When did it start?
My urge to write started when I was at school, the book which made the big impression on me was The Silver Sword. Since those days, I have had an urge to be a writer -- I had a long wait -- 52 years ago, I had the dreams. It wasn't until 2010 that I finally had the time to think about writing, and devoting time to my art. At this time I was bed-bound having torn the Achilles tendon in my left ankle, and found myself with time on my hands, as I don't watch TV very often.
Praised.
In the year I wrote Old Church Ghosts, I sent my friend Emma, a story I thought she might be interested in publishing. Although Emma never published To Elfenmere http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007XX5LVU she did praise it highly for its Medieval feel, which is a great compliment coming form a lady with a BA in Medieval Studies. This short story will soon be included in my new work Mordhiemicus.
The early ghost stories.
I started to write stories for three friends, with no intention of doing anything further. After a year of sending them my early ghost stories, I was coaxed into sending a story to Vintage Script magazine, at the time run by my friend Emma Oram (BA). My first published story -Old Church Ghosts - appeared on a Halloween special on line page at the magazine for a week, then disappeared. It is now available in the Special Edition http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H4F38AI . The church on the cover is the church in the story. To close friends, this story is referred to as THAT story, the reason being I have never liked it. One of the reasons for this is both the early stories were a lot longer, and I felt I was doing my readers an injustice. The Ghost of St. Mary's http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ERVQA9I has gone on to be my most best selling ghost story in the UK, while The Rocking Lantern http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ESMZW04 has yet to open its account.
Old Church Ghosts also appears in one of the books I helped write for our charity The Peacock Writers.We are a mixed group of writers/designers, and editors who write for various children's charities.
Early life and my work.
I was born in Yorkshire, and spent many lovely summers on the coast near Scarborough. This area features in my award winning http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BEDMSO , a book which had a great review from NY reviewer Fran Lewis. The sequel http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BO04Y20 is described as a harrowing account of a man having a nervous breakdown, by my editor. I need to warn you, the sequel gave me bad dreams for weeks when I wrote the original story.
In the same year - 2012 - Chronicles won the award from indiePENdents.org, I had another story come third in a Facebook writing contest. Sea Ghosts http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007QERF2E is a ghost story based on the life of a real Yorkshire pirate called John Andrew.
A lot of my family were fishermen, and it is to them I dedicated my ghost romance A Sailor's Love http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ODE4GIG I describe the book as a mix of the mystery of The Flying Dutchman, the romance of Wuthering Heights, and the honesty and devotion of Peter Grimes. The book does have some explicitly erotic moments, but the themes are more spiritual love, than erotica.
Draft2Digital
This year I moved my main wok from Amazon to Draft2Digital, their link to Barnes & Noble http://alsdomain.weebly.com/barnes--noble.html#.VEr5PCLF_Hs has proved a godsend for me as my Sci-Fi series http://alsdomain.weebly.com/forgestriker---the-hit-series.html has sold over 80 books since February. To give you a comparison, my top book at Amazon - Holding Richmond - has sold 38 copies in three years. Forgestriker - the book - passed that total in only two and a half months on B&N, and is only two sales from 50.
There were many reason for my move, not the least is the constant trouble changing covers for my books. On D2D, and Kobo, if I change a cover the work is done in an hour, on Amazon I have to unload the book, then reload the complete package. Even then I usually end up with two versions of the book. I use Amazon mainly for doing covers, and only then because I can't afford to pay a designer, which is why most of my covers are from my photo albums.
The Forgestriker series has sold over 180 e-books, and Forgestriker (the book) has sold over 80 copies.
My current WIPs include an extension of the seven book series with a new beginning, and a thrilling ending. I am also writing two stories to link in with the series, and extending my ghost romance-hopefully into a full novel.
My urge to write started when I was at school, the book which made the big impression on me was The Silver Sword. Since those days, I have had an urge to be a writer -- I had a long wait -- 52 years ago, I had the dreams. It wasn't until 2010 that I finally had the time to think about writing, and devoting time to my art. At this time I was bed-bound having torn the Achilles tendon in my left ankle, and found myself with time on my hands, as I don't watch TV very often.
Praised.
In the year I wrote Old Church Ghosts, I sent my friend Emma, a story I thought she might be interested in publishing. Although Emma never published To Elfenmere http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007XX5LVU she did praise it highly for its Medieval feel, which is a great compliment coming form a lady with a BA in Medieval Studies. This short story will soon be included in my new work Mordhiemicus.
The early ghost stories.
I started to write stories for three friends, with no intention of doing anything further. After a year of sending them my early ghost stories, I was coaxed into sending a story to Vintage Script magazine, at the time run by my friend Emma Oram (BA). My first published story -Old Church Ghosts - appeared on a Halloween special on line page at the magazine for a week, then disappeared. It is now available in the Special Edition http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H4F38AI . The church on the cover is the church in the story. To close friends, this story is referred to as THAT story, the reason being I have never liked it. One of the reasons for this is both the early stories were a lot longer, and I felt I was doing my readers an injustice. The Ghost of St. Mary's http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ERVQA9I has gone on to be my most best selling ghost story in the UK, while The Rocking Lantern http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ESMZW04 has yet to open its account.
Old Church Ghosts also appears in one of the books I helped write for our charity The Peacock Writers.We are a mixed group of writers/designers, and editors who write for various children's charities.
Early life and my work.
I was born in Yorkshire, and spent many lovely summers on the coast near Scarborough. This area features in my award winning http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BEDMSO , a book which had a great review from NY reviewer Fran Lewis. The sequel http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BO04Y20 is described as a harrowing account of a man having a nervous breakdown, by my editor. I need to warn you, the sequel gave me bad dreams for weeks when I wrote the original story.
In the same year - 2012 - Chronicles won the award from indiePENdents.org, I had another story come third in a Facebook writing contest. Sea Ghosts http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007QERF2E is a ghost story based on the life of a real Yorkshire pirate called John Andrew.
A lot of my family were fishermen, and it is to them I dedicated my ghost romance A Sailor's Love http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ODE4GIG I describe the book as a mix of the mystery of The Flying Dutchman, the romance of Wuthering Heights, and the honesty and devotion of Peter Grimes. The book does have some explicitly erotic moments, but the themes are more spiritual love, than erotica.
Draft2Digital
This year I moved my main wok from Amazon to Draft2Digital, their link to Barnes & Noble http://alsdomain.weebly.com/barnes--noble.html#.VEr5PCLF_Hs has proved a godsend for me as my Sci-Fi series http://alsdomain.weebly.com/forgestriker---the-hit-series.html has sold over 80 books since February. To give you a comparison, my top book at Amazon - Holding Richmond - has sold 38 copies in three years. Forgestriker - the book - passed that total in only two and a half months on B&N, and is only two sales from 50.
There were many reason for my move, not the least is the constant trouble changing covers for my books. On D2D, and Kobo, if I change a cover the work is done in an hour, on Amazon I have to unload the book, then reload the complete package. Even then I usually end up with two versions of the book. I use Amazon mainly for doing covers, and only then because I can't afford to pay a designer, which is why most of my covers are from my photo albums.
The Forgestriker series has sold over 180 e-books, and Forgestriker (the book) has sold over 80 copies.
My current WIPs include an extension of the seven book series with a new beginning, and a thrilling ending. I am also writing two stories to link in with the series, and extending my ghost romance-hopefully into a full novel.