Nothing to do with my writing at all, this is more to do with me vocalizing my thoughts:

Today is my birthday - I am 52, yay. 

Over those years the world has changed considerably; there have been some great inventions and some really crap ones. I'm lucky enough to have witnessed some huge advances in medicine, science, technology and all sorts of other areas far too numerous to mention.

During those years I have endured some dark times as most people do in their lives, I've seen things I wish I hadn't and met people that I really don't like.

'Ya have to take the rough with the smooth...' was a saying often repeated to me by my parents, siblings and friends, and I completely understand.

During my 52 years on this planet I donated 15 of them to serving in the British Army, as have numerous other people before me, and since - nothing special there. I understand the rules of engagement, but I also have first hand experience of 'politics', (and politicians) throwing good men under the proverbial bus to further individual careers or suit the political climate at a given time. I consider myself a well rounded person (not just physically!), in so much as I try hard to see someone else's point of view, I consider their circumstances, I look for the logic behind a suggestion or an initiative, not just disregard it as foolish, I truly want to understand 'why', 

Two nights ago I was at my eleven year old daughters end-of-term school presentation night, again as many others have done before me; she was fortunate enough to receive an award to finish off her time at that school, and very proud we are too. 

So, I hear you asking, where is this whole waffle going? Well the truth be known, after all of my years on this earth, when I sat down and watched the breaking news of the massacre at the school in Pakistan I was... well I'm not sure what I was, even as a writer I don't have the words that can accurately describe the sickness, the anger, the over whelming sense of tragedy and loss, the inability to comprehend, not 'why', but how?

Whilst it may upset a few people, a fourteen year old with an AK47 is still a very real threat, and as unpleasant as it may be, I can completely understand how that fourteen year old, fighting as a soldier, trying to kill someone else, ends up dead - it is a sad indictment of the depth of tragedy in many parts of the world. BUT these were kids, in school uniform, in class! Unarmed, unprepared, precious children. 

Referring back to the early part of this waffle, I have mentioned that I do analyse things, look for an understanding but this is one that is impossible to comprehend: How can a human being look along the barrel of a rifle, through the iron sights, and shoot an unarmed child - how??! How can anyone professing to be human a) be able to do that and b) live with themselves afterwards?

My emotional thinking takes this a stage further; Is there a place in the gene pool for anyone, and I mean anyone, that can take the life of a child in such a cowardly and despicable manner? Is there a God, or more relevantly would any 'higher being' of whichever holy religion condone such an unspeakable inhumanity? I don't think so. 

What possible justification can there be to murdering a child, how do these people sleep at night, how can they call themselves 'human'? The most precious thing has to be life - I understand that there are times when life must be taken, or even 'should' be taken - but not unarmed children. These people have no right to walk among us.

Sorry for the unsavory rant, the intention is not to offend. 

Writing is something I do between books.

Never a truer statement! 

The good news is that I am ahead of schedule for 'Elementals'. I spent most of last weekend working through it, doing the tedious spell check and stuff, and finally managed to print off a few copies to go out to the 'Lab Rats' - the test base - Beta Readers. I hadn't planned to be at this stage until Christmas so now I have time on my hands, and that's always dangerous.



An update from Judi yesterday tells me that INVICTUS Pt 1 is almost ready to launch, and last heard she was 'percolating' the changes to Fated Encounters before coming back to me. We are ahead of schedule, all box's are ticked!

I suppose that there is always something to do, always a little job here or there that could be done - the trouble is that none of it is as much fun as the actual writing! Creating a story from nothing and living it as the story unfolds into a book is the best experience possible; even if some of those stories will never see the Amazon site, it's great exercise for the mind. So, with ambitious plans to roll out Russian Redemption II, the second of the INVICTUS stories and possibly another 'Elementals' in 2015, the future is looking busy, but it's these lull's between books that the short stories emerge, just for the fun of writing.

I've invested in a shredder! A little cross-cut machine, it converts the reams and reams of previously printed manuscripts to rabbit bedding, much to my youngest daughters delight! For posterity reasons I've kept the original final manuscript for all of the books, and sent them to family or friends. But the mounds of folders I was hoarding just had to go.

I don't know if this is a warning to other Authors or just a usual part of the development process but I have noticed some changes in my perceptions of my environment - everything becomes a potential story plot, everyone becomes a basic character with the potential to grow into the next hero, protagonist, villain or support person. Seriously, I'm getting a bollocking from my boss for something, and as I'm watching his face go red, or swell up, in my mind all I'm thinking about is finding the words to describe the event so I can recount it accurately in a future story line! I wonder how many of my work colleagues could recognize themselves in a story?! I'm even listening hard for quirky phrases that may fit a story; EVERYTHING seems to be a story in the making, how much fun is that!


I write because I love seeing the surprise on the faces of those that know me, and have read one of my books:- 



"YOU wrote this?!" 

Already looking forward to 2015

There is still a month left of 2014 and I'm not wishing away time because there is still loads I need to do before the year consigns itself to the history books; But I aint 'arf looking forward to 2015!

I received the first pass edit of INVICTUS Part 1 back from Judi (Proofread NZ) at the weekend, and I was disappointed: Not in Judi, oh no, I was disappointed in myself. I thought I'd worked super hard to make sure she would have little to do but when I opened the file and saw all the RED throughout I was somewhat deflated. Fortunately a pre-planned evening with football friends served to shake off the hovering depression, and then I was into it with renewed vigour. I've still got a bit to do but I want INVICTUS Part 1 to be submitted for the 2014 Wishing Shelf  Independent Awards so the clock is ticking. This is self inflicted pressure, but I like to have targets, I tend to thrive in that environment.

The revised 'Fated Encounters' also sits with Judi, I have the same aspirations for this story with regards to the Wishing Shelf Awards, and that should round off the year nicely.

'Elementals' is very much alive in it's rawest format, my plan with that is to roll it out to half a dozen Beta's as Christmas reading and pick it up in the new year - definitely one for 2015.

There is also an INVICTUS Part 2 to be completed and launched next year, as well as Russian Redemption II. So, all in all that's at least three publications planned - and lets not forget the ones that aren't planned. That's the problem with this writing lark, the stories just seem to arrive in my head and are very insistent on making it to paper.

BUT, in the last few days of November I can honestly say that I feel I have accomplished a great deal in 2014, if my aspirations come to fruition I would have achieved far more than I could of dreamed of when the year started. As a 'hobby writer' the 'buzz' I get from finishing every segment of a script, or introduction, or even something as simple as a post here is hugely rewarding. The fact that over 5,000 people have read my posts is just incomprehensible to me - I'd never considered myself particularly interesting!

So, to all new or struggling Indie Authors I can only offer one real piece of advice, write for the love of writing!  

Elementals Lives! 

It's been a busy weekend of writing, which is always great fun! Full of ideas, emotions, writes and re-writes, an over active story board fed by an over active imagination - that's the beauty of writing a YA fantasy, anything can happen! And it's been just brilliant.

So, 'Elementals' at this moment 'lives' to the extent of 56,600 words which is obviously short of a full novel but remember this is just the basic story line.

It has presented a few challenges for me which I think is important, every book I've written so far has presented a unique set of challenges: that's the real fun part of writing though, surely!? Well, it is for me. I don't profess to be a 'successful' Author in so much as no one is banging down my door offering huge amounts of cash for writing deals or movie rights. But, I do consider myself successful by the fact that I have two published books, another on the verge of publication and now this one approaching the third quarter of completion. I don't make money as an Author but I swear it is so rewarding in other ways that making money really isn't important to me.

Anyway, one of the challenges in this story was to kill off one of the big characters. Without giving anything away, I don't think that it is possible for all of the major contributors to live happily ever after, so basically someone has to die. 

To kill off said character in a manner that enhances the story and maintains the integrity of the plot is brilliantly challenging, it really works the grey matter. Do it right and it can be as emotional to write as it is to read - well at least that's what I think.

Despite the fact that I had the story boards and the mind map, I still didn't know how this one would end until I actually got there, even right at the very last few paragraphs there were so many options open to me that it could of gone any one of five different ways. It was really exciting to write, it has been heart stopping throughout it's creation, and the sense of achievement is, well, pretty damn rewarding.

Now the task of putting meat on the skeleton starts, building it from a great story to great book - more fun!

I wonder what I would do for fun if I ever ended up writing for a living?! That scares me.

'ELEMENTALS' is next years project to complete; I have to scrape the money together to invest in it's editing, cover etc but really, if it can't happen next year then it will be the year after. When it does get published it will be to the very highest standard, I owe that to anyone that decides to buy it, and I owe it to myself.


Just gotta keep writing!

E- Covers - a dilemma!

Having 'polished' the story line of Fated Encounters I decided to give the cover a make over as well. I contacted my designer with the usual brief "I don't know what I want, but I'll know it when I see it." and over the course of a few day's we traveled many paths unsuccessfully. Ultimately she felt it landed on my shoulders to decide which aspects of the book I wanted to portray as the writer, and I felt that she, as a reader, was better qualified to decide on the more appropriate cover. This has become the usual course of events for us.

We did the whole 'Single rose, two champagne flutes, and all that spotlight stuff, but we both agreed that it was far too cliche - I would class Fated Encounters as being a Romance/Tragedy with a host of other things chucked in the mix - young love, happiness, emotion, betrayal, hurt, and devastation to name but a few.

We both took the thought process out of the 'norm' and the Infinity symbol came into play. In order to express the story line a bit more I wanted a knife or a pair of scissors to symbolize the betrayal close friends, and Vanessa came up with this as a first pass:

OK - not great but conceptually it was in the right direction. I wanted to get my developing vision across to Vanessa to make sure we were 'together' on this so I took a trip to the nearest shopping mall and invested less that NZ$10 in purchasing props. That night I went home, cut up an old black sports shirt to act as the backdrop, started to arrange the red ribbon on a cardboard box and then stuck a knife through it. To be fair, a lot of years ago I was quite into photography and did a lot of wedding shoots and stuff like that so I had an idea of what I was doing. Using my iPhone 5S (remembering this was only a mock up for Vanessa to work towards) I started to take some picture. I used sheets to defuse the light and direct the shine off the ribbon, had the iPhone set on manual, no flash and spent the next twenty minutes clicking away. What I didn't expect was the effectiveness of the results:

I sent these off to Vanessa to give her the direction and within the space of a few hours this came back:

Now, I love this, absolutely love it - it says all I want it to say about the story inside. With a huge sense of achievement I sent this off to Judi to tie up with the polished script ready for upload. 

Nope - didn't happen, Judi pointed out something that I hadn't thought of - thumbnail! Obviously an e-book is initially viewed in thumbnail and the title kind of disappeared. And to be truthful she wasn't too keen on the pictorial representation either. So I went back to Vanessa, this was the result of that exchange:

I still like it, I like it a lot - but I just don't 'love it'. I'd hoped that maybe this could be the 'thumbnail' but the first option could actually be the cover - Having checked with Judi I now know this is not possible - we're slaves to our digital masters!

I'd be interested in anyone's thoughts on this. As for the cover - the debate continues, I'll update you as soon as the final final version is ready for upload. The reason that there are no links to this book embedded here is that I want people to wait until the polished version is uploaded first.

AJ Wilson.

A weekend of mixed emotions.

Going into this long weekend I was absolutely exhausted from the months efforts across many fronts. I so desperately wanted to catch up on sleep, but I was just as desperate to focus on some serious writing. The latest WiP (Elementals) is constantly playing on my mind, it's like I've assigned a brain cell or two (and some people said I only had one!) to act as a random thought processor that just ticks away in the back ground. 
When I planned 'Elementals' it was always going to be another short story, a novella maybe, but that has been completely blown out of the water. I've had to force myself to step away from the laptop, it's at 18,000 words and not even scratched the surface of where this story apparently wants to go.

But I needed sleep. Unfortunately nobody told the neighbours so there I was at midnight last night pen deep in rewriting Fated Encounters to the thud thud thud of some modern group screaming out of the surround sound speakers of my neighbours daughters party - no invite for us then.

My family are very supportive; the son went away for the weekend and the wife did well to keep our youngest daughter occupied as much as possible to give me the writing time I craved. 

The biggest problem I have right now is, me! This 'Elementals' is proving such a buzz, it's like the imagination has been given an adrenalin injection and let loose in a toy store. How I can sit there and 'live' these pages is just beyond me, it is an awesome feeling, truly amazing I just wish I knew how I did it!

Fated Encounters was a very personal story for me, it was one I wasn't comfortable writing but felt that it had to be written. It wasn't a case of bearing my soul or trying to rekindle anything, for me it was more about reminding myself that I used to have an emotional side. As I sit writing 'Elementals' I understand the benefits of doing that, I have quite amazed myself. Writing a few specific paragraphs this afternoon I had real tears streaming down my face, honestly, people that have got to know me since 1984 would never believe I could be like that, even I was stunned (after the initial embarrassment of course). So, there was a reason for Fated Encounters, it gave me access to a part of myself that had been long banished to the darkest depths of oblivion, I think you have to be a 'complete' person in order to write the better story's.

Those that have read INVICTUS Prt 1: Introducing Richard  have all agreed that it is my best writing to date, having read what I've written today I think there is a challenger for that title.

Now, about that sleep........

Good times, great fun and totally absorbing recreation. Who wouldn't want to write?

Damn - what a week that was.

A request that I have heard many times over in my life is "I just wish there were more hours in day", and that has never been more true than this week.

It has been a particularly hectic/frantic/manic month at my day job and to be honest I could of done with extra hours in the day just to deal with that, but with the writing as well - pheww. Still, it ends on a real high - work targets achieved and new book cover - achieved! INVICTUS Part 1: Introducing Richard is alive! 

It currently sits with Judi, my trusted editor, who, I have to be honest, has expressed a modicum of delight at the apparent progress of my writing, and of course the cover. Now I just have to assemble the funds to allow the story to reach the publication stage: such is the life of an Indie Author. There are quicker ways, much cheaper ways, but I would actively discourage any would-be Author to travel this route - if you want to be fair to your story, to your book, to yourself and to your readers you do HAVE to invest. There are ways to save money - for example I have family, friends and work colleagues that read my material as it progresses, Beta readers sort of. These have proven to be invaluable, some from a grammar & spelling perspective and some from a story line perspective, and some do both. But they ALL help me to produce the best I can, and they're FREE - except for the occasional cup of coffee or cake!  Only then will it go to Judi, my editor.

In amongst all of this activity I've also managed to progress the latest WiP to the point where I think it will continue on to become my next novel. Temporarily given the title of 'Elementals', this one is way off any genre I have written in before - it's a older childrens/YA adventure - and with 10,000+ words so far the first few Beta's have been given the manuscript to cast their critical eye over.

Here's the thing, because everything about this writing lark is still so very new to me I use the Beta's at this stage to check that I'm on the right track. The way I see it is that normal people are the ones that will buy or not buy my books, so it makes perfect sense to me to use 'normal' people as Beta's. The fact that some of these have other skills or knowledge around spelling, grammar etc is just a bonus: real eyes from real people is my way. There are two other WiP's that I have written that will probably never see the light of day because in discussion with some of the Beta's they have voiced concerns, conceptually they're just not good enough. 

So now it's the weekend - a glorious cloudless blue sky heralds the start of 'Labour Weekend', a three day weekend here in New Zealand. It's time to get out into the fresh air, take the dog for a walk along the beach and generally unplug myself from the real world for a bit. But the most exciting thing? I have hours and hours of writing opportunity ahead!  

A busy week - definitely. A productive week - Absolutely - but I don't think I want to do too many like it.

WiP N0 6 V:4 has a face and a title!

INVICTUS: Prt 1 - Introducing Richard 

It's a great feeling to press the 'send' button on that email that carries the final draft copy of a manuscript, delivered safe into the hands of Judi - there is a massive sense of achievement, of satisfaction, of, well, excitement! That day has come, it has arrived and all of the above feels bloody marvelous, even if I do say so myself.

BUT, it gets better; Working with a cover designer for the last two weeks or so I finally have the penultimate cover - and I love it. I say 'penultimate' because there are likely to be some miniscule alterations around lighting or final font. This cover represents a big step for me, the first cover we've had professionally designed, it's an investment and everything feels so positive it's awesome.

So now the whole journey of this particular book is coming to a close, or at least this stage of it's life is. Sometime in November/December INVICTUS: Prt 1 - Introducing Richard will be published as an e-book and then it starts a new phase, released into the big bad world of books.

There are always two sides to any story.

If you were to look over the fence of 38 Bassildon Street on the outskirts of Gloucester you would witness an idyllic scene: children playing in and around the inflatable pool, the smell of the chicken and sausages smoking on the bar-B-Q hung invitingly in the air, the parents sipping iced Pimms and chatting with their visitors. It was July 1991, a glorious summers day and, to the onlooker, the scene could not be more perfect.

Julia had the same view of her marriage to Richard, well almost. Apart from his work related overseas travel their lives were pretty good; very much in love, two wonderful daughters and financially stable. They were a perfectly ‘normal’ inconspicuous middle class family.

AND then there is the truth.

Richard has kept a secret for a very long time, as with all such secrets, once it is revealed those lives effected can never be the same again; there was no going back.

Discovering his secret propels Julia in to an unfamiliar world, one that she is ill prepared for. The more she discovers, the more her ‘normality’ disintegrates. The realisation that their marriage has been built on this one hidden truth causes Julia to question her own future, and who should be part of it. Her husband meanwhile, has his own battles to fight, not least of all his battle for actual survival, a battle for his life.

Secrets are dangerous, and seldom without consequence.

Given the opportunity to meet his nemesis for a second time, Richard longs for a chance to silence his demons. In his mind it is this one person that has been solely responsible for the dismantling of his double life. One way or another the haunting screams would have to stop.

The question is, who else is keeping secrets? 

www.ajwilsonbooks.net

https://www.facebook.com/andrewj.wilson.3

Which Genre?

Just over a year ago I had my very first book published - Russian Redemption. It is a very dark and disturbing story set to the back drop of WW2 Russia. Some say it borders on 'horror', some see the suspense/thriller story and some..... well some just couldn't finish it.

Then along came Fated Encounters; a story best described as a romance/tragedy. 

I've recently finished INVICTUS: Part 1 - Introducing Richard. 
This is a bit of a mixed bag really, probably best suited to the generic Adult Fiction genre.

Now, from nowhere, I find myself writing what started as a childrens book, rapidly becoming a YA with the huge potential of stepping into Fantasy. I started this one last weekend, spent an entire afternoon on the story board designed for a short story, and sat and wrote the first couple of thousand words. Yesterday was a writing day, and the story board has gone out of the window, it is so awesome when a story takes on a life of its own.

A while back I went on about the 'tap', the 'somewhere' that seems to provide the inspiration for my stories. Personal circumstances forced me to unplug myself from this supply and it's taken a wee while to plug back into it - But I can honestly say, it appears that I am now fully irrigating or irrigated?!. Almost 9000 words written, this is not going to be a short story, definitely not. I wanted to do a kiddies type book because I wanted to really test myself, to push the boundaries, but I never for one minute thought that a 'fantasy' story would be the way to go; it seems someone somewhere has other ideas.

My point is that I now have three books written, two published and one its way. There are also two or three others that are sitting on the back burner. Including the most recent 'childs fantasy', that's four books in four different genres. The more adult ones are published under Andrew J. Wilson, the other's under A J Wilson. However, I'm thinking that the childrens one is going to need a different name, I do not want children (or parents of children) buying an unsuitable story based on the Authors name. Food for thought.

I have read on many forums and sites that an Author should find their niche genre and stick to it, and I suppose I can see a degree of logic in that. But isn't that also a case of putting all of ones eggs in the same basket?  

And secondly, I don't actually seem to have a lot of control over what stories I write - I sit down at the computer and the story (whatever it might be) just falls out of my fingers. Go back to the very first posts where I mention the cinema inside my head, it is what it is. Yes, if you look at some of the most successful authors around they have a strong presence in one genre, but isn't that a bit like only selling one type of car - A Ford retailer. There are a number of people globally that will only buy a Ford, tap into that market and it could well be happy days. However, many more millions of people drive cars, not just Fords, so why ignore them?

Ultimately, if an Author has found a niche that ticks all of their own personal boxes then I am happy for them. We go back to the definition of 'successful' I suppose. I get my pleasure from actually writing the stories. I also get a great deal of satisfaction from hearing from people that have enjoyed reading my stories. Earning money? Nah, doesn't enter into my thought processes. Whilst I write as an Indie Author I am free to write whatever stories come into my head, there are no boundaries. It is a marvelous freedom! I believe I owe it to myself and any readers to produce the best quality work as far as grammar, spelling, structure and so on (Thanks Judi!) And I owe it to myself to continually improve on the technical aspects of story telling, anything to better the experience. But I owe nothing to the labels of genre: The rules do not apply to me because I don't fit into the model. I'm sure it would be very different if I restricted myself to the 'normal' and chased 'success' through books deals, or film rights and all that ingrained institutional thinking but it doesn't. The fact that over 5000 people have visited this blogsite, 2000 have visited my website, I have two books published on the global stage with plenty more to follow and I am loving every minute of writing - by my definition I'm already successful. One of my work colleagues stopped me in the office last week and said "You're the one that writes the really good books aren't you" - It was such a lovely and unexpected compliment, and that's successful enough for me :-)

Writing isn't work - it's everything else that goes with it!

Movers & Shakers - The Wishing Shelf Book Awards - Billy Bob Buttons

Aspiring Self Published Authors be warned: You will read lots of articles about how the Self Publishing world is changing, evolving, and it is, the thing is it is only changing because some people have taken it by the scruff and physically dragged it forward. Make no mistake, it still has a long way to travel before it can realistically be classed as anywhere near an equal to the well established publishing houses, and old school Editor/Publisher network - but the journey is underway.

Momentum has been built upon the initiatives. efforts and sacrifice of those that have gone before.

One such person that has taken the industry by the proverbial horns is Edward Trayer - Who? I hear you ask, and this comes as no surprise. Edward Trayer is Billy Bob Buttons, an author of  Childrens and YA books such as The Gullfoss Legends, (A Rubery Award finalist), Felicity Brady and the Wizard's Bookshop, (UK People Book Prize runner-up), TOR Assassin Hunter and TOR Wolf Rising. 

Married to Theresa, they have twin girls, and by the look of this picture it is easy to see why he is so motivated to write such great childrens books..

But writing great stories wasn't enough for Ed - as part of the Indie Revolution he decided to do something about the status quo, to step up and pioneer a whole new concept in the world of Authordom - fairness.

Here, in his own words, is what happened:-

My Book Awards

Fun to Run? Or a Total and Utter Nightmare?

Four years ago I set up The Wishing Shelf Book Awards. Why? Well, I was upset with all the other book awards open to self-published and independently published authors. I felt they were a rip-off. I remember, I was a finalist in one award and they didn’t even bother to tell me. Then, in another award I did very, VERY well and all they were interested in was selling me dodgy winner stickers at a crazy, inflated price. Then there was the feedback I got from the Writer’s Digest Award. It was a joke. It was 19 (yes, 19!) words long and congratulated me on writing a wonderful adult book set in France. IT WAS A CHILDREN’S BOOK SET IN A MAGIC BOOKSHOP!!!

So I went for a walk…

I went for a walk and decided in amongst the tall chestnut trees to set up my own book award. And that, my fellow authors, is what I did.

But it had to be different. Much, much different to what was on offer at present. So I thought to myself, what do I want from a book award? Well, I want the organisers to see me, actually see me – and my book. I don’t just want to be a ‘$’ sign or a ‘£’ sign to them. Also, I want to get ‘value for money’ so, even if I don’t win, I want to get feedback from the judging. And, finally, I don’t want to pay lots of money to enter.

So, from this, I set up The Wishing Shelf Book Awards (www.thewsa.co.uk).

Over the last four years, it has grown. Wow! How it’s grown. In the first year we had 42 authors and publishers enter. This year it will be closer to 200! Now we have a very interactive Facebook page where the authors and publishers can discuss the award and how best to run it. Now we provide ALL the authors who enter a catchy quote to help them to market their books. Now we post reviews – based on the feedback – on Amazon and Goodreads. Now we actively support Blind Children UK, helping them to produce books for children with sight problems. Now we have over twenty schools and two adult reading groups (1 in London, 1 in Stockholm) helping us to judge the books. Now we send every author who enters feedback of between 400 – 1,500 words based on the readers’ comments. They look at the cover, the content, the editing and the style. We even provide the authors with statistics e.g. How many of the readers would read another book by this author etc, etc.

So now, my tiny award is a bit of a monster and is taking more and more of my time. Is it fun? Yes, most of the time. I only upset the odd author! In fact, most of the time it is very rewarding and our reputation on and off the web is ‘glowing’. Don’t get me wrong. We do mess up. This year, for example, it is taking too long to get all the feedback to the authors. So, next year, I’m employing help. The Wishing Shelf Awards will actually have a member of staff! An ex-primary school head teacher who will help me to correlate all the feedbacks. It’s all very exciting.

But do you know what the best bit is? The very, VERY best bit. Twice now, one of the US-based awards I hate has attempted to buy my small awards. And I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed telling them to go to…well, you know where. Now THAT was fun!

Edward Trayer

Edward Trayer, writing under the pen name Billy Bob Buttons is the author of Rubery Book Award finalist 'Felicity Brady and the Wizard's Bookshop' the much-loved 'The Gullfoss Legends' and People's Book Prize runner-up 'TOR Assassin Hunter' and 'TOR Wolf Rising'. His latest book, 'I Think I Murdered Miss, won the 2014 UK People's Book Prize. He is also the organiser of The Wishing Shelf Book Awards.

www.thewsa.co.uk
www.bbbuttons.co.uk

My thanks to Ed for agreeing to 'guest blog' here on Wilsons Way! But also for all of his efforts in bringing the WSA to us. Personally, long may you remain custodian of the WSA.

Nearly 5000 visitors in less than six months!

Wooo HOOO! Wilsons Way - the Blog site (here!) has nearly hit the five thousand mark, that's FIVE THOUSAND people that have visited here. Wow, I'm impressed. 

Hopefully this means that there are a number of people that have found reason to revisit Wilsons Way, and therefore something of interest or use. 

From the beginning the Wilsons Way blogspot was about open and honest visibility of my writing experience, the mistakes, the good bits and the lessons. It's brilliant that so many people seem to enjoy reading it.

INVICTUS Prt 1: Introducing Richard - A glimpse of things to come.

Introduction:

There are always two sides to any story.

If you were to look over the fence of 38 Bassildon Street on the outskirts of Gloucester you would witness an idyllic scene: children playing in and around the inflatable pool, the smell of the chicken and sausages smoking on the bar-b-que hung invitingly in the air, the parents sipping iced Pimms and chatting with their visitors. It was July 1991, a glorious summers day and, to the onlooker, the scene could not be more perfect.

Julia had the same view of her marriage to Richard, well almost. Apart from his work related overseas travel their lives were pretty good; very much in love, two wonderful daughters and financially stable. They were a perfectly ‘normal’ inconspicuous middle class family.

AND then there is the truth.

Richard has kept a secret for a very long time, as with all such secrets, once it is revealed those lives effected can never be the same again; there was no going back.

Discovering his secret propels Julia in to an unfamiliar world, one that she is ill prepared for. The more she discovers, the more her ‘normality’ disintegrates. The realisation that their marriage has been built on this one hidden truth causes Julia to question her own future, and who should be part of it. Her husband meanwhile, has his own battles to fight, not least of all his battle for actual survival, a battle for his life.

Secrets are dangerous, and seldom without consequence.

Given the opportunity to meet his nemesis for a second time, Richard longs for a chance to silence his demons. In his mind it is this one person that has been solely responsible for the dismantling of his double life. One way or another the haunting screams would have to stop.

The question is, who else is keeping secrets?

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Ever heard of mind maps?


Remember a few posts back where I mentioned 'character sheets'? Well it turns out that there are already hugely more detailed and beneficial things called 'Mind Maps'. Excuse my ignorance but I did say that I am new to this author thing and that I had a bog standard state education.............. and even that was quite a few decades ago.

So, for any other new Authors out there that have sat in blissful ignorance of the 'Mind Map' - I am about to shatter your world.

Firstly, I was hugely privileged to have an Author of Val Simones talent, experience and knowledge share a template of said Mindmap. After spending a wee while downloading the appropriate program and opening the file I was horrified at what I was looking at. 

Those 'character sheets' that I spoke about, oh my God, not even a scratch on the surface by comparison. Therefore, initially, I was already suspicious of this mammoth task that presented itself, possibly even a little anti it. A quick conversation with my editor Judi confirmed my worst fears - the 'Mind map' was a damn important tool if you want your book to compete with the big boys, it's the structure of pretty much all books - well, that was the message I got back.

Here was a two more issues for me to face - did I want to compete with the big boys (Not out of fear but more a case of my writing is my hobby, do I want it to become my life.) and secondly, I have a natural character flaw that makes me want to swim against the tide, take the unusual path, to do things differently. It's just in my DNA. 

Not one to dismiss a challenge, or speak from an uninformed perspective I decided to spend a few hours on this 'Mind Map' thingy and see what it could do.

I am reliably informed that most authors fill in the 'Mind Map' as they develop their story, apparently it can keep you on track. But when I applied it to the newly written INVICTUS Part One: Introducing Richard story I found it incredibly useful. I started with the Characters, identifying the main, main support, kinda important, sub characters etc and completed the information required from reading through the book. It was truly gratifying to note that 97% of what the 'Mind Map' requested was actually in my book already. Especially gratifying when one remembers the source of the Mind Map template. However, it was also quite an eye opener to see the 3% that wasn't; in the hundred metre sprint the difference between first and second place is a matter of tenths of a second so that extra 3% here could mean a big difference to people reading my books.

Make no mistake I had to tweak the template a little so it was better suited to my genre but in all honesty I found it a real boost for me to be that close. There are still a few hours to spend inside that map but it holds no fear for me now - it's a friend as opposed to an enemy stealing my time.
Another benefit is that it retains the information as a reference so you can always go back if a sequel or series is in the offering.

Something else that comes into play is my own style of writing. I don't 'plan' books, I just park myself at my laptop when I feel the need, and the story just seems to flow. I tried planning INVICTUS but almost as soon as I started tapping the keys it went off on a huge tangent and took on a life of it's own, and will never be the story I sat down to write. Writing this way may not be the 'norm' but it's just the way it is. This is why I think the whole 'Mind Map' thing serves me best as a detailed check sheet.

So, now to the concern over the structure - The Mind Map gives you an idea of what should happen, and where, in the story. It also gives you all of the component parts. As long as all of the component parts are in place the actual order of said component parts is not necessarily compulsory; it's a guide but not as big a guide as the feedback from readers. I tend to write my way and hope that there are people out there that enjoy my way of writing, and actually buy my books. It would be even better if I wasn't related to them as well! :-)

Website: AJWilsonbooks.net
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To re-write or not to re-write, that is the question......

So, INVICTUS Part One: Introducing Richard is sitting with Judi at ProofreadNZ for her to work her magic. As I've said before, this should be the cleanest manuscript she has seen from me as I've had 10 'Beta Readers' go through it. For anyone that doesn't use Beta's, find some! Seriously, it makes so much sense. I value their time and their opinions and am constantly amazed at how much detail they pick up. I still have to work on the introduction, and I am completely stumped on the cover design right now, but there's time.

Those that have read the draft manuscript have provided some very positive feedback, and to be honest I can also see some substantial improvements in my writing, story telling and structure.

This has brought about a degree of doubt over the quality of Fated Encounters - hmmphh.

The plan is to release INVICTUS Part One as an e-book, probably in November (providing I can get the cover sorted) and then next year release it, Fated Encounters and a third novella as a paperback collection - and this is where the question 'to re-write or not to re-write' comes into play.

I loved Fated Encounters, it is very raw and packed with emotion but now I'm not so sure that it is as good as I first thought; not as polished (from a story perspective) perhaps as I now think it could be. Fortunately there haven't been that many downloads, and I know it's not unusual to update publications, but if I start down this road then I'm going to be reinventing every book I write, every time I realize that I've got a bit better - crap, that could be a lot of re-writes! AND I don't think that that would be fair to those that have aleady downloaded it. It is a conundrum.

I was absolutely certain that Fated Encounters was the best it could be when it was published, but I didn't know what I didn't know, and in the same breath I still don't know what I don't know - dammit where does this stop!?! There has to come a point in time where I draw a metaphorical line under each book. But, dammit, if it's not perfect why shouldn't I keep improving it......... ? Does anyone else have these discussions in their heads or is it just me?

At this point in time I envisage one rewrite of Fated Encounters prior to paperback publication, with the condition that anyone that has purchased it in it's current format will get a free updated copy - then I really have to let it go.

I honestly believe that every book I have published is the best it can possibly be at that point in time. I want people to read my books and believe they have bought value. AND, despite the sceptics, I don't write to make money (my bank manager would happily confirm this to be the case!). But I also want to be on the path of continual improvement, for my own development. 

Wow - this is a confusing journey all of a sudden.

It was suggested that I look at each book I write as a step on the staircase to perfection, but surely by definition, if I go back to a previous book/step to improve it, it is in fact a step backwards. Deep huh?!

Does anyone else suffer this dilemma?  

WiP N0 6 V:4 has a title!

After a pretty frantic week or so of polishing the short story ready for Judi to take it on, I think I have settled on the title - INVICTUS Part One - Introducing Richard.

Of course 'Part one' tells the reader that there is more to come (and there is) but I wanted to write a series of 'bite size' books to fit in with peoples busy lifestyle. Obviously each 'novella' has its own story's within, and the long term view is that they build towards a natural climax - it doesn't half stretch the brain. Using myself as an example, I wouldn't pick up a novel of 500 plus words, I just wouldn't because I know I wouldn't finish it.

I'm also unsure of the 'Genre' pigeon hole that they will fit in. I spent sometime giving this some thought and it has proved a dilemma - switch to plan B - what Genre doesn't it fit into?!

There is some swearing (strike Childrens)

A few sex scenes (strike anything non Fictional!)

There are no vampires or monsters from the future (strike Sci Fi and people munchers)

A few battles scenes don't make it a war story.

A few tears don't make it a romance. 

Not enough blood and guts to make it a horror.

No gay and/or lesbian characters, so they're off the list

And there is nothing of any historical value so I'll strike that aswell

I think I'm left with Adult Non Fiction, and not even Young Adult because most of the characters are well over 25.

Something else that is creating some challenges are the correct descriptive terms. Not so much on 'Introducing Richard' but the next next one (WiP 7 V:1) - One of the main characters is a Maori woman, a particularly beautiful Maori woman at that. Maori's tend to have darker skin that the average pale Englishman but to use the term 'dark skinned' as a adjective is very open to perception. For example, a Mexican may well consider as native African 'dark skinned' where as a pale Englishman may consider anybody with a half decent suntan 'dark skinned'. Having trawled the internet for advice on this I find that it is quite popular to use foods as an example of colour - dark chocolate or milk chocolate are quite common BUT I'd consider these offensive if I was the one on the wrong end of those adjectives - hmmm.

After much deliberation I used "her flawless russet skin" - I'm still not 100% convinced about this line but I am really struggling to find a more appropriate and informative line, 
without the risk of offending someone. I think it is important to paint the right picture, I'm not in the habit of deliberately offending people, but it is so important to the story line that the reader understand's just how stunning this woman is, and that she is from a proud cultural ancestry - something that would be grossly understated by writing "This real stunning woman of Maori ancestry..." because there are a lot of readers that would have no idea of how a typical Maori person looks. Gonna have to give it a lot more thought.

Here is a link to a site that has helped me in the past - I hope it of of some use to others.

http://litreactor.com/columns/writing-powerful-descriptions

Is this normal or am I screwed up?

OK - WiP 6 V1.3 (As yet untitled) is rapidly reaching that point where I hand it over to Judi at ProofreadNZ to work her magic.

I tried a totally different approach this time right from the off, and I think it has been a real benefit.

When writing Russian Redemption I often read the book from the beginning up to the point I had got to. By the time I was three quarters of the way through the writing I could probably recite the 'story so far' verbatim. Doing the whole self evaluation thing after the process I identified this as a real negative. For WiP 6 V1.3 I did it differently, I wrote a piece and moved on. Once the first draft was half complete I gave it to four of my volunteer Beta readers. A few days later I was able to swap the second half of the story in return for their scribbled notes and observations from the first half.

Literally without reading the story, just the words, I went through the four sets of notes, making the spelling/grammar changes that were necessary. Fortunately there weren't huge amounts so I was able to collect in the second round of notes and observations quite quickly. (repeat step 1).

It was only once I'd made all of the spelling, grammar or general confusion corrections that I actually sat and read the full story.

I found that I was a lot more observant - not just in the structure of the story but also the nitty gritty detail. I took the roll of a reader. Honestly, it was a great exercise. I was able to test the continuity, flow, timing, characters, plot and lots of other critical aspects to a good story from literally a first time readers perspective, making lots of notes as I went but not making changes.

Once finished (and I have to say it is a really good read! Although I may be slightly biased?!) I went back to the beginning and made the changes that my own notes had recommended.

Now I've rolled out the penultimate copy before it goes for editing. This copy will go to all of the Beta Readers, next week I'll be collecting the observations for the last time.

The thing is, by doing it this way the book/story doesn't get over read by any one person that could influence it. To put it selfishly, I get better value from myself and my Beta's. BUT that also means that Judi has less hours of work to do, which equates to cost savings. Don't get me wrong, Judi is worth every penny, but she has other projects on so I need to maximize on the time she can spare to help me.

I'm hoping she will see a marked improvement on the quality of manuscript that will be sent to her this time, against our very first venture.

Everybody wins.