Geoff Major's Blog

Writer’s block (noun)
DEFINITION: a psychological inhibition preventing a writer from proceeding with a piece

HELL HATH NO FURY wasn’t going to be my second book, but as the seed of an idea exploded one afternoon into the first three chapters and a handful of characters, I knew the idea had captured my imagination. What I didn’t know was just how different and difficult my journey - from idea to printed book - would be, compared to that of my first book.

Whereas the idea for my first book had developed over 20 years, the inspiration for this story was sudden and overwhelming. I was stood at the kitchen sink, cleaning a dishwasher-unfriendly pan, when I heard a young child nearby having a screaming tantrum because it couldn’t get what it wanted. The more the parents said no, the more it screamed. My peaceful afternoon, with the sun shining and the birds twittering in the garden, morphed into me wondering what lengths a person would go to, to get their own way? That’s when I grabbed some paper and a pen and started to scribble things down.

For the next three months, I’d offer my wife the chance of a lay-in at the weekend and I’d sit in front of my computer at 6:30am, and the words simply poured out. What a difference when, in late 2021, I took a three-week break from work to try to power-through the final twenty chapters, but actually went backwards. It was such a negative experience that I scrapped ten existing chapters and decided to re-draft ten more (on top of the twenty I was originally hoping to finish). The effect of it all was I walked away from anything to do with writing for almost eight weeks, because every time I sat down at the keyboard, I froze. I was worried that if I tried to write, I might add even more chapters to my list of re-writes. What if the whole story unravelled, rather than converging on a great ending?

That was my first experience of writer’s block, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Thankfully, I allowed myself the time and space to let the story come to me. I accepted that the draft would be well over a year later than I had hoped for, and whenever I re-read some of the draft, it really did still feel like there was a great story. In the summer of 2022, I decided to completely re-draft the remaining block of fifteen chapters. As soon as I allowed myself more time and stopped trying to tweak them to make them fit, everything seemed to fall into place.

And so, dear reader, from April 2023 hopefully you’ll be able to enjoy another twisty, complex, multi-character story. I’m always grateful for ratings, reviews and constructive critique on Amazon or Goodreads, as well as loving it when a reader sends me a selfie of them holding my book. I hope you might be willing to do the same (selfies to @GradusPrimus on Twitter or @primusgradus on Insta. If you know me personally, you’ll know various ways to get the image to me).

Until next time …

Let's be honest; 2020 was enough to drive anyone (or anything) crazy, right?!!? Mind you, our dog does this after EVERY bath (irrespective of the year).

It's now 10pm on Saturday 2nd January and whilst 2020 was dreadful for millions of people around the world, I'm sat here counting my blessings; because, for my wife and I, they year included: 

* Us moving out of my house, and into our house.

* Us both working. We are both incredibly fortunate to both be in full-time paid employment. Even though neither of us saw the company offices for most of the year, we are now both set up to work at home (although my set-up for the first two weeks in our new home was interesting: see left-hand photo, below. And yes that's a drumming stool). I love my stand-sit desk and highly recommend them.

* Members of our family blighted by CoVID-19, Valley Fever, and a car accident. Thankfully those who suffered are in various states of recovery. 

* And, of course, I had my first book published (fanfare, followed by some great testimonials. Graphics by Jason Kenny .. cheers buddy).

 

(DEADLINE is currently running at 4.8/5 and 4.65/5 on Amazon and Goodreads, respectively)

I was also thankful to have been asked to write a feature for an American website on crime thrillers -Why Are We Fascinated by Fictional Serial Killers? - and my mate Stephen Sumner asked me on his ex-pat radio show.

But enough of last year and more about the coming year. It's almost time to get back into the habit of 5-day weeks in work, but with the self-dictated target of getting draft chapters 1-30 to my new Reader Review Panel, by the end of January. A challenging target, given I no longer have the luxury of only working three days a week. Below is the latest (and 17th attempt) at the blurb, which is a version beyond the one I've sent to JRP Creative: my cover designer for DEADLINE.

Evie Perry’s life has been destroyed by five men. Five very wealthy men. She intends to make them pay for what they have done.

<...................................> career has stalled. She intends to resign, but a series of bizarre murders presents her with an opportunity to redeem her reputation. To succeed, her dysfunctional team must unravel the link between the victims before the killer strikes again, but she must also maintain a secret that could lead to both the collapse of the case and the end of her career.

Stood in their way is someone who will lose millions if the killing stops.

(You'll noticed I've redacted a small part of the blurb on here - don't want to give away any clues about what happens in DEADLINE, in case you've not read it yet). 

Sat here reading the blurb, I'm itching to spend some quality time back in front of the computer. So far, I've drafted chapters 1-12; 14-16; 19-21 and 27-30. As I said to my work colleague, Alison, the main thing right now is to get everything out of my head and onto virtual paper. I can edit, re-edit, scrap, re-write, tweak and polish later.

So, it is with both relief and thanks that I look back at 2020 and forwards to 2021. Here's hoping it too doesn't have a nasty surprise waiting.

So, all 205 items of stock I had are gone and Amazon is telling customers more stock is on the way for their site (third time they've posted that message in the 2.5 months since the book was published). 

The selfies are still coming in too (thank you if you've sent one and, if you haven't yet, please please keep them coming):

Tonight's post is a quick update, you'll be thrilled to know:

* I've currently got 30 ratings on Goodreads (4.8/5 average) and 16 on Amazon (4.9/5 average). 

* I'm going to be interviewed on an ex-pat radio station soon.

* I have a feature article to write for an American website crime-thriller website, about why we love to read about fictional serial killers.

* A promo competition in America and Canada (Goodreads don't offer it anywhere else) now has almost 1200 people saying they want to read my book.

* In two weeks' time, another 20 book reviewers will publish their comments on my debut novel ....

 ... but let's not get carried away: I'm still likely to have to work in my day job until I'm old enough to retire. The life of a self-published author is a loooooooooooooooong way away from those seasoned pro's and legends; Baldacci, Deaver or even the crime-writing factory that was Agatha Christie (who wrote SIXTY-SIX detective novels and FOURTEEN short-story collections).

And the dog is still pretty disinterested.

Still .. on with Book 2 (as and when I get the time and am not tired after a long day at work which does, after all, pay the bills).

So, I've sent the first 14 chapters (13 really, as one of my SME's is writing a cyber-crime case that will populate the core of one of the chapters) of Book 2, to my Reader Review Panel. It's the start of another 6-month process to get another book published. Working title is:

A DEADLY LOTTERY

When your numbers come up, it's no reason to celebrate.

I don't want to go into detail about the start of the writing process (other than this one is going to be a tight timeline to achieve, given I'm lucky enough to be working full-time in the middle of this pandemic), but here's an extract from the first chapter, to give you a teeny-tiny flavour of the book:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART 1 - HELL HATH NO FURY ...
Chapter 1:
She let out a screech of unbridled anger, as the heavy gilded hairbrush flew across the room and smashed into the decorative Chinoiserie mirror. Although the glass shattered, it remained attached to the black lacquered frame; contorting the image that stared back at her. Only one word entered her head as she looked at her own reflection: gruesome.
Janet Evelyn Perry had been beautiful: some would even say stunning. A blossoming career as a swimwear model had quickly turned into an even more lucrative career as an escort, and one who wasn't afraid to charge for extras. Such a career did come with certain risks though and whilst she had become adept at seeing most, it came as a surprise - to those who knew her well - when she accepted an assignment that was clearly high-risk. 
And now she stood in front of her shattered mirror. She gazed at the consequence of taking that risk; a jagged scarlet scar that gently curved from just above her left eye, all the way down to the left-hand corner of her mouth. Her left eye 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My target right now is to continue to get all the words that are in my head, down on paper. To adapt the famous quote from Eric Morecombe .....



Get them out. Write them down and THEN edit, re-edit, send for my new Reader Review Panel for comment, and then re-re-edit; until I'm happy to share with an editor (who will suggest more edits). I already know that approximately 30% of what I've currently written will be scrapped or noticeably tweaked, but that's a process I've come to love.
Speaking of 'love', I'm LOVING the selfies so many of you have started to share of you holding DEADLINE. I know there are about 80 more people who have a copy, so I'm hoping they too will join the gang. If you're one of the 80, please send me your selfie via text or email or WhatsApp or Twitter or FB Messenger or Facebook, or Instagram ... there really are so many ways to get them to me.

     THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU .... but lots of spaces to fill (and I want to fill these three and at least one more grid of 36 selfies, please).
P.S. My proof-reading skills improve 1000% AFTER I've pressed 'send'. I've tweaked the errors I noticed in this blog.

There is no way I can pretend this blog entry is ANYTHING other than self-indulgent and wholeheartedly celebratory! 

I have had the MOST amazing week in my limited book-writing life. It started with a series of independent book reviewers posting their summary of the book on their website and on Twitter. They do not get paid for their work, but do get first sight of new books about a month before anyone else does.

The following are a series of extracts from their postings and I'm literally over the gawd-darn moon!

It was also lovely that, after I posted a video of me opening my proof copy of DEADLINE, I got this lovely message on LinkedIn, from a complete stranger:

Today I also posted 39 packages, which covered all those who had just ordered paperback versions of DEADLINE and, when the hardback stock arrives, 80 copies of that plus another 40 paperback versions will be dispatched. 

Here's a photo of Michelle, who received her paperback copy today (it was hand-delivered, like Shaun's yesterday).

I know it's not many, but there's 17 people who have already ordered from Amazon (including 2 in the States and 1 in Canada), and the e-book will be out at the end of the month. There are another 7 people waiting to be told when that's available.

Great week, but still a long way off paying for itself (let alone turning anything like a healthy net profit) - but time will tell whether I can get my voice heard. It's a massively competitive market out there (as evidenced by a tweet from Waterstones, that confirmed there were SIX HUNDRED new books published TODAY) and getting your voice heard is a long, hard slog. 

That's why you can play your part (like the lovely Michelle, above) by helping me with your voice and social media posts. I also hope, after reading the book, many of you will want to put reviews on Goodreads; like Jon, who was part of the Reader Review Panel for this book (see below). 

Thank you, in anticipation.

Right, it's now time for me to think more about Book 2 again. I have the first 15 chapters to get to my new Reader Review Panel, by the 20th September. Wish me luck.

 What's that saying? Ah yes, so near and yet so far ... but at least the DEADLINE date is almost here.

Before I get too giddy about where I'm nearly to though, I thought it worth reflecting just where I've come from. Cast your mind back to November 2018, when I was sat at a poolside table on holiday, with a pencil and a workbook, called 'READY, SET, NOVEL'. I barely wrote in it (I know, because it's sat on a bookshelf behind where I'm sat).

Fast-forward 12 months and I was drafting chapters 50-55 (out of what is now a total of 68) and in a writing groove, working three days a week and writing for two. LOVED IT.

Fast-forward another 9 months and I've just received an email with the tweaked front cover of the book, for my approval. 

So, in just one more month, I should have 200 printed copies of my first ever book: 22 months after I made the decision to try to write it and 20 years since the idea first popped into my head. WOW, what a journey.

Part of that journey ahead will be opening up my creation for anyone in the English-speaking community to savage it; ridicule the plot and pour scorn on the pathetic writing technique ... but it's got to be done. I've therefore taken the step of paying the princely sum of £56 for Emma, at Damp Pebbles, to send a PDF copy of the book out to 10 independent book reviewers who love reading and post reviews on-line. 

The 10 she's chosen have just over 26k followers, so hopefully their review will lead to people wanting to read it for themselves. Here's the timetable, because you just know I'll be on tenterhooks waiting for their feedback.

Of course, if you've followed any of my posts on social media this week, you'll know that I've already had encouraging words from four of them and this tweet and reply from two of them just lifted a massive weight from my shoulders. I've made the image quite large because it felt just HUGE when I read it ...

Even now, I'm almost crying with relief and joy, and indeed pride, that someone I don't know seems to think so much of my storyline. Of course, the remainder of the reviewers might hate it but I'm okay with that (actually I won't be, but as I've not seen anything like 'humdrum', 'confusing' or 'downright boring' yet, I'm pretending I'll be okay if they do).

The next thing for me is to prepare the post and packing for the 152 people who have pre-ordered thus far, and I'm hoping these understated envelopes will be the right size for my 446-page book. In the envelope will also be a handwritten Thank You card from me, because your support means so much.

Right, it's 22:49hrs on Thursday night and I have a very full working day tomorrow; starting with an 8am conference call. Still, I am grateful to be employed and paid when so much of the world seems to be going through a truly dreadful time (and we're not out of it yet).

Stay safe, stay healthy, best wishes for at least a prosperous last quarter of 2020.  

  

I was wrong. I know I said I wouldn't talk until I could share a photo of my Amazon listing and of my stock of books ... but I just had to. No excuses.

This is a really short update. I have five things to say.
a) After weeks of editing and re-editing .... and cursing, and editing the re-edit .... the final draft of the book has LITERALLY JUST GONE TO THE PUBLISHERS NOW.
b) I'm giddy AND crapping myself (the latter being metaphorically, of course).
c) I've already had 75 confirmed pre-orders for the book but there are plenty of people who I'm hoping will come good, as they promised, and place an order. Of course, I know the CoVid lock down and the economy has hit a lot of people hard; making luxuries like buying my book far less important than other priorities you might face, so here's hoping it's all back to (whatever) normal is for you now, later this year.
BTW in that 75, I received my first pre-order from someone I don't even know! That was a 'cor blimey guvnor' moment ... and here's hoping there will be several thousand more.
d) The publisher tells me there will be a delay in me receiving stock of my hardbacks and paperbacks. Sadly everyone has become an author during lock down, so we'll see whether I can get the first copies before the end of August.


e) I really was giddy when the final edit and review was completed this morning, at 7:45am, BUT at 8:45pm I'm now really crapping myself (metaphorically, I think). What if there are errors that neither I nor Jo Watson (my editor and reviewer) have spotted?
Well, it's too late now. If it's not been spotted in the 27 partial and 3 full reviews, I'll just have to wait to correct it when I get the 2nd edition printed.
P.S. Have I told you how nervous I am? Here's hoping a certain Mel & Steve (shortly heading for Greece) will calm my nerves, when they read the full PDF version they're taking with them.

So this is going to be my last blog entry before my printed book arrives, and appears on Amazon. F***!

Yes, that's right. From what started as the briefest of ideas for a film clip (back in 2001) and turned into a 6-page attempt at chapters 1 & 2 (back in 2002 - I still have the original papers), has moved from a rough layout in November 2018 and ... in July 2020 ... will become my first ever book.
Now, regular readers (that's you three) will know it's a crime thriller, called DEADLINE. The publisher estimates the book will be 310 pages long, and this week I'll be building my marketing plan and my pricing strategy. Jeepers, where did all that come from? It doesn't seem that long ago that I flipped from the sunshine in Jamaica, to the snow in Slovakia ... and the whole structure of the book flowed out of me.

So now, the final thing to do is to write the first two pages. 

I already have a satisfying sense of finality to the creative process but, at the same time, I have a hole in my gut. It's a bit like seeing your baby grow and flourish, and then see them mature into something that leaves home: part of my sense of purpose will have gone from my life. At that point I guess I'll know whether this book-writing malarkey is either a very expensive hobby or an ongoing commercial debate about stock, lead times and size of market. My 1992 Open University Business School course and the intro to the 4 P's (price, product, place, and promotion) might need the dust brushing off them.
After that, it's the hard bit of trying to see if I really do have a Book 2, 3 and 4 inside me. I know what they are in principle, but the process to extract the detail and flow of Book 2 (again, regular readers might recall it's called THE DEBT) has been somewhat tortuous in comparison, thus far. I'm assuming that's because:
a) I've not had the headline story buzzing in and out of my brain for 18 years, and;b) Unlike my last 4 months self-employment, I can no longer work 3 days a week and write 2 days a week ... which I do miss like crazy.
Working as a full-time employee is just so gawd-darn tiring, and given I'm running a critical programme for a new product; having to build a separate architecture infrastructure to support it and engage with four 3rd parties ... in double-quick time, during a global pandemic: I'm shattered just thinking about it for goodness sake!!

Still, one book was a joy; two books will be a hobby and four books might become more. Here's hoping so. See you in late July, when you can FULLY expect me to send you the link to buy my book AND I'll tell you more about how this creative process for THE DEBT went.

It's goodbye from me, as a wanna be author, until it's hello from me; a published author.

I'm self-publishing. End of. I've made the decision.

"Are you mad?", I hear you scream. "The average self-published book sells only 250 copies. Do the maths with me sunshine; come on".
I wondered that myself, but this morning - as I was talking to my Police expert (hi Iain) - he asked me why I was self-publishing. It suddenly dawned on me; I felt as if I was currently faced with an impassable wall. I have two more stories in my head, and all I can currently see is the huge wall blocking my brain and my writing aspirations. I felt stuck, because I could not see a way round it.
Noooooo; not THAT wall!
Okay, so here's the maths* for a self-published compact hardback version of my story; fully typeset and with a full colour cover (for those of you who are interested) AND here's the alternatives:
OPTION 1: I do my own marketing and  distributiona) Let's say I want to sell a copy of the book at £9.95 (and that will be + p&p btw). To print one costs me £7.52, plus a delivery charge (so let's say £1). That means I will make £1.43 profit on each hardback.b) Set-up costs to self-publish will cost £1000 (hardback, paperback and e-version).
c) I spent £300 getting the cover designed.c) THEREFORE, to recover my set-up costs means I will need to sell at least 909.1 copies. d) Do I know 909.1 people; let alone 909.1 people who would order my book? That would be a 'no'.
OPTION 2: I put it on sale on Amazona) Amazon typically want 40% of the sale price. For a £9.95 book, that's ~£3.98.b) Their ~£3.98 and the £7.52 cost to print the book means I'd make a loss on each book of £1.55.
c) Book sales is a competitive market-place; led significantly on price. As a new author, to cost the book at £12.93 (to get my £1.43 profit) would be brave/stupid/WTF-were-you-thinking type of stuff.
OPTION 3: I wait for a publisher to snap it upa) Publishers rarely take on writers direct. No, instead they wait as literary agents do the initial legwork, of sifting through the 50+ submissions they each reportedly, get every week.b) Let's assume they work 40 weeks of the year, which means in excess of 2000+ submissions a year, each .. and there are quite a few literary agents out there. They take on 3-4 new writers a year!c) Once they are excited, they will try to find a publisher who will bite. Their calendar might already be full for the next 6 months.d) If they do like you however, in 18 months (after editing it again, probably) you just might see your book on a shelf in Waterstones … which fought darn hard to beat the other 499 books vying for every space that's taken. That's a lot of books!

Of course, there's always the pipe dream. Take the 'Fifty Shades' series; that started out as a self-published low marketing trio of books. It was only when blogs started to create a stir about what became as 'mummy porn' that a publisher bought the rights. The series has now sold over 60m copies.
Yes, I want it to be a success (a runaway one would be nice, actually), but I must be pragmatic. I want to see it sell-out; I want (as one of my Reader Review Panel members said) see it as a movie or a TV series .. but I have a mortgage, a day job and I've done 'expensive hobbies' before. 
Thing is, whilst I want to be a success, I had a moment last night, when my main aim was always to 'scratch the itch'. Do I feel defeatist? NOT AT ALL .. I actually feel pretty ruddy excited.
I can now see me smashing through that wall and starting the next books! Phew.


* - figures based on a quote from Grosvenor House Publishing

Hi. This post was going to be all about me; again. But now it's not.


Okay, so that's a fib ... it's actually still nearly all about me, but a little bit is about all of you.

And that's a fib too, in that it's only about slightly more than a handful of you. Sorry.

Locked away, working from home almost every day, I've found it's easy to lose some grasp of what normality is: it feels like we're living in a bubble. Even some everyday things - like driving a car - felt strange on the handful of occasions I've climbed in. And that's after just 22 days!

How are you coping with lock-down? Responses welcomed.

Whilst I'm sat in this 'bubble', I've also started to get feedback from my volunteer Reader Review Panel, on the somewhat flawed first draft of my book.

I knew it was flawed when I sent it out. Thing was I HAD to send it though, as I started to go round in circles on the smallest of details. As it was, the day after I sent it out to them, I found 7 significant inconsistencies across the 72 chapters, and about 250 punctuation or grammatical errors. Still, even with those, I've had some very constructive and supportive feedback .. which I received warmly.


Now, this is where I get very specific:

To Sheila and to Rob: thank you for joining the RRP team quite late in the process, and investing time in reading and responding. All your points are noted and the draft will be much improved as a result.

To Gary: your positivity throughout my journey has been infectious, and thanks for such encouraging feedback on the draft. Don't forget you still owe me a copy of your book!!

To Jon: the time and effort (and extremely useful detail) you have put into your feedback has been excellent. Oh, and yes, only a boat can become becalmed and YES, all reference to cheese wire has now ruddy well gone. Of course, you were also extremely supportive throughout.

To Iain: not only a great friend and happy recipient of my packs of biscuits, but my subject matter expert and someone who, up to now, has filled me with renewed enthusiasm every single time we sat and talked it through. Let's see what next week brings!

To the lovely Jenni: you've been with me all the way through this journey and spent many many hours reviewing my draft chapters. Couldn't have got to here without your support.

And finally, to you Tracy: You, my friend, currently have far bigger priorities in your life than taking time to read my first draft. I look forward to when life gives you a little more time, and I know I will benefit from your support and constructive critique again.

The image below is the rave review I got. It was one of three feedback forms I received, and the draft was rated as a 3, a 4 and (in this one) a 5/5. To be honest, as a novice, I'm happy with the score of 3 BUT now know how to turn that into a 4 (and that's the real beauty of your feedback, Mr X).


So, now you have a helluva act to follow Jo Watson: no pressure there then.

Three final things to type to you, dear reader:

a) If any of you reading this blog entry want to read the first 4 chapters of DEADLINE, you'll find them here: My WattPad profile

b) At 4am this morning, it was the 8th anniversary of me reaching the geographic North Pole. If you want to read about that, you'll find my blog entry here: My trek to the North Pole



c) Wherever you are, and whatever your circumstances; please stay safe and stay healthy (even if we weren't living in extraordinary times).

Thanks for reading again.