The permanence of destruction

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I don’t really write posts about politics. Or religion. Mainly because I think that everyone should be allowed to live as they wish as long as they don’t hurt anyone else in the process. But sitting here tonight, having read the news about the destruction of Palmyra, I feel compelled to write something. Not because I have anything profound to say, or because I believe I have answers, but because I feel so disappointed.

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Credit Photograph by JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty

Most things, once they are gone, never come back. I find it hard to believe that there are religious grounds for this kind of thing. I’m happy for someone to provide me with a convincing argument, but for now, it seems like the destruction is simply for the sake of it.

I write because I think there is an unfathomable darkness in humans. I would rather explore it on the page than in reality. Yet there is no denying that when people of a similar mindset come together, that darkness can multiply quickly. That the legitimisation of evil, of inhumanity and a disregard for history or culture, once it happens, makes people feel instantly free to give into that darkness.

After all, the legitimisation of the persecution of minorities in Germany led to the Holocaust. At the end of it, what happened to that nation? Ordinary people who behaved in ways they surely would never have imagined, but because the people who led them said it was okay, then it became okay. How did they feel? The world got together as World War Two came to an end and said this must never happen again.

The world lied.

 

 

Normal Service Resumes

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Last week was just a whirlwind of stuff. Seriously, I felt like I ran flat out through the week with flailing muppet arms. There was no time for playing around on social media, no blogpost time scheduled and definitely no going to the gym.

I was up against a deadline that happened to coincide with an already heavily scheduled calendar. Happily, normal life resumes today as I handed over the story yesterday so now it sits in the laps of the gods*.

I’ve deliberately now given myself two weeks of downtime. I’ll be doing NaNoWriMo again this year and I know I won’t fit in a full length project between now and then. Instead of seeing this as frustrating, I am seeing it a blessing. It will give me a chance to get the business side of life up straight (yay – taxes) as well as work on those smaller pieces that somehow always get pushed onto the back burner.

It will soon be time to think about what to even write for NaNo. Hopefully the downtime will free that creative space back up in my brain and I can come up with something that will engage me to plough through a disciplined 50,000 words before I go on a mini-sabbatical at the end of November.

Now that part of things I am really looking forward to.

 

 

*may be a mild overstatement

I might have to use robots

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Why might I have to use them, I hear you ask? I can say you, because stats indicate that you’re probably alone while you’re reading this.

I’ve been trying a little experiment to push the boundaries of my writing. It’s just to keep my mind feeling fresh while other things – more stressful and demanding things – steal much of my creative energy. So, as always, I have a few little side projects going for fun. One of which is to plan a short story, nothing longer than novella in length, and start writing it. I’m a planner by nature, so I’m cruising along in my comfort zone here. Which is where the robots come in.

I don’t write sci-fi. I don’t read sci-fi. So what better way to force myself to be creative than to throw in a problem I not only don’t know how to solve, but also know very little about.

Hence robots.

Don’t worry, I’ve got no intention of AI infiltrating my urban fantasies or crime stories. No-one is going to be killed by the robot. This isn’t an episode of Castle. But hopefully I’ll have a little bit of fun doing it, maybe learn something new, and then come back to those other projects with a different state of mind.

So ask yourself, do you need robots?

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Do LGBT readers expect explicit content?

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It is clear to see when you do a simple search of any LGBT eBook category that the first few pages of book titles include a generous serving of the steamier side of life. Seriously, you only need to look at those covers to know what’s going on between them.

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Which then led to an interesting conversation with friends: do LGBT readers expect explicit content? Is that what they’re there for, or is it just a given within the genre and no one is at all surprised when it happens?

I have a few thoughts about this, given that my own books don’t contain explicit content (yet it has been requested, so there is obviously a market). I wonder, sometimes, if  actually the assumption is somewhat based on that old stereotyping – that the gay is all about the sex. Gay men certainly suffer from this perception more than lesbians, hence the oft-held belief that they can’t be in a long term relationship and will hump anything that also has a penis.

Are we still in the stages of infancy with the genre so books with gay characters are all about the gayness rather than plot? If so, this automatically leads into somewhat dodgy ground. It is difficult to demand greater visibility but without giving characters same depth and multi-facetedness. Romance is one thing, but other genres?

Let’s face it, sex sells. It doesn’t matter what kind of sex you’re into, it’s still enough of a taboo to  generate intrigue, and the anonymity of eBooks makes for fertile ground. After a perceived drought for LGBT readers it’s no great surprise that explicit content is in high demand.

So, is the LGBT eBook market just moving with the dynamics of supply and demand? Do the readers merely accept the content or are they actively seeking it out? If anyone has the answers then I would genuinely love to know. I’ve tried to make diverse characters who are more than just their sexuality, or their race, or their social background. But I suspect that I’d probably shift more sales if there was a bit more laborious breathing and references to bodily fluids in that first 10% taste you get for free.

Bonus points and apologies if you’ve spotted all the sex puns scattered throughout.

Learning to juggle

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I’m not talking literal juggling, obviously. My hand / eye coordination isn’t good enough for that any more. Fun fact: I actually used to juggle for stress relief at university. I was way ahead of all the personal development gurus on that one.balls

So, there are a couple of exciting things going on at the moment and like many things in life, it is the ones you are not expecting that have the biggest impact. It’s like when you’ve learned to juggle three balls and then someone throws in a fourth just before you feel fully comfortable with what you’re doing. You either have to up your game really quickly or you end up dropping them all.

Writing is like that most of the time for me. I have multiple projects going on in multiple fields. Jumping from one to the other is a brain challenge, as well as being physically exhausting. I know I’m lucky – I’m still in the fledgling stages where I can still make mistakes because I refuse to give up the financial security of a full time paid position. But that does mean when I did some basic calculations earlier in the week, when you include all the time spent on writing (both actual creative stuff and then all the less exciting stuff that goes with it) I average a 70 hour week.

I’m nothing special. It’s not even something just authors go through – all entrepreneurs do at some stage, no matter how much the follow your dream message gets glamorised. Learning to juggle your life is one skill you need to master along the way.

As a result, my planned time for structural edits of the next book following Blood Inheritance have had to go on the back burner. Luckily for me, I’d built in some extra fallback time, so it doesn’t impact yet on my planned 2016 release schedule. Luckily, of all the indie publishing hats I wear, project management comes to me the easiest. After the actual damn writing, of course, but the more you want to write, the less writing you actually do. Oh universe, you’re so funny like that, aren’t you?

 

Promo Time! The Crochet Killer

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To celebrate A Taste To Die For being released and still feeling flush with the joys of vacation, The Crochet Killer is now on offer.

I’m running an Amazon kindle promotion so you can get the first book in the Teddie McKay series at a nicely reduced price. If you’ve noticed A Taste To Die For but haven’t wanted to jump in at the second book, now is the perfect chance to try before you buy!

Crochet Killer CoverStill not convinced? Remember you can download a free sample, but be sure to buy before the price goes back up (I hate forgetting and then ending up with a significantly higher credit card bill than I thought, but even at full price, this is only a couple of dollars for now. Regular pricing resumes in October!)

 

A break is as good as a rest!

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As I begin to wrap up my vacation time, I’ll be sad to leave the holiday feeling behind. Yet I know that it has been as essential as it has been fun.

My notebook has new ideas in it, as well as some amendments to existing projects. Sometimes, physical distance can allow you to see things with new eyes. For example, the Lazarus Hunter series has been fairly well plotted to the end for quite some time now. The first three books are completed and book four is down on the list as one of my next writing projects (I’d love to do it sooner, but I have other commitments which are stopping me). Yet a missing piece of conflict that I needed has been elusive up until now.

With nothing to think about, this piece finally snuck up on me and smacked me between the eyes.

So I will be returning from my break with a renewed sense of enthusiasm. I love writing, but my life is like balancing three full time jobs sometimes. My creativity can stutter if I don’t take a break every now and again. When I do, it is worth every penny, both in literal money and also time.

I’ve not got any C K Martin books planned for the release for the rest of this year. I’ve not tracked the sales of A Taste To Die For while I’ve been on vacation, because I’ve not wanted the time to be about number watching, no matter how addictive it can be.

So I can go into the last third of the year feeling more relaxed about what I still need to do. I know one thing that people have wanted in the Teddie McKay books is a little bit more lovin’ for Teddie. As neither books in the series are romances, it didn’t feel right at any point to put a good sex scene in, not without it feeling entirely gratuitous. So I’m playing around with an idea for a short story to let the woman get a bit of action. It would need to be fun for everyone (including me) to make it work.

So, despite saying there’d be no more publications this year, part of me is already thinking never say never…

 

Travel: Why it is essential to a writer

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So, with the release of A Taste To Die For complete, I have indulged myself with a little bit of a vacation. In return for the months of hard work on this (and numerous other projects), I am giving myself sand, sun, sea and wine. Maybe even a cocktail or two.

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Not only because I quite like the idea of a treat and a reward, but also because I believe that travel is essential to every writer.

It doesn’t have to be exotic, or extravagant like this. It just needs to be somewhere new. This goes for if you are an aspiring author, a traditionally published author or an indie author. New places are vital for creativity.

It’s just the same as books. You would never read the same five books over and over again in isolation and expect to grow. Overseas travel is great for seeing the world with new eyes. There are different cultures, languages, customs and, of course, food, which can all be incorporated into your writing in some way.

Yet it’s also possible to achieve the same result without going too far from home. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, there is every chance that a local town or city is within a couple of hours drive away. I’ve come to look for the unfamiliar in things; each town will have something about it that makes it unique. Travel is essential to finding that little gem and unlocking the creativity.

On top of that, it is the perfect opportunity for me to lavish some time on my significantly better half, who has heard nothing but book release talk for the past year. Of course, I’ll still have a notebook to hand, ready to capture any interesting nugget that comes into view from the other side of the cocktail umbrella….

It’s Finally HERE! The next Teddie McKay

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I’m so happy to be able to say that the next book in the Teddie McKay Series, A Taste To Die For, is finally published!

This book finds Teddie a year after we left her. The aftermath of The Crochet Killer case is starting to fade and life is beginning to get back to normal. Hell, it’s almost starting to feel enjoyable. The late summer heat is lingering and the hottest new show in reality TV has come to town.

But 15 minutes of fame comes with a price. Teddie finds herself once again heading up a high profile case, where sex, politics and celebrity become entangled. This time she’s trying to keep her personal life out of the spotlight too, but it seems like other people have a different idea…

A Taste To Die For

 

Buy A Taste To Die For on Amazon kindle (or here for UK customers)

Cover Reveal! A Taste To Die For

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This is a moment I’ve been looking forward to sharing for absolutely ages. It’s time to reveal the cover of my next novel, A Taste To Die For, the second book in the Teddie McKay series. Without further ado, here it is!

A Taste To Die ForThere is so much I love about this cover. It is a bit brighter than the one for The Crochet Killer, which is just fine. This book itself is lighter in many ways, so that reflects it well. Yet, right there at the bottom, there is that hint of darkness.

I’ve made it no secret that the cover is my least favourite part of the indie publishing side of things. I prefer when someone else comes up with the visual concept. Despite my love of words, I struggle to get the artistic description across when I want a cover made for me. This one has turned out almost exactly as I had envisaged it, with minimal effort. Which is just the way I like things. It allows me to focus on the writing side of life, which is much more preferable.

So why A Taste To Die For? Let’s just say, this book has a food theme. The die for bit should be fairly self explanatory, with it being a crime book and all.

Now it’s just three more days until publication! Then I’ll be sitting back with a large glass of merlot and celebrating another book leaving home. It’s the end of the summer, after all.