Writing a novel diary: Part 4

So, after months of preparation, I sit down and start writing. I have my chapter map beside me, my character descriptions nearby and I'll also have typed up or copied and pasted research into a folder on my desktop for easy access whilst writing. Internet ready, cup of tea made, seat adjusted, knuckles cracked and away I go!

Something that a lot of people struggle with when it comes to writing a full length novel is procrastination. Sudddenly faced with the prospect of having to type anything up to 100,000 words, doing housework, gardening, food shopping and watching television suddenly become much sought-after past times. I've met quite a few authors who suffer from this, and read of many more on their various blogs etc.

Sitting down and writing for the better part of 8 hours a day is, frankly, quite difficult. I have my own way of dealing with the issue: I just break my day up into sections. I only sit at the computer and write for a maximum of about two hours at a time. In between these mini-marathon sessions I'll go for a walk, do other chores, read somebody else's novel etc. These little breaks help to ease any difficulty with motivation ( and also give my eyes a rest !).

On average I write about 3,000 words per day once I've started a first-draft, and this usually yeilds a complete manuscript in about a month. This is largely due to the fact that I'm fortunate enough to be able to write full-time, working five days a week. When I was holding down a full time job, as the vast majority of authors do, I used to write for an hour or so most evenings and then all day on Sundays. I used to complete a full manuscript in about two to three months back then.

Writing a novel is ultimately about having the determination to sit down and get started. It's much like physical fitness, in that it's often said that the hardest part of getting fit is getting out of the door with your trainers on. You just have to sit down and get on with it. I used to find that even when I really didn't feel like writing, once I actually sat down and got started the hours would fly by and I'd suddenly find myself staring at 10 completed pages. Once you're on your way, it gets easier.

As I write the first draft, I often discover new and unexpected opportunities to adjust and improve the story line. There are two ways to deal with this. As a rule, it's worth just continuing on with the draft after making notes about the new idea. This avoids having to deal with repercussions of the new idea later in the draft, and having to think on the fly as you write later scenes in the book. It can be tricky to mentally juggle everything at once and keep creativity flowing, so this is the method I generally use. New scenes and stuff can be added in the re-drafts and edits. Very occasionally I'll alter something whilst writing a draft, but generally only if it requires one or two extra events or scenes that are easy to add: maybe a character says something, that later becomes important to the hero of the story. A quick note in my chapter map reminds me to add the new realisation later, and all's good.

There are also a few "habits" that some authors say you shouldn't do when writing a novel, and chief of these is that you shouldn't read a novel whilst writing one. I used to subscribe to this point of view, fearing that reading somebody else's work might somehow contaminate my own, but in recent years I've rejected this. Reading whilst writing just serves to give you a distraction, a reward and escape if you like, for all your hard work, and often provides great inspiration. I recall reading action scenes in other novels and thinking to myself: "Look how dynamic that was compared to the action scene I wrote. I could do so much more with my own work when I start the edits!" Bottom line: if you like reading outside of your own work, just carry on - you've already got your own story sorted.

Another temptation for an author is to re-draft a chapter immediately after completing it, just a little brush-up and tidy. DON'T! Start with page one and keep on going, all the way to the end. The reason for this is that you'll keep tinkering with previous chapters and slow your own progress, perhaps never even finishing the novel. Furthermore, it's only after a break away from a draft that you really see how good or bad it is. Redrafting on the fly NEVER works, so don't do it. Sure, make notes at the end of your writing day on things you felt you weren't happy with, ready for the edits that will come later, but don't dwell on them. Keep moving forward.

A final tip for avoiding procrastination, writer's block and inspiration all at once: at the end of your writing day, make sure wherever possible that you finish writing in the middle of a chapter. Don't be tempted to finish it. If you're in the middle of a great scene that you're enjoying, then definitely leave it. You'll come back to the manuscript eager to keep going and excited to continue the story, much as your readers will hopefully be when they get to the same chapter. That enthusiasm will remain as you continue into the next chapter, keeping you moving forwards.

In the next post I'll describe a few methods that I use to help capture my imagination in order to "lose myself" in the story, and also some ways in which to improve dialogue, narrative and creativity whilst writing.

ETHAN WARNER BOOK 5: As I write this, I am currently at the 25,000 word stage of my latest novel, two weeks into the draft.

The e-book revolution.

It seems that virtually every post I read at the moment regarding the publishing world concerns the big questions about the rise of digital print, of self-publishing, of the role of agents and publishers within this ever changing environment and of how it's all going to come crashing down around us etc etc etc.

Personally, I don't get what the big fuss is. Ancient Egypt once did a cracking trade in papyrus reeds until paper came along. Coal was essential for foggy London postcard scenes until electricity sparked into life. Vinyl records were all the rage until a flashy little disc appeared, and that flashy little disc is now itself disappearing with the rise of digital memory.

Things change. Those who move forward and change with it tend to succeed - those who grumble and dig in their heels tend to vanish with yesterday's news. One of the big questions hangs over the price of digital books: why so expensive? Why can't they be cheaper? Why should we pay nearly the same for a Kindle book as a paperback? Well, I agree, from an author's point of view - cheaper e-book titles make for more sales, which makes for a happy author and publisher. But the same people asking those questions are often also those who lament the demise of the traditional bookshop, and what do they think will happen to traditionally published books if all electronic titles are re-branded at, say, £2.99? They'll vanish, of course. People will use bookshops as super-sized shopping lists, jot down the titles that they see on the shelves at £7.99, then pop off home and download them for less than half the price on the Internet.

It is, I suspect, inevitable that electronic print will eventually all but replace traditional books, but the publishing industry is right to make that change slowly. If they re-branded their pricing structure overnight, virtually every bookshop in the country would close within months, the entire print industry would suffer a catastrophic loss of business and corresponding loss of jobs / livelihoods etc, and there would likely be an outcry over publishers abandoning their roots in favour of quicker profits from digital print. They can't win, whichever way they go. Those readers who prefer physical books are far outnumbered by those who would rather save a fiver, especially these days.

It's true that some e-books are hugely over-priced, but most are already a couple of pounds cheaper than their three-dimensional counterparts and represent a saving. I'm sure that over the coming years that price gap will increase as digital slowly but surely overtakes traditional publishing. Better to let it do so at a manageable rate than to let an entire sub-industry implode on itself.

And while we're on the subject, self-published authors may rejoice at the chance to be put on an even keel with their more famous traditionally published brethren. Don't bother. Publishers will still be able to provide their authors with something of extreme value: advertising power. Just because indie author Clint Cumperdink might one day find himself next to Clive Cussler on Amazon's author list doesn't mean he'll be seeing his books in the same position on the ranks. This isn't to detract from the fact that there are many talented authors self-publishing out there. However, sites such as Twitter and Goodreads are awash with indie authors "following" 30,000 people, proclaiming themselves as "Amazon best-sellers", writing reviews slating traditionally published authors and telling all of how it "should be done", but their sales figures reveal the real picture. They're utterly unknown, and no amount of blogging, Twittering or reviewing will help them. They should be busy sharpening their writing skills, not flapping about on the Internet.

Publishers, agents and editors of established publishing houses will all survive the current chaos because they can provide the brand awareness and advertising reach that virtually no author can achieve on their own. And only the best and most commercially viable authors will be able to gain their representation, just as is the case now. If you want to be one of those authors, keep writing, keep improving your skills and keep searching for an agent and a real publisher, because the more everything changes, the more it stays the same.

Writing a novel diary: Part 3

Before I sit down behind my computer and start frantically typing out the 100,000 or so words that make up each of the Ethan Warner novels, I like to be certain that I have a plan that I can follow. I'm not the type of author who can sit in front of a blank screen and just start typing. Much like Frederick Forsythe, who at last years' CrimeFest in Bristol revealed that he plots and plans for months before writing, I love having an ABC guide that keeps me on track during the process.

To this end, I write three final documents:

The first is my Chapter Map. Using my ( often copious ) notes gathered over many weeks or even months, I start with Chapter 1 and write a brief, succinct line about what should happen in that chapter. It's usually just a few words, and I sometimes will add a few more in red pen if there's something important that must occur which has major consequences later on in the story. These are my plants and pick-ups - information given to the reader, sometimes very subtly, that come into play much later. Sometimes it's a red-herring, other times it's something that's said or done that must occur in order for other later events to make logical sense. For instance, if Ethan realises that a vehicle is about to blow up, he must logically at some point already have learned that there's a bomb on board.

The Chapter Map usually covers about 60 chapters or so, written on a couple of sides of A4 paper. Although as the novel is written and re-drafted this map may change, it serves as a vital guide that prevents me from waffling on to long or losing my way in the plot.

The second document is my Character Map. For each character in the story I write a short paragraph that describes their nature and motivation within the story. As I write each chapter of the novel, I refer to these notes depending on who's appearing in the relevant scenes. This provides consistency in the way characters in my novels act and speak, ensuring that they are all as distinct as possible from each other in the reader's mind.

The final document is the Synopsis. Many authors hate writing a synopsis, especially those who don't like to plan ahead too much. But for me it serves two vital purposes. Firstly, because a synopsis should flow like a brief version of the story it can often highlight errors in logic or scenes that perhaps stretch the reader's imagination too far. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it provides an update to my agent and editor, giving them a detailed account of how the final novel will appear and the chance to raise any questions or doubts they may have about the work.

I write my synopsis in the same manner as the novel: double spaced, Times New Roman, 12 point, and try to keep it about 12 pages long. It's not easy to cram an entire novel efficiently into such a small space but the final product can often be as tense, interesting and gripping as the final novel. It's a case of bringing all of the energy and interest you're hoping for in the final work and distilling it into a single, short document that should entice and excite anybody who reads it. Think of the movie trailers you see at the cinema: although a synopsis should not be overblown like a movie trailer, and should remain a logical blow-by-blow account of the story, that doesn't mean it can't be an exciting read.

With the synopsis done and a thumbs-up from my agent and editor, it's time to sit down and get writing! In the next post I'll reveal a few of my tips and techniques for dealing with motivation, discipline and further ways of avoiding writer's block.

Writing a novel diary: Part 2

The second stage of writing a novel, for me, involves collating everything I've learned in the first stage of basic plotting / research, and pinning it all down in terms of where everything should appear in the novel itself. This process is much like story-boarding a movie, but involves nothing more than my writing pad, a pen, and a LOT of thinking.

Before I was signed to a publisher ( and even afterward ) I used to feel a bit guilty for taking a long walk to think about scenes, chapters, characters, pace and dialogue. Especially in the summer. It always used to nag at me that I should be sitting behind my desk, slaving over a hot keyboard and actually writing something. However, I've come to learn that thinking is one of the biggest points about writing: you can't often write a scene without thinking about it first, and writing blind from a blank page often involves copious redrafts, which require thought themselves, which all could have been avoided with a bit of planning and, well, thinking.

So I walk, even if it's just pacing up and down in my office. I often listen to music, picking out movie soundtracks that match in tone the story I am writing as I find this helps visualise scenes much more dynamically. Not only that, but I visualise those scenes as though I'm watching a movie: the dynamics of film often provide a very useful starting point for both scene and dialogue as they're by default very brief and concise: if they weren't films would run for many hours, not two. Then, I jot down notes, piecing major scenes together, getting a feel for mood and pace with each one.

Once I've got enough major scenes ready ( usually between six and ten ) I know I'm ready to start doing my "Story Line". This, for me, is the ABC of writing a novel. I start by taking a clean sheet of A4 paper, and marking a line from top to bottom to make a left margin. At neatly seperated places down that margin, I write the words "Hook, TP1, PONR, TP2, Climax". This is the classic three act structure used by both movies and books. The hook is the first scene ( or even line ) that draws the reader in. TP1 stands for "Turning Point 1", the inciting incident that sets the hero of the story off on their journey. PONR means "Point of No Return": the hero is committed to their cause, often with all bridges of return burned. TP2 is "Turning Point 2", the point in the story where the hero starts to fight back against his or hers antagonists. The Climax, obviously, is the final scenes of the story.

Using this basic plan, I then "peg" the major scenes into place on the storyline, often moving them about, referring to my notes to see if events are occuring logically and if I can see that the story has pace and energy. Between the major scenes I start adding smaller scenes, introducing secondary characters, backstory, and in the case of the Ethan Warner series, revelations both scientific and paranormal that enhance the narrative with interesting bits of real-world research.

After a week or two of tinkering, I have my basic layout before me and I know that it can be written well as a 100,000 word novel. But despite this, I'm not yet ready to open Word and start typing. The next stage of the story involves making my Chapter Map, writing character descriptions for each of the novel's main players, and writing the synopsis for my agent and editor...

Writing a novel diary: Part 1

So, it's time. I'm just starting the process of writing a 100,000-plus word novel, the fifth in the Ethan Warner series. The series debut, Covenant, was published in November 2011 and reached #26 on the Sunday Times Best Seller list. The sequel, Immortal, reached the same position, both books shifting tens of thousands of copies and building awareness of my work.

With these successes in mind I know that each novel must somehow improve upon or surpass the previous title, and that places some degree of pressure on me. However, the way I deal with that is to remember that people come back to a series because they like the way they feel when they're reading it. It's not like television, when a cliff-hanger can draw viewers back: that only works within the individual book, not the series as a whole. It is consistency that wins, and that's what I aim for. With the Ethan Warner series, it's a murder-mystery weaved with scientific revelations that expose myth as fact, and sometimes vice-versa.

The provisional title for Book 5 in the Ethan Warner series is Wraith. This is the name for a ghost in some dialects, but it is also another name for something known as a "crisis-apparition". I'll leave you to research what they are, but like all central themes with the Ethan Warner series they're a genuine paranormal phenomenon and one of these spectral entities will feature in the story. That is essentially where I start from: something new and interesting that has the potential for scientific credibility.

What I've done this week is start a series of notes. These are what I call my key-points, and usually involve listing the things that I do want in the novel, and the things that I don't. As Wraith is set to be a chiller-thriller, I don't want the things that have been done before: hanuted houses, possessed family heirlooms, phantom hounds etc etc. Some of the things that I do want: psychological tension, a sense of other worldliness and perhaps wonder at the sheer volume of evidence that ghosts are not quite the myth we think that they are, and a strong sense of genuine peril ( and not just supernatural peril, but real world threat to life and limb ).

I can't obviously reveal too much here regarding actual plot, but I can say that Ethan and Lopez are in peril by this stage in the series, and are following a broader mystery that ties in closely with what they'll discover as the story unfolds. To this end, I'm also making notes of how things are at the end of Book 4 in the series, Beast, and tying it in with the threads of the new novel.

Finally, and most excitingly, I'm starting the research into real-life phenomena relevant to the story. Already I'm discovering a wealth of related material, much of it stunning enough to raise goose-bumps on my arms when I read it. That's just the beginning though: as I build up research material before coming to write the first draft, I must also begin the lengthy process of seperating what is genuine from what is fake. What I'm left with will forge the heart of the story, the revelations that leave readers of previous novels in the series inspired to search the Internet for confirmation of things they didn't believe were possible.

The next stage, which I will detail in the next post, involves weaving the plot together and developing the story in more depth. Here's where a mixture of practical planning and a BIG imagination come into their own.

APOCALYPSE!

It's coming... The next Ethan Warner novel is due to hit shelves on November 8th, 2012 in the UK and Commonwealth. ( Readers in the USA and Canada will have to wait until early 2014, due to the slower hardback-then-paperback publishing process out there. )

Here's the cover and the back page - I think it looks awesome! The cover for Australia is slightly different and conforms with their own series of designs for the series.

"Sock Puppets" - the whole dirty review saga.

For those who don't already know, a massive row recently erupted when it was revealed that some authors have been creating false accounts on Amazon / Goodreads etc in order not just to review their own works positively but to give unjustly poor ratings to other authors. These accounts / authors have been referred to as "sock puppets" ( for reasons not worth bothering going into ).

This whole sad thing has gone even further due to investigations by bloggers / reviewers / authors etc, who have discovered that some authors have even paid to have positive reviews posted on their works. This bizarre attempt at self-promotion has armies of both detractors and defenders all bellowing their own justifications ( it's just advertising - it's fraud - it's just repeating what others have said etc etc ).

The Internet and writing festivals have been alive with raging battles both public and anonymous, accounts on both Twitter and Amazon have been banned / closed, some authors are under heavy fire for their dishonest attempts to promote their own work or unfairly slate the work of others, and many are questioning the validity of any rating site.

Personally, I couldn't give a sh*t. I actually have one blatantly unfair review of my debut novel "Covenant" on Goodreads, where the "reviewer" ( if you can call them that ) joined the site, reviewed no less than 87 books in a single day to "up" their review rating, then wrote a one-star review of Covenant. They then periodically delete that review and re-post it in order to keep it at the top of the book's review list and in plain sight for anybody seeing the page for the first time, neatly avoiding Goodread's entirely sensible policy regarding repeated negative reviews of any one title.

Do I care? No. Why? Because all of this hoo-harr involves reviews on sites which account for a tiny percentage of the book-buying public. Think about it. Your book appears on these sites and receives, say, 100 reviews, averaging say 3.5 stars ( almost the standard score for EVERY book ever published, it seems ). Some love your work. Some hate it. Some are indifferent. That's life. A couple of people seem to hate your work so much that they create a vendetta against it. That's life too - there are idiots out there and there always will be.

Then your publisher tells you your book sold 30,000 copies in its first two months.

So you sold 30,000 copies and you got 100 reviews. That means, maths fans, that about 0.33% of your readers bothered to review your novel on a public forum. Throw in a few enthusiastic bloggers and maybe a newspaper or two and you might even reach 0.5%. Even if you're a self-published author selling 1,000 copies a year, the percentages remain the same.

The point is that nobody cares much about online reviews. People mostly buy books they think they'll like the look of, enjoy them and then go off to read something else. When your next book is published they'll either want it or they won't. If the sales of your next book increase, then they like you. If your sales fall, then either you need to think about your writing or your publisher needs to look at their PR campaign. Either way, something's amiss. Your fans, the people out there who buy books in their millions, will let you know what they think of your writing, and what Amazon or Goodreads reviewers think won't matter a jot.

It's always great to read a positive review of your work: not just because it's exciting and satisfying, but because you know that somebody out there has paid their hard-earned money and felt that they got satisfaction from doing so. Everybody wins. But I personally also enjoy reading well thought-out negative reviews, because they sometimes highlight issues with my writing that affect all readers, as opposed to the subjective opinion of the individual reviewer.

But if you get reviews that seem a little suspicious, IGNORE them. Don't respond, don't flag them and for God's sake don't reply to them. I've found some authors on-line who have done that and it just gets messy. Just stay focused and keep building your sales, as that's the real sign of a successful author. Leave the gutless bickering and the malicious tantrums to others and get on with what you enjoy: writing.

Busy summer!

I haven't written a blog post in over six weeks, mainly due to the huge volume of work I've been doing. Since my last post, I've completed the draft of the fourth novel in the Ethan Warner series, "BEAST", and handed it in to my editor. I've also been hard at work since on not one but two new projects, while also plotting the fifth novel in the Ethan Warner series. More on the proposed blog series for this soon, as I'm meeting with my publisher next week.

It's a lot of fun juggling so many projects around, making things work and creating new characters and stories. I was also recently asked by the Crime Writer's Association, of which I'm a member, to attend a library event in Feltham, London with two other fast rising stars of crime fiction: Tom Wood, and Stav Sherez, on August 2nd. The event was great, with a hugely enthusiastic audience and library staff, plenty of questions and anwers and a really good atmosphere.

Right now, I'm head down and writing approximately 3,000 words per day on the latest new project while planning the others during evenings and weekends. This is the life of a full-time writer, and it really is worth it!

www.stavsherez.com

www.tomwoodbooks.com

New Blog series: Ethan Warner Book # 5!

A bit of breaking news for those aspiring authors who follow my blog. In the next few weeks I'll be starting a blog diary here that will document the writing of an entire Ethan Warner novel ( provisionally titled "WRAITH" ). Running for approximately one year, I'm hoping to chart the process from beginning to end to show how I go about writing a 120,000 word novel.

Everything except the actual story-line will be covered ( no sense in revealing too much or there wouldn't be any point in reading the finished article! ). Research, plotting, cliff-hangers, science, character, dialogue and narrative: if it's part of the novel, I'll write about it and detail the challenges and the thinking behind creating the next installment of the series.

My publisher, Simon & Schuster, are going to be involved and are fully behind the idea, so keep an eye on my blog over the next few weeks - I'm hoping that the first blog installment will appear around early August!

The Dark Pages!!

Love your crime dark and shady? Enjoy catching up on latest releases and competitions? Want to read articles and reviews by published authors? Then you'll be wanting to sign up to The Dark Pages, a new site managed by international publishing house Simon & Schuster! You may even read words there penned by my own fair hand....

The Dark Pages is a fabulous new site, filled with all manner of crime related articles. Agent X is the mysterious man behind the scenes, lingering beneath a street light and investigating everything in the world of crime fiction before reporting back to you, the reader. Make it worth his while and get down there right now.

Awesome aspiring author's contest!

For all aspiring authors: The Writer's Workshop are holding a series of competitions, one of which will see the lucky winner receive direct feedback from a leading publisher, lunch with best-selling author Harry Bingham, and a whole load of other goodies.

Follow the link below for more information, and get writing!!

http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/competitions.html

IMMORTAL #1 Fiction Heatseeker!!

I received some fabulous news just before departing for CrimeFest in Bristol  - IMMORTAL has shot straight into the #1 position in The Bookseller's fiction heatseeker chart, and was just two copies shy of hitting the national top 50 fiction list ( which covers all fiction books in the UK including children's etc ).

My debut, COVENANT, achieved the same position but not nearly as quickly, so this is an awesome result. Fingers firmly crossed that the novel keeps climbing the charts. My publisher, Simon & Schuster, posted the below image on Twitter recently: it shows just how hard they work to promote my novels, and turn dreams into reality.

CrimeFest was a great experience: I was on two panels, both of which I really enjoyed, and I met a huge number of authors both published and aspiring. There were a lot of BIG names present this year; Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Frederick Forsyth, Sue Grafton and many others, along with agents, editors and fans. Being the new guy in town I decided to hang back a bit and watch the whole show unfold over the weekend, but the people present were so incredibly friendly that I found myself being invited out to dinner with a group of authors and a top journalist ( thanks Matt ) or approached by editors and invited for drinks that went on late into the night ( thanks Rachel ), or having a few beers with hugely enthusiastic aspiring authors with a big plan and great ideas ( cheers Mark ).

Thanks to everybody whose path I crossed, or stumbled into, and I'll be back next year without a doubt  :o)

CrimeFest

I'm off down to CrimeFest in Bristol tomorrow, looking forward to being on panels on the Thursday and Friday and generally meeting fans of crime fiction in general. I'll be on a high too, as IMMORTAL entered the paperback bestseller chart at No.32 in its first week! I'm the only newcomer that high on the list, so it's a fabulous start for the second novel in the Ethan Warner series. Fingers crossed for more great news and reviews in the weeks to come!
If you're in Bristol for the convention, feel free to say hello!

Great Eurocrime review for COVENANT!

Got a fabulous review for COVENANT recently at the much respected Eurocrime site:

http://eurocrime.co.uk/reviews/Covenant.html

COVENANT was Simon & Schuster's third best-selling e-book this week, so if the above review sounds good to you, you know where to go:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Covenant-ebook/dp/B005PMMPWO/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=A3TVV12T0I6NSM

IMMORTAL

It's here! If you ever wanted to know how people might actually find a way to cease and perhaps even reverse their age, then you're in the right place! The novel hits shelves this Thursday, with mass market advertising and posters in main line stations across the country...

I'm really looking forward to seeing the second novel in the Ethan Warner series hit the shelves. It's another big step in a publishing journey that gets more exciting by the day. Enjoy!

COVENANT e-book Special Offer!

To promote the imminent launch of IMMORTAL on May 10th, COVENANT will be available as an e-book for just £0.99! This limited edition price is available across all major retailers including Amazon Kindle and the Apple iBookstore.

The promotion also reveals the new style of covers that will become the hallmark of the series.

The promotion kicks off today, so if you've yet to read about Ethan Warner's exploits, now is a great time to start!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Covenant-ebook/dp/B005PMMPWO/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=A3TVV12T0I6NSM

Workload.

I normally try to make a new ( and hopefully interesting ) post at least once a month, but since late March the sheer volume of work I'm doing is pretty much taking up all of my time. New novels, new projects and the editing of novels heading towards production all compete for space in the daily diary and, quite often, there just aren't enough hours in the day.

Not that I'm complaining, mind. Any aspiring novelist reading this would cheefully tear off their own arms with their bare hands to trade places with me - I know this because just a couple of years ago I would have done the same.

There's so much that I could post about, but all of it is "in the pipeline" as opposed to confirmed, and as such I don't think it wise to start rattling on about what "could happen" when, in the end, nothing might happen. All of it's HUGE but equally nebulous, so my trap must stay firmly shut for the time being.

IMMORTAL is due out on May 10th, just a few weeks away, and it has a new cover which I'll post here as soon as it's finalised. I've seen a preview though and it looks fantastic! Very much hoping that it achieves the same success, or better, than my debut, COVENANT....

Character Building.

For many authors, one of the hardest things to do is build convincing characters. In the world of commercial thriller fiction, where by default a novelist is asked to take the reader out of the ordinary world, it can be extremely tough to create characters that can be both believable and inspiring at the same time. Make your character too tough or invincible, and many readers will complain that they're not believable; make them too vulnerable, and you're stepping out of your genre altogether.

It's a tough call to make, to find a narrow spectrum of attributes that enables your hero to be tenacious, resilient and resourceful without becoming so unassailable as to insult the reader's intelligence. The simple fact is that no one author is ever going to please all of their readers all of the time: my own debut novel, Covenant, has a review on one website that lovingly praises the realism and well developed character of Ethan Warner, my main protagonist, whilst right next to it sits another review complaining of a lack of character development for.... Ethan Warner.

I've been thinking a lot about character building as a result of these apparently contradictory opinions. It's easy to put it down to the readers' differing personal tastes, but I've come to the conclusion that something must be wrong to provoke any such wildly differing opinions on any one piece of work, and in my case at least I think it boils down not to a novel's characters themselves but how those characters fit the novel in question.

I've been watching a lot of TV dramas lately, those with two main protagonists. Shows like Rizzoli and Isles ( adapted from Tess Gerritson's novels ) really show how it should be done: both the leads are experts, but in totally different fields. Both are unrealistically talented, yet it doesn't matter because their skills perfectly fit the world they inhabit and their attitudes, friendship and banter keep the viewer coming back for more. Another hit show currently running, The Walking Dead, does much the same thing but within a more serious world of survival and hardship. What these shows have in common is that the characters, friend or foe, are in constant conflict with each other, and conflict is what makes thriller fiction tick. But it's not the conflict of 1940's movies, with a moustachioed mastermind villain and the upstanding British agent in pursuit - it's real, day to day conflict of character that we all know ourselves from school or work or whatever, amplified to cater to the audience demand for something out of the ordinary, to be entertained by characters facing things that, most likely, we will never have to face.

Commercial fiction works much like these kind of shows, with characters placed in high-risk situations or careers whom we then follow. While keeping a viewer entertained for an hour is perhaps a bit easier than keeping a reader hooked for 400 or more pages, the same rules apply. If your lead character's nature perfectly complements the world they inhabit, then everything else will become more believable to the reader. Heroic or cowardly, humurous or droll, strong or weak or troubled or upbeat, the character must fit their world perfectly or somebody, somewhere, will find fault. The less that do, the more likely your next work will find success in a tough marketplace.

The International Crime Fiction Convention: Bristol.

Good news from the CrimeFest convention: I'll be appearing on two panels along with several other authors.

On Thursday, 24 May 13:30 - 14:20 : "They're All Out To Get You - It's a Conspiracy!"

Dean Crawford

Chris Ewan

Adrian Magson

Emlyn Rees

Participating moderator: Tom Harper

and on Friday, 25 May 10:10 - 11:00 : "Historical Crime Fiction: Stepping Back in Time - How Do You Choose Your Time and Place?"

Dean Crawford

Antony Hays

Rebecca Jenkins

Dolores Gordon-Smith

Participating moderator: Roz Southey

I'll be at the convention for all three days, and as it's my first I'm quite excited to be there and meet other authors ( which includes a number of VERY big names! ). If you're in the area or are a big fan of crime writing and want to attend, get yourself signed up and come on down to Bristol!

IMMORTAL

It's coming: due for UK publication on May 10th, 2012. Tell everybody. Then tell them again...

Forthcoming titles in 2012.

Happy New Year to all those who pass by my blog!

2011 was a hell of a year for me, and this coming year seems like it could be even bigger! Lots that I'd like to post about but can't right now as I don't want to be counting my chickens before they've hatched, but I can reveal the following:

My agent, Luigi Bonomi, has negotiated with my publishers, Simon & Schuster, who have agreed to publish two more novels in the Ethan Warner series, bringing the total so far to five books! This year, I'll be working on books 4 & 5 in the series, having completed the third at the end of 2011.

The second novel in the series, currently titled "Immortal", is to hit the shelves on May 10th 2012. The third, currently under the working title of "Continuum", will be published November 10th 2012.

I'll also be appearing at both the International Crime Fiction Convention (CrimeFest) in Bristol on 24th-27th May, and at the Theakston's Old Peculiar Harrogate International Crime Festival on 19th - 22nd July. No word on whether I'll be on any panels, but will post here should anything interesting come up.

In addition I'm currently working up a synopsis for a Young Adult series based around similar science to the Ethan Warner books, on the advice of my agent. YA is a rapidly growing market and there's huge potential there, provided I can produce the goods. It's going to be a heavy work-load for this year, but every moment is going to be worth it. Who says writers have it easy?

Simon & Schuster Christmas recommendation!

If anybody visiting my blog were in any doubt about what thriller to buy this Christmas, here's the recommendation of Simon & Schuster's Editorial Director of Fiction, Maxine Hitchcock!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGR9zPqgjiA

Merry Christmas!

Being published.

It's been just over a year since my debut novel, "Covenant", was bought by Simon & Schuster after a fiercely fought auction that lasted over a week. The manuscript was sent to nine publishers by my agent on Thursday September 9th, 2010 - I'll never forget the date because it was also the day I was made redundant from my job of 12 years. So much has changed since then, all of it for the better in my case, but for the benefit of those who may not have followed my long ( LONG ) journey from hopeful, aspiring author to happily published and best-selling novelist, here's the heavily abridged version:

Started writing in 1994, after realising I would not be allowed to train in the RAF as a pilot due to my eyesight not being absolutely perfect.

Wrote two historical epics, Frontier and Man 'o' War, spending five years on them. Multiple submissions - no takers.

1999, began writing screenplays. Completed four of them, over six years. Multiple submissions - no takers.

2005: Wrote a contemporary black comedy novel, 'Four Fridays'. Multiple submissions - no takers.

2007: Wrote "Genesis", a converted screenplay from 1999 ( originally titled "The Nemesis Origin" ). Multiple submissions - one taker. Rejected as full MS after 4 month wait.

2007-2009: Re-wrote "Genesis", twice. Multiple submissions each time - no takers.

2010: Completed fourth version of "Genesis". Submitted to ten literary agencies. Eight rejections, two takers. Asked by one agent to re-write an entire third of the novel to suit the market. Agreed. Was signed to Luigi Bonomi Associates as a result of willingness to edit the novel.

Sept 2010: World rights to now re-titled novel "Covenant" sold to Simon & Schuster in a major deal for three books.

The reason that I'm posting this now is because, of late, I've heard a number of heart-rending tales of disappointment from aspiring authors who, for one reason or another, have been unable to gain a contract. Some have come achingly close to doing so, only to have success snatched away at the last moment. The heart-ache and frustration that this causes hopeful authors is undeniable, and having been there myself before now I do feel qualified to comment on such disappointments. I'm one of the lucky ones who got through and achieved the unthinkable, a major publishing deal that changed my future. However, it took me sixteen years to find myself in the right place at the right time, and good enough at writing to be signed up. I suppose my point to all this is that, despite all of the joy and delight of making it through, all that really changes is the next step on the author's journey.

There are many published authors whose book sales dwindle ( for far too many reasons to go into here ), who find themselves back to square one. The market is incredibly tough, and I've come to learn a great deal about that in the last few months. The sale of EVERY single copy counts, and can be the difference between success and obscurity. Margins are down, the rise of digital publishing is changing the market at an incredible pace, and publishers and agents are all struggling to keep up with and adapt to the changing environment. Things are changing fast and nobody really knows how it's all going to end up, so gambling tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds on unknown names isn't on the gameplan of many publishers right now. Agents are struggling to gain deals for authors on their own books, let alone newcomers. If it was hard to get published before, it's even harder now, but that doesn't mean the situation is hopeless at all.

The bottom line is that both agents and publishers would love to have to struggle to choose which authors to represent and buy because they were all so good. The harsh reality is that most of the work sent to them is rejected because it isn't quite right for the market yet, either in terms of quality or content, not because it's rubbish. My advice is to remember that writing is a hobby. It is something that we all do because we can't NOT do it. We'd get bored or frustrated if, for some reason, we couldn't write. Getting published is not just about being the best writer anybody in the industry has seen that year: it's about the right time, the right place, the right subject, the right tone, the right people seeing the work and the right publisher having the cash and the business plan to find a place on their books for your much treasured manuscript. It's a business, and if they're not sure, you're not going to get through. It doesn't mean you're not good enough, it means that now's not the right time for what might have been the perfect debut last year, or might be in three years' time.

But if you persevere, if you don't quit and stick with it for long enough, sooner or later the odds come down. The market shifts in your favour. The economic downturn ends. The digital revolution becomes everyday technology. Your novel now looks like it could be next year's BIG THING. And suddenly, unbelievably quickly, everything you've just read becomes a thing of the past.

Don't let rejection get you down. Keep writing because you want to, not because you want to be the next Dan Brown or J.K. Rowling. You don't want to be anybody's 'next', you want to be the first 'YOU'. Enjoy your hobby, don't endure it, and you'll get through eventually. Fifteen months ago, I was exactly where every other aspiring author was. Hopeful and determined, yet often disappointed and disillusioned. Letting 'failure' get me down was my only mistake, because in writing there is no failure, only the next step. Covenant peaked at #26 in the Sunday Times Bestseller list and is selling fabulously worldwide. It happens. Stick with it, just like I did.

Happy Christmas!

Matt Hilton takes a new direction.

Fellow thriller writer Matt Hilton, author of the Joe Hunter series, has taken a bold new step into the world of self-publishing via e-books and Amazon with his new label Sempre Vigile Press. HIs first novel in this venture, Dominion, is available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006GT3NPI

Why not head on over and grab yourself a copy? As a successful and internationally published author, you'd be crazy not to if horror is your thing!

COVENANT #1 in Bookseller's Fiction Heatseeker list!

I'm delighted to announce that having hit the Bookseller's Fiction Heatseeker list at Number 3 after only a few days' worth of sales, COVEVANT has now soared into the Number 1 spot!

The list is for 'rising stars' who have yet to chart in the official Bookseller's Top 50. As COVENANT has only been on the UK's shelves for fourteen days it's a huge achievement and I'm absolutely thrilled with how well my debut novel is doing!

There will be much celebrating tonight!! :o)

Get in!!

In awesome news received this afternoon, COVENANT has hit No.26 in the Sunday Times Paperback bestseller chart! It's a fabulous result for me, made all the more exciting by the fact that above me in the list are Christmas specials, celebrity books and global best-selling authors such as Clive Cussler, Lee Child, David Baldacci and Michael Connelly. Even Peter James is only a few places ahead. All of these authors have huge fan bases and long back-lists of titles - yet COVENANT is my debut!!

Simon & Schuster have done a fabulous job of launching me in the UK, and I'm incredibly fortunate to find myself so high on the bestseller lists so early in my career.

It is possible that I may drink some alcohol this evening :o)

UK Publication day!

It's finally here! COVENANT hits the shelves across the UK in all major bookstores and most supermarkets. Fingers crossed that the launch of my debut novel in my home country will set me off to a good start, paving the way for the Ethan Warner series of books.

Best wishes to all my followers and fellow bloggers, and if you've been waiting for your copy of COVENANT, or you've bought it, I hope that you enjoy it!

I'd also like to thank my agent Luigi Bonomi, without whom I wouldn't be typing these words, and my publishers Simon & Schuster and Touchstone USA, who have done so much to promote my debut novel. Today, I'm pretty sure I'm the happiest author on the planet :o)

Win a signed copy of COVENANT!

Covenant has been named CBS Action Channel's Book of the Month!! As well as running adverts on their Sky channel, CBS Action are giving readers the chance to win a signed copy of my novel. Details below, and watch out for those adverts on the TV!!

http://www.cbsaction.co.uk/competitions.php?feature=42

UK Publication week!

It's here! Finally, after what feels like several decades, COVENANT is due for release in the UK this Thursday. After great launches in both Australia and the United States, this is still the 'big' one for me, my debut novel on my home turf.

Watch out for it in all major stores and supermarkets, as it's going to be everywhere! It's the WHSmith TRavel Read of the Week; a WHS Great Read Guaranteed promotion title; A Tesco 'Books We Love' title; Amazon are running a promotional e-mail campaign, and Sainsbury's and Asda are promoting it as a 'chart' title.

Finally, I'd like to thank everybody who has followed my blog since it began about five years ago, long before I had an agent or publisher, and was writing in my spare time ( when I had any! ). I know many of my followers are aspiring authors themselves, and I'll mention again that my debut's publication just proves that it CAN happen to you, just like it happened to me. Stick with it.

Great review for COVENANT in Sydney Morning Herald!

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/bones-of-idea-are-out-of-this-world-20111022-1mdaf.html

Another good review to join the list, keep them coming! :o)

Reviews for COVENANT from the USA and Canada!

Had some great reviews appearing after Covenant's launch today in the USA and Canada, really exciting to see such positive responses from well respected newspapers and bloggers.

This one from the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204524604576608973562717798.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

And this one from blogger Luanne in Canada:

http://luanne-abookwormsworld.blogspot.com/2011/10/covenant-dean-crawford.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

My first sales news update!

Great news from Australia! My editor revealed to me in a phonecall today that COVENANT is selling at a tremendous rate - some 3,000 copies gone already. More importantly, the rate of sale is not tailing off ( at least not yet ) which is incredibly promising. COVENANT, I am reliably informed, is currently the best-selling debut novel in the country.

It's great news to hear, and bodes well for the novel's future releases in both the United States ( October 18th ) and the UK ( November 10th ). Can't wait to see how it performs in those markets, especially when the promotional campaigns kick off!

In other news, my second novel, ELIXIR, is entering its final phase, with edits nearing completion. Apparently, I have only minor changes to make to the MS before it goes to print, which is nice to know. Cover art is just around the corner, as is the possibility of a title change, to IMMORTAL. Any thoughts, anyone, on which seems like the best title...? Bearing in mind that it needs to have the greatest impact, and immediately reveal something of the novel's content?

Writing injury!!

It's been a tough five weeks for me. I tore a muscle in my left shoulder, right where the nerve travels between the rhomboids and down into the arm. Incredibly painful. At one point I was on doctor-prescribed anti-inflammatories, Diazapan and Co-Dydamol at the same time - to no effect. My physio, who has done sterling work on the damage, has said that most likely writing in awkward positions on a laptop computer caused the muscle to become stressed, setting me up for the injury. The ironic thing is that I keep fit with both running and regular bodybuilding - I currently do chest-flies with 20kg dumbells in each hand and have never hurt myself. So what caused this final, epic muscular disaster....? Towel-drying my hair after a shower. Won't be doing that again ( using a towel to dry my hair, not showering, obviously ).

Over that time, I've also moved house, a stressful experience in itself.

The bottom line is that I haven't been able to write a word for those five weeks, due to the pain. This is probably the longest in fifteen years of writing that I've been away from a manuscript that I've been working on. With deadlines in effect, this is far more of an issue now than ever in the past. Fortunately, I've gotten far enough ahead of schedule to still have plenty of time to complete Book 3 in the Ethan Warner series before Jan 31st 2012, but it's still a hell of a set-back and it's been driving me up the wall ( along with said pain and resulting lack of sleep ).

Happily, I'm on the mend now and with a proper desk and fancy chair installed in my own office in our new house ( courtesy of my parents, bless them ), I finally have everything I need to work as a professional author. I can't wait to get stuck back into my work, as CONTINUUM was progressing really well before disaster struck!

So, for those reading this, be aware: RSI can affect all muscles, not just those in the hands. If you're a laptop user who likes sitting writing in armchairs , as I did, or at a desk that's not quite right for you, then get something more appropriate sorted. Believe me, it's really not something you want happening to you.

Early reviews for COVENANT

Had some early reviews appear recently on-line, from bloggers sent Advance Review Copies of COVENANT. Am happy to say that it's looking good so far!

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10303780-covenant

Publicity meeting.

I had a meeting yesterday with the team at Simon & Schuster, along with my agent Luigi Bonomi. They detailed the global campaign planned for COVENANT, and it is utterly awesome. I learned a huge amount about how the campaign is designed to produce 'tail-off', maintaining a book's prominent placing on the shelves, along with all sorts of details involving the television adverts, posters, on-line and supermarket promotions. The list was immense, and apparently regarded as one of the biggest and best debut launch campaigns ever seen ( in Australia ).

The team at S&S and Touchstone USA have done an incredible job of giving my fledgling debut career the best possible start, and it's unbelievably exciting to see everything coming together and how every little detail is carefully considered.

Perhaps the most amazing news I heard was that, despite the Australia campaign not actually launching in full until next week, COVENANT has sold around 1,000 copies just six days after hitting the shelves! I don't believe that word of mouth could have achieved such widespread sales success, and can only put it down to the incredible efforts made by my publisher and their respective teams over the past few months to produce the perfect cover, style and impact for my debut novel.

They even let me take some cake home for my other half - how nice is that?!

Fingers crossed for more good news soon!

Australia competition!

For any and all readers in Australia, where COVENANT launches tomorrow, there's a competition in place to win a 50" plasma TV, X-Box Kinect, controllers, games and other prizes in the bundle. If that sounds like something you'd like, then just copy and paste the following link!

www.findthecovenant.com

Author interview!

I was recently asked to give an interview for Shearer's Bookshop: the link is below.

http://shearersbooks.blogspot.com/2011/08/interview-dean-crawford.html

Publication day for COVENANT imminent!

Had some great news recently, after receiving the press release material for Covenant's launch in Australia. The fab news is that the launch date is September 1st 2011, just a couple of weeks from now! I'd not realised this, so it's hugely exciting as the next launch is in the USA, and that's not till October 28th.

I'm due at the offices of Simon & Schuster early next month for the global publicity briefing, where I'll learn what's going to happen regarding both USA and UK launches, so will have more news after that. Can't wait to see what happens in two weeks time, fingers crossed for a successful launch and maybe even some good sales figures....

Beating "Writer's Block".

I've read on quite a few blogs recently about aspiring authors who suffer from writer's block quite regularly, and who often struggle for some time before overcoming this most frustrating of obstacles.

Almost all authors have a unique approach to their writing; some like to simply start with a blank page and no idea of what their next story will be about; others like to plan every single stage of the journey before ever applying fingertip to keyboard; others still like to let their newly created characters lead the way, essentially plotting their own stories via their individual personalities. For what it's worth, I think that its these varying approaches to creating a complete novel that sometimes cause the author's block to appear.

In sixteen years' of writing, I've never had writer's block. That may possibly be because my imagination is especially broad, but many others can lay claim to an equally vast internal universe of creativity, so I don't think its the cause of my good fortune. I reckon it's in my style of creating a novel, so I thought I'd share my own personal method - it might not work for the next person, but if another author sees something that they like, takes it, and says goodbye to writer's block, then it will have been worth sharing.

PART 1

1) The idea. I'm not somebody who wants to just sit down and start writing away about, well, nothing. My novels are plot driven, as are most thrillers. So first of all, I need to know what the main, core idea will be. Once I've got that down on paper, even if it's just a few scribbled notes, I know I'm on my way. If you're a writer, you'll know your core ideas whenever you find them: they'll be the ones that instantly excite you, and make you want to write about them.

2) The basic plot. My method is simple: sit down for a few weeks, and thrash out ideas on paper and in my head. One good technique I use is to play movie soundtracks on my headphones whilst thinking about what would be really cool to have in my novel: it's surprising how your imagination comes to life when you're listening to Pirates of the Caribbean or similar blazing away in your head. It helps if you're a visual sort of thinker for this technique to work. I sometimes also use coloured cards, each with major plot points, and arrange them in the order I think might work. They can be re-arranged easily, letting me play 'God' with the plot-lines.

3) It's here that you can add major events known as Turning Points. Anyone familiar with screenplays will know about these, but essentially they're the points where Act 1 becomes Act 2 and Act 3 etc etc. In the centre of the story it helps to have a MAJOR division called the Point of No Return, where your hero / heroine generally starts fighting back against whatever problem the story demands that they solve. By the time you've finished writing the novel, these points should not be obvious to a reader, but should none the less be present and essential.

4) The Chapter Layout: As the general storyline forms itself through the basic plot, I then begin the chapter map. This usually is a 'guideline' as opposed to a rigid structure: its purpose is to provide a map that I can follow as I write the first draft, and it's this above all that prevents writer's block. No matter where I am in the story, I know where my characters have been, where they're going and why. The reason I say that this is only a "guideline" piece is that if you try to force characters into plot developments, it can come across as cliched or force the author into contrivances that spoil any sense of discovery for the reader. So, as I write and new ideas come into play I keep everything fluid: sometimes the idea for a major twist comes half-way through writing a draft, or maybe a new character trait develops unexpectedly and just 'fits' right - I always leave these natural developments in, and alter any preceding storyline to match during the redrafts. It pays to keep notes of these changes, to remind you of what to do later on. My chapter layouts are usually on two sides of ordinary A4 paper, one line per chapter with a brief note of the scene and who's in it. Simples.

5) Research. If your story needs it, then get your story straight now. Locations, facts, historical background: whatever it is, find it out and have it ready saved somewhere so that when you're powering through your first draft, it's ready to go. The ubiquity of the Internet makes small details like the name of a road easy to grab on the go, but have all detailed research ready so you're not bogged down halfway through trying to work out how your hero can valiantly create a nuclear bomb from a shoelace, a daffodil and a tube of Smarties.

6) Take a week's break, then sit down and get cracking on draft number one. You're all set to go, you know where you're going and why, and with your headphones soaring with whatever epic score you like you'll see the movie of your novel streaming before your very eyes.

7) When your first draft is complete, probably after several weeks or even months, put it away and take a month off. It's hard to do, but I can tell you I wish I'd done it more often. When the month is up, get the novel printed out and read it as though it were something you'd bought off the shelves. Make brief notes about the mistakes you'd made ( there will be plenty ) as you go along, and then you'll be ready to get started on the SECOND HALF of writing a novel: the editing, polishing and perfecting, which will no doubt take some months.

PART 2

8) Editing. This is down to you. The point is, by this time you'll have a first draft that is much closer to the hoped-for final version than you would otherwise have been able to create working 'blind', typing whatever came first into your head. You'll have something that has structure, purpose and characters that have a reason to exist and direction in their lives. Every edit you make from this point on will bring you closer to the finished product and improve what already exists, instead of you still chasing rainbows trying to figure out what your novel is 'really about'.

9) Months later.... Congratulations, you've finished! Take a well earned rest, and start planning your approach to literary agencies ( see earlier posts for information on this ).

There will no doubt be those who say that such an approach as mine stifles impulsive creativity, the spark of true genius etc etc. It doesn't - those sparks still arrive, and you can always find somewhere to put them in your story. The bottom line is that if you don't have at least some idea of what your story will be about and where it's going, you're making yourself vulnerable to writer's block. If your current, different method isn't working, give mine a try, or at least elements of it. You'll never know until you do....

Advance Reader's Copies of "Covenant"!

I received four copies of COVENANT in the post yesterday from New York City, USA. For the first time, after fifteen years of effort, I can read an ACTUAL printed copy of my own work! An awesome surprise for the weekend, am absolutely thrilled!

Amazing quotes for COVENANT!

Had some great news over the past few weeks, as Simon & Schuster and Touchstone USA have been working hard on the launch publicity for "Covenant": two great quotes, both from best-selling authors!

"Get the cameras rolling—Indiana Jones meets Alien. What a combination of mystery, suspense, and unspeakable horror. I loved it!"

R.L. Stine, best-selling US author with some 400 million sales worldwide.


"Earth-shattering intrigue, hyperdrive action and a desperate race to save humanity, cranked up to the max with scarily realistic science and apocalyptic religion thrown in for good measure . . . a major new talent has hit the mystery thriller scene!"

Scott Mariani, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lost Relic

CONTINUUM

Well, the verdict on my third book's title came back to me recently, and I'm delighted to say that the team at Simon & Schuster love it! CONTINUUM is now under way with the first few chapters written, and the synopsis for the story was given a huge thumbs up by my editor Maxine Hitchcock.

Currently, I'm working on the edits for book 2, ELIXIR. They're not too extensive, mostly involving character development and some general tidying up. I'm aiming to have them complete by early July, at which point I'll focus on finishing the first draft of CONTINUUM. I've also been informed that a meeting at the S&S offices with my agent, Luigi Bonomi, is on the cards around the end of August, which will involve the planning for launch publicity. I'm not sure what this will entail, although I have already heard that adverts on the CBS Action channel are confirmed ( as per a previous post ). Other news is that S&S are already working on the cover artwork for ELIXIR. The publisher generally gets to work on such things around ten months in advance of publication, and with ELIXIR due out in May 2012 this means that they're on the case already.

For my part, after much graft I'm ahead of schedule by a few weeks at the moment, giving me the opportunity to take my time with the current editorials. It's a great relief, as we're house hunting right now and everything that entails. Fingers crossed for the perfect home!!

Dodgy Literary Agents.

One of the disadvantages of working from home right now is that my partner watches a lot of daytime television whilst she looks after our daughter, Emma. From time to time, as I'm working, I'll wander in and see her watching something completely useless to humanity: however, yesterday I saw her watching Fake Britain, and wanted to share with my followers what I saw.

A fake literary agent, running his so-called "business" from a spare room in his elderly mother's bungalow ( where he lived, in his forties ) had conned roughly three-quarters of a million pounds from aspiring writers across the country over several years. His method was to charge a nominal reading fee, but then coax hopeful writers into parting with ever larger sums of cash by promising them Hollywood film deals and such like. This individual, who was ultimately jailed, had literally thousands of untouched manuscripts littering his property, all representing the dreams of hopeful authors, discarded without even a glance. One poor woman, who had written her father's life story and sent it to this supposed agent, was promised a £100,000 advance and a film deal. Sadly, she spent the money on her elderly and disabled mother before she'd received the promised advance, which of course never materialised. She lost her home as a result.

For any aspiring writer dropping by here, whatever you do, follow the below guidelines to ensure that you're not about to be taken for a ride. Anybody can set themselves up as a literary agent, and some perfectly respectable agencies do charge a small reading fee. Frankly, you don't need to pay this as there's plenty of excellent agencies out there who do not charge anything. Finding, signing and getting deals for writers is where they make their money...

1) Start always with agencies who are members of the Association of Author's Agents, an organisation designed to protect author's rights.

2) Never pay a reading fee. Why would you, when the best agencies don't charge one?

3) Search the Internet to see which writers the agency in question represents. A fake agent won't have client list. Likewise, look for a website and agency connections that prove their validity. If possible, contact one of those authors - connections never hurt and it might even let you know what the agent in question is like to work with.

4) Don't send work to a suspicious looking agency just because everyone else has turned you down. Tempting as it may be, it won't further your chances and you might well be wasting your time.

5) Be patient. All reputable agencies are extremely busy and take time to process the hundreds of submissions they receive every week. Check their websites for a guide to how long you may have to wait. If that time passes, make a polite phone call just to find out how things are going.

6) If you discover a fake agent, tell EVERYBODY so that others can learn to steer clear.

7) Don't quit. Most agents are brilliant, and if you're a good writer, sooner or later somebody will notice your talent.

We have a winner!!

Many thanks to all those who submitted entries into my Title Competition! I didn't realise that there were so many people watching my blog from so far afield - nor did I think I'd have to sit and really think hard about which title to pick from so many great ideas!

However, after much pacing, chin holding and pulling of hair, I'm delighted to announce that Dean Owen from Newbury has won with the cunningly thought-out title of "CONTINUUM". Dean also suggested the title "Spacetime" along with it, but Continuum suggests connections to spacetime in the public perception anyway, and the title fits well with preceding novels Covenant and Elixir.

There were a LOT of entries, many from readers who put a lot of effort into explaining their suggestions. I'd like to thank everyone for all of their efforts, and please do keep reading my blog as I approach my first publication date as I'm sure there will be much more happening in the coming months...

A word says a thousand pictures: COMPETITION!

As an author who has yet to see his first title hit the shelves, my humble blog probably doesn't have thousands of avid followers hanging on every post. However, the internet's a great resource, and I've decided to make an effort to see whether those who are reading my posts would like to win a free signed copy of COVENANT when it's released in the UK on November 10th 2011.

The task at hand for anyone valiant enough to undertake it, is to think of a single-word title for my third novel. Currently, it's under the working title of EVENT-HORIZON, which is highly apt for the novel's content. However, my publisher thinks that one-word titles have more punch, and also that the current title makes people think of the horror movie of the same name released back in the 90s.

The novel will be about time-travel, the paradoxes that it creates, and the hunt for a man who has the ability to see both forward and backward in time. I've been advised that the title should have the word "Time", or something obviously related to it, somewhere within it. It's a tricky task, and one that I haven't conquered myself yet. The winner, as well as getting a free signed copy of Covenant, will also get a mention in the third book's acknowledgements for coming up with the title - something that might just help a budding author's chances of getting noticed....

I look forward to seeing what ideas appear in the replies. As this competition concerns a globally published novel, the publisher may decide later to change the title in one territory or another. I'll pick the winner of this competition at the end of May 2011, and use it for the work. The winner will get their signed copy and a mention in book 3, even if ultimately the title isn't used upon publication.

Best of luck!

The publicity drive begins!

I've had a hell of a week, with so much happening that it could take a few posts to fit it all in!

Firstly, my agent Luigi Bonomi loved my manuscript for ELIXIR. He had just a handful of minor suggestions to individual pages, and one or two scene improvements. The work has been done and the MSS is now with my wonderful editor Maxine Hitchcock at Simon & Schuster.

Secondly, I was hugely honoured to be invited to the Simon & Schuster 2011 conference at the Paramount Hotel in London. This was a major event for the publisher, with many celebs invited, and I learned a huge amount about what's happening behind the scenes with COVENANT. Probably the biggest news is that it will be getting not just national print publicity in the USA and UK / Commonwealth but that it will be advertised on television, on Sky's CBS Action channel in October, with ads running for a month around major crime and drama shows. Add to that the first hints that the MSS is doing the round with production studios and things are looking very bright for my debut launch. The novel is also to be a lead title in Australia, another major breakthrough market if things go well.

It was fantastic to be invited to such an event, which involved a lot of work as well as fun. I had to talk to dozens of booksellers, buyers, representatives of major chains and supermarkets and so on, trying to do my bit to help the team at S&S reassure potential stockists that I'm a long term bet with more novels on their way. As far as I can tell it went well, and I finally got back to my superb hotel at 4am after a few after-party sherbets with the S&S team! I had a great night, and if every publicity event is as much fun, I'm signing up for them all!

Draft complete!

Finally, after several weeks of furious editing and re-drafting, I have finished writing my second novel, ELIXIR. Or at least, I've finished the very first stage of writing my second novel.

What happens next, for those aspiring authors following this blog, is the beginning of the rest of the hard work. I'm fortunate to have a very hands-on agent, Luigi Bonomi, and he likes to have a read of his client's novels before they are sent on to the publisher in question. This is a sort of safety-buffer, for reasons that any experienced author, published or not, will understand.

No matter how 'good' a writer I may ( or may not ) be, there comes a point where I can no longer see the woods for the trees in a manuscript. I'm not the sort of person who finishes a novel, looks at it and thinks: "Wow, fantastic, that's going to sell millions. I'm a genius." Mostly, I realise that I've gotten to the point where every 'i' is dotted and every 't' is crossed and I can't think of anything else I can do to improve the script. This is where the ever present editing work begins, and Luigi provides that first-glance to ensure that I haven't done anything blatantly stupid, that the story runs well and so on. He'll suggest revisions, flag-up any slow-spots where I've waffled or lost direction in any way, identify character flaws... the list can be endless, but hopefully will come back relatively manageable. Notice I say "will" come back. There's always changes, always something that won't be quite right. When it's one person writing 110,000 words, nobody can get it perfect first time, and when it's going to be on shelves across the English-speaking world and perhaps beyond, 'okay' isn't good enough...

Despite all of this, I'm really excited about ELIXIR. I reckon the story is an equal to that of COVENANT, that the main characters are developing really well and that my chief villain is quite possibly the best I've managed to create yet! There's plenty of action, a great new high-concept scientific core to the story that I hope will get people talking and great locations throughout!

Now for a well earned rest, my first proper break since Christmas. Next week, I'll start planning for book three, EVENT-HORIZON. Can't wait!

ELIXIR

So, COVENANT is now completed, with all of the copy-editing done, acknowledgements and dedications fulfilled and cover artwork given a BIG thumbs up. Which means my focus is now entirely on book two, "Elixir".

It's quite a daunting prospect, given the attention lavished upon Covenant by my brilliant publishers Simon & Schuster. There are now expectations to live up to, a bar which has to be equalled or beaten, for if the publisher isn't duly impressed enough by book two then the reading public probably won't be either.

I've been hard at work despite everything that's been happening over the last few months ( see previous posts ), not being the type of person to rest on my laurels now that I've achieved one of those elusive publishing deals that allows me to write full-time. When I signed the deal, I'd already provided a one-page synopsis for books two and three to accompany Covenant, so I knew the subject matter at hand in advance. I've now almost reached the stage where Elixir is about ready to go to Simon & Schuster - probably about a month's more work to do. Book three, however, is still at the one-page synopsis stage: the deadline for the completed work is December this year (!)

So far I'm really happy with Elixir, and feel reasonably confident that S&S will love it too, but you can never be too sure about how a fresh pair of eyes will respond to a new work. Fingers crossed that the feedback will be mostly positive, and I can start looking at beginning the plotting process for book three, "Event Horizon". I've only 8 months to write the novel, but it's taken me just 6 to write Elixir... It's not easy to create a page turner at the same time as doing so much research into the relevant science, but when it comes together it's the best feeling in the world. Can't wait to see what people think!

P.S. I'm also developing a synopsis for books 4, 5 and 6. Great new ideas and a real sense that this series has a long future ahead of it!

COVENANT UK jacket art!

Well, I think it looks absolutely awesome! Simon & Schuster have done a fabulous job and it really looks like a blockbuster novel's cover should. I love the blurb on the back too - all in all, I couldn't be happier!

Emma Grace Crawford.

Apologies for recent replies to my posts not being acknowledged, but had a busy few days. Here's the result, and she's beautiful! Born at 18.28pm on Monday 21st March. Will get back into the swing of things in a few days...

Final Copy-Edit hard copy.

The latest news in the COVENANT saga is the arrival a few days ago of the copy-edited hard copy. This represents the novel's final layout, printed on A4 but with the layout scaled to the hardback sized font and format. It looks awesome, especially as it contains all of the pre-lim pages, the acknowledgments, dedication etc. In addition, the first few chapters of my second novel, ELIXIR, are also presented as a teaser for readers who pick up copies of the novel.

It's pretty much the final stage of the process as far as my writing goes on COVENANT, with any final last minute requests to be submitted before the print is locked down, all ready to go into production later this year. All that's really left for me to see is the UK cover-art, and then it's full-steam ahead on books 2 and 3.

I've just finished the first-draft of book two, ELIXIR, so I'm well on my way, but it's quite daunting seeing teaser pages for a novel that's not yet complete. However, publisher Simon & Schuster and Touchstone USA know what they're doing, and having 3 novels published over a 12 month period will hopefully cement me a prominent position on the shelves and the Internet. Can't wait to see it happen!!

COVENANT: US Edition jacket art.

Had a fantastic surprise yesterday, when into my Inbox arrived a message from Stacy Creamer at Touchstone USA, the American publisher of my novels. With it came the above image, which is the first cover-art that I've seen for COVENANT as it's being published initially in the United States ( October 2011 ).

I can't begin to describe how utterly awesome this design is, as it says such an incredible amount about the novel's content! Everything about it is fantastic, and after having been ever so slightly nervous as to how my various covers might look, I now can't wait to see the UK version. To say that Touchstone have done a fabulous job would be a massive understatement, and I reckon that this cover alone will attract real attention from browsers in bookshops across America. So much so, in fact, that one of my friends has pre-ordered a copy based on this artwork alone! Thanks Mel :o)

Copy-Edit: "Covenant"

Not much has happened over the past few weeks, hence the lack of posts since the middle of December. The holiday period intervened, obviously, but also I've been working away on the first draft of my second novel, "Elixir".

However, yesterday the copy-edited version of Covenant arrived. It's quite exciting to see how another professional editor views the work. The document is peppered with seemingly small but on reflection very astute observations, where the editor has recognised that I've used a particular word twice in two pages, or that a character has accquired a small piece of information twenty pages before they could possibly have. None of the adjustments required are at all labour intensive, usually requiring either deletion or a simple tweak to make everything fit together seamlessly.

It's been an understanding of mine that many authors ( at least in the past ) have resisted with some effort the work of editorial teams and their advice. Many, apparently, have not achieved new contracts, or have seen 'uneven' sales due to their reluctance to alter details in their work. I fail to understand why they do not see the advantages of following editorial advice: my novel was, if I blow my own trumpet, pretty good as it was, and both my editor and agent stated so. But it's so much better now for all of the tiny tweaks, the polishing of each and every page, and I've even identified one or two little bad 'habits' of mine as a writer that I can watch out for in future work, thus making the next editorial easier for all.

My advice; take all editorial notes, and act on them. Throw yourself into it and put aside any pretence that you're already an 'experienced' author. Everyone's work can be improved, and the better it gets, the more an audience will enjoy it. And that means they'll buy your next great best-seller!

Snowed in: Part 2 "Global Warming"

Once again there's several inches of snow outside and I'm sitting INSIDE working on my line-edits. Anybody watching the news might have noticed a sudden dearth of so called 'experts' waffling on about global warming, or 'climate-change' as it's now known. They tend to go extremely quiet when things go against the predictions they've been harping on about for the last 25 years, and they remain even quieter when the various climate-change myths they've been shouting from the melting mountain-tops get exposed.

For those of you who've been taken in by the great circus that is climate-change, here's a few carefully researched pointers for you that I've accumulated over the past four or five years that show what a mess the IPCC has made of scientific endeavour and public faith in our best and brightest.

1) The mean temperature of our globe has been cooling since 2000, not warming.

2) Carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere has continued, however, to rise, destroying the entire edifice of climate warming as being caused by atmospheric CO2.

3) Antarctica is getting colder, and despite losing sea-ice at it's edges is gaining ice in its centre, causing a net-gain in ice.

4) There have never been more polar-bears in the Arctic than there are now, and they're not dying out. Only two isolated populations are declining, the rest are on the rise.

5) Sea levels in the Maldives are dropping not rising, and have been for some years.

6) The Medieval Warm Period exceeded current global mean temperatures long before industry or fossil fuels. It was followed by a global chill that lasted almost 200 years.

7) Increases in atmospheric CO2 do not CAUSE increases in temperature, they FOLLOW increases in temperature. Fluctuations in solar radiance far better fit global mean temperature changes than CO2 levels.

8) Every single major claim made in Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth have been proven false by climate scientists. Chief of these is the so-called 'Hockey-Stick' graph, showing dramatic changes in global temperatures since the industrial age. Take this graph, extend it back 2,000 years instead of 200, and our current temperature is exceeded many times in natural fluctuations. Extend it back further, and it becomes an invisible blip of no significance. Nor is the speed of temperature change either unusual or unique. The graph as advertised is a deliberate falsehood promoted by the International Panel on Climate Change.

9) "If the Arctic melts, sea levels will rise!!" No, they won't. Take a glass of water, put an ice cube in it, and mark the level of the water. Wait for the ice to melt, and see what happens to the water level. It will fall. Water expands when it freezes, and the Arctic is a giant ice cube floating in the ocean, with most of its mass below the surface. Sea levels will fall if it melts: only if the Antarctic starts melting will we be in trouble, and it's not ( see above ).

10) In the past, there have been severe freezes and thaws throughout climate history, many of which were far more extreme than that being experienced now. The greatest danger on Earth is not global temperature through human activity, but global poisoning through human activity. Amphibians are called 'sentinel species' for a reason, they're sensitive to change. Pictures of three legged frogs, the deformity put down to climate change, are absolute rubbish. Temperature change won't easily cause such genetic mutations: but throw some heavy metals into the water table and it all makes more sense, and we do that all the time. Everyone's barking up the wrong tree, and that's what happens when science becomes politicised for profit, which is what's happened with climate-change.

11) Wind turbines are sold on their maximum theoretical output, not their actual output, increasing profits. Denmark, which has the world's greatest investment in wind turbines, has banned all further building of them having finally realised that they're useless. They either produce too much or not enough power, forcing the country to either sell power cheap or buy power in expensively from elsewhere depending on their turbine output.

12) Never believe anything you read without first checking it. If you think the above is incorrect, search for scientific studies and papers that are INDEPENDENTLY written and peer-reviewed (ie, not the product of either the IPCC or anti-global-warming interests ). Then you'll get confirmation.

I predict that within 15 years, people will wonder how the hell the IPCC got away with the deliberate mis-use of science for profit via carbon trading.

Snowed in!

Like most of the country I awoke this morning to find myself surrounded by about a foot of the white stuff. Once upon a time this would have meant no work and much rejoicing, but as I now work from home.....

I completed the general edit of Covenant a couple of weeks ago, and since them my editor at Simon & Schuster, Maxine Hitchcock, has been hard at work on the 'line-edit'. This second round of editorials is a fine tuning of the manuscript, the final polishing where Maxine makes suggestions on the macro scale. Would character 'X' really say something like that? Would they actually do something like that? Does this line need to be in the narrative or can it be cut out? Is there a spot too much exposition here, too little there? And so on. This final run-through irons out any remaining questions that might 'jolt' a reader as they travel through the story, ensuring that everything within the narrative runs smoothly.

I imagine that it will take me at least a couple of weeks to run through this edit, returning the manuscript to Maxine before Christmas. In the New Year, the MS will then be sent to the copy-editor, who has purposefully not yet read the novel. It will be their job to identify technical errors, should there be any, things like time distortions, character's appearances changing and so on.

Meanwhile, in the background book two is taking shape, with opening chapters already in place. Despite the snow outside, I'm enjoying the work too much to go out and play!!

Contracts!

The contracts for my book deal dropped through the letterbox yesterday morning. I remained completely grown-up about this epic moment, and didn't tear the envelope open and read avidly for half an hour before signing and posting back to LBA immediately. First Class. Recorded.

It's probably the first time since the auction that everything's actually felt 'real'. After so many years of working toward this very goal, now that it's actually happened things have sometimes felt a bit dream-like, as though I've been mistaken for someone else. This always happens to the 'other guy', in the newspaper or on television, not me. What's best about it though is that the contract detailed not just all the stuff that all new authors want to read about, like how much of the advance will be forthcoming, what the royalties are etc, but gave a defined timeline of delivery dates and publication dates and so on. For the first time since September, I now have a realistic mental idea of how much work I have to do, where I should do it, and how to go about planning my next two years.

The deal I signed was for three books: "Covenant", "Elixir" and "Event-Horizon" ( the last two being working titles ). The reason I feel really happy about it all is that I'm now technically employed again, this time as a 'professional' author ( ish ) and have a bright future ahead that will hopefully involve more contracts just like this one.

It's a huge relief, and comforting to know that I can do the work within the contractual deadlines. No more distractions, no more squeezing in an hour after work or not going out with mates because I feel bad about not quite having finished that final chapter yet. Now it's full steam ahead, full-time, and I can't wait to get started.

For all those aspiring writers reading these posts, who think it always happens to 'the other guy', keep hacking away at it. It took me 15 years to get from where I started to my first deal. Those who make it through aren't necessarily the best - they're the ones who didn't quit.

COVENANT takes shape.

It's a bit weird to see your own name appearing on search engines - someone told me the other day that they'd read about my novel being taken to Frankfurt for the International Book Fair. A moment later, and lo-and-behold, there I am!

On a less vain note, I had lunch on Monday with my wonderful editor, Maxine Hitchcock, The Editorial Director of Fiction at Simon & Schuster. Maxine told me a great deal about how things go from here, and introduced me to the hugely friendly team at their offices in London. It turns out that I'll be able to see some cover artwork sometime between now and Christmas, which is hugely exciting! There's much work being done behind the scenes already, and I'm really happy to have been signed to such an enthusiastic and friendly publisher. They're supported by other equally brilliant teams in the United States ( Touchstone ) and Australia.

For my part, the first editorial notes are in, and fortunately Maxine and I are very much on the same wavelength - we've agreed next steps and I'm on the case already. Once this first editorial is complete, there will follow a line-by-line edit, which will fine-tune everything before the manuscript is sent to the copy-editor for the next stage of improvement.

It's back down to work for me once more, but I'm revelling in the writing now and really excited about how things are turning out. Will post again soon, as contracts are now with my agent, Luigi Bonomi, and likely to be signed within a few days.

Deadlines!

I haven't posted much recently as so much has been going on, and I've also been a bit cautious about how much I should write due to possible contractual reasons. I'm hoping that within a few weeks I should be able to write in more detail what's been going on, but for now my main news is that I have my first true dead-lines, with books two and three now having their delivery dates set to Simon & Schuster.

After a few weeks in limbo, it's good to finally have goals to aim for, both of which are well within my reach. Really looking forward to getting stuck into the first draft once I've completed my research. I also have a date for publication of the first novel, but will share that here once the contracts are all signed and everything's in stone.

Most of what's been going on behind the scenes hasn't involved much writing, but instead to the innumerable and unforseen tasks required of me to set myself up as a full time writer. It's been a bit of a caper but when I think about it, it's only been just over a month since the manuscript went out to publishers for auction. While I'm here, I can reveal that that was the same day I was made redundant from my job of eleven years, and just two days before my partner had her twelve-week scan. As you can imagine, it was something of a 'taut' couple of weeks, but everything went fabulously well and now all's good, with Junior healthy and on the way.

Published novelist to be, dad to be... and have to be somewhere else, lunch with Luigi!