Friday 17 March 2017

And following on from yesterday - Readers Required...


I need to get back on track with what I was doing before all the delays occurred, so I'm looking for readers again, I've got several books where I'm looking for first impressions, more to see if the story holds interest in the first place than anything else, most of them are nearly completed (2014 was a good year), and wouldn't take much to finish off.

What I've got is as follows

In Iron Clad -

I don’t remember the sun…

I hadn’t been born when the lights went out, but mum used to tell me of the days when the light was free for everyone, not rationed by the guilds and fed through failing bulbs and dynamo’s

All I know is the darkness…

And the work…Always the work…

Alone in the world with nothing to look forwards to but the endless breaking of ships in the dark of the Umbralux docks, Green knows she has nothing coming, death comes for everyone, and she’s no exception, the only question is how long she has before it comes to her.  A ship returns from the far east of the Cold dark, it’s crew missing, it’s cargo plundered, nothing left of value on board to anyone, but a means to make a new life on the waves for those who have nothing else to look forwards to. 

With a crew consisting of a Onceman, three Milrats, a fellow docker, and a Rat Nav, Green sets out into the darkness, there to search for the person who owned the ship, a man she’s never known.


Her father… 

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Ocean of Stars -

A routine scavenging operation in the Tyrannous stars becomes a journey to the other end of time when they encounter a derelict in space.  Torn from the raiding lanes, the crew find themselves in a world where ships roam the stars on sails of solid light, and the universe is no longer the place they thought it to be. 


Pressed into service on the pirate frigate Unbroken Dawn, the crew find themselves at the mercy of Captain Morgan, a woman hunting the mythical treasures beyond the incandescent death offered by Argents Breath, willing to sacrifice anyone and anything to get what she wants.   As the Unbroken Dawn nears the object of the captains obsession, the crew have to decide if they want to follow her to untold riches (with a side order of death), or consider mutiny (and a side order of death) to take the ship and return to their own time.

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Regiment B -

There was a world where science had overcome all ills, where technology had an answer to almost everything, and the dawn of a brighter tomorrow was on the horizon…

This is not that world…

On this world, the machines rebelled against their owners, and the Cult of the Pure rose to show mankind of the folly of making use of technology, they promised safety and security in return for not using the technology that had caused all the strife.

But the cult never mentioned that the machines were still out there, and the only ones with the power to stand against them were the deviants who they preached hate against, those who had suffered grievous injuries in battle or in life, and only through the aid of forbidden implants did they exist from day to day.  These are the last chance of humanity, reviled by those they protect, they form humanities last defence.

Regiment B


Struck down by the machines, Vincent Emerson is given the choice between the restricted life his injuries will allow him, or service in the Regiments at the cost of the life he once knew…

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Let me know if any of them interest...

Thursday 16 March 2017

Rejection, something all writers must come to deal with...

So today, after 14 months waiting for a response, a card, anything to acknowledge that there was a chance that I was still in the running, I got the rejection through from Gollancz.

Not on a card (I'd had one of those before), but on their website listing the books that they are still considering, with a note that indicated that if you hadn't had a card for your book, it must have been lost in the initial cut when no cards were being sent out.

I can't easily articulate how much that particular line hurt, especially when the previous updates had said that everyone who hadn't received a card or notification was definitely in second reading, and then in third and so on.

Interestingly enough, I was at the London book fair yesterday, and I went to the Hachette stand (Gollancz owners) and asked if there was any news, said I was willing to wait, did wait, and was told no one was available.

Today the confirmation comes out...

I'd like to think that the appearance of someone asking at the stand prompted them to actually tell people what the score was, but I'll never know on that score, I said yesterday that I'd have been happier finding out yesterday in person rather than two months later on a card, today, I'm at least released from the wait, and my spirits are lighter as a result.

It's the waiting that kills us, not the refusal...

Understand me when I say that in my heart (as in the heart of all writers), I didn't believe I'd get through, but there's still the gleam of hope within, and to be told that you could have been getting on with things rather than hoping that things could be on the way, well, it's a sharp taste of life.

I'm not discouraged, I still write every day, and now I can submit the books to others, because while I was thinking there was a chance gollancz would want it, I didn't, because the last thing a large publisher wants to hear is that you sold it to someone else while they were looking through it.

So two of the books that I'm most proud of stayed sealed for fourteen months...

And that's down to me and I know it...

No more...

Be aware all agents, there are submissions coming your way now, and if you want them, don't wait, because you're not the only one's who've got them now...