April, Month of Action

Last month was mostly spent in post-launch engagement. Much work on promotion and marketing to get Joinings:A Seared Sky out there to the reading public. How successful that’s been only time will tell. Reviews have started coming in, all 5 star so far, but they’re coming in slowly due to the length of the book: it takes time to read nearly 700 pages! By the way, if you’ve bought and read the book, please do stick a short review on any of the sites you use – Amazon, Goodreads, your blog, social networks, etc. Reviews are what most get books noticed, apart from word of mouth, and you’ll have told your friends, of course.

Had a week away with my wife, exploring the rural delights of Suffolk, a necessary rest after all the work put in pre-launch.

Editing the final volume of the trilogy, of course. Got another 11 chapters of that done. I’ll have that finished this month and can then get on with the science fiction novelette that’s nagging me to get started. Done some extensive research for that along the way.

I entered one of those ‘write a story in 24 hours’ contests on the WritersWeekly site, an interesting experience. Looking forward to learning how my entry fares.

I’ve written, edited and posted 19 posts on here and as a guest on other blogs, which, of course, entails interacting with comments raised. Joined and participated in a number of groups on Goodreads, LinkedIn and Facebook. Read 4 books and reviewed 3 (the other one wasn’t worth the effort, to be honest). Read 3 writing mags and submitted a short piece to one of them.

So, all told, not a bad month. Let’s see what May brings (apart from my birthday, next week, of course!)

The chart, explained:

Writing - initial creation of stories, blog posts, reviews and longer works.

Editing - polishing of all written work to make it suitable for readers.

Research - discovery of info for story content, market research, contests and blog posts.

Reading - books and writing magazines.

Networking - emails, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and comments.

Admin - story submission, blog posting, marketing, organisation, tax, and general admin tasks.

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Margery Allingham’s Mr Campion’s Farewell, Completed by Mike Ripley, Reviewed

The PR company handling marketing asked me to review this book. It’s not my usual read, but, having watched some of the adaptations on TV and enjoyed them, I agreed.

The eponymous character is well drawn, matching the depiction from the screen. He’s an interesting personality, personifying that quintessentially English upper middle class hero who prefers to pretends to be a little dim. In fact, of course, his wit is razor sharp and his intelligence high. The other players in this novel are equally well put together; individuals who manage to be representative of certain types without becoming stereotypical.

The narrative is delivered with a tongue-in-cheek gentle humour reminiscent of an earlier age. At times, I found the convoluted descriptions a little tedious, though this was only an occasional irritation, which quickly passed. There is a certain type of wit here that will definitely appeal to those who have loved the previous novels and those who enjoy the Jeeves and Wooster books.

The plot is clever and its denouement very well handled, keeping the reader interested to the very last. The relationships between the various characters are drawn with humour and compassion so that even the villains engender a certain amount of sympathy. In one of those peculiar coincidences that sometimes cause delight, I began to read this book on the day I had visited Lavenham, in Suffolk. This is the town on which the main setting of the book is based, so I immediately felt at home with the descriptions of the place and some of its buildings.

Against my expectations, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It’s an entertaining and engaging read and I expect that those who love their crime with a touch of humour will find it thoroughly worthwhile.

Stuarts' Daily Word Spot (Antonyms): Yell/Whisper

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Yell/Whisper

Yell: noun - a loud cry of pain, fear, anger, delight, triumph or surprise; a shout, scream.

Verb - to utter a yell or shout.

Whisper: noun - an instance of whispering or speaking softly; a softness of voice characterizing such speech; a whispered phrase.

Verb - to speak very softly; to converse like this for the sake of secrecy;

'When Roger crept up behind Sarah, fresh and warm from her shower, and placed his cold hands over her uncovered breasts, she gave out a great yell of shock and indignation.'

'As the time came for the news to be passed on, John brought Mandy close, embraced her, and with a gentle whisper, explained that he wouldn't be spending the night with her but with Jacob.'

'In the falling darkness of dusk, the dark figure that emerged from the trees and lurched toward her, made Martha yell with fear.'

'Mark teased Maria's auburn locks away from her small ears and placed his mouth close so he could whisper words of love and tenderness to her without alerting her husband to his feelings.'

1846 - Iowa became the 29th state of the US.

1908 - An Earthquake struck Messina in Italy and killed nearly 80,000.

1981 - The infamous Rendelsham Forest UFO incident, in Suffolk near the US Airforce base, caused much speculation in the press. Just another cause for conflict between those who believe and those who don't. If the military had been more open from the beginning, the whole field of UFOs could probably have been less fraught with conspiracy theory.