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Thomas M.D. Brooke

Goodreads Author

Born

London, The United Kingdom

Genre

Historical Fiction, Fantasy, History

Member Since

June 2015

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Thomas Brooke lives in London where he works in the exciting, and sometimes crazy, fashion world. He is also a committed writer and he spends as much time as he can in his beloved Northumbrian hills, where up until recently could be seen walking with his black Labrador Fergus, who sadly passed in January 2015.
As well as writing novels, he also writes a blog on both historical and fantasy genre novels. For more information on Thomas M D Brooke, visit www.thomasmdbrooke.com ...more

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I am an avid reader of historical fiction dealing with the conquerors and the vanquished. I am fascinated by the circumstances that bring one man to power over a entire nation and the motivation to conquer and rule over as much territory as possible. I recently found an author I enjoy a great deal named Ben Kane and wonder if you have read any of his books? I will read your book very soon.

Thomas M.D. Brooke Hi Bob,
I can understand your fascination with conquerors, especially those from the ancient world. It is why the Romans are such an interesting topic …moreHi Bob,
I can understand your fascination with conquerors, especially those from the ancient world. It is why the Romans are such an interesting topic for historians and readers of historical fiction – they achieved so much, and for so long, that it is impossible not to be drawn to them.
I am aware of Ben Kane’s writing, and I’m full of admiration for his work on Rome and her legions. I haven’t read any of his novels, not because I don’t want to, but because I try not to read novels on the same period as I write about – and as we have both recently written a novel on the same subject, it couldn’t be closer. However, despite that, I am very aware of his work as my sister read his novel. We took very different approaches to the story that surrounds the battle of the Teutoburg so you will find both works unique as they tell the story from completely different perspectives.
I am delighted you want to read my book, I really hope you enjoy it. The concept of conquest and subjugation is key to the events that led up to the battle, so I think you will enjoy both Ben Kane’s novel as well as my own.
I hope I have answered your question, if you have any others, let me know.
Many thanks,
Thomas
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How do you deal with writer’s block?

Thomas M.D. Brooke Writer’s block can come in many different forms. For some it will mean they literately cannot write a word and stare at the screen, for others it mean…moreWriter’s block can come in many different forms. For some it will mean they literately cannot write a word and stare at the screen, for others it means they can write but hate everything they do. Others will get stuck coming up with ideas, whilst some will never finish a story as they don’t like the direction it is heading. So what can we do about this?

Well, there are no hard and fast rules here, and no cure-all fixes. Each writer is different and they may have their own way of tackling this issue. I’m not saying mine is any better or worse than theirs – this is just what has worked for me when I wrote my two novels.

Firstly, let’s think about our writing environment. If the only time you think about writing is when you sit yourself in front of your PC or typewriter you might be making life hard for yourself. People often ask me how long I spend writing – as if it is a quantifiable amount of work that can be divided up and parceled out like an administration job in an office or bureau. But the truth is that by the time I sit down and write the next section of a chapter or dialogue, I have already spent hours figuring out what I want to say or get across.

‘How do I find the time?’ I hear you scream!

I achieved this by giving myself the thinking time I needed whilst doing other things. Instead of getting the train, or driving to work each morning, I walked. It took me over an hour but that’s not much longer than it used to take me to drive, and it didn’t kill me to get up 10-15 minutes earlier. It gave my mind a chance to drift and wander into my writing, as I made my walk into work. I was very fortunate to have a nice and pretty walk along the river Thames to enjoy, but equally this could be done by walking through any park or green space at lunchtime or free-time. By the time I sat down to write at the weekends, I’d already have given myself plenty of time to turn over exactly what I was going to say. This could be done during any form of exercise I guess, but you’ll want to free your mind of distractions – for example, I’d be doubtful of this being as effective by jogging whilst blaring my mind full of loud rock music through an iPod or phone. But each to their own, I guess…

Okay, so you have now spent a few hours thinking about what you want to write before sitting down in front of the screen. That’s good, but we still need to start writing. This can be the next hurdle. Writers are normally fine once they get started, but the perfectionist in all of us makes it hard to write that all important first word or sentence. You’ve spent so long thinking about this, you just don’t know how to start! Arghh!!

Don’t worry, first things first, stop beating yourself up. The self-recrimination only increases the cycle of frustration, so we need to give ourselves a break. Open a new document up on your desktop and call it ‘scrap’ or ‘rubbish’ or some other derogatory word. Then we will start writing our section here. As we are only writing ‘rubbish’ or ‘scrap’ it doesn’t matter how it starts….it’s just rubbish. My guess is that once you get going you’ll warm to the task and expand on all the thinking you’ve already done on this section of the book. Then, once you hit your flow you can re-write that first sentence. After you really get going you can polish it up, and then copy and paste it into the chapter you’ve been writing.

Even this trick won’t always help you however, sometimes your mind will be niggling away at you, telling you something is wrong. This is where writers block can really kick in, but to understand it we have to understand where these blocks come from. Sometimes it can be our subconscious telling us something we secretly know about, but don’t want to acknowledge, even to ourselves.

It might be a plot change, or a character introduction, or any number of things, that haven’t quite worked. You are loathe to admit it and go back and change it because that might have happened back on chapter four, and you’re now on chapter twenty-seven and if you change it, you’ll have to modify all the chapters in-between! All that work!!

However, regardless of how much work it entails, your subconscious won’t let you get away with it. It will continue to niggle away at you, until you make it right. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your thinking) we may be able to fool some people but we can’t fool ourselves. If you’re really unsure which way is best to go with your book, go back and make a copy and modify that one. Then if you’re wrong, and the book was better before you made the change you can go back. But my guess is that once you make the change, you’ll notice the release of pressure as the niggle finally goes away and you can move forward again with your book. It might be a lot of work, but hey, nobody said this will be easy.

Finally, I found it best to keep some sort of routine, or time when I wrote each week. If you only write when you feel like it, that book may never be finished. I used to set aside a certain amount of time each weekend, and then go on the odd writing holiday only accompanied by the dog. If inspiration doesn’t come in those times you have set aside, do something else that helps progress the book. For example, as I wrote historical novels, there was always more research to do. Periodically whilst doing this research, a spark of excitement would grow inside me and I’d need to write about it…block gone and blasted before I’d even finished my session. Again it will depend on your genre and your own personality. My method may only work for me, who knows?(less)

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Combine Editions
Thomas M.D. Brooke’s books

Average rating: 4.43 · 1,476 ratings · 148 reviews · 3 distinct works • Similar authors

	Roman Mask (The Cassius Chronicles #1) 4.35 avg rating — 957 ratings — published 2015 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bedrock of Empire (The Cassius Chronicles #2) 4.58 avg rating — 510 ratings — published 2018 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Blood of the Raven (The Cassius Chronicles, #3) 4.33 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 2023	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

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Thomas M.D. Brooke's Blog

Coming soon! Blood of the Raven – Out on 23rd July!

The third instalment of my Cassius novels is finished and finally ready for release on the 23rd July.

You’re entitled to ask why it took so long. All I can say is that this one was tough. I needed to completely re-work the ending, something that added a whole year to the project! However, I’m pleased I took the extra time the get the book exactly how I wanted and I hope readers will appreciate

Series by Thomas M.D. Brooke

The Cassius Chronicles (3 books)
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Thomas M.D. Brooke (Goodreads Author)

4.43 avg rating — 1,476 ratings

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