Ask the Author: Sam Kates
Answered Questions (7)
Sam Kates
Hi, Chris.
Ha! You have me at a disadvantage. Yes, I am that child (and still the same at heart). Not sure what book you're referring to - I have two completed trilogies - but if it's The Cleansing, then (as you may have realised) the village of Penmawr in that book is essentially Pen-y-fai.
Glad you enjoyed and thank you for your support, and for piquing my curiosity as to who you are.
Best wishes.
Sam.
Ha! You have me at a disadvantage. Yes, I am that child (and still the same at heart). Not sure what book you're referring to - I have two completed trilogies - but if it's The Cleansing, then (as you may have realised) the village of Penmawr in that book is essentially Pen-y-fai.
Glad you enjoyed and thank you for your support, and for piquing my curiosity as to who you are.
Best wishes.
Sam.
Sam Kates
It was difficult to be certain over the harshness of his own breathing and with the flashlight failing, but he hadn’t thought there was anyone with him in the mausoleum – the shuffling footsteps could be the echoes of his own, the flickering shadows a symptom of the exhausted batteries, the icy draughts on his neck the air entering through gaps in the rockfall at the entrance. It was the dead, grasping weight of a hand on his shoulder that wasn’t so readily explained.
Sam Kates
Hi, Martyn. Sorry - I've only just noticed your question.
Delighted you're enjoying The Cleansing. Smithcraft provided the cover, which I love, and did all the formatting and layout of the print copy. They gave it a slot on NetGalley, which garnered a few reviews, and did a Goodreads giveaway in the US (I did one in the UK). They distributed it widely and also do some marketing. It's great to have someone look after distribution so I didn't have to spend time formatting, etc for different platforms, and I love having someone fighting my corner, so to speak, when it comes to promoting.
Delighted you're enjoying The Cleansing. Smithcraft provided the cover, which I love, and did all the formatting and layout of the print copy. They gave it a slot on NetGalley, which garnered a few reviews, and did a Goodreads giveaway in the US (I did one in the UK). They distributed it widely and also do some marketing. It's great to have someone look after distribution so I didn't have to spend time formatting, etc for different platforms, and I love having someone fighting my corner, so to speak, when it comes to promoting.
Sam Kates
In all honesty, I can't say I've ever experienced writer's block. Sure, I've reached points in stories where I'm not certain what occurs next - I'm what they call a panster, not a plotter, so that's going to happen - but I just skip to a part I do know and write that first. It hasn't yet taken me more than a few days of thinking about and around the sticking point to be able to move past it.
This hasn't yet happened to me so I'm speculating, but if I ever did reach a point in a story where I couldn't move forward, I think I'd go back a paragraph or page at a time to try to identify the place where I wrote something that's caused the log-jam later on. Then change it.
This hasn't yet happened to me so I'm speculating, but if I ever did reach a point in a story where I couldn't move forward, I think I'd go back a paragraph or page at a time to try to identify the place where I wrote something that's caused the log-jam later on. Then change it.
Sam Kates
The Cleansing (Earth Haven 1) is an expansion of ideas first touched upon in a short story that's in the Pond Life collection, The Third Coming. In the short story, a teenage survivor of a viral apocalypse stumbles across an old man who's watching the skies, waiting for someone... or something. The Cleansing's sequel, The Beacon (Earth Haven 2), will be released on 9th January and continues where the first book left off. I'm currently working on the final instalment. All this from a short story written fifteen years or more ago...
Sam Kates
Write. Then write some more. Hey presto! You're no longer an aspiring writer - you're a writer.
Sam Kates
The sequel to 'The Cleansing'. It's called 'The Beacon' and I'm working on the final edits. Will be sending it to my publishers within the next few weeks.
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