Holiday season, free book season

I haven’t been around for a while now and that’s putting it mildly but it’s been a very busy time for me professionally. I hope this would change in the near future and I hope there would be things to write about but right now, I’m just popping in for book-peddling purposes.

My publishers and I are doing a promotion for The Dreamer as befits holiday season, giving away free copies of the e-book to everyone looking for something to read in these, yet again, trying times. The process is so simple even I can understand it so you really have no excuse for not taking advantage of this gloriously unique reading opportunity.

P.S. I do need to work on my marketing lingo, I know. Happy holidays to everyone and I’ll see you next year!

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When Characters Go Rogue

I had such high hopes when I met Natalie Griffiths for the first time. She had just died (Stroke. Felled her like a tree.) without finishing her cigarette and she was bent on having another, however long it took. While she argued her case with her account manager Natalie managed to cause the death of her husband and antagonise said manager so much that she, the manager, bungled the procedure of preparing two deceased for the after life. On top of it all, Natalie — and her husband — escaped from the waiting room of the Great Beyond setting the stage for many ghost adventures. And a cigarette, obviously.

A Profound Look Back at the Week: February 17-21

The first signs of spring are in the air in my part of the world and though it’s a bit early in February, I don’t mind it, too fed up with having to wear a dozen layers of clothing when I go out in the morning. It’s not that cold — we’ve got nothing on Canada, northern Russia or the States — but it is unpleasantly cold and it’s been cold for long enough. Enter spring! And close the door behind you because draught kills.

Country Life: The Writing Experiment

I had my summer vacation this week. In the past, I used to make elaborate writing plans for my vacations that invariably fell through, so this year I decided to change the approach but not the goal, which was to get a bit more writing done.

The Perils of First Drafts

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but I like complaining. Yeah, I know, a lot of people like complaining and I think I know why: it’s kind of therapeutic. When you can’t change something (with the minimum effort), you sit back and start complaining about it, and eventually feel better. It’s bizarre, yes. My latest complaining target is the first draft of what I’d call “my second novel” if only “my second novel” didn’t sound so professional-writery.

Salt of the Earth

A friend — a professional editor and proofreader — offered the other day to edit a bunch of short stories I’ve decided to publish as a collection. For free because she’s weird. Leaving the weirdness aside, however, she said something that struck a sensitive spot.

The Book

Here’s a romantic story from a couple of years ago. Possibly slightly disturbing but who am I to judge.

Have Plot. Will Write.

A couple of days after my realisation I was a plane spotter I made a decision. It was a decision prompted by strong emotions and the feelings I have harboured for planes for many years, and it was this: I simply have to write a book with a plane it it. A book about a plane. A book about a flight with a problem because I’m now two seasons into Air Crash Investigation and it looks like I’m going to binge my way through the whole thing before I return to all-time classics such as Passenger 57.

I Want To Write a Book

A Twitter friend said a few days ago he wanted to write a book. “Any direction?” he said. My first impulse was to say “Forward and up!” but then I thought this person wasn’t a professional writer. He had an idea but he had never written a book before. How do you do something you’ve never done before? So I told him I’ll blog about it, try to explain to myself how someone writes a book and hopefully help with my friend’s book. 

Recap 2018

It’s almost over now, 2018. Like most years, it had happy and not so happy days, nobody close died, which is always an excellent thing, and the world didn’t end, once again, though I’m not sure this is good news. Here’s what I did this year.