New Release! (Warning, contains adult content!)

Humanity is considered immature by our alien neighbors.

But space is more adult than we can possibly imagine.

Announcing a bit of a departure for me.

I’m pleased to finally release the first of a new series of novels in the science-fiction genre, but with a couple of twists.

(WARNING: contains contain adult material.)

Plucked In Space features adventure amongst the stars, comedy, and a snarky AI system that delivers laugh-out-loud one-liners.

So, thrills, romance and naughtiness and fun under the sun(s), all for a low, low price!

This novel has been published under a new name, a (sort of) reversal of my original author name Andrew Toynbee.

The reason? This series is markedly different from the taking-itself-seriously Angels of York trilogy.

Anyone who’s read those books (someone’s read them… there’s at least two people I know about) will find that this has a totally different feel, so I made the decision to separate the two genres completely.

Please take advantage of Amazon’s ‘Look Inside’ feature. You may like what you see! 🙂

Excerpt:

Amanda faced the talking ship squarely, and folded her arms. She planned to radiate authority, but the steaming mug of coffee sloshed drops onto her hand, making her whimper.

“Okay, you’re fast, but how fast, exactly?” she demanded.

“I am capable of speeds nearing zero point seven five.”

“As in seventy-five percent of light speed?”

“Approximately. External factors can vary my velocity.”

“What factors?”

“Local gravity flux, density of debris, variations in the solar wind…”

“Okay. I guess I have to trust you.”

“Your trust is not misplaced. I am a competent pilot.”

“Glad to hear it.” She sipped tentatively at the hot coffee-approximation. “Hey, this isn’t bad.”

“Meaning it is good?”

“Yes, sorry. I’m being colloquial. For a first attempt, it’s good. Well done.”

“My pleasure to serve you, Captain.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

See you in space, lifeforms!

UK link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07C9X52J2
US link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C9X52J2

‘A Fury of Angels’ is now available for pre-order

April sees me unusually organised with my work.

With ‘A Fury of Angels’ out for beta reading, I’ve already listed the book provisionally on Amazon, and its now available for pre-ordering, should anyone be keen to read it. 🙂

There’s plenty of time for me to make final changes to the MS before it goes live, but I thought I’d set myself a publication deadline in order to get this, the final story in the (first) trilogy completed and put to bed.

Put to bed? Nah!

It ought to be rising with the lark, ready for the day ahead, its tummy filled with tasty breakfast!

Just to demonstrate that Amazon’s pre-ordering system works, I found this whilst browsing:

Also available for pre-order in Japan. Don’t you love the 21st Century?

Have a great day!

I must now Write On. Half a million words aren’t going to write themselves!

Cover reveal – A Fury of Angels.

It’s been a few months since my last post. I’ve been extra busy this year with artwork, formatting, editing and writing. Already my word count is matching that of 2015, which means I might once again hit half a million words, even though I’d only planned a target of one third million.

One of the projects has been ‘A Fury of Angels,’ the final story in ‘The Angels of York’ trilogy.

Yes, Sara and Michael’s adventures have now concluded, although they haven’t ended by any means.

So here, for the first time, is the third cover, as created by the talented Ravven.

It’s consistent with the previous two covers, featuring the quatrefoil tower, stormy sky and mysterious supernatural character. I’ve already received early feedback that this colourful cover is more eye-catching than the first two, something which was intentional.

Each new cover is brighter than its predecessor, promising a better and brighter future for my characters, even though the stakes are higher and the danger grows.

I’m close to completing the Kindle-formatted ‘Fury of Angels,’ and the Createspace layout is all but finished, meaning the trilogy will be complete and up for sale very soon.

Watch Amazon and Smashwords closely!

Until then, I continue to;

 

 

Revisiting the scary world of creation

After having spent so darn long living with my debut novel, revising, re-revising, then working through Tara Shaner‘s edits, I find myself (finally) back in familiar territory – something that all writers may recognise.

I’d almost forgotten the simultaneous fear and thrill of creating new adventures for my characters, of developing their personalities from the ones I’d grown so accustomed to in the first book, whilst remaining faithful to their original outline.

Just to throw a spanner (wrench) in my own works (something I do very often), I’ve switched First Person POVs for the sequel, describing the new adventures through the eyes (and other senses) of a different main character. For me, it provides a fresh perspective on the character’s mileu.

I just hope the reader will agree. By comparrison, Philip Pullman did something similar between ‘The Northern Lights’ and ‘The Subtle Knife’.

Another spanner/wrench is the two-day overlap that occurs between the first and second books… a sort of half-reboot, if you like. Think of how ‘Back to the Future II’ meshed with the first film – except I’ve used days instead of years. No DeLorean, though. Shame.

By introducing this half-rebooted overlapping First Person POV switch (still with me on this?), I may have limited my timeline to some extent as the confluence of events must fit snugly against the original adventure. On the plus side, the alternative POV enables me to expand on the details of the overlapping scenes.

Win-win? We shall see. Ask me in a year’s time. 😀

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Coming soon! Dun, dun-dundun-duuuun.

Write on!

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The genre system – is it good enough any more?

I’ve been browsing through the ‘Blogs I follow’, trying to keep up with all the discussions, concerns and new releases and I’ve been seeing a lot of posts where authors are grumbling (quite rightly IMHO) about the trouble they’re having with squeezing their novel into a genre category.

And it’s not surprising. For instance, on Wikipedia, there are currently 80 genres and sub-genres listed under fiction alone. Yikes! My own novel,  ‘A Construct of Angels’ would currently fit into the horror, romance, Urban fantasy, religious fantasy, thriller or mystery categories.

There are How-to-Write books on the market that happlily suggest that writers should choose a genre and write within its boundaries if they want to sell. But why should we have to work within such restrictions? We’re not aiming towards library shelves. Some of us aren’t even looking towards bookshops any more. The electronic age has changed all that.

In these days of indie eBook publishing, with sub-genres and even sub-sub-genres sprouting up, the whole idea of ‘genre’ feels overloaded and outdated. Of course, to declare that, an alternative is needed and here’s my (fledgling) idea;

Wouldn’t it benefit both readers and retailers if some sort of ‘tick box’ or a graphic system was introduced where the elements of the book can be highlighted (or illustrated) by a sliding colour scale such as we have with rated domestic applicances (in Europe at least)?

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I experimented with a few variations on this theme and didn’t find them to be flexible enough as I was still having to insert genre labels. It was colourful, but no better in terms of classification. Perhaps you could see a way to make it work.

So I tried a pie chart instead. This is a simple chart, created using ten subjects that are most relevant to my debut novel  ‘A Construct of Angels’;

Note that I said the ten most relevant subjects – there are others that I could justify adding in there, but ten is plenty. Perhaps ten is too many and five would suffice. Who knows? This is all hypothetical and open for discussion.

BTW, for you with your magnifying glasses against the screen, there’s only 0.5% sex in the story. 😀

In an ideal world, the catergories would be listed from most relevant to least relevant, top to bottom, thus;

This arrangement should make it easier for the potential buyer to interpret. They would be free to scan the top two or three subjects and decide if the story is for them or not. They might still be swayed if their favourite genre was listed as number four or five – something which wouldn’t happen if the book had been listed under ‘Thriller’ when they prefer to read about religion- or horror-based stories.

I don’t think it would be too difficult for an algorithmist like Amazon to feed the percentages into their version of Deep Thought deep in the heart of Amazonia and begin to categorise the books in this way.

As I said, this is all hypothetical.

Do you think the time has come for the library shelf-based genre categories to be given a shake-up? Perhaps you have a fledgling idea that leaves my suggestion eating dust.

If so, please share! I would be happy to eat humble pie chart. 🙂

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Writing – finding a healthy balance.

Writing can be frustrating.  It can be fun.  It can be cathartic and good for the soul.  However, as with anything in life, it can also be all-consuming.

Have you ever been unable to sleep because your Muse has been bombarding you with ideas?

Have you wished that the machine that is the human body was more resilient – able to go for longer without food or rest just so that you could spend more of your precious time writing instead of refuelling (eating) or down-timing (sleeping)?

In the twenty-first century, there are so many conflicting demands on our time that writing can be squeezed into a corner by pesky things like sleeping, eating, resupplying the cupboards and interacting with other human beings.

But such things are part of life.  They are the small things that can inspire us.  They are the minutae that can add delicious detail to our stories and bring our characters to life.

Now, you may think that I preaching to you, dear reader.  Not at all – all of the above is a lecture to myself; my own nagging monologue to slow down and try to absorb those small adventures that comprise everyday life – and enjoy them.

So throttle back until the blur that is life slows and becomes visible – then write about it. 😀