Cover Reveal: Dragons of Dunmoray

 Today I am delighted to share with you - the cover of Dragons of Dunmoray!

And I am now officially open to ARC (Advanced Review Copy) signups - so if you are interested in joining my review team please signup below.

Dragons of Dunmoray ARC signup form

The Dragons are Coming

 

I have a new novel in the pipeline, a dark fantasy set in Scotland. I'll be telling you more in the coming weeks, so watch out for my cover reveal! Not long to go now!

Marketing Red Rock – a plan for promotion

I don’t intend doing a great deal of marketing and promotion for Red Rock. This is a re-release and in my mind it’s already had its day. But rather than simply press publish and leave it there to gather dust, I’ve decided to do a few things to give it a boost. It will be interesting to see which, if any of these, result in an uptick in sales.

1. Author social media accounts, twitter, Instagram, other? In the end I decided to set up an author Instagram account. I then generated a set of promotional graphics using Midjourney and Canva which I will publish to this account at regular intervals.

2. Run a giveaway. (Unfortunately Goodreads only allows this for US authors so I will run it from my author IG account and try to boost on Twitter) The giveaway will be for an e-copy – that way I can run it internationally. It might be good though to have some additional swag or a prize to make it more interesting. The easiest thing for me to offer is a chapter critique.

3. Countdown deals on Kindle Unlimited. I could offer it free or at 99p  to coincide with a special event such Earth day.

4. Review copies. Offer review copies in various ‘groups’ I belong to in the hope that they will enjoy it and give it a boost.

5. Participate in indie author events eg #indieapril on twitter

I will report back on these and what effects they have, which appear to be the most useful, and which don’t appear to make any difference to sales. This will be useful for me when I come to self publish my next book, which won’t be a re-release. The next one will be something new.

Literally Sand!

Who would have thought that I would find myself taking part in an author event at Sand Sculpture Festival, but last weekend that is exactly what happened.

Sandsculpture is a feature of many seaside towns and in Weymouth, Dorset the sand is particularly fine and the sculptures of an exceptionally high standard. There have been sandsculptures on Weymouth beach since the 1920s but four years ago the sculptures were brought together under one roof to form the sand sculpture park that is Sandworld.

This year Sandworld’s sculptures are themed around books and authors, and the sand artists have been working hard to bring your favourite characters to life – from Moby Dick to Alice in Wonderland, Charles Dickens rubbing shoulders with Tolkien – but this stunning Warhorse sculpture has to be my favourite. Who cannot feel moved by the tenderness shown between horse and boy?

 

In order to celebrate the Grand Opening of this fantastic sand sculpture festival, five local authors were invited along. Kit Berry cut the ribbon and declared us open and we took turns giving readings to spellbound audiences.

We were given out own special authors area where we set up our books while the sandworld staff kept us supplied with coffee and burgers. In fact I can speak for us all if I say that we had a really lovely day. But enough words. I’ll let the following pictures speak for me.

The author area

Carol Hunt introduces us to the Portland Mermaid

The five local authors, Myself, Carol Hunt, Kit Berry, Kathy Sharpe and Laura James

A young fan asks Kit Berry to sign her book

Moby Dick - note how the waves form the pages of a book!

Prose Cafe with Moish Sokal

Last nights Prose Café at the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil was a talk by watercolour artist Moish Sokal. Here he is discussing one of his paintings with Liz.

His paintings are quite stunning, but what really interested me was the way his craft had developed. He showed us examples of his early work (which looked excellent to my untrained eye) and then described some of the different things he had tried. But what was so interesting was the way that each of these phases in his painting life went on to contribute to the paintings he is producing today.

In a way this is analogous to the way we writers develop our craft. We may experiment with something new, and then move on, but what we have learned all contributes to our craft.

And of course it never stops. What will Moish be painting in ten years time? What will I be writing?

Anyway, Moish has an exhibition of his art opening on the First of June so if you are in the Somerset area it will be well worth a visit. There are details on Miosh’s website here. I will certainly be going along!

Hanging My Bithell

Today I finally got round to hanging ‘Last Light over Charmouth’, the oil on canvas by artist Stephen Bithell, that I bought during Dorset Arts Weeks.

It’s a beautiful seascape, capturing that calm of the evening that reminds me so much of the days before we had children, when we used to go diving, straight after work. As the light faded and the sea assumed the calm of a summer’s evening, still buzzing from the dive and clutching a bag of scallops or a couple of crabs, we would turn Fast Reactor back towards the Cove where she had her mooring, and the cliffs of Bats Head or Warbarrow Tout would be lit with that same quality of light that Steve captures so magnificently in his paintings.