Kira Morgana's Blog

Trying to write and publish books for a living is really very difficult. When you’re neurodivergant, it takes on a whole new level of frustration…

Life is hard enough. You have to make sure that you have shelter, clothing, food, clean water. If you have a family, you have to make sure that you have enough of all of those things for them as well. And that’s just the basic considerations!
If you can work, you take on a job and pay for the stuff of life, then that’s the optimum for all humans – maintaining it is just a case of getting up in the morning, going to work, earning your wages and paying for the basics.

Or at least that’s what we’re taught to think in school.
School was created to make you a good worker – just literate, numerate and socially concious enough that you can do what needs to be done for the boss at a very basic level, and a minimum wage. This is Apprentice level education

College (the UK definition of college is Further Education) is to teach you skills that you may need to do those jobs – if you are in a position to need it. So the expectation is that if you go to college that you will come out of it with a practical skill that will give you a higher wage. Although recently it has become an off-shoot of University in some ways, it is very definitely Journeyman level education.

University (Higher Education in the UK, College in the USA) is supposed to (in theory) teach you to think, problem solve, learn more about various subjects and be able to manage people and time. This is supposed to be the top end of education, however, when you reach a university, you realise just how much you don’t know about your subject and what you can and can’t do. This is why it is so hard to go from School to University – the jump in expectation and difficulty level is huge.
Even a Bachelors degree is hard to navigate. In fact in today’s world, you’re expected to at least have a Bachelors level before you can even start in a low level skilled position.

What has this got to do with being a neurodivergant Independant author, I hear you asking.

Well, I graduated from being an “Apprentice” level Indie author to a “Journeyman” level a while back. I’ve got 13 ebooks, 10 of those in print, all published through Draft 2 Digital, 6 childrens books published in collaboration with Maria Kuroshchepova. So 19 books in all. Of those books, seven have covers that I’ve created. Some through canva, others through my own artistic skills. Some of those books were edited by me, others were edited by professional editors.

I consider myself a low level journeyman in the publishing business – I know I have a lot more to learn and a lot more to do before I can even consider myself a low level master. This is going to involve money, time and focus… 3 things that I rarely have.

Taking each thing in turn – Money.

This doesn’t grow on trees. The reason I create my own covers, do my own editing and formatting etc is because the average manuscript (of the length that I write) costs roughly £1200 to edit and needs at least two, if not three editing passes. My manuscripts are usually fairly clean of spelling and major grammar errors, but it’s not just about spelling and grammar; you need to keep the characters consistant, remove repeated words and phrases, the story hole free and the tropes/cliches under control. I know a few that I would trust with my books.

Then of course you need a cover, wide distribution, good formatting of all types of book – E Book, Print, Audiobook. The cover needs a good artist/designer who knows how to translate the content of the book into a cover that will grab a prospective reader. I know several. Some of them have even done covers for me already.
Distribution, thankfully, is dealt with by going through Draft 2 Digital. However, it also makes Piracy easier which is not ideal, but not something I can deal with currently.
Formatting again, is done by me, via Draft 2 Digital. I can do ebook and print.
Audiobook requires a whole different skill set which I am not in the slightest bit capable of doing – it’s honestly not a case of just reading out loud, recording it and uploading it somewhere! Like editing, if you want a polished product you need a narrator with a good voice to read it, a sound editor that knows what they are doing to record the book, and a decent platform. And that takes more money to do than a cover and an editor!

It also takes equipment, which is something that can get quite expensive. I used to have a brilliant laptop. It could handle my graphics needs for covers, the software for audio editing (and I’d just started learning how to do it as well) and was quick enough to keep up with everything I needed it to do. Then it died on me, and I haven’t been able to replace it (I’m typing this on my son’s chromebook) yet. But I am doing my best with what I’ve got.

Time. Time is one of those things which is affected by multiple things.
I am ND (Neurodivergant) and my timesense is warped. If I am focused on something, I often forget to eat, drink, take breaks, pick up my kids from school, do the shopping, help my partner do something that he cannot manage by himself, housework, cats… time, quite simply, disappears for me when I am focused and I often need someone to prod me and hand me a snack or tell me to get a shower coz I stink…
One minute it can be elevenses, the next, it’s dark outside, the kids are home and hungry and I have to put down what I am working on and become mum again.

Time is also required for all the tasks. I struggle with deadlines, I (like Douglas Adams) enjoy the sight and sound of them whizzing past me. And while I learned how to project manage during my degree; applying the principles to myself is easier said than done, as anyone with ASD/ADHD will be able to understand. I can do it to other people, cannot even think about it for myself – it causes overwhelm and freezing… and then everything in my life suffers, not just my writing. This is why I often have to shift preorder dates and publication dates.
I have a family and a house to keep running as well. This is another place where Time is not on my side. I get the most done when my younger kids are at school. Holidays are awful for trying to get anything to do with my business done – they are ND as well and need me for all sorts of reasons. My partner is physically disabled and needs me as well, so the amount of time I have for working is limited; I’m on call 24/7.

Focus. Often referred to as word flow by authors.

As a SD Audhd, Focus in the sense of being able to sit and work for long periods, comes easily to me. If it’s something that I enjoy doing, I can hyperfocus almost instantly. I can research easily, I can write about subjects that I love like dragons, other books, crafting… however, when it’s something which is urgh or is meh for me, doing it slows to a crawl or just plain doesn’t get done. Procrastination is something else I excell at!

My word flow, when I am focused, is usually pretty good. I can do a thousand or so words in an hour when I’m really hyperfocused. That doesn’t happen much anymore though. Life has dragged the ADHD side of my brain into the sunlight and distraction comes in the form of making things, playing games, reading books, walking or having coffee with my friends.

Which means that my writing is suffering because I find it hard to engage with my wips. I can start a new project, but to go back and actually finish one of the books I am currently working on is like wading in treacle – unless I actually manage to catch the right headspace and have an idea of how to continue it.

I know there are people out there waiting for the next book in one (or more) of my series, but because I can’t get into the right headspace for it, I can’t get the first draft finished, let alone edited, covered, formatted and published!

So what’s a poor, ND Indie Author to do?

Well for a start, you dig your heels in and tell yourself that you are not going to give up writing. Then you choose your projects carefully. I have an A4 notebook with a list of all my wips. I look at that, decide which one is calling me and go look at the relevant file on the HDD. At the moment it’s The Spidreen Wars series that I’m interested in, so I’m editing for holes, character etc (did the basic edit a while ago) and working on the cover – which is almost there; I’m using my phone to draw it and it takes a lot of effort to work on something that small when compared to a proper tablet or graphics set up.

As a way of keeping my interest on the series, I’ve started on the first draft of the second story. It helps me with checking my characters (I’ve found many a wrong eye colour or favourite phrase doing it this way) and often builds up the story in the original one because I find plot holes and need to fill them or explain their existence in the new one.

Then you run the ms through another basic edit (just in case, you never know) upload it to D2D, work through the formatting for the e book and preview it at least five times per page (I’ve not had many complaints about my formatting at least) before you hit publish.

Then you hope that people like it enough to buy it.

That’s as far as my marketing goes a lot of the time. I often do a couple of social media posts in the run up to publication and in the week or so after it, but mostly I let them sit.
I’ve been told that I should pay for facebook ads, put myself on bookbub, do an email newsletter, do interviews, Tik Tok/Youtube videos about it – but that’s just adding more Urgh or Meh tasks to something which in my mind, is already finished and I have no interest in anymore.

I have yet to earn enough money from the books I have already published, to rectify my equipment problems, pay for an editor or cover, or even just pay for lunch. It’s a slow process. Some people question why I am doing it this way – “wouldn’t being a traditional author be less work?” – but that way lies working with other people who are not receptive to my particular quirks. I learned that the hard way. I much prefer setting my own goals and being able to flex deadlines if I have to .
Also trad authors have a lot more work than I do just to get picked up by an agent, let alone get a publishing deal…
I’m not quite that crazy yet!

So Frustration is the name of the game, no matter what route you take to publication.

…so, how has it been for you? I haven’t had much chance to think since my last post… June 2022 apparently!

I haven’t done much in the way of blogging for the last two years. Daily Life has this irritating way of derailing my brain.

Anyway, I guess it’s time I caught you up with what I’ve been doing book wise.

Just finished this…

I don’t get a lot of reading time generally. I still have a whole shelf of books I intend to read, but every time I finish one, another one magically appears… I appear to have a Book Fairy!

My latest read was “The Gilded Ones” by Namina Forna and it was such a perfect story. So perfect in fact that I don’t want to spoil it for you. So this is the blurb:

Are we girls or are we demons?

Are we going to die or survive?

In this bold and immersive fantasy, a young heroine fights to save a world that would dare tame her and discovers she is her own fiercest weapon.

I received this book when I bought a Lunar Library mystery bundle from the Meraki Moon Emporium – https://www.facebook.com/evesmerakimoonemporium–  a lovely online, Witchy Market place, which has all sorts of goodies, from spell kits and crystals to self care hampers and book bundles.

It’s the second time I have had a Lunar Library book bundle and so far they have been just the thing I needed!

Of my own work, I’ve published a couple more books.

The Second Door (Book 3 of  The Secret of Arking Down) was published earlier this year –  https://books2read.com/u/4jGeK5 – to check it out.

It’s in both E book and Print, but audiobook will take a while…

I am also in the process of getting the individual books of The Tower & The Eye into E Book and Print. The previous incarnation was a 5 book omnibus print edition and was never an ebook.

I will also be doing a hardback edition for each book – with a possible box set as well, but that’s in the future.

My current WIP is “The Hunted” – not one for arachnophobes I am afraid! Hopefully I’ll be able to publish it by Hallowe’en, but I’m not holding my breath…

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll attempt to update the blog at least once a week from now on – if I get a chance between getting my children places and sorting the house out!!

Toodles!

K

How is it that almost every iteration of a Batman movie brings me such joy?

The latest one, was a definite return to the Grim/Dark detective. The whole movie felt right.

My first Batman movie was the perfection that Tim Burton/ Michael Keaton/ Jack Nicholson brought to the world. While I’d watched the Adam West TV show, it was something to fill in time for me, it never felt as good as the comics did and to be honest I often hated it.

I fell in love with Christian Bale’s Batman. Ok I’ll be honest, I had a crush on Bale before I saw Batman Begins… I’d seen Equilibrium three times by then, but his Batman was sooo good. However I fell out of love with the movie batmans when Snyder got involved.

Don’t get me wrong, Affleck was an effective Batman, as much as Cavill was an effective Superman, I just didn’t like the way Snyder took the story. Personal preference, that’s all.

Pattinson’s Batman felt like a return to where Batman should be – the shadows. Although I was really sad that he didn’t take up Selina’s invitation to knock over a few CEO’s….

I love a good story. I love great characters and the interactions between them. I love a Happy-For-Now ending, because it gives me more of the things I love to look forward to.

The Eternals gave me all that.

And I love it.

Eternals took me away from the crapness of my day-to-day life and allowed me to believe that there is more to life and this world than just existing.

This is what a Fantasy story (be it science based or magic based) is meant to do. It dredges away the nastiness of the soul that accumulates from the shit of life and allows it to shine again

Believe me, before I watched it, if Tiamat was really about to suck my life force out, I would have said “here, have it”.

The Movie wasn’t a brilliant success because it deviated from the usual MCU story line, A.K.A. “big bad appears, humans fight back and fail, humans regroup, fight again and win”.

This time it was about what makes a human, human. The lives that we lead, the little things that are good that we do. And it wasn’t about humans saving the world (we are so self-centred as a race!)

It was about another race of beings becoming human-like and saving us because they could see the good and the bad in us. And the good in us outweighed the bad.

And it was that that saved me (again) from myself.

The reminder, that despite the narcissitic dictators waging wars, despite the money-grabbing politicians only thinking of their tiny bubble of a life as important, there are good people on this planet and that they are a part of the planet itself.

I find myself renewed and inspired. Thank you MCU.

Oh and to all those Marvel “fans” out there, who will immediately jump down my throat because my opinion and the movie itself doesn’t fit their preconcieved visions of what the MCU should be like….

Open your eyes. Read more (not just the same thing over and over again) – and think about those around you, the society we live in and the tiny ball of rock hurtling through space that we live on.

Educate yourself. You might discover that you are much more than the narrow being you allow yourself to be.

I’ve not been writing much recently. Some of this has been to do with my own state of mind and family goings on, but it has also been because I’ve opened a door that has been locked for thirty-odd years!

Back in the summer, I took part in a play called “Stepping Out“. It was a small production, hosted by Pukka Productions, and directed by Jane Davies.

It was a lot of fun. I used muscles I’d never used before (figuratively and literally) and challenged myself to “step out of my comfort zone” and not only perform in front of an audience, but also learn to tap dance!

That was a success, and it not only inspired me to write my own play (a story for another post) but also to challenge myself further.

I jumped in with both feet and joined the cast of Pukka Productions christmas show, The Little Matchgirl.

We have been rehearsing since september, but today was the first time that I really saw what we could achieve.

Today was the first, full run through of the show. It was absolutely brilliant – I’m only a small part of a big cast (the adults are outnumbered by the kids) and seeing the story take shape through the wonderful music.

The story is still the tragic Hans Christian Anderson tale, but it has been re-imagined in 1890’s Dickensian Britain.

This is not the warm brightness of the upper middle class or the sparkling heat of food-rich nobles (although there is a glimpse of that) but, the bone-chilling cold of the lower classes. I could easily imagine the miserly figure of Scrooge stalking these streets.

It’s clear that Dickens has been a strong influence on the writers of the original adaptation (first shown in the 80’s), and the music emphasises both sides of the wealth divide wonderfully.

The lyrics tell the story, and there are very few lines that are spoken straight. Keith Strachan (music), Leslie Stewart / Jeremy Paul (Lyrics) combined their talents to bring it to life and is the birthplace of  the iconic christmas song “Mistletoe and Wine”.

The vision of Pukka’s Director, Sarah Creasey, has taken their beginning and added her own unique twist, born of a long time love of the original.

The story isn’t all cold and dark though… Even for the lower classes, there are still things to celebrate. The joys of being with those they love and having fun in their communities, shine through the gloom.

From the servants of the rich having a sneaky snifter, to the market traders and working girls letting off steam in the pub, this show covers everything…

And that’s where the tragedy comes in with the titular character. It’s hard to watch and does bring tears to the eyes. However, this is the flipside to the warm, bright songs, and it is neccessary to remind the watcher that Christmas and other midwinter festivals are not a good time for everyone.

I find it particularly fitting this year, considering the current cost-of-living crisis, the record numbers of homeless and children in poverty stricken families both at home and abroad, or living in fear of the wars waged by the adults in government…

Come and see Pukka Production’s talented Cast perform!

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥:

12th-16th December 2023

The Paget Rooms, Penarth
£15 Adults | £12 Children & Seniors

Website: https://www.pukkaproductions.co.uk/little-match-girl

TICKET LINK:
https://www.pukkaproductions.co.uk/little-match-girl-tickets

And as a little taster of the show, take a look at this wonderful trailer…

If you fancy listening to me talk, come and listen to my review of “The Unsolved Case of the Secret Christmas Baby” by Hannah Byron.

Thanks for bearing with me and still visiting my website, even though I haven’t been updating it regularly…

This year has been… rough. 

The good stuff? Was good. Published a few books, started a new college course, went to choir regularly.

There wasn’t much bad stuff. For a change. What made it rough was, is… my mind.

I haven’t been able to get out of this deep well of meh/blagh at all. I find myself at the rim of the well frequently, trying my hardest to reach up and grab at anything, or anyone that can pull me out… only to not find anything and fall back down.

It’s exhausting.

I have been living from moment to moment all year. Constantly tired, constantly playing catchup. Feeling like everyone is running a few feet ahead of me, and I can’t seem to move that speed, even when I’m trying so hard.

I can’t even find the energy to hope that next year will be better.

It would appear that “Cosmic Shadows” is my most popular story on Wattpad! It has all of *5* engaged readers!!

https://www.wattpad.com/1136178297-cosmic-shadows-the-girl-who-made-holes

That’s more readers than sales this month.
To put it another way, to get invited to join the “Wattpad Creators Programme” you have to have a minimum number of “Engaged Readers” (ERs) on at least one of your stories on your Profile.

My stories fall into the following Genres:

Fantasy
Adventure
Paranormal
Science Fiction

So the minimum number of ERs for these Genres are:

Fantasy 1000
Adventure 1000
Paranormal 100
Science Fiction 100

If you’re on Wattpad and want to check how your numbers compare, go to: https://creators.wattpad.com/programs-and-opportunities/wattpad-creators-program

“Cosmic Shadows” is 95 ERs from being anywhere near that point.
But why would anyone want to be a part of the Wattpad Creators Programme?

“The Wattpad Creators Program can help to provide Creators with the opportunity to earn cash stipends while educating and supporting you on your writing journey. “

Is probably the main reason for doing it… everyone needs to eat!
But you have to meet the following criteria:

“You have created and published a new story part in the last 3 months.”

AKA – you’ve uploaded a new chapter to at least one of your stories in that time. I know people who are doing 2 stories concurrently and are uploading twice a week.

“You have at least one completed novel-length story (50,000 words or more) in your catalogue.”

So, you have written a novel and left it there to be read, not shopped it to any publishers or published in independently. Isn’t that a waste of time?

And the aforementioned minimum number of ERs!!

Why are ERs important?

Because:

“A growing number of Engaged Readers indicates that your story continues to meaningfully engage the readers who view it. To build a successful and rewarding writing career on Wattpad, you, your story, and your audience should be both active and engaging, and Engaged Readers are one reflection of that.”

Why is this irritating me to the point that I am ranting?

‘Coz – “While your Engaged Readers are constantly changing based on historical readership data from the last 365 days, your Total Reads will never decrease over time as they accumulate over time from the day you publish the first part of your story.”

So my Oldest story on the site has 424 reads, but no engagement at all – probably because I am stuck and haven’t managed to write anything new on it for ages – but my newest has 38 reads and 1 ER.

To get engagement:

“You can drive more engagement on your stories by interacting with your readers through the comments feature You can also spark conversations with and among your readers by asking questions, creating a playlist for your story to set the scene and connect with readers over music, including and celebrating fan art, introducing character sketches to bring your story to life, etc.”

So basically, I have to treat Wattpad as another social media site, create a whole load more stuff and generally make my work life even more difficult in order to make goddess knows how much money per read (the amount is not revealed) when I can just finish the story and publish it so people can buy a book and own it?

So I am asking you, what would you prefer?

A – A book that you can own and hold

B – To pay per read on a website only

C – Have 15 chapters / parts on the site to read and then buy the book

(Please comment below with your answer – there may be a blog post in the works!)

Because I am only one person and if I am going to have put all that extra work into a story (beyond the actual words and research, editing etc) and spend half my time on the site socialising with the readers, then I am going to have to get rid of the rest of my social media and concentrate on Wattpad.

Writing is my passion, it’s my life. It’s not just a hobby or a job. I need an income to exist, but I need Writing to be able to live.

Tell me does it feel like this so-called “Creators Programme” is a scam? To make sure that you (and the readers) spend all your time on their site? There’s no mention of any kind of contract or any legal stuff – just spiel of the exclusive community sort.

And then there’s this…

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamrowe1/2018/11/13/wattpad-just-launched-a-new-paid-content-program-that-paywalls-selected-stories/?sh=4baa8ce177cd

I’ll wait while you go read…

To be honest – I don’t know what to think any more…

I know digital publishing is a growing business and everyone wants a slice of the action, but it’s beginning to feel like one huge Vanity Press.

When I started writing, you had to go the trad route to get published, then Amazon brought eBooks out… and opened up all the possibilities. I’ve seen numerous writing sites appear and disappear, I’ve seen quite a few small presses appear and disappear…

But one thing remains the same – it’s the writers who lose out.

I am Autistic.

I AM DIFFERENT.

You would think that experiencing rejection all my life would have got me used to it.

But no.

Every rejection, no matter how small feeds that little voice in my head that says “No one wants you. You’re too weird, too different. Go away and never come back.”

I could quite happily live as a hermit, never leaving my house or mingling with people again, except that society is an Extrovert and keeps trying to haul me back out.

I trained as a Teacher. It took me 6 months longer than everyone else, but I passed. I was rejected for every job I applied for.

The last school were desperate to fill their job, so desperate that they said yes.

But because of my mental state, because of the level of expectation and pressure if teaching a subject that gave me panic attacks, I had a breakdown/burnout. So I left them.

The next job was heaven. I loved it, but the school rejected me by not making me permanent. Yes, there were other factors at play, but in the end I was rejected.

I looked for supply work, for other jobs, but more rejection followed… until I couldn’t even bear to browse the adverts, I was so depressed.

In the last ten years I have done course after course, trying to undo the work that rejection has done to my spirit, to regain the confidence that I once had.

I am doing another soon.

In September.

I also applied for an adult ed teaching job.

At first it looked like I would get the job, with the person who interviewed me being really enthusiastic about my chances.

But recently, the most recent email rejected me. It felt like I had been strung along. Like I was just included so they could say “We give everyone a fair chance, no matter who they are.”

It hurt more than I thought it would, having already decided in my own mind that I had been rejected anyway.

This isn’t a pity party. It might look like one, but it isn’t…

One of the reasons I became an indie author was that I wanted to reject the rejectors.

The gatekeepers, aka the publishers and the agents. The bigwigs who just wanted money from a product and to not have to think about the people they were taking the product from.

Because that’s what a traditional publisher does, they take the product and make money from it, while passing as little as they can get away with back to you in the form of a royalty. They’re the ones who make the money out of it, not the writer.

When I started my writing career, I had been rejected a few times already for publishing. Mostly magazines and other periodicals. When I had completed a full book, I started sending out to agents and publishers as well.

Being an Author is when you learn how personal rejection can be.

You pour your heart and a tiny bit of soul into each piece of work, then you post it to an agent, or a publisher only to have it returned unopened with “No non agented submissions” stamped on it. Or you get a letter with it that turns out to be a form rejection letter.

I could never work out if the worst rejections were the form ones, or the ones who had obviously read the MS, and gave you a comprehensive listing of the faults and how you could improve it, but rejected it anyway, or the kind ones that said “I’m sorry, but I don’t represent genre fiction writers. Good luck anyway.”

It didn’t put me off writing; it just put me off submitting to the Traditional Publishing route.

It wasn’t until Amazon started the e book revolution that I found that I might actually have a chance to be more than a lonely writer, tapping away on a keyboard and posting out my MS in the hope that someone might possibly discover me, the way that the people I looked up to, my writing heroes had been, the way that everyone kept telling me was the best way to become an author.

I wanted to work to my own timetable, be my own boss. Prove to myself that I could be an author.

And eBooks were the chance for me to be that.

The rejection still happens by the way, even when you’re an Indie Author.

You write the book, edit it, get a cover for it (or in my case, make a cover for it), format it then upload it and hit publish. A few minutes later (if you’re lucky) you get the thrill of seeing your name on the screen with a published book.

The rejection happens in the hours, days, weeks and months after that.

I don’t check sales figures frequently. It’s too depressing.

This is where the rejection comes for an Indie author.

No matter how hard you engage with people on social media, talk about your work, talk about other books you have read, talk about the craft of writing or even just discuss the day’s happenings…

… it doesn’t sell books.

Only advertising gets books to readers and if you don’t have the money to pay for the advertising, you’re limited to publishing, plastering the cover and blurb everywhere that you can, and then forgetting about it and writing another book.

I’ve got quite a back catalogue now – twenty books, spread across two pen names.

I also have a number of stories being published serially on Wattpad. I have a few readers there – and it’s nice to know that my work is being read.

Because that’s really all that I’m after – sales are a way of funding my writing addiction, and a way of keeping score. On Wattpad, I can write and keep score, but not fund my writing addiction… even authors have to eat!

However, the rejection of no sales stings even worse than the rejection of a job application.

So maybe this is a pity party after all…

Pass the Gin, chocolate and tonic would you? If I’m going to party, then I might as well party in style.

News

The Dragon’s Pendant has been live for sixteen days now. Sadly there were no pre-orders and there haven’t been any other sales.

*sigh*

Just in case you might want to pick up a copy, just click through the link below.

If you prefer other retailers, the link below will take you to a page where you can access more retailers.

https://books2read.com/u/mv12qJ

Curse of the Jade Cat is currently in Pre-order and will go live on 30th June.

I am really hoping that this one goes better than the last one, because I am slowly losing the will to publish….

Newsletter Anyone?
I’m considering starting an email newsletter and thought I would post about it here first. I need to know a few things though, before I commit myself to one.

What are you interested in hearing about – I know I haven’t been a consistant poster here, but if I do a Newsletter, would you want the content to differ from what I post on the blog?Would you be interested in having a short story or an extract from what I am working on in the Newsletter?

I mean, obviously it’s a Newsletter, so there would be things like dates of the next publication etc. but I really wonder what else you would want?

Please comment on this post if you think it’s a good idea.

Currently in Pre-Order…

It’s been a few years in the making, but here it is, the second book of The Secret of Arking Down.

The first book revealed one set of secrets about Arkingham and the Lord of The Grange. It took us beyond the world that we know, to that of the Hall of Worlds and the myriad of versions of Earth Nexus.

Available in all good E-Book retailers…

The second book covers only one world. This time, it’s the turn of Caoimhe, Jenni’s best friend, to discover more about herself and her family. In doing so she discovers more about Arkingham and the threats that Jenni uncovered.

So, will you join me in the world of Arking Down once more? Shall we adventure forth and discover what secrets Caoimhe unearths?

To join in the pre-order on Amazon, you just need to click through the link below –

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09V5TN8M8

and for those that prefer other retailers, click through this one –

https://books2read.com/u/mv12qJ

There will be other retailers available after the book goes live, the ones at the other end of the link are just the ones that do pre-order

Now I have to go and finish editing and formatting or The Dragon’s Pendant won’t get uploaded in time and Amazon will ban me from doing pre-orders for a year!