50 Stores in 50 Days

I am finishing off the proof-reader pages for Wall Of Spears, the final book in the Empire Of Bones trilogy, which will be at the printers before Christmas, ready for a February 2014 release.
That means it is time to start thinking about a big tour to celebrate the end of the series.
And this is going to be a big tour!
I'll be hitting 50 stores in 50 days, from Brisbane to Sydney to Canberra to Melbourne to Hobart to Adelaide to Perth - and maybe a few others as well!
But I need your help.
Are there stores near you that I have or haven't visited?
Is the Gold Coast a better option than say Port Macquarie or Coffs Harbour? Is Geelong worth a visit? How about south of Perth?
Have I met you at a store before or would you like to have a chat and get a signed copy (or some previous books signed as well?)
Let me know and I'll do my best to get there in February or March next year.
Hope to see you there!

Music to write to

I write on the train, so an iPod is an essential - even if the Quiet Carriages have helped reduce the number of inane conversations that threaten to drown the creative process in a sea of sludge.
In between edits on Wall Of Spears, I have started a new series ... which hopefully will see bookshelves in a year or two!
When I am writing, I do try to tap into certain songs to trigger emotions that, I feel, add a little more to writing.
So, here's a few songs I'm listening to and a few of the lyrics that are resonating with me right now.
As I have said before, that might not be the meaning the lyricist intended. That doesn't matter. What matters is how it makes YOU feel and what you get out of it.
Some of this will be coming out in the new series ...
Boy And Bear - Southern Sun:
``You see, I'm not gonna wait until the ending,
cause I got the burning fire in there, in my soul''.
Linkin Park - Castle Of Glass:
``take me down to the river bend
Take me down to the fighting end
Wash the poison from off my skin
Teach em how to be whole again''.
Imagine Dragons - It's Time:
``Now don;t you understand
I'm never changing who I am''.
Plus there's Wasting My Time by Default, Tell Me How It Ends by Bernard Fanning and Trembling Hands by The Temper Trap.
Even if they're not affecting your writing, check them out anyway!

The death of the book - it's been greatly exaggerated

One of my Saxon warrior friends asked me my thoughts on the Death Of The Book. My first instinct was to say: Never! Then I added a few more thoughts ...

 

 

Is the book dead, or dying?

Well, reports of its death have been drastically exaggerated.

It’s true that book sales are generally down – for instance, even with the surge of interest for Game of Thrones, Australian fantasy sales are down roughly 10%.

But there are other reasons for that, including the loss of many specialist bookshops and the general retail slowdown. People are saving their pennies for a rainy day, rather than spending them and that’s true across every retail category.

Secondly, are we talking about physical books or are we including eBooks? Because if we include eBooks then the numbers are certainly not down. People are downloading free eBooks in huge numbers – and buying eBooks in respectable numbers as well.

Certainly there will be a degree of migration across to eBooks from the traditional format. As well as being cheaper, the available range of eBooks is much greater. Stores cannot carry the massive number of titles released each year, let alone those previously published. With the collapse of Borders and Angus & Robertson, the day of the massive bookshop is over.

So, albeit in a different format, the book will never die.

But there is plenty of hope for the traditional book as well. Retail will recover – it is the cyclical nature of things. People will begin making more discretionary purchases again, rather than essentials.

Above all, there is a hunger for reading. Whether it is fantasy, autobiography, fiction or high literature, people enjoy losing themselves in a book. I go out to stores and find people excited to meet an author and eager to talk about books.

The emphasis on children reading is, if anything, even stronger than before. And there are more children’s books being released, encouraging boys and other reluctant readers to keep reading for pleasure.

As these children get older, they will see reading as less of a leisure activity and more of an essential.

Reading opens our eyes and expands our minds and the emphasis placed on it in schools will only help the industry.

For the next 10-20 years they will be doing that mainly with real books but, no matter what format they are reading, no matter what eReader or tablet or device not yet invented they choose, the book will go on.

The Gutenberg Press is widely credited with helping inspire the Renaissance and dragging Europe out of the dark ages.

If the book ever died, that is where we would return.

My top 10 tips for rewriting and editing your book

As I finish off the copy edit for Wall of Spears, I was asked if I had any advice for budding authors who are trying to get their work ready for submission.

As sending in your book far too early is a crime that every author is guilty of, here's my top 10 tips for rewiring and editing.

 

 

1)      Re-read until you are absolutely sick of reading your work and feel you must hurl something out of a window. Then do it once more.

2)      Try to add layers each time you go through the book. One rewrite can be totally from the perspective of a particular main character. Then go back and rewrite from all the other characters’ perspectives, taking into account the changes you have made.

3)      Isolate the minor characters. Pull out all the sections featuring one of them and copy into a separate document. Read that and see if they are consistent/interesting/important to the story. Makes changes if you have to.

4)      Try and write over your word limit. Put in everything you can. It doesn’t matter if not all of it works, you can trim it out later. But working through a manuscript you know is 10-20,000 words over the limit forces you to be ruthless with every sentence.

5)      Use CTRL+F to check on repeated words. I fall into the trap of using words such as roared, groaned, grumbled far too much. CRTL+F finds all those instances. It can be surprising and a little horrifying to see how many times you’ve used a certain word. And it highlights times when you’ve used it 2-3 occasions on the same page – another no-no.

6)      Check your chapter spacing. When you’re moving stuff around, you can have very long chapters sometimes. Trim and/or break into two.

7)      Stop and think about plot. Is it logical? Is there another way for the action to move forwards? Have you got internal as well as external conflict?

8)      Stop and think and characters. Are they behaving consistently. Are you forcing them to do things they normally wouldn’t? Or, worse, are they justifying themselves endlessly?

9)      Put the computer away for a fortnight. Keep a pad by your bed instead to make notes as your brain works through things.

10)   Be ruthless with subplots. If they’re not working, ditch them.

Bridge Of Swords Book Trailer

A cheeky Wall Of Spears spoiler ... or is it?

Here's a little puzzler for you ... one of these three scenarios DOES happen in Wall Of Spears.
Can you guess which one?
And which one would you most want to see?
All of them are possible, all are plausible - but only one actually happens.
Sadly, don't expect me to give any honest answers on this one, because you'll just have to wait until February, when Wall Of Spears is out, to find out for sure!

1) Asami vs Rhiannon in a smack-down magic fight
2) Sendatsu vs Gaibun in a no-holds-barred sword fight
3) Retsu vs Jaken in a bloody fight to the death


And there will definitely be no hints as to who wins any of these!

Back page blurb for Wall Of Spears

Now this may not be the absolutely finished version but HarperCollins said they loved it, so I think it'll be pretty close!
Please, let me know what you think:

It is time to decide who will rule the lands and control the magic. Will it be Forland, with its lust for bloody conquest. Will it be Dokuzen, with its dreams of a slave empire, or will it be Vales, armed only with Rhiannon and her magic - and the truth about why the rulers of Dokuzen claim to be elves.

Into this mix comes Sendatsu. Rejected by his true love, hated by his father, hunted by his former best friend, he now burns with the desire to build a better world for his children.

Betrayal follows lies follows more betrayal as the true power behind the vicious struggle is revealed. The fate of all the lands rests on a sword's edge...