Years Now Available on Amazon

Hi all,

On Tuesday, Years was published on Amazon in ebook, paperback and hardcover! This is the first book launch that I’ve done where all three came out on the same date and I think it went well. If you want to check Years out, you can do so below:

What would you sacrifice to save the world?

In the future one thing keeps the entire planet going, the Gaia Machine. The only problem is that it feeds on the life force of people to run. This has led to certain people being born with the Gaia Gene, the ability to go into the machine for a full fifty-year cycle without fear of aging.

Cheyenne Meekai has the Gaia Gene and whether she wants to or not she’s going to have to save the world, but it might cost her everything in the process. The years served in the machine fly by for the person inside but outside life moves on, meaning when she gets out everyone she knows will either be elderly or dead.

Fifty years is a long time especially when you’re only sixteen, can she save the world and still have some sort of life, or will the demands of the Gaia Machine be more than she can handle?

Find out in this exciting Young Adult Science Fiction novel that will be sure to keep you reading every page until the very end.

That's it for this week, if you read (or have already read) Years then I hope you enjoy it! See you next week.

PS; looking for some new books to read this Easter? Check out the ones in these bundles:

Science Fiction Is For Free

Young Adult Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Taking to the Sky This Easter

2021 Year in Review

Hi all,

As with last year, I’m going to give you the run down of 2021! Some goals I hit, while others I didn’t get anywhere near. My mental health has suffered a lot this past year and I’m hoping that 2022 will be better for me.

Write three books.

If I manage to finish Street Rats by the end of the year, I would have written five! The ones that I have written are:

Curse of Anubis #2: Limbo.

Curse of Anubis #3: Middle.

Curse of Anubis #4: Dual.

Street Rats.

Original Elementals #1: Frostbite.

Plan nine more Elemental Dragons books.

I’ve managed to plot out all of the books in the series, and I’ve written the first book! In a few weeks time I will start writing Elemental Dragons #2: Marine and I’m hoping to get it finished before April 2022 Camp NaNoWriMo.

Publish two books.

As promised, Elemental Dragons #4: Cinder and Fire was published in April and Mute was published in October.

Create and publish the Elemental Dragons boxset.

This was published in July, and I didn’t realise how tricky it was going to be! Combining four books into one took a lot of work and formatting to make sure everything was in the right place.

Get two covers designed.

Both Mute and Years got their covers designed. The cover for Years will be revealed in a few weeks. I also got a cover designed for Mute’s prequel, Famished.

Edit three books.

I only edited one book, Years. As I said before my mental health has been pretty low, especially towards the end of the year. And getting Years back from my editor took several blows out of my self-esteem, to the point where I still haven’t gone back through all of the edits now. It will be ready by April, but for a few weeks I wondered if continuing to publish books was the right thing.

Hire a sensitivity reader.

As I have only just started editing Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana myself, I haven’t had the chance to look through sensitivity readers. I’m hoping to get this done next year.

Write more short stories.

I have written a lot more short stories this year, one of which has been accepted into an anthology! This should be released next year, and I’ll keep you posted.

Write Curse of Anubis short story/novella.

I tried writing a few ideas I had but none of them seemed right so I’ve scrapped them. For now I’m focusing on the reader magnet for Years.

Read 30 books.

I’m not entirely sure how I did it, but I read 200 books! Due to the way I was feeling I dove into books to escape a lot more than I have in previous years. Hopefully I can continue to read more next year!

Participate in both Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo.

I joined both the April and July Camp NaNoWriMos and NaNoWriMo. I managed to get the first drafts finished for:

Curse of Anubis #3: Middle.

Curse of Anubis #4: Dual.

Original Elementals #1: Frostbite.

That’s it for this week! Next week I’ll talk about my goals for 2022! See you then.

PS; looking for some new books to read in the new year? Check out the ones in these bundles:

New Year, New Monsters 2: From the Ashes

New Year, New Worlds SF/F Giveaway

81 Words Flash Fiction Anthology

Hi all!

This week I wanted to inform you all of a new anthology that I have been published in: the 81 Words Flash Fiction Anthology. This anthology includes 1000 stories by 1000 authors, all 81 words long each. This anthology has been years in the making, but was published yesterday!

81 Words Flash Fiction Anthology
1,000 Stories by 1,000 Authors – A World Record Breaking Book

Profits from sales of this book go to the Arkbound Foundation…

…a charity that aims to widen access to literature and improve diversity within publishing by running projects that empower people from disadvantaged backgrounds and deprived communities to get their voices heard.

The 81 Words Flash Fiction Anthology contains 1,000 stories written by 1,000 authors who submitted their work to the 81 Words Writing Challenge run on Chris Fielden’s website. Each story is exactly 81 words in length.

The 81 Words Writing Challenge was created to raise awareness of the importance of careful editing, support authors, celebrate diversity and raise money for charity. Every story submitted to the challenge has been published so that writers can gain the experience of having their work edited and then see their stories distributed in print and eBook formats all over the planet.

The publication of this book has also set an unofficial world record for the most contributing authors published in an anthology. You can learn why it’s an ‘unofficial’ world record by reading the book’s introduction.  Profits generated by sales of this book are donated to the Arkbound Foundation.

This book was brought together thanks to Christopher Fielden, who has put together and published many anthologies. All of them raise money for various charities, and you can take a look here: Writing Challenges.

That’s it for this week, I hope you check out this anthology and support Chris! See you next week!

A New Gift for my Newsletter Subscribers

Hi all,

If you’re subscribed to my mailing list you may already know about this. But if you aren’t, Famished, the prequel novella to Mute, is now available to download!

You can only get this as a part of my mailing list, and it is completely free. This will not be sold anywhere else.

Violetta wants a chance to prove herself.

Yang wants to save his father.

Lunaris wants to stop the monster before it kills more people.

The three of them all have a goal that involves a wendigo, but each want different outcomes. Will Violetta get the chance to take her own life into her hands? Will Yang stop his father’s suffering? Will Lunaris stop the wendigo before it creates more?

When you sign up to my mailing list, you get a monthly newsletter filled with:

• Monthly News.

• Character Polls.

• Writing Excerpts.

• Cover Reveals.

• Free/Discounted Books and Book Bundles.

• Merch Giveaways.

Alongside Famished, you also get the Elemental Dragons Short Story Collection, which is also completely free!

That’s it for this week, if you sign up, let me know how you enjoyed the stories! see you next week.

PS; looking for some new books to read? Check out the ones in this bundle!

High Summer: August Fantasy & Science Fiction Giveaway

Elemental Dragons in a Physical Bookshop

Hi all,

This week I've got an announcement to make: a bookshop is now stocking paperback copies of all of the Elemental Dragons books!

This is a huge milestone for a self published author, as most bookshops won't even look at our books. I pitched quite a few bookshops last year, but got disheartened by the amount of negative responses. Due to publishing through Amazon, which is the biggest rival to bookshops, they weren't interested. After about a hundred pitches, some of which got extremely rude responses, I gave up. It was only when someone in my writing group mentioned that a new bookshop had opened that I decided to try again. I wasn't expecting anything to come of it, but they agreed to stock my books!

My books listed on the shop’s website

I'm glad that I've managed to hit another milestone in my author career. It's also quite surreal to see my book in a physical shop!

For the time being I'm not going to pitch to any more bookshops. The negative responses I got the first time round effected my anxiety, to the point where I didn't want to check my emails. I know that bookshops don't have to stock books they don't want to, but I think the rude responses were unnecessary.

I considered going through IngramSpark, as they have a high distribution rate with bookshops. The only issue I found is that it can be quite pricey just to set up one book on Ingram, let alone the four that I have. I've put that idea on hold until I decide whether the benefits will outweigh the costs.

If you want to check out the bookshop, you can do so here: Bookshop

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading, see you next week!

PS; looking for some new fantasy books? The ones in this bundle are FREE to download!

Dragon’s Lair

My Bookplate Design

Hi all!

This week I'm going to show you my new bookplates! If you're unsure of what a bookplate is, it's a sticker that you can put in a book to signify ownership or hold a signature from the author. In this case, I will be using them to sign and send to people who want signed copies of books. It will be my first official author merchandise, apart from my books, that is!

Without further ado, here it is:

I struggled for a while with the design, as I wanted something that represented me and my books. I considered a dragon, but I'm not planning on limiting myself to fantasy books. I also thought of a snow leopard, like the one used in my logo, but decided against that too. Eventually I picked a cat, as I think that represents me and my books best. Every book I wrote contains a cat and I knew it would be the perfect fit.

Who is the cat on the bookplate?

The cat is Russetheart, my Warrior Cats original character. I wanted to use a cat, but not just any cat. Warrior Cats is what really got me into writing, and I wrote so may stories about Russetheart. Her design has changed a lot over the years, but this is the one that I'm sticking with for now. She used to be a solid ginger, but now she's a dark ginger with white paws. She's long-haired, though started off as short-haired, with deep blue eyes. Although she'd been through a lot and was an outcast to most of her Clan, she's strong, ambitious and loyal. I knew she would be the perfect cat for my bookplate.

The signature will be above her, which is what she will be looking at.

You can find the artist here: Fiverr

What the bookplates look like when printed - each sticker is three inches big

I will be doing a giveaway of a few of these at some point, once I've figured out how best to package and ship them to avoid damage. I might do more bookplates in the future with different designs, maybe one for each genre I write in. For now, I'm more than pleased with using Russetheart to represent my work.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

I hope you enjoyed reading and are looking forward to the bookplate giveaway, see you next week!

Looking for some new fantasy books to read? Check out the ones in this bundle:

NEW YEARS HIGHS AND MYTHOLOGY

Want to Help me Design Characters?

Hi all!

This week I want to highlight my monthly newsletter once again - with a new interactive feature!

Every month I will post a character that my subscribers help me design.

This month, I ran a poll to decide what Maelstrom would look like, Marine’s dragon counterpart. My subscribers decided that she would be: a rare emerald green and white dragon with green eyes.

If you want to help me design more characters, you can sign up to my mailing list! You also get a free eNovella when you sign up!

The cover for the Elemental Dragons Short Story Collection, which can be downloaded free when signing up to my newsletter

For February’s newsletter, my subscribers will help me with the design of Frostbite, the dragon counterpart to Frost. Designing dragons will continue for another seven months after this, after that I will then be asking for help with designing other characters for different books.

If you would like to help me design characters, you can sign up for my mailing list here: Monthly Newsletter.

My newsletter doesn’t just contain dragon designs either! It also includes:

Monthly news.

Round-up of monthly blog posts.

Book swaps with other authors.

Book bundle promotions.

Writing excerpt.

Cover reveals.

If you are interested in signing up, again the link is here: Monthly Newsletter.

That’s it for this week, I hope to see you each month with my newsletter. See you next week!

PS: looking for some new books to add to your virtual bookshelf? Check out the ones in these book bundles:

Reading Treasures

New Year, New Monsters!

2020 Year in Review

Hi all!

Next week I'm going to write about my 2021 writing goals, so this week I thought I would look back on my writing goals of 2020!

Write two books

I've managed to write four books this year:

Celestial Plague #3: Purgatory

Years

Mute

Curse of Anubis #1: Halfway

Publish two books

Elemental Dragons #2: Venom and Earth and Elemental Dragons #3: Glass and Ice were both published this year, thanks to everyone who has read them!

Get three covers designed

Elemental Dragons is now complete with covers, and I managed to get one for Celestial Plague: Seashine. Seashine's cover will be revealed at some point next year.

Edit two books

Although I wanted to edit Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana, instead I edited Mute. But I still manged to meet my goal, despite swapping the books around!

Write four short stories

I've written multiple short stories this year, though I didn't manage to get any published. I've posted a lot of them in my monthly newsletter for my subscribers to read. I also hope to combine some into an anthology of sorts once I have enough of the same genre.

Read 15 books

Due to lockdown I managed to blow this goal out of the water. I have read 100 books this year! Most of them were ones that I had wanted to read for a while, like Wings of Fire and Five Nights at Freddy's. However I also discovered new authors this year whose work I love.

Participate in Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo

I participated in both this year, with writing Years, Mute and Curse of Anubis #1: Halfway.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! Next week I will discuss my goals for 2021. See you next week!

PS; looking for new books to add to your list in the New Year? Check out these book bundles:

Fantasy Reads for Cold Winter Nights

New Year, New Monsters!

New Website Feature Announcement

Hi all,

This week I'm going to talk about a new feature that I will be adding to my website - character profiles!

For each book I write I will create a character profile for each of the main characters, antagonists and any popular side characters. Of course as the only books I have out at the moment are in the Elemental Dragons series, they're the first profiles that will go up!

I ran a Twitter and Facebook poll to see what interest there was for character profiles and was surprised to see that so many of you were interested. So, on the 22nd August I will send an email to my newsletter subscribers with a poll for them to pick who the first character profile will be. I think it's only fair that as they have signed up for my mailing list they get to be the ones to decide which ones shall be added first. 

So, what exactly will be in each character profile? I've listed it below:

Eye colour

Hair colour

Skin colour

Physical appearance

Age

Nationality

Mannerisms

Parents (if known)

Siblings (if known)

Animal companion

Accessories

Best friend

Love interest/Partner

Favourite foods

Favourite drink

Hobbies

Favourite colour

Element/Magical Power/Magical Features

Anything extra that I feel needs to be added

As you can see from the above these profiles will be very detailed, so I won't be able to do one for every character at once. I'm hoping to start doing a few in September, with polls every so often so people can decide who they want a profile on next! I am planning on doing profiles for the human and dragon characters, so the dragon ones will be tweaked slightly as some of the above doesn't apply to them.

At the moment I am not planning on having any of the characters illustrated with their profile, but that might change in the future.

Another announcement to make is that Glass and Ice will be going up for pre-order in the very near future, so keep an eye out for it.

Are you excited to see the character profiles? Let me know in the comments!

That's it for this week, see you next Sunday!

Last chance to check out these books!

Dragon, Creature and Monster KU

Entering my First Book Award

Hi all!

In November I entered Blood and Water in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards, and I thought I'd share how it got on!

The Wishing Shelf Book Awards is an award run by Billy Bob Buttons, a children's author. For each category a group of the target audience reads the books and rates them. I entered the teenage category, so my book was read by my target audience.

A few weeks ago the finalists were announced, but unfortunately I didn't get through. I did however get wonderful feedback from those who read my book and a four star review!

There was a surprise among my feedback, Blood and Water won a Red Ribbon Award! This means that although my book didn't get over 30/40 to be a finalist, (it got exactly 30/40), it was enjoyed very much by the readers, who gave it a Red Ribbon! I'm thinking of adding it on the back cover, so it doesn't draw from the front cover.

The Red Ribbon Award I will be adding to my book cover

For my first time entering an award I wasn't expecting to get through, but I'm very happy with the fact that I got an award out of it. I've entered another two different awards, so fingers crossed I'll win something there too!

That's it for this week, hope you enjoyed. See you next week!