reading Kursk The Last Mission. I’m not usually one for reading books based on actual events.

 

#books, #crime, #reading, #booklovers, #amreading,

20190902 – Books I am Reading

In my last post on ‘Books I am Reading’ I said I was bringing ‘The Priory of The Orange Tree’ to the top of my reading pile. Well I read it on my iPad mini, all 800 or so pages. I loved it so much I had to buy the hardback so that I could get it signed at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last month.

By the end of the first week of the Edinburgh International Book Festival I had already overspent on my budget for the entire Festival. All the books in the photo below were signed by the authors, it is going to take me a while to read them all.

 

#books, #fantasy, #crime, #scifi, #nonfiction, #reading, #booklovers, #amreading, #Authors, #Festival, #fantasy, #bookfestival, #edbookfest, #dragons,