Year End And Next Year Plans

Hi all,

This little post is to let you know what has been happening and what, I hope, will be happening next year.

This year was a bit of a pain to tell the truth, until I got an amazing email from James Wymore at Immortal works. Finally, I am to be a published author. I signed a publishing contract with Immortal Works and my year changed, or should I say, my perception of 2016 changed. Suddenly what was a pretty bad year turned into a dream year.

I signed my contract and was assigned an editor, now the real work begins because writing the book is supposedly the easy part. Really? In retrospect writing the novel was the easy part. The hard part was revising the novel several times so that it shined like a new penny. Then came the excitement and eagerness of awaiting a response to queries I sent out to agents and publishers. This was followed by the crushing heartache of rejections coming in. Being a writer is a roller coaster ride and there are times that you think it will never happen. Suddenly you are there, someone loved your book enough to put a team behind producing it and getting out to the public. For some reason this was the point when I actually thought I was an author.

The dust has now settled and I am awaiting the first round of edits from my editor. Did I just say that? ‘My Editor’ Each time I think that, it sinks in a little more that I achieved a lifelong dream. But, that feeling is fleeting, like a willo-the-wisp, something that you can’t actually grasp. To me it still doesn’t feel real. I’m sure most authors go through this phase and eventually it does sink in that you are doing the job you always wanted to do.

Now that GERALD AND THE AMULET OF ZONRACH is in the hands of my editor – see I said it again – I concentrated on going through my other completed novel to tweak it ready for submission to my publisher. I have now done that and am waiting with bated breath to see if JAGUAR finds a home with Immortal Works.

I also have two works in progress:

GERALD AND THE THREE PRINCESSES, which is the next in the series of Gerald books. This novel finds him in a strange land and immediately in a bad situation. The real problem though is if he is successful he may find that he returns home shorter than he arrived. And if he is really good he could, realistically return home without being a wizard anymore. He is going to have a lot of problems trying to untangle that mess. I’m hoping to complete the first draft of that novel by mid 2017.

My other WIP is WILFRID and the first chapter can be seen on my blog. This is the story of a twelve year old Anglo Saxon boy whose life is turned upside down after his rite of manhood ceremony. What should have been an exciting period of his life is shattered by the death of his father and then the death of his best friend. He is banished from his village by the Thegn because his best friend was the Thegn’s son who believed Wilfrid responsible. From there he has to seek revenge and put things right, but his beliefs are challenged by his ordeal and everything he thought was concrete in his life now is now confused and as clear as the marshes to the east of his home. This story is set in 8th century England and it is a bad time to be wandering around the countryside where marauding Welsh warriors are a common threat and Kings change at the drop of an axe. I’m hoping that the first draft for this novel will be finished by the end of Jan 2017

So, to summarize. 2016 ended on the ultimate high, signing a publishing contract for GERALD. Next year looks promising with the release of my debut novel and, possibly, my second novel as well. I will also have completed the sequel to GERALD and the first in the WILFRID series. The next logical step is to try a obtain representation by a literary agent, which I will continue to do. To say that 2017 is going to be a busy and exciting year is an understatement. For me it is the start of, what I hope to be, a very fulfilling second career, this time as a full time author

Hi all,

Since my novel, Gerald and the amulet of Zonrach, was accepted for publication things have been happening. Publication date is set for May 16th of this year. I've had a couple of blog interviews and am booked for interviews on podcasts, but one thing that I didn't expect so early in the process was getting a school visit gig. See how it went below

This last Wednesday, 15th March, I attended my first ever author school visit at the International School of Sosua. Here is my experience of that day.

When I approached the classroom, slightly dreading standing in front of seventh graders for my first talk of the day, a young lady exited an external covered locker area. She intercepted me and asked “Are you the author?” I said “yes” and she replied “I’ve read the first chapter of your book on your website and loved it.” She smiled and then disappeared though the doorway to the classroom.

As an introduction to my first ever school visit as an author, I must say it blew away my nervousness like a breeze dispersing a mist.

I entered the classroom and was introduced to the class and my talk commenced. I spoke about the usual things an author does when addressing an audience: how I came to be a writer; how long it took to write my first novel; how long it took to get published, my hobbies and the general life that encompasses being a writer. By the time I finished that part of the talk I was very relaxed and enjoying the experience.

When we spoke the week before the teacher, Hannah Anderson, wanted me to talk about creative writing and she also indicated that it would not be my only visit, so I felt I could deal with a single part of the craft for this talk. As an initial subject I picked characterization as I believe that is probably the most crucial part of creating a story that a reader will keep reading. If the characters are interesting a reader will want to follow their journey if a writer doesn’t take too many liberties with plot and setting.

From the start of this stage of the talk, the children were enthralled by the subject and very active as we created four races of characters-I’m a fantasy writer, it won’t be a surprise that I asked for those style of characters-, but, as is the norm with young minds, they completely threw me with their suggestions. None of the Tolkienesque races I expected actually made an appearance and one of the races, agreed by all the class, was Dog. If that was what they wanted then who was I to stifle their creative juices. By the end of the session the ‘Dog’ race had actually turned into a ‘Flying Spider Dog’ race as the students had decided that this particular species had wings, eight legs and twenty eyes. To say that my first experience with a class of middle grade kids was hilarious would be an understatement. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the experience and was fully relaxed when I then had to repeat the talk with sixth grade students.

I conducted the same talk, but with different results when it came to character development. This class decided that the four characters we would design were to be Elves, Wizards, Eagles and Cyclops. They were probably more aligned to my expectations with regard to races, but, as with the seventh grade students, the attributes given to these characters were outside the box. The particular elf we were designing had a phobia about the color green and as it was a wood elf I could foresee big problems for this elf. They also stated that the Elvish race would worship the Eagle as part of their Pantheon of gods. This was pretty amazing as they were now creating links between characters just by designing their attributes; for sixth graders I think this is a pretty advanced abstract thought process; creating potential connections before a story is even begun. By the way, the wizard had green skin, so another connection there with the elf’s phobia.

Thoughts on my first ever author visit? Absolutely amazing and I’d say to any other author out there who is offered an opportunity for a school visit; do it, it’s a blast

Here are a couple of pictures of my school visits. The last one I did was yesterday where we discussed world building and setting. I spoke to two classes, a 7th grade before lunch and a 6th grade after. The kids were awesome and the whole day was a blast.

Hi,

I just wanted you to see a quick video about my journey with Gerald and the amulet of Zonrach. It's been a, sometimes, hard ride, but it is well worth it and I'm really positive about the future.

Anyway here's the video; I hope you like it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p2qtHmD3UM