Philip’s Comments (group member since Mar 22, 2015)

Philip’s comments from the Sci-Fi, fantasy and speculative Indie Authors Review group.

Both reading and writing fiction adds an extra dimension to what is called ordinary life. I have been writing verse and prose since I was twelve. It is the only gift I have. The pleasure of being inside the story that I am creating motivates me to want to write another when it is finished.

Looking through my book collection, I found that in novels written by English authors and published by English publishers there was no set rule for quotation marks when a character speaks. Some used double quotation marks, others used single. If the reader thinks the book is good and becomes engrossed in it, they will not notice, never mind quibble about such things.

I have started writing a sequel to my light-hearted science fiction story, Klubbe the Turkle and the Golden Star Coracle, which will be published soon. At the moment the sequel is called Assinarc. As mine is not a serious story, I am thinking of beginning the sequel with A Note To The Reader, explaining that as Assinarc is Book Two of the biography of Klubbe, it would be wise to read Book One first. Such A Note To The Reader may not work in a serious science fiction novel, however. In Chapter One of the sequel, I intend to continue the biography of Klubbe not long after the end of the first book. In the series of books by Arthur C. Clarke beginning with 2001: A Space Odyssey, he always assumed, it seemed to me, that the reader had read each one in the order in which they were published. It seems only logical, as Mr Spock might say. I would never read 2010: Odyssey Two, for example, before 2001: A Space Odyssey. I think perhaps it is best to assume that the reader of your sequel has first read the book it is a sequel to, and not recap too much what happened in your first book. Anyone who has read your first book will say: I know that already, I want to know what happens now, if you refer back to your first book too much.

My new book, Klubbe the Turkle and the Golden Star Coracle, will soon be available as a paperback and as an E-book on Amazon and Lulu. Four paperback copies of my book are available to be won in a Goodreads Giveaway, which began on Saturday, 21st, March, 2015, and ends on Tuesday, 21st, April, 2015. The Giveaway is open to members in Great Britain, U.S.A. and Canada. Details of the Giveaway can be found on my Author Profile Page: http://www.goodreads.com/PHILIPDODD
Here is the blurb I wrote for the back cover of my book:

On the planet Ankor, Klubbe the turkle lives as a hermit. A marine mishap inspires him to be an inventor. His inventions and explorations change his life, his entire planet.
Turkles are close cousins of turtles. Unlike them, they have yellow golden skin and back shells, walk on their hind legs, have the gift of language, and the ability to create their own culture.
The life of Klubbe may read like a light-hearted science fiction story, but it actually happened to him. Princess Corka thinks his invention is sublime. Ubbtosh, the pyramid priest, promises to guide him to the core of the cosmos. In space, there are no sign posts, he finds, but there are other beings. And on Ankor, there are mysteries to be solved. Is the Great Glom more than a myth? And what about the Great Archy Eopta?

Hello, everyone. My name is Philip Dodd. I was born in 1952, live in Liverpool, England, have a degree in English literature from Newcastle University, and I have been writing songs, stories and poems since I was twelve. My first book, Angel War, was published in April, 2013. It could be described as a work of fantasy fiction, rooted in The Bible. It was inspired by Chapter Six of the Book of Revelation, which speaks of the war in heaven, fought between Michael and his angels and the dragon and his angels. The Bible only says that the war happened, but not why, so I decided to write my own version of the events of the war and its aftermath. Angel War was a finalist in the Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards for 2013, I am pleased to say. My new book, Klubbe the Turkle and the Golden Star Coracle, will soon be available as a paperback and as an E-book on Amazon and Lulu. It could be described as a light-hearted science fiction story, being the biography of an inventor and explorer called Klubbe, who lives with his fellow turkles on the planet, Ankor. Four paperback copies of Klubbe the Turkle and the Golden Star Coracle are available to be won in a Goodreads Giveaway, which began on Saturday, 21st, March, 2015, and ends on Tuesday, 21st, April,2015. The Giveaway is open to Goodreads members in Great Britain, U.S.A. and Canada. Details of the Giveaway can be found on my Author Profile Page:
http://www.goodreads.com/PHILIPDODD
Greg Bear, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells and Jules Verne are the science fiction writers I like best.