First Birthday

There was a really interesting article in Publishers Weekly recently (Jan 15th) about so-called Young Adult books. 

Did you know that 

"84% of YA books were purchased by consumers 18 or older – and a full 35% of YA books were bought by consumers aged 18-29, by far the largest demographic. The second-largest demographic was age 30-44; within that segment, dispelling the notion that the YA books are gifts or purchases for teens, fully 80% of respondents reported “they bought the book for themselves.”

SO, today is the first birthday of my first novel, Aphrodite's Dawn. You have no excuse not to try it just because you can vote. In fact, according to the research above, you are almost required to get a copy just to help maintain the stats. Amazon can help you in your quest, either in the UK, or the US.

Buy now, or you'll never be a trendsetter :)

The Room of Infinite Distractions

At the top of the stairs, first door on the right, is a dark and forbidding man-cave.

My Office

I used to have the light and airy second bedroom, but now I have the box room.

Its where I go to concentrate on my writing, to work from home on occasion, to think deep and meaningful thoughts. My 'productive zone'

Except is isnt. Not even close. If I want to get any work done, I end up working at the dining room table, usually with nothing more than a notepad, a fountain pen, and my phone to play music.

'Why?' I hear you cry in astonishment, envious that I have a cave and incredulous that I dont work there. I shall tell you. Laptop (and thus internet), TV, DVD, Sky+ (tivo), Xbox.

My lovely quiet working environment has mutated into a second lounge where I get away from the bustle of others and endless TV soaps, and replace them with endless reruns of House MD, Eureka, and Warehouse 13.

The moral of this story? Be strong, and keep your work area clean, simple, and free of distractions

Be vewy, vewy, qwiet.......

... I'm hunting Agents. Heheheheheh

OK, not everybody is going to get the Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd reference. Oooh, scary thought: what if nobody gets the gag? Horror!

Anyhow, I just declared open season on agents and I have every intention of bagging one this year. Been through my copy of 'Writers and Artists' and made myself a monster list, polished my cover letters and synopsis, and empties my mailbox ready for action.

Now, if someone would just like to volunteer and save me a couple of months of of hope and heartache...?

Another 5* Review for Aphrodite's Dawn

Just found this lovely review on Goodreads, and I snipped a bit out to brag with :)

“Aphrodite’s Dawn” is intriguing, compelling, and suspenseful. Even as I was cringing over the symptoms of this truly dystopian society, I was enjoying the characters, the situations, and the backstory. Garrett is a rock-solid protagonist, and his “sidekick,” Pitr, is adorable and such a sturdy friend."

Big thank you to the kind person who posted it, and to everybody else - see, told you it was good, now go buy it and see if you agree :D

Kim Curran - Shift: Officially Awesome

This is rare: two books I've felt the urge to blog about in as many months.

Today I want to draw your attention to 'Shift' by Kim Curran (from Strange Chemistry books). Again, usual rules apply - I know both the author and the editor vaguely and I'm not trying to suck up to either of them. I'm also not doing to go into an in-depth on the story. If you want the outline, go look it up on Goodreads or Amazon.

So, I've had this book for several months now, sitting the the 'read next' slot on the shelf, and I kept skipping it. There is a good reason for that. I was writing and editing 'Amunet' at the time. Now, Amunet is a very different story, and before anybody points the finger no I wasn't worried I would be overly influenced by Shift.

See, what happened was I read the first three pages and realized it was a 'confidence killer'. By that I mean its one of those books I occasionally get that hit me in the 'how will I ever get that good' spot, and I think it was Kim's debut novel. I didn't need that while I was in the middle of my own work, and so I avoided it.

I'm glad I did, 'cos I was right. I devoured this book. This book cost me sleep. This book took me back to when I was young, free and single and spent more time each evening reading than doing anything else. The underlying concept of the novel, the ability to change things based on being able to go back to previous decisions and take the other path is very well thought out and feels original (although I'll bet someone else has used it somewhere if you dig hard enough). The setting was believable, and the characters wonderfully well constructed. OK, so there's the trope of the the slightly bewildered, gifted boy meets the more-than-slightly wild, gifted, spunky girl, but its handled in a fresh, bright way that sucks you in and makes you care about the characters (even some of the bit-parts)

The thing that got me most was the pace, which was pretty much flawless. No periods of angst-filled inward assessment, no 'issues' to be worked through, and no 'hand me the bucket' romantic melancholia: just a great adventure that really was difficult to put down each night.

Having read this outside of one of my own projects, its no longer a 'confidence killer', its an 'aspire to'. A full 5 stars, and a full recommendation to both the target YA audience and older readers

Things to remember for Xmas

So, tree is up and decorated. Twice actually: its a new tree and the first arrangement didn't look so good so we stripped it and did it again.

Gifts are all bought and wrapped - OK, I know that makes me a bit weird and that a lot of people haven't even started gift shopping, let alone finished it.

But there's one thing I'd like everybody to think of as they make out the gift list: Don't forget to give something to your favourite charity. All charities get hammered at Christmas. People get too busy. Donations tend to dry up from regular sources and pick up from unexpected ones.

I know most of us give something. I help out Cancer Research and the Alzheimer's Society with regular donations, but every Christmas I send something to the cat shelter we got Tootsie from - The Scratching Post. Just £15 or so to help make sure the heaters stay on and the bowls have food during the winter.

Go on - pick a charity. Maybe a local homeless shelter, or a contact centre for the elderly. Throw them a twenty. In the UK that gives someone a meal and a bed for the night.

Now, where did I put my supermarket shopping list: food, booze, snacks, more booze.... :)

A sudden dramatic pause...

Things at Harkess Hall have suddenly gone quiet. No more frantic scrabbling noises coming from the upstairs office. No more swearing, and heartfelt pleas to the Gods of Editing. Silence descends, eerie and pregnant, broken only by the soft whisper of pages of loose A4 being turned.

The Edit has finished

'Amunet' is released to the beta readers. I sit in my deep leather chair, trying not to bite my fingernails so deeply that I wont be able to work when the reviews come back. A tense time.

The Writer & Artists Yearbook sits before me, unopened, taunting me. Should I tempt fate by starting to list all those prospective agents and publishers to whom my latest work should be submitted. winnowing through the lists to pluck out those most likely to be interested in something YA; Steampunky with hints of Urban Fantasy? I push it resolutely away; after the edits, after Christmas.

Patience.