Category: reading

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Cover Reveal for the New Austerley & Kirkgordon Adventure

Generally the third one is the hardest to do in a sequence. Bowlers taking on the batsmen for that elusive hat-trick realise there are many more 2 wickets in a row hauls than hat-tricks. There are plenty more strikers who score twice in a game than three times. Only in golf is there more three putts than two putts.

However I think my artist Jake (Jake’s website) has managed to pull this one off. He has taken the elements of the previous covers (the shadows of our heroes, the 60s B-movie titles and the centre piece of the main enemy) and changed the colours away from the previous dark tones. Yet there still remain the promise of threat and evil.

The story this time is taking us to an unknown land and central to the story is a large temple that is seen on the cover along with our old friend Dagon. Entitled Dagon’s revenge, I feel I’m not letting any of the story slip away too freely by stating this.

If you haven’t read any of the story so far you can get a starter for free by clicking on either of the books below and joining my newsletter for further updates. You’ll receive an eBook in return and be kept up to date with new books and many offers.

Look out for the new book Dagon’s Revenge prior to Christmas!

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How to relax

how to relax

Are you feeling like you are in a manic version of a game show, balancing all the pieces without letting them go crashing to the floor? It’s funny because many of us are facing that in life. My day job of being a Coastguard is at its busy season and I’m finding myself pretty tired when I find time to write. How to relax enough to concentrate on writing a book can be hard sometimes. Similarly, the sort of book we like to read to relax doesn’t always have the most relaxing storyline.

What sort of story relaxes you?

The contrast between how we like life to be and how we want our books to be can be stark. I’m often told my novels kick off at a sprint and pick up the pace after that. Messer’s Austerley and Kirkgordon are constantly on the move, battling unknown entities here and leaping through portals. It is strange how to relax we like to see others involved in physical exertion. Wimb ledon springs to mind, crowds sitting lapping up the sun with their hand-made fans while two gladiators battle it out, sweating profusely.

How to relax with dignity!

Deacon Blue in their song “Dignity” talk about quietly sailing a boat up the west coast of Scotland watching others “doing the rounds.” It’s a strange human quirk that in order to relax we like to know that others are busy. We sure are cruel sometimes. But please relax away and enjoy the horror and mess that my characters’ lives become. I’ll not tell anyone you’re being cruel!

If you haven’t tried an Austerley and Kirkgordon adventure yet then let Footsteps tempt you. Or you can find out more about the series and what’s coming next on my A&K page.

I’d love to know what sort of book you like to read to relax. Why not share your relaxing reads with us in a comment?

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What is it With Covers?

When you go hunting for a book, do you judge a book by its cover? And if so, in what way. I’m a self-publisher and so covers are important to me as they are the first line of attack in amongst a mass of books of reaching my audience. But I have a dilemma. Is the cover I like, the cover I want and which I think best suits my book, the cover that will draw the audience?

In short, no!

If there is a cover that is unusual, wacky or just downright weird, I’ll probably pick a book up and read the synopsis. The natural assumption in my mind is that everyone else will do the same. The trouble is that I always assume I am normal. Well in taste, though my wife happily points out quite often(too often!) that I am not normal in most things. The grapefruit yoghurt with mushrooms incident is a common example she quotes. Alas some people do not like adventure! (By the way my son keeps pointing at the cover above and saying “Mum-ma”. He has many people fooled.)

And so it would seem with books. Readers seem to want a book to have a cover that is similar to something they liked or know is already popular. Thrillers these days tend to have someone in shadow on the front, especially thrillers about gunmen or agents. Others go for the title in large lettering and some sort of fast motion behind it. And then there’s romance which has varying levels of couples in arms, fully dressed but big loving smiles for the gentle romance and naked but very carefully positioned bodies for the erotic tales.

I get what is going on but in honesty I feel very sad about it. Not that it will stop me following suit. To not do so as a newbie author would be story suicide. So expect my upcoming novels to reflect the genre. It’s all marketing these days alas.

I once bought a book by Clive James based on the cover called “Cultural Amnesia”. Simple but intriguing, I sought out what was inside. It remains to this day one of my favourite books. And yet I doubt I would have ever have read it if someone had simply said to me it was a collection of short essays about people of our time. I owe a debt to that artist.

And isn’t this a life lesson. Sometimes we need to go with the flow for good and solid reasons. But you know what, we don’t have to like it.