Last night I wrapped up Draft Zero of my next release, a sequel to my science fiction novella set in Michael Bunker’s world of Pennsylvania, The Girl in the City. It’s called The Girl in the Wilderness. What does Draft Zero mean? Well, it’s what I call the very first version of the novel that tells the story from start to finish. There’s usually chapters and paragraphs I know I need to rewrite, foreshadowing I need to add, and almost certainly plot holes you could drive a truck through. But the key points are there and (probably for the first time) I’ve got a good idea of the whole story. There’s still a lot of work to do before the book gets out to you, but it’s a great feeling nevertheless. I hadn’t originally planned on writing a sequel to The Girl in the City and it stands alone very well, but a lot of people have been asking if there will be more stories featuring Leah and I had some strong ideas so I decided to turn the book into a trilogy. The third part – The Girl in the Machine – will follow later this year. I was originally planning on making books two and three novellas that would be roughly 50% … Read More
The Girl in the City – An Excerpt
The Girl in the City has been out for a week now, and I’m really pleased with how it’s doing. Feedback and reviews have been very good, and it’s steadily racking up the sales and Kindle Unlimited borrows. Interest in my short stories, Curfew, Saviour and Bottled Lightning has picked up as well which is good to see. During its free run last week, Bottled Lightning hit the #2 spot on one of Amazon’s short science fiction charts and was downloaded over 250 times in a single day – pretty good for a standalone short story. The Girl in the City and the short stories are available from Amazon for 99c/99p – US UK Canada. Here’s the opening of the book to whet your appetite. The Girl in the City LEAH GRABBED THE SALVAGE AND RAN. Metal and plastic clattered and rattled in the cloth bag hanging around her shoulders as she threw herself down the slope, slipping and sliding on the loose earth. The lights of the encampment behind her cast long shadows across the ground but made it just about possible to see where she was going. She heard the Wild Ones shouting as they ran towards the pile of discarded circuit boards, wires, and lumps … Read More
Four Free Books
To celebrate the launch of my science fiction novella, The Girl in the City (available from Amazon for 99c/99p – US UK Canada) I’ve decided to make all three of my Kindle short stories free for the next couple of days. And of course, you can get a free copy of Only Friends by subscribing to my newsletter. Curfew [raw] [/raw] Violent gangs roam the streets of a city in chaos, preying on the innocent and the careless. Friends die. Family die. But there are worse things in the darkness. Worse things beyond the curfew. Download for free from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada Saviour [raw] [/raw] For Yuki, the cave is a sanctuary. It’s somewhere she can shelter from the deadly heat of the sun until winter comes. If she can survive that long. Download for free from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada Bottled Lightning [raw] [/raw] For husband and wife team, Alex and Lisa, the trip across the volcanoes of Mars is a chance to escape the monotony of life at Gale Crater. But now they’ve found something, or someone, and everything is about to change. Download for free from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada Only Friends [raw] [/raw] My short story, Only Friends was originally published in … Read More
Out Now – The Girl in the City
About a year ago, I discovered Michael Bunker’s Amish science fiction series – Pennsylvania. The story really intrigued me, and I blasted through all five books and really enjoyed it. I thought that was the end of it but my muse, Ethel, had other ideas. She started sowing the seeds of a story in the darker recesses of my subconscious. Just a title and an image at first, a scene from the life of a young girl living in the city from Michael’s book. That image, and the story behind it, stuck with me. It grew bigger and more detailed. More scenes materialised and the girl got a name – Leah. With some encouragement from Michael Bunker himself, I eventually gave in and decided to write the story. It quickly took on a life of its own and became a novella, gaining a fantastic Jason Gurley cover and interior art by Ben Adams along the way. Now, finally, The Girl in the City is available from Amazon for the low low price of 99c/99p (US UK Canada). Here’s the description… With the oppressive Transport Authority controlling every aspect of their existence, Leah and her father do what they can to carve a good life for themselves. Leah spends her nights scavenging in the rural zone around … Read More
The Art of The Girl in the City
The Girl in the City really took on a life of its own last year. When I started writing the story, I wasn’t even sure I was going to release it. But as I wrote the first draft, I grew to like Leah and her story more and more. By the time I’d finished I was convinced I had a story that was good enough to publish. I can’t say that about all the stories I write, I’ve got a folder called Abandoned for a reason, but I could see Leah (as it was known then) had a lot of potential. For the first time, I sent an early draft off to some beta readers and got some very positive feedback. That feedback reinforced the feeling that I should release the book. I always use editors for my indie books but I also sent Leah to Joe Nassise for a development edit. I revised the story based on his feedback and then used Red Adept Editing for copy editing and proofreading passes. The end result is a story I’m really proud of. But while all that editing was going on, I had another idea. Michael Bunker commissioned illustrations for Pennsylvania from Ben Adams, a very talented artist that had … Read More
Travel to Pennsylvania for 99c
My novella, The Girl in the City, is set in the world of Michael Bunker’s novel Pennsylvania. You don’t need to have read Pennsylvania to enjoy The Girl in the City but you should. Firstly, it’s Amish Science Fiction which is a genre everyone should experience and secondly, it’s a great book. To make things even easier, Michael has put the Omnibus edition on offer for just 99c/99p so now is the perfect time to pick it up ready for the release of The Girl in the City. You can get Pennsylvania on Amazon (US and UK), Nook (US and UK), Kobo and iBooks but the book will go back to normal price in a few days so now is the time to pick it up. Here’s the description: Young Amishman Jedidiah Troyer is now a traveler. He’s signed up for an emigration program that is colonizing the planet of New Pennsylvania. He just wants to start a farm and homestead on affordable land in a new Amish community. Space pioneering isn’t as easy as it sounds when you’re “plain.” Jedidiah and his new friend Dawn arrive on New Pennsylvania in the middle of a rebel uprising, and TRACE, the resistance group that is rising up against … Read More
The Girl in the City Preorder
My science fiction novella, The Girl in the City, is now available for pre-order from Amazon (Amazon US, Amazon UK). Here’s the description… With the oppressive Transport Authority controlling every aspect of their existence, Leah and her father do what they can to carve a good life for themselves. Leah spends her nights scavenging in the rural zone around the City, risking capture by the Wild Ones as she hunts for salvage her father can trade for food and other essentials. But when Leah takes a bag of salvage from a dying stranger, she and her father are drawn into the world of Transport and its war against the terrorist organization, TRACE. A war that could cost them both their lives. I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out. I got the final formatted ebook this weekend and Polgarus Studio did a great job. The Girl in the City is set in the world of Michael Bunker’s Pennsylvania, and I’ve continued Michael’s tradition of including illustrations by Ben Adams in the Pennsylvania books. Ben created three fantastic images for The Girl in the City (TGITC?) – check back next Monday for a look at them. The Girl in the City will be released on Kindle on February 2nd, 2015 but you … Read More
Coming Soon – The Girl in the City
My novella, Leah, now has a proper title – The Girl in the City – and a superb Jason Gurley cover. The Girl in the City is a science fiction novella, roughly 60 pages long. Here’s the description. With the oppressive Transport Authority controlling every aspect of their existence, Leah and her father do what they can to carve a good life for themselves. Leah spends her nights scavenging in the rural zone around the City, risking capture by the Wild Ones as she hunts for salvage her father can trade for food and other essentials. But when Leah takes a bag of salvage from a dying stranger, she and her father are drawn into the world of Transport and its war against the terrorist organization, TRACE. A war that could cost them both their lives. Those of you who’ve read Michael Bunker’s Pennsylvania may recognise some of the elements of the story. That’s because The Girl in the City is set in that world and runs parallel to some of the events in Michael’s book. Apart from an ill-advised piece of flash fiction set in Clive Barker’s Hellraiser universe, this is the first time I’ve felt compelled to write in another … Read More
Indie Publishing Update – January 2015
I finally decided to give indie publishing a try last year – starting with three short stories. Bottled Lightning (available on Amazon US UK Canada) was officially released on 29th September. Saviour (available on Amazon US UK Canada) was released on 6th October. Curfew (available on Amazon US UK Canada) came out a week later on 13th October. All three titles are in KDP Select so are exclusive to Amazon and can be borrowed through Amazon Prime or Kindle Unlimited. One of the things I like about indie publishing is the transparency in the indie community, so in the interest of continuing that transparency, here’s the numbers for the first three months of those titles. In total that’s 14 sales, 2 borrows and 181 free copies given away. That’s not quite Stephen King levels of success, but I’m very happy with those results, for several reasons. Firstly, it’s completely in line with my expectations. Short stories generally don’t sell unless you’ve already got a following of some sort, and even then they’re a tough sell. I wouldn’t expect people to spend money on a 15-20 minute read from someone they’ve never heard of. Secondly, those three titles were an experiment to get comfortable with indie publishing and limit the damage done by … Read More
Still Alive, Still Writing
It’s been a while since my last post. I guess time flies when you’re having fun. Or in my case – time flies when you’re having a root canal retreatment. My day job, a running injury, the aforementioned root canal and a whole load of editing of Leah may have curtailed my blogging but the writing streak continues. Although my daily word count numbers have dropped significantly because I’ve been revising and editing, I’m currently at 533 days with no plans to stop. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve made the last few revisions to Leah, wrapped up the first draft of Reg vs the Martians and started a couple of new chapters that will replace a chapter in Glitch that I’ve never been happy with. I’m not convinced this new stuff is much of an improvement but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. I’ll probably rewrite it again next year. I also outlined the sequel to The Zombie Book (working title). I’m heading off to England next week and I had originally planned to spend some time on the final revisions of Glitch. But I’ve come to the conclusion that editing on the road doesn’t really work … Read More