Roots of a Writer?

I'm feeling like some fantasy right now after months of gritty crime stuff. Time, I think, to go back to where I started, maybe?

I used to edit British Fantasy Society publications. Lots of them. For a long, long time. The BFS website used to have pages of covers from past publications (all lovingly scanned in by us oldies who have huge collections going back to the year dot) and a store where you could buy them. When I went to look for them for this blog post, those pages no longer seem to exist, which is a shame as they are not only part of BFS history, but also had some amazing artwork commissioned for the covers, and the books launched (or played a part in launching) the careers of many of the fantasy and horror writers around today. The delightful Nina Allan even mentioned me in her interview in the BFS’ latest journal – things like that make all the hard work worthwhile.

But there used to be an occasional column called Roots of a Writer, where different authors gave their take on writing and how they started out. It was interesting to read what inspired their love of fantasy fiction and what made them start writing it.

So my own personal roots began at university when the small paperback library was obviously stocked by fantasy fans and I devoured such things as Stephen Donaldson and other doorstep trilogies whose names I forget now. I’d grown up reading Heinlein and Wyndham, so it was an easy transition into the fantastic. Then I met a guy called Sean – we were never boy-and-girlfriend, but I can say that apart from my husband (and father/brother of course), he was probably the most influential male in my life as he introduced me to the whole fantasy sub-genre – all the books and the people who loved them. The wargames crowd at university, D&D, live role-playing and everything that fired my imagination from there on in and made me the person I am today. From there it was a simple step into the British Fantasy Society, where I was deeply involved for many years.

I read and write a lot more mainstream now. Since the BFS has aligned more to the darker side of fantasy and horror these days, I have less in common with it, although I remain a member. But I do still write fantasy. I have an almost-completed sequel to YA Edge of Dreams which I think I might go back to, and an adult fantasy I started writing with input from an editor at Orion many years ago. What do you think?

One Year Indie

I sent my first indie ebook out into the world at the end of February 2011. I'd been thinking about it since the previous Christmas, but getting a kindle as a birthday present in January gave me the final push I needed. Firstly it was a collection of short stories, Maniac, with a cover by the amazingly-talented Pete Gorrell. This was my test-ebook, to get a feel for the amazon upload process and how it all worked. And then, after a last-minute edit, panic and crisis of confidence, my two wonderful beta-reader friends Lallie & Jake gave me the final push I needed to launch my novel onto the unsuspecting public.

So what happened next? I flirted with the amazon forums for a few weeks before they got anti-author. In lurking there, I met a some interesting people and was lucky enough to connect with writer, agent and editor Al Guthrie, who politely told me that he'd love to feature my book on his blog, but I needed to redo my cover. With his help and that of his recommended designer JT Lindroos, we came up with the awesome current cover for Hamelin's Child.

In June, I was invited by award-winning fantasy writer Katherine Roberts to  join her at the start of a new writing initiative AuthorsElectric, a blog by traditionally-published writers self-publishing their backlists and/or new works. As someone who has never been traditionally published (though I've had a couple of near-misses), I was chuffed to be asked and have been contributing a regular monthly post ever since.

In September I published a YA fantasy Edge of Dreams with another Lindroos cover and uploaded all 3 to smashwords.

In October, a paid-advert with E-Reader News Today generated more than 500 sales of Hamelin over a few days. Apart from that peak, sales have been steady, with mostly great reviews. In fact the only negative review I had on Goodreads was more to do with subject matter than writing and that's fair enough. I know it's a marmite novel and that's why it has a warning in the book description. Sales of the other two books are nowhere near as high but then I don't promote them much - I haven't quite worked out how to be both an adult thriller writer and a YA fantasy writer and I'm still paranoid that a YA reader might come across my thriller (despite the fact that one of my readers said he'd be happy letting his teenage daughter read it).

Over the first few days of this month, sales have rocketed - I have no idea why - but I'm currently selling more than 3 times my normal numbers each day. There've been rumours of issues with amazon's KDP process, so maybe I have somebody else's sales figures! Either that or I'm on an also-bought list somewhere, but long may it last!

And what's on the horizon? I'm mid-way through Paying the Piper - a follow-on to Hamelin's Child, plus there's another YA title Flashpoint in the pipeline. Then I have a traditional high fantasy that I spent several months working on with an editor from Orion many, many years back. Real life got in the way and said editor departed publishing for a life in the country. But given that I've built some kind of platform now, I might try the traditional route for that one - just to test the water. I'm also writing the occasional short story for anthologies and competitions.

So one year on. I'm a published author. I've made some money - not enough to give up the day job, but better than nothing. And was it worth it? Hell, yes!

Edge of Dreams: Reviews & Marketing

Today my YA fantasy novel Edge of Dreams is featured over on Books4Tomorrow with an excellent 5* review.

I don't promote my fantasy writing as much as my thriller. I'm not sure why. My roots are firmly in fantasy - as a reader, writer, convention-goer and convention-organiser of many year's standing. I know a fair few people in the fantasy genre - writers, artists and industry people. And yet I don't give this novel the airtime it deserves, which is a shame as it has been nearly-traditionally-published a couple of times, getting to acquisitions meetings before a thumbs-down from the people holding the purse-strings.

Maybe it's because my markets are so different. My thriller is strictly adults-only, but this is aimed at a YA market. I'm not sure how to straddle two different genres which are poles apart in readership and content. I can't say with confidence that a reader of one book will love - or even like - the other.

So here it is anyway. Please go read my review. I don't have many of them.

New Cover, New Book

So here is the final cover for my YA fantasy Edge of Dreams. Not quite ready to publish yet - it needs a last edit for typos and to murder any remaining extraneous adverbs - but I'm pleased with the way it's come out. I'll post links to it once it's uploaded but I just wanted to share it with the world now.

What do you do when you think that the bad guys might care more about you than the good ones?

Edge Of Dreams is now available in kindle format on  Amazon UK, Amazon DE and Amazon US/Other.  Also in all formats (including PDF and HTML) at Smashwords.

Moving On From Procrastination

So what's new? A few posts ago I was debating what I should be working on right now. With too many projects on the go and not enough hours in the day, I wish I could apply some of the OCD organisation of my day job to my writing.

So I've bitten the bullet and asked the wonderful artist/designer JT Lindroos (who did my awesomely good cover for Hamelin's Child) if he could come up with something for my YA fantasy Edge of Dreams. Now Edge was almost picked up a few years back by a couple of traditional publishers (not enough money at the acquisitions meetings, I was told), and was eventually published by an independent ebook company, but I've got the rights back now and have another book in the series almost ready, so I thought it was time for a major edit/update and then it would be ready for kindling. Getting the cover art sorted is a real incentive to get moving, and JT's first draft last week was impressive - not how I'd have thought of doing it at all - which goes to prove that designers are worth the investment. I've been doing a bit of research on blogs, review sites and forums and covers are vitally important in getting a potential reader to get as far as a blurb or a click-through.

So watch this space. Edge of Dreams and its snazzy new cover will be up on kindle very shortly, followed in a few months by the sequel Flashpoint. Young adult contemporary fantasy, certified 100% vampire-and-werewolf-free. Not even any elves, faeries, wizards or dragons. And no zombies either. Although if a million people buy the books, I might be persuaded to write some into book 3...