Joshua Winning's Blog - Posts Tagged "sentinel"
Sentinel becomes #1 Amazon bestseller
Really excited to announce that after being out for almost two months, Sentinel has become an Amazon bestseller!
Read all about it over at the Sentinel Trilogy website here: http://bit.ly/13fm6Ua
Thanks everybody who downloaded and has supported the book so far, I owe many people many drinks.
Read all about it over at the Sentinel Trilogy website here: http://bit.ly/13fm6Ua
Thanks everybody who downloaded and has supported the book so far, I owe many people many drinks.
Wednesday Warble: Routine? What routine?
This blog post originally appeared on the Sentinel Trilogy website: http://bit.ly/13m1nOt
Is there a word out there more boring than ‘routine’?
Admit it; there was a part of you that took one look at the title of this post and promptly fell into a coma, wasn’t there? Routine means hoovering the stairs, cramming into a tin can to travel to work and brushing your teeth twice a day (more if you love coffee). It’s painfully dull, and, frankly, we shouldn’t have to do it.
Yet this week I’ve been pretzelling myself into all sorts of magnificent shapes attempting to establish something called a writing routine. (Oh, the glamour.) Why? Because I’m told by various internet strangers (and many other non-internet strangers) that routine is pivotal to writing.
‘It gets the juices flowing!’ they holler. ‘Writing’s like a muscle – use it or loose it!’
Hence my daily trek to a local supermarket café that’s located conveniently near to the office I’m currently freelancing at. Yes, it resembles God’s waiting room and yes, the all-day breakfast looks like something you’d throw in a trough, but something quite miraculous has happened on these lunchtime jaunts.
I’ve started writing. In fact, I can’t stop. I sit down, plug into my iPod, and for 40 blissful minutes I re-enter the world of the Sentinels.
I’m currently hacking away at book two of the Sentinel trilogy (Ruins). There was a period of inactivity that came with releasing and promoting the first book, and the thrill of having people actually read my stuff.
With Sentinel now having enjoyed a little bit of success (read more about that here), I’m officially back in the swing of writing, and I’m loving it. Ideas are firing, characters are growing, and the book’s finally – finally! – taking shape in front of my eyes.
Not only that, but lugging my laptop across London every day is giving me a great cardio workout (even if the other commuters have made a few grumbles about the space-hogging backpack).
So, alright, those goodie-two-shoes routine-lovers might have it right after all. There might actually be something to this routine thing. For now, I’m a convert…
Is there a word out there more boring than ‘routine’?
Admit it; there was a part of you that took one look at the title of this post and promptly fell into a coma, wasn’t there? Routine means hoovering the stairs, cramming into a tin can to travel to work and brushing your teeth twice a day (more if you love coffee). It’s painfully dull, and, frankly, we shouldn’t have to do it.
Yet this week I’ve been pretzelling myself into all sorts of magnificent shapes attempting to establish something called a writing routine. (Oh, the glamour.) Why? Because I’m told by various internet strangers (and many other non-internet strangers) that routine is pivotal to writing.
‘It gets the juices flowing!’ they holler. ‘Writing’s like a muscle – use it or loose it!’
Hence my daily trek to a local supermarket café that’s located conveniently near to the office I’m currently freelancing at. Yes, it resembles God’s waiting room and yes, the all-day breakfast looks like something you’d throw in a trough, but something quite miraculous has happened on these lunchtime jaunts.
I’ve started writing. In fact, I can’t stop. I sit down, plug into my iPod, and for 40 blissful minutes I re-enter the world of the Sentinels.
I’m currently hacking away at book two of the Sentinel trilogy (Ruins). There was a period of inactivity that came with releasing and promoting the first book, and the thrill of having people actually read my stuff.
With Sentinel now having enjoyed a little bit of success (read more about that here), I’m officially back in the swing of writing, and I’m loving it. Ideas are firing, characters are growing, and the book’s finally – finally! – taking shape in front of my eyes.
Not only that, but lugging my laptop across London every day is giving me a great cardio workout (even if the other commuters have made a few grumbles about the space-hogging backpack).
So, alright, those goodie-two-shoes routine-lovers might have it right after all. There might actually be something to this routine thing. For now, I’m a convert…
You feel dull, you have a headache, nobody loves you – write!
A fellow writer friend sent this little nugget of writerly wisdom over, and I liked it so much I thought I’d share…
“Perhaps it would be better not to be a writer, but if you must be one – then, I say, write. You feel dull, you have a headache, nobody loves you – write. It all seems hopeless, that famous “inspiration” will not come – write. If you are a great genius, you will make your own rules; but if you are not–and the odds are heavily against it – go to your desk, no matter how high or low your mood, face the icy challenge of the paper - write. Sooner or later the goddess will recognize in this a devotional act worthy of benison and grace. But if what I am trying to say seems nonsense, do not attempt to write for a living. Try elsewhere, making sure the position carries a pension.”
(Encore magazine, 1962; quoted in J. B. Priestley: Portrait of an Author by Susan Cooper. Harper & Row, 1971)
Via: http://thesentineltrilogy.com/2013/07...
“Perhaps it would be better not to be a writer, but if you must be one – then, I say, write. You feel dull, you have a headache, nobody loves you – write. It all seems hopeless, that famous “inspiration” will not come – write. If you are a great genius, you will make your own rules; but if you are not–and the odds are heavily against it – go to your desk, no matter how high or low your mood, face the icy challenge of the paper - write. Sooner or later the goddess will recognize in this a devotional act worthy of benison and grace. But if what I am trying to say seems nonsense, do not attempt to write for a living. Try elsewhere, making sure the position carries a pension.”
(Encore magazine, 1962; quoted in J. B. Priestley: Portrait of an Author by Susan Cooper. Harper & Row, 1971)
Via: http://thesentineltrilogy.com/2013/07...
Pick Your Poison reviews Sentinel
Fantastic new review of Sentinel over at Pick Your Poison: "Magical... one word to describe this book. Great supernatural start to a trilogy."
Check it out here: http://bit.ly/14rF4Sq
Check it out here: http://bit.ly/14rF4Sq
Sentinel available to buy from today!
Peridot Press has released Sentinel in paperback and eBook today!
Buy your copy through the Peridot website and receive a goodies-stuffed fan pack that includes postcards, author notes and a poster. Just head here: http://www.peridot.co.uk/bookshop
Or if eBooks are more your thing, head over to Amazon to download direct to your Kindle.
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1jAdb6t & Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1hEwPtE
And as always, if you like the book, please do spread the word!
Happy nightmares!
Buy your copy through the Peridot website and receive a goodies-stuffed fan pack that includes postcards, author notes and a poster. Just head here: http://www.peridot.co.uk/bookshop
Or if eBooks are more your thing, head over to Amazon to download direct to your Kindle.
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1jAdb6t & Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1hEwPtE
And as always, if you like the book, please do spread the word!
Happy nightmares!
Press Association review Sentinel
The Press Association have reviewed Sentinel! Check out what they thought below…
Just weeks before he turns 16, Nicholas Hallow is orphaned when his parents die in a bizarre train crash. They’d left him at home in Cambridge in the care of bubbly neighbour Tabatha, but hadn’t told him where they were going. In their absence, Nicholas finds a hidden room containing vast tomes of Sentinel Chronicles and a birthday gift from his parents. Sam, an elderly friend of the Hallows, is tasked with telling Nicholas what has happened to his folks and takes him through unseasonal snow to the remote country mansion home of his ‘godmother’.
On the way, Nicholas has a strange premonition moments before their decrepit bus is stormed by a beautiful, scarlet-clad woman intent on murder. Nicholas begs Sam to explain his parents’ secret life, but it falls to his strangely youthful godmother Jessica, to reveal that he himself is a Sentinel, a “supernatural demon hunter”.
Written poetically (“An angry black cloud was unfurling across the afternoon sun like a colossal inkblot”), with carefully-drawn characters, this is an extremely promising YA debut by a young author. 8/10
(Review by Kate Whiting)
Just weeks before he turns 16, Nicholas Hallow is orphaned when his parents die in a bizarre train crash. They’d left him at home in Cambridge in the care of bubbly neighbour Tabatha, but hadn’t told him where they were going. In their absence, Nicholas finds a hidden room containing vast tomes of Sentinel Chronicles and a birthday gift from his parents. Sam, an elderly friend of the Hallows, is tasked with telling Nicholas what has happened to his folks and takes him through unseasonal snow to the remote country mansion home of his ‘godmother’.
On the way, Nicholas has a strange premonition moments before their decrepit bus is stormed by a beautiful, scarlet-clad woman intent on murder. Nicholas begs Sam to explain his parents’ secret life, but it falls to his strangely youthful godmother Jessica, to reveal that he himself is a Sentinel, a “supernatural demon hunter”.
Written poetically (“An angry black cloud was unfurling across the afternoon sun like a colossal inkblot”), with carefully-drawn characters, this is an extremely promising YA debut by a young author. 8/10
(Review by Kate Whiting)
Wednesday Warble: That's a wrap! Ish...
To celebrate finishing the second draft of Ruins, book two of The Sentinel Trilogy, I've posted a blog with a few juicy spoilers and a discussion of the terrifying Tinker Zone.
Check it out at the Sentinel Trilogy website here.
Check it out at the Sentinel Trilogy website here.
Ruins cover revealed!
I'm really excited to reveal the cover for Ruins, book two in the Sentinel Trilogy. It's already been posted up to the Ruins Goodreads page here: RuinsBe sure to check it out and add it to your reading list!
Ruins is published by Peridot Press on 18 May 2015.
Ruins is out now!
We can't believe the day is here at last, but it's true – Ruins is finally out! We're really proud of it – it's bigger, scarier and even weirder than
Sentinel
(you better believe it), and introduces a load of exciting new characters while throwing Nicholas, Sam and Isabel into even more terrifying adventures. Can they find the girl who holds the key to their fate? You'll have to crack that spine to find out!You can get your copy of Ruins at a number of retailers, including Amazon UK, Amazon US and the Peridot Press website.
And make sure you add it to your Goodreads list here!
And don't forget you can read more about the book over at the Sentinel Trilogy HQ. The Ruins page includes a Q&A with author Joshua Winning, and we're working on even more exciting exclusives that take you deeper into the world of the Sentinels – and those spooky Dark Prophets.
But what are you waiting for? Go grab your copy of Ruins and be sure to let us know what you think.
And we'd love if you would Tweet and Facebook about it. Share the Sentinel love with everybody who knows that dark fantasy is the best thing ever. Because obviously it is.
New book Killing Rumer now available at Unbound!
"I've killed more people than I can count, but I never meant to"
Hey everybody. Exciting news! My new book, a YA crime thriller called KILLING RUMER , is available over at Unbound! The way Unbound works is that when you pre-order your copy of the book, you help get it published - and you get your name in the book as a thank you!
What is KILLING RUMER ? Well it's about a teenage girl thrown into a world of gangsters and the occult. It's sort of like Jessica Jones meets Lisbeth Salander, with a little bit of Nancy from The Craft thrown in there. V gritty and attitude-y, with some pseudo-supernatural stuff that could all be in the mind of our heroine, or could be for real...
Please check it out here: http://unbound.com/books/killing-rumer
Thank you!
