Being Belial

This is my first blog post in over a month - which means I’ve been writing hard, so all else takes a back seat!

I am presently writing The Final Prophecy - second in The Ancient Knowledge trilogy. Right now, I’m the devil. And I’m really enjoying him. The Final Prophecy cannot be written without his influence and what better way to represent him than from his point of view?

He is, of course, the embodiment of gorgeousness and temptation; his amorality and iniquity pristine in its logic and deliverance.

Lord Morgen, now on Earth and in delicious human form, precipitates Armageddon - The Final Prophecy of 2012 - from which there is no escape. Viewing the carnage through his eyes, the end of human civilisation is an exciting diversion. Torment, suffering and lingering death are chocolate fudge cake and cream with toffee drizzle, for Lord Morgen. He views his corrupt human allies - politicians, bankers, corporations, clergy etc, as one might view a deadly virus through a microscope. With contemptuous fascination.

His is a unique perspective; as singular as that of a god - whichever version you choose. But as I write, I begin to realise that at this stage of the game, Lord Morgen is more of an observer than perpetrator of the destruction.

He played his part when he created the historical markers that set humanity on its ultimate path to self-annihilation; tipping the natural balance off kilter when he ‘suggested’ a possible answer to an unanswerable question. Then all he really had to do was let hunter-gatherer man intensify, twist and defile the new ‘idea’ over the next twelve millennia or so, until it evolved into a profligate tide of conflicting beliefs and avaricious perversion.

Twelve thousand years on and the results of his seeding have blossomed into twenty-first Century ‘civilisation’.

So, the devil can now sit back comfortably and enjoy the show.

And what a show! His protégés have done him proud. With so many more levels of human iniquity than are attributed to Dante’s version of hell, he celebrates and encourages the worst of man.

Lord Morgen’s task is so much easier than his nemesis’, Alice. She has to dredge the prehistory of the human soul in order to scrape together enough of the Ancient Knowledge to claw humankind back from the abyss.

And now, in true devilish fashion, that’s enough. You’ll just have to wait until The Final Prophecy is published on November the 21st 2012, to learn the rest!

A Luxury Tax on Knowledge?

Since the invention of the printed word, books, newspapers and periodical publications have become our quintessential source of knowledge, entertainment and communication. Due to this information revolution, civilisation raced along an evolutionary super-highway. It became therefore universally accepted that books are an unequivocal essential and should be freely accessible to everyone. And as such, exempt from VAT.

This established, the printed word is gradually being shuffled into retirement by its youthful electronic usurper; the internet. Of course, we die-hard paper lovers will resist it as long as we can, but the ecological and financial stresses of paper books will eventually tempt - or force - us into the electronic library if we wish to sate our hunger for the written word.

I have strayed and bought a Kindle; I have to say it grew on me very quickly. The benefits of the microchip are obvious, especially when you consider just how many volumes these little gadgets can store. And who of us doesn’t have an electronic gadget of one form or another? You cannot function - or legally exist - unless you have numerous electronic tags and gadgets attached to your name.

In which case, I’ll dare to hypothesise that within another decade or so, printed books will be prohibitively expensive, outside of an occasional purchase.We will do the majority of our reading via electronic devices.

All electronic books - no matter what their literary value or purpose - are subject to the full rate of 20% VAT.

Ergo, books are destined to be downgraded to ‘non-essential luxuries’ for the masses.

Here’s a little quote that settles quite comfortably into context, ‘All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.’

No matter what specious voodoo mumbo is used to explain the purpose of VAT; it was originally levied as a luxury tax, which is exactly the reason why it was NOT levied on books. If we allow this stealth tax to pass quietly by as the e-book revolution rages, we will lose another of our basic civil rights to Napoleon and his comrades.

There is a tiny prick of light at the end of the tunnel; I found this proposal regarding the removal of VAT from e-books on a Parliament data search - ‘Early Day Motions’.

                                                (As an aside, I really think they should come up with another handle. Given the copious excrement we’ve come to expect from politicians, I’m itching to make a cheap joke!)

What do you think?

E-books should be zero rated.

John Locke - The Indie Paladin

I have just read John Locke’s, ‘How I sold 1 million e-books in five months’; a title destined for the same success story as the top ranking e-book series to which it refers - Donovan Creed. I’ve no doubt that this book has sold to innumerable Indie authors and will continue to do so as his target audience pay homage to it.

Mr. Locke is a superb salesman; sharp, intuitive, witty and ruthlessly focussed. I felt as though I was sitting in a room full of enthusiastic wannabes hanging on his every word, chuckling heartily every time I found myself obeying his commands to, ‘go back and read that section again - I’ll wait.’

His book promotion strategy is based on knowing your target and aiming for it, or finding a niche and writing for it, though his admission that he wrote five books prior to publishing the first, did slightly quell my enthusiasm in the beginning. I, like many Indie first-timers, wrote the book, dived headlong into self-publishing and only then discovered what the old hands knew: publicise the book for at least six months before your release date.

This little setback aside, Mr. Locke goes on to help repair the damage with a concise strategy to homogenise your book with an existing readership. He goes into great detail about how best to use social media and maximise your blog entries, without bombarding your followers with inane chatter for the sake of something to say - the fast route to instant deletion.

Mr. Locke’s indomitable spirit and self-effacing manner are prerequisite tools for a good salesman. But in fairness, he reiterates that he wrote this book with a view to helping other authors navigate the self-publicising minefield that probably eliminates many good writers at the outset. He plainly routes for the little guy over the big bully legacy publishers and would be delighted to learn that his marketing strategy has created similar success for other Indie authors. And he clearly appreciates his OOU’s (One Of Us) readership, to whom he pays devout respect.

I too love success stories of this nature, and despite the fact that John Locke doesn’t need the income from his book sales, I sincerely hope that he continues to be a trail-blazing, guiding light for the Indie publishing revolution.

I’ve not had the pleasure of Mr. Donovan Creed, yet, but if he’s anything like his alter-ego I’m sure I’ll enjoy his company . . .

  

http://donovancreed.com/ 

Hail the reading angels!

Many authors, particularly the debut kind like me, depend upon dedicated book bloggers and reviewers to supply invaluable feedback on our work. Without these voracious and discerning bibliophiles, new authors would remain anonymous and unread. The internet is many things, good and bad, but as far as newbie scribblers are concerned it is a veritable gift from the gods of literary endeavour.

The review angels don’t charge fees to read once they accept your submission, and gift their time in offering an honest appraisal. If this kind of genuine altruism were as prolific in all walks of life, the world might be a better place!

I have requested a number of reviews from such reading angels and the feedback has been hugely helpful in understanding the way people perceive my book. Yes, it’s wonderful to get a five star, but I don’t expect that to be consistent. I received a review today from The British Fantasy Society - absolutely fabulous, but the reviewer did remark on something that slightly grated on him. I was strangely - or perhaps even perversely - pleased with his criticism. It tempered his otherwise glowing review, giving me valuable insight into which buttons my narrative presses. As it happens, he was spot on with his criticism and I know this because I’ve often seen close friends eyes rolling when I get on my hobby horse! I shall take this into consideration and work my messages with more subtlety and stealth. Sledgehammer back in the shed.

As reviews start filtering in, the heart of The Toy Sorcerer begins to beat. It feels almost as though the book is taking its first real breath as more people turn pages and give it life. The Final Prophesy is unfurling as I feverishly pound the keys every chance I get. I’m managing very little sleep these days, but that’s just a symptom of an active - or overactive - mind at work and I’m grateful for it. I live in terror of lethargy!

My quest for feedback continues and I shall be knocking on many more reviewer doors.

Hail the reading angels!

2012 - The year of bated breath?

Forgive me, for I have not blogged for three weeks! There never seems enough time in the day - or night - to achieve everything on the, To Do, list and getting a round toit is tough - perhaps I should try looking for them on Amazon?

Anyway, I digress as per. It is 2012, a year shrouded in eschatological beliefs and theories regarding the end - or spiritual rebirth - of our world. The Mayan apocalyptical predictions have always been a subject of much conjecture; depending on the interpretation, either the world will come to a sticky end or merely move into a new cycle (calendar). The New Age theory is similar; the Christian ‘Rapture’ or ‘Millennialism’, is entrenched in the idea of a rebirth of a world enjoyed by the good and the meek after the rest of the sinners have been judged by God. They’ll be a lonely couple, eh?

Another theory suggests that the Earth will be destroyed by a passing asteroid or planet known as ‘Nibiru’. There is also the sun flare theory. In fact, there are so many conflicting ideas and interpretations, one may as well toss a coin as to which you choose to entertain.

Personally, I’d like to consider that any ‘rebirth’ will apply to our species alone, as opposed to a catastrophic extinction event that affects the entire planet. After all, we have to face the fact that, so far, our behaviour hasn’t exactly been . . . exemplary, has it? Unfortunately, religion and politics - one and the same animal - is primarily to blame. Voltaire always springs to mind; ‘If God didn’t exist, man would find it necessary to invent him.’ And of course, the invention of gods has always been a highly profitable venture for their proponents - currently, the Vatican is the wealthiest corporate body in the world and grips the global purse strings in its despotic hands. This is off the back of a religion that propounds the theory that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to pass into heaven. In which case there will be a very long ‘naughty queue’ of Popes and Bishops outside the basement door, won’t there?

So, if the ‘rebirth’ of human kind is burgeoning, how will it manifest? Divine enlightenment? Military apocalypse? Or are we teetering on the precipice of human evolution brought about by necessity?

Which brings me nicely to the book plug for, The Final Prophesy; second in The Toy Sorcerer Chronicles. It is essentially this event that Alice and her compatriots are instrumental in creating. The concatenation - isn’t that a delicious word - of dimensions; Earth and the Dream Realms, initiates a global conflict that results in the necessity to ‘reboot’ the way human kind behaves, not only toward each other, but everything else that inhabits the planet.

The knowledge of the Ancients is finally rediscovered - hidden for millennia by the bad guys - and the conspiracy of god creators and destroyers is exposed for what it is. The birth of the New Age unlocks the human mind and so begins our return to a symbiotic relationship with Earth.

But new beginnings are never easy; the yin and yang are forever opposed . . . book three.

Starting the next one . . .

I began writing the sequel to The Toy Sorcerer a week or so ago, after a couple of months constructing the plot, sub plot, beginning, middle and end. I knew where I wanted to finish - with a nice cliff hanger in readiness for book three - so the rest was quite straightforward. Until I actually began to write.

I’ve already had another idea for a sub-plot within the first couple of chapters; this doesn’t exactly smash the months of planning, but most certainly warps it . . . for now. I’ve never really followed any set of rules for creative writing, rather, I’ve learned by trial and error and some fabulous coaching from my editor, Susan Malone. But having said this, I wonder if other writers ‘make it up as they go along’. Personally, I prefer to think of my stories evolving naturally, with well rounded characters leading the way.

Having spent a number of years as an actress and then a commercial script writer, I learned the key skills of immersing myself into a character, so that the performance was completely natural. The very same principle works when writing fiction; if the characters have strong - or even weak - characters, then that is what you portray to the nth degree. Never make your character do something out of character, unless it is integral to the plot (or sub-plot).

One of my characters is destined for great things, however, so the more powerful she becomes, the stronger my storyline is going to have to be to do her justice. Truth is, I don’t know what is going to happen next, only what will happen at the end. Alice’s adventure is mine too and I know she’s going to take me to some incredible places and show me amazing things. Her enemies have some nasty surprises up their sleeves too. Human kind will be seen at its best and its very worst. I will be left wondering if humanity deserves to survive at all, when the darkest truth of our species is revealed - from a very surprising source. . .

I just love these journeys into the unknown . . .

The Marketing Maze

Okay, so you’ve written your book, then rewritten it again, a few times, edited it a few times more and then sat on it for another month or so - or in my case, fifteen years - deciding whether or not it’s ready to be read by anyone else.

When you’ve had one or two stern conversations with yourself, you finally, and rather naively, press the upload button. Upon preview your file looks like it was written in several different languages in numerous fonts. Your serial-abused PC suffers yet more verbal assaults as you reformat your book for the tenth tedious attempt.

Some time later, much later, your preview gets a little tick alongside of it and the deed is ultimately done. You are . . . elated? Popping Champagne corks? Ringing your friends?

Wondering what to do next?

Then your little bubble of self-satisfaction pops upon reading the phrase, ‘Marketing your book,’ and you realise that self-publishing is a little like pulling a loose thread on a sweater.

Everywhere you look someone ‘in the know’ states that you should begin marketing your book at least six months BEFORE you publish! Your attention is momentarily diverted to the copy of ‘Catch Twenty-two’ on your book shelf.

 Ah well, one step ahead you think, no one will have to eagerly await anything.

You read all the blog and author resources pages your sore eyes can handle and sign up for a twitter account.

You gaze vacantly at the little blue bird as the cursor blinks with monotonous impatience, waiting for you to tweet something. You’ve just written a 140,000 word novel, but the seventeen word maximum renders you a drooling fool.

You start a Facebook fan page and offer swapsies with your Linked In groups to ‘Like’ your page. You spend a day religiously perusing hundreds of fan pages, reading profiles, hitting buttons etc, then wait eagerly for reciprocation and hundreds of encouraging comments on your fresh new page.

The numbers look like a death row reunion party.

It can’t be because they don’t like the book - Google stats tell you that so far, NOBODY has read it yet! Well of course they haven’t, because you haven’t SOLD it.

You try and keep from picking up your copy of ‘Catch Twenty-two’ in order to avoid the issue of self-publicising after self-publishing.

And then it hits you. Until someone - a complete stranger - reads the book and reviews it, you may be deluding yourself you can actually write worth a damn.

You need an impartial review from a respected source; preferably someone who has a penchant for your genre/subject matter. Google works overtime for another few hours and you bookmark a number of review sites and blogs. Most of them are not accepting submissions at the moment. Those that are have a backlog of titles before yours comes to the top of the pile.

The cruel trill of marketing demon laughter echoes somewhere in the recesses of your bewildered mind.

Ultimately, there is little point in looking or hoping for shortcuts. The maze beckons, but as I’m beginning to discover, you meet some very interesting people navigating the same route.

An upside at last!