Book Launch, June 25th, 2021.

 

Today, I am happy to announce the launch of my next novel.

This one has been a long time coming, born of a short story I wrote a while back for a magazine that ultimately didn't want it. Once I had the rejection, I wasn't sure of what to with the seven thousand word manuscript, and almost filed it away. But, on a repeat reading, I decided the character had a potential future.

Then my writing hit a major bump in the road and I deleted everything from Amazon. Once I pulled myself out of that slumb, with some help, I revisited the short story, Furman Simms and the Problem Princess. It had parts I didn't like, and I felt the ending needed improving. So, I spent some time on it changing what was needed, and gave it to my editor to look over. He returned it with his corrections, and I put it back on Amazon.

Then I got to work on the book that would be the first in the series.

It was a fun ride putting the words onto the screen, especially fleshing Furman out with his dry sense of humour and why he did what he did. My aim with the character was a more personal one. He was a tribute to my favourite Marvel character, Death's Head, written long before Marvel descended into the shit that it publishes now. He takes his first name from the creator and writer, Simon Furman, who I had the pleasure of meeting at a convention many moons ago.

I had wondered one day, what if he had been a human instead of a robot? The idea was born soon after. Since I finished Harem Nights, I decided I didn't want to do trilogies anymore, as it restricts the number of stories that can be told with a character. I see Furman's adventures having a minimum of four books, all laced with the same kind of humour, action, violence, and fun characters.

Of course, this series is also very un-pc, so if you're easily offended, I'd give this one a miss if I were you.

One of the authors I look up to and have spoken with on a few occasions, Isaac Hooke, was kind enough to provide a front cover blurb for the novel. I can't tell you how such a kind gift feels to a beginner like me. I doubt I will ever be able to thank him enough. Those interested in checking out his work, especially his harem novels, can take a look at his cool website.

So, I look forward to sharing this book with you. I'm really proud of it and can't wait to get started on the next. The Adventures of Furman Simms launches Friday the 25th of June and can be pre-ordered here.

As a final note, this book has an added personal attachment to me. It is dedicated to my uncle David, who passed away in February this year after catching COVID 19. I have many fond memories of him growing up and his passing was a painful one for me. I like to think he would have liked this book, and the character, as he was quite a character himself back in the day, as my mum will no doubt agree. Wherever he is up there, I hope he sees the book and smiles.

The Continuing Road

 

It's been a while since I last wrote a blog post, and with good reason.

I finished one book, sent it to Tim, my editor, and then started another one. The aim was to not only keep me busy but to also scratch a major itch I'd been having. For a while now, I've been thinking that it was a bad idea to limit myself to one type of science fiction story. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy writing Harems. They're fun, but I felt like I would be confining myself in the long run.

Thinking about it, I remembered the ambition I'd had to try my hand at writing a military science fiction story. I'd had the idea kicking around in my head for a while, unsure of what to do with it, until one day the solution hit me. I'd also had the idea of wanting to work with Carla Tornielli on a cover after seeing her work on her own titles, and with author Steve Lee (Red Gaze.) I also decided to give crowdfunding a project another try, backed up by some very kind folks within the CGUK community.

Aria Black was kind enough to have me on an episode of his Call-In Special to talk about the project, which I have named Niven's War. For those who wish to skip ahead, I appear around the 35-minute mark.

He was a great host and a pleasure to speak to, especially since I've not appeared on camera on Youtube for a very long time. Part of me felt silly being there because, unlike the other guests, I had nothing to show for my project. The manuscript was a work-in-progress and Carla was still working on the cover. All I had was my pitch. Still, I had fun being on there in the end and he invited me back for the launch. At the time of writing this, Carla is finishing off the last touches to the cover and it will be launched soon after. I'll admit I'm nervous about launching the campaign, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, I guess.

Whilst all this is going on, I decided to undertake a more personal venture and fix an old novel.

My writing got off to a rocky start with two novels I later became unhappy with. Both were taken off sale and nearly deleted, had it not been for my wife stopping me. The first was Praxis, a standalone science fiction story, which had many issues. But, that's a story for another time, preferably once I've rewritten it.

The second novel, its original cover at the top of this blog entry, was Like the Wind.

It was my attempt to combine science fiction, fantasy, and horror. I think I did an okay job, but I'd used beta readers to edit the novel as I couldn't afford an editor at the time. A little while after its release, I worked with an editor (not the same as the one for Praxis) who would later work on Crush Depth for me. I paid them to go over Like the Wind for any grammatical errors so I could update the already published novel. They came close to destroying the manuscript and made me hate my own work. After a while, I found myself unable to look at the book. Like the Wind was withdrawn from sale and remained on my hard drive ever since.

It wasn't a good time for me after that. I got depressed about writing anything and didn't touch my computer for months. I eventually came out of the slump and wrote Crush Depth. The idea of Fixing Like the Wind kept coming to me again and again, but I could never bring myself to do it.

That was until I had a conversation with Peta, my friend, and regular cover artist.

We had settled on a theme going forward for my covers and, again, I thought of Like the Wind. I wondered what it would look like in this new cover approach. I found it on my hard drive and, after a little thought, began the task of fixing it.

So far, it's going well. I have a little way to go but I am confident of the results. Peta is working on the new cover, and I decided to rename the book to separate it from other results on Amazon. All will be revealed soon enough. Suffice to say my confidence has grown with how this will turn out.

Finally, I wanted to say a big thank you to those who signed up for my mailing list back in April. It was nice to get the response that it did and I hope more people come along as my journey continues. Either way, I look forward to the future and what will unfold for my writing.