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Just thought I'd remind you all about my books.

General information pages

Book I Please Kill the Neighbours (But Don't Piss Them Off)

Most nuisance neighbours can be dealt with by a court order. When your neighbour is a country ruled by an evil wizard, we recommend a demon.
Of course, you need someone ... disposable ... to summon the damn thing.

Meet Cullan and his companions, Alys and Kenyon, and follow their adventures when they're blackmailed into escorting Morgan, a gifted young mage, into a hostile country so that she can fulfil her Destiny.

Book II Finish the Job So We Don't Have To

Whenever you kill an evil wizard, there are three things you should remember:
1. Kill his bodyguards and sidekicks as well;
2. Steal all his treasure;
3. Have an escape route planned in advance.
So... Second time lucky?

A second chance arrives for Cullan and his companions to loot the Tower of Morss - not that they really want to go back there after what happened last time. Especially with an invading army in the way. Oh, and having to kill the three most well-protected people in a besieged city first.

Book III All's Fair in Love and Politics

Inter-monarchial relationships can be tricky things. There are all sorts of things to consider concerning alliances, succession, trade, and so on. Not to mention security - with all the travelling between two countries that will be going on, it makes it easier for someone to, for example, kidnap someone.

When Queen Elspeth is abducted on a state visit to Galorndan, Cullan and his companions are ordered to once again travel several hundred miles to find someone - this time to rescue, not to kill. Although, someone probably will need killing while they're in the area.

 


Lulu.com store
Book I at CreateSpace
Book II at CreateSpace
Book III at CreateSpace
The books on Amazon.com

You know where to get them now - what are you waiting for?

There was a slight delay due to the cover not being ready, but now Book III of the Have Sword & Sorcery: Will Travel™ series is now on sale.

All's Fair in Love and Politics

Inter-monarchial relationships can be tricky things. There are all sorts of things to consider concerning alliances, succession, trade, and so on. Not to mention security - with all the travelling between two countries that will be going on, it makes it easier for someone to, for example, kidnap someone.

When Queen Elspeth is abducted on a state visit to Galorndan, Cullan and his companions are ordered to once again travel several hundred miles to find someone - this time to rescue, not to kill. Although, someone probably will need killing while they're in the area.

'Tis Saturday, the day after the second Friday 13th of the year.

The collections department of the bank has rung me twice now since Tuesday.

BeerMonster#100 is due up tomorrow, and I still haven't thought of anything for it.

My sister has come round, and is helping me fill out loads of huge forms for benefits agencies and so on, in order for me to get officially diagnosed with Asperger's (and get some sort of benefits for it).

I'm selling stuff on eBay, if anyone's interested.

The third book of my series comes out in 3 weeks and two days (pre-orders close on the 22nd).

I have lots of stuff to mention at the IDWConCom meeting tomorrow, and probably no-one will thank me.

There are no jobs.

I think I may be getting Depressed again. Bugger.

I've read a couple of entries on my f-list in the aftermath of Redemption. They got me thinking, especially after I followed the links.

I try to write in a balanced style. I also try to write what I know, and what I enjoy. I'm not going to write a book I wouldn't want to read - what would be the point? If I have to wade through it to edit it, I'm not going to bother. And also, given that my books were written during NaNoWriMo, there are inevitably bits where I'm just burbling around the first thing that comes into my head; which usually means sex, violence, or huge reams of statistical data to fiddle with to see if it can't be persuaded to produce a more favourable outcome occasionally. Yes, I'm like that.

So: Does my stuff pass things like the Bechdel Test? Are my female characters depicted as sex objects more often than they are real people? (I have, on at least two occasions, made my kickass female ninja lead pretend to be a prostitute, but they were both plot-necessary instances (mostly). I have also put one of my male leads through a not-entirely unwanted (for him) sex scene.) Is the way I write the interactions between my characters in their medieval-type society believable? Does it look like I've gone down the default path for choice of protagonist etc, or does it look I'm trying? Am I providing fanservice to both male and female readers (unlikely, probably), or does it seem like I've asked Frank Miller for advice?

Y'see, I don't know. I'm male, Aspergic, and I'm not even trying to write deep, meaningful, insightful literature (I leave that to Terry Pratchett), I'm trying to write something fun that you can lose yourself in for a couple of hours to give your brain a break. I'm trying to write the novel equivalent of a Golden Age Saturday-morning adventure flick, only, y'know, a little more plausible. I don't know if I've written The First Blast of the Trumpet for or against an entirely new mode of societal thought, or whether they're just airport novels.

Perhaps the fact that I'm worrying about this sort of thing is a good sign. Perhaps it shows that I not only want to keep my existing fanbase, but also expand it, by not only writing well, but also by writing balanced-y. So - could someone tell me?

Book III, All's Fair in Love and Politics, is released on Monday the 6th of April, priced just under £6 (plus huge p+p). Pre-order with me here, and I'll make sure you save on postage.

On my website I have some pages with information about the books, and the characters, and so on. As the series is written by basically playing an RPG, I have proper character sheets for the main characters. However, being a dynamic chronology (a fancy term meaning that time passes, unlike in The Simpsons), the characters necessarily change over time, which means their character sheets will also change over time.

Since Book III is going to be released shortly, it means that another update to the character sheets will be due. The website currently has character sheets for the heroes as they are when we first meet them, and as they are just before the beginning of Book III. They've undergone some noticeable changes in the nearly two years of story-time that has passed. So, I'm considering whether it would be worth it to put up character sheets for them for between every book as the series progresses, or should I just stick with the earliest and most recent versions? What do you all think?

Poll #1339183 HS&S:WT Characters
This poll is closed.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 2

How many character sheets should I include on my website?

If you want to explain your reasoning for your vote, please do.

My books are actually on Amazon. However, they only appear to be on amazon.com, rather than the regional variations.

Book I: Please Kill the Neighbours (But Don't Piss Them Off)
ISBN 1440461988
CreateSpace $10.00
Lulu £5.99
Amazon.com $10.00

Book II: Finish the Job So We Don't Have To
ISBN 1440482527
CreateSpace $10.35
Lulu £6.24
Amazon.com $10.35

Postage varies depending on who you buy from, and where you buy from. Without further data, I'd recommend lulu for those of you to the east of the Atlantic, CreateSpace for those on the west of the Atlantic, and amazon for places that don't have contact with the Atlantic.

The first two books of the Have Sword & Sorcery: Will Travel™ series are now available on CreateSpace, and both should be showing up on Amazon within a week.

Book I: Please Kill the Neighbours (But Don't Piss Them Off)
ISBN 1440461988
CreateSpace $10.00
Lulu £5.99

Book II: Finish the Job So We Don't Have To
ISBN 1440482527
CreateSpace $10.35
Lulu £6.24

I'll put links to the Amazon pages as soon as they become active.

I don't know what the pricing will be for shipping, but from current experience, CreateSpace might be cheaper for anyone buying from America, or from outside the UK mainland. Also, only Lulu allow you to purchase them as EBooks.

( The Not-so-noble Pass-times of Nobility )

My website has updated, with things like new pages, extracts from the now-finished NaNo, Book III of the Have Sword & Sorcery: Will Travel™ series, "All's Fair in Love and Politics". Expect it available to buy in early April 2009.

In other news, I'm still soliciting guest submissions for BeerMonster. I'll take anything before the end of the year.

I've finished! 50,460 words. Turns out I did nearly run out of story early, but hey, I still got there. I've got some editing still to do, polish up a few paragraphs, insert the odd sentence or two, make sure all the sentences make sense, that sort of thing. That usually adds a few dozen words to the total.

But, yeah, I've finished! "All's Fair in Love and Politics" is finished, and will be on certain electronic bookshelves within five months.

Some progress has been made with lulu.com shipping prices to Ireland. It is now orderable for shipping at an Economy price of €13.50, as well as the expensive options.

Well, it's halfway through NaNoWriMo, and I'm at 33,583 words, or 67.17% of the way through. It was a slow start, but that's all right, 'cos I had a very nice distraction. And now the words are coming fairly well, and things seem to be going well. Admittedly, I seem to be running out of plot a little sooner that I expected - but I think that happens every year anyway. Still, I should be on course to pass 50,000 by no later than the 23rd. Whether I'll still have any story left after that is another matter. But I should certainly be able to put up extracts on my website by the 25th, along with my winners logo.

Apparently, lulu.com is charging €70 to ship to Ireland (I haven't checked other overseas-from-the-UK places, but it could be the same). I have contacted their support team, hoping that it is merely a mistake somewhere, and with any luck, it should be fixed within the next couple of days. If not, I shall have to think of something else.

The lulu.com price re-arrangement has been completed, and I have now been able to return my books to sale, and they are both 25p cheaper than they were before. That means that Please Kill the Neighbours - But Don't Piss Them Off is now £5.99 (+p&p), and Finish the Job So We Don't Have To is now £6.24 (+p&p).

Go and buy them today!