Shelf Life Now Available

The title says it all, really, doesn't it?

What else to add? Um... well, I'm very pleased, obviously.

Oh, and here's where it can be ordered.

• Mirror World Publishing
• Waterstones
• Amazon UK
• Amazon US
• Amazon CA
• Barnes and Noble
• Kobo

I also have a small stash of paperbacks at home, so if any of my local friends want a copy, please let me know. (I can even sign it, or add an amusing quip, or draw something rude in the margins if you like.)

Revelations - The Book

The new cover of my latest novel, Shelf Life, was revealed this morning on the Mirror World blog site. Here's a link to the article.

Accompanying some excessively kind words is the cover itself. Here's a sneak preview:

Pre-Order Links:

Mirror World Publishing

Amazon US

Amazon CA

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

A link to the Amazon UK site will be available shortly.

Cover Reveal: 17th July

In a recent post, I said that 17th July would see the launch of my latest novel, Shelf Life. Since then, the final stages of preparation have gone very smoothly, thanks in no small part to the tireless efforts of Justine Dowsett at Mirror World. Accordingly, it looks like we'll be launching on time.

There's also a new cover to be revealed, but you'll have to wait until the 17th June for that. In the meantime, all I can give you is a quick 'teaser.'

The full blurb is as follows:

Young bookseller Cathy Finn is having a bad day. First, there's the assassin's bullet. Then comes the realisation that she's been living in a work of fiction. Worse, she wasn't even the main character.


Cathy's quiet, bit-part life may be over, but her troubles are only beginning. Her last day on Earth is also her first as a citizen of New Tybet. For over four hundred years, its people have been rescuing those destined to die  in other narratives, but now the system is faltering.  A saboteur is at work and Cathy will have to stop him if she’s ever going to find a way home. Failure could maroon her forever and spark a revolution that sets all the worlds of literature ablaze.


This next statement might only really apply to my mum, but if you're absolutely desperate to pre-order a copy, you can do so via the Mirror World website. (Here's a link to the 'new releases' page. The pre-order facility will go live shortly.)

Shelf Life - Publication Date

Back in 2017, I finished work on my latest novel, Shelf Life, whose cover design I featured in my previous post. Since then, I have said no more on the subject because the book was picked up by Mirror World Publishing and I agreed to wait for the company's formal announcement before going public myself.

Happily, I can now confirm that Shelf Life has a scheduled launch date of 17th July 2019.

I will post news of anything important that occurs between now and then. In the meantime, I'd like to pass on a great many thanks to Justine and all at Mirror World for their faith in the story. Likewise, to all those kind indie writer friends who provided invaluable feedback, suggestions and counselling.

Cover Story

Okay, so it's been a while. Sorry.

However... I have an excuse for my long absence. Amongst other things, I've been writing a new book. In its way, it's a sequel to 'The Written World' (i.e. 'Unreliable Histories' and 'The Endless Land'), except that it involves none of the original characters. Oh, and the world they inhabited has changed beyond all recognition. I don't know if that meets any of the formal criteria for a sequel - possibly not - but I don't suppose it really matters.

Anyway, I've just sorted out the new cover. And here it is.

Speaking Out for Indie Writers

I'm indebted to Richard Vobes of Book-Snippets.com for producing a 5-minute audio extract from my novel, Unreliable Histories. His reading can be found here: Unreliable Histories on YouTube.

Richard's Book-Snippets is a new site dedicated to helping readers to find stories by unsung writers and giving those same writers a new and innovative platform for promoting their works. Though still young, the site already features a host of excerpts from talented writers such as Jemahl Evans, Jeanette Taylor Ford, Lucinda Elliot, Phillip D Curwood and Sue Harris. Comedy writer Robert Wingfield also has an excerpt there, and we can expect more comedies to come soon.

(Apologies to all those I haven't mentioned but it's perhaps testament to the site's success that, already, the list is getting pretty long.)

It's an interesting way of encouraging readers to engage with new works and I really hope it takes off. It's certainly a fascinating experience to hear one's own words spoken by someone else. In my case, I chose an obscure chapter featuring one of the book's lesser characters - a young apprentice named Tymacht Jul. He recurs fleetingly throughout the first book and since most of the comments I receive typically refer to only four or five key characters, I thought it might be nice to give him an outing. His chapters are short asides from the main action and I thought one of them might work well as a short, self-contained extract.

Richard has clearly invested a huge amount of time and effort into this new venture so please do show your support by visiting the site and having a poke around. There's some good stuff there, I promise.

Rising up the Slush Pile

November got off to a good start. I heard that Unreliable Histories had made the list of top 5 novels  in 'The Slush Pile' - a new, online competition that aims to put writers in touch with literary agents across the world.

It's an interesting concept - essentially a vetting process that seeks to present beleaguered agents with a selection of writings that the Slush Pile's editorial team consider to be the best of the bunch for any given week. In theory, agents can use it to devote their time more usefully to books that experienced writers have already judged and deemed worthy of further examination. It's a no-promises sort of deal but agents are undoubtedly very busy people, so there's a certain logic underpinning the whole idea.

To any of my indie author friends out there, might I suggest you give this one a look? 

See: http://www.theslush.com. 

A basic competition entry costs nothing and the top five novels are promoted to a list of participating agents in the UK / US. There are also paid options that promise useful feedback from the team.

It will be interesting to see what sort of following the site develops and whether it provokes any response with respect to Unreliable Histories.  It's early days - the site only launched today (3^rd November) - but it's an idea that I hope finds traction.