As you probably know, I’ve been working towards the goal of getting published for several years now. Last year I had some success with my short stories, managing to get three of them accepted by various e-magazines and digital sites. That success only encouraged me to work harder to get my books in front of publishers to try and get them published as well. Then, in October, I received my first book contract for my YA Superhero novel, “Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero”. The book is the first in what I expect to be a six-book series. I was (and still am) very excited about this development, but, as I have said many, many times, publishing is slow. I know where […]
Read moreCategory: Books
This section contains new books and reviews of books I’ve read.
Dealing With the Dreaded Negative Feedback
When I made the decision to write and podcast “GalaxyBillies”, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into. Would people like the story? Would they hate it? Would I be able to pull it off at all? But, since without risk there can be no reward, I decided to take a stab at it. As we all do, I watched eagerly for any feedback I could get. And I watched… and then I watched some more. I eventually started to see some positive feedback trickle in and I was relieved when nothing bad was forthcoming. So far, so good. Unfortunately, the amount of feedback was almost zero which, to me, meant the story wasn’t really worth commenting on. […]
Read morePhoenix Rising: A Steampunk Symphony
I have had the good fortune to read and enjoy the work of Tee Morris and Philippa Ballantine for several years. I like the writing styles of both but they are very different. When I heard that they were collaborating on a book, and a steampunk one at that, I was cautiously optimistic. Not because I didn’t think they could pull it off, but because I had no idea what the meshing of their two voices would be like. In other words, would the result be a symphony or a cacophony? I am delighted to say that the book, “Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel” is a symphony of the highest order. The characters are rich and the […]
Read moreHow I hope to sell my books
I’ve been thinking a lot about books and how they are being published. Probably very much like a lot of you are too. The publishing industry is undergoing some extremely big changes from the way authors are signed to books published and finally distributed and sold. It seems to me that there is a parallel to the huge format change (albeit a small one) that has me thinking in a certain direction. The parallel I’m thinking of is that of DVD to Blu-Ray. You may argue that the change in format was a minor thing. The DVD’s published under the old standard continue to hit the shelves and the Blu-Ray are starting to fill the niche. Sounds a little like […]
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