Unaccustomed as I am…

At two o’clock today I will be at author event at Larkhall Library talking about my books. It will be the third of four engagements with South Lanarkshire Libraries. In today’s blog, I thought I would write about the importance of such events in the life of an indie author.

Writing is a pretty solitary pursuit; huddled over a keyboard, a writer becomes lost in his or her own world. Getting out and speaking about your work is the one time when you can lift your head and interact with people who aren’t your characters.

If like me, you are not a naturally gregarious person, standing in front of strangers can be pretty daunting. I know the first time I did, it was truly terrifying. In fact, those first few times I felt exposed, a bit like the old nightmare of being naked in public - which would have been more terrifying for the public but that's a different story. I had done some acting back in school, which was equally daunting, but when I got on to the stage the only thing that mattered was remembering my lines and having fun because I was for a short time, someone else. When you speak as a writer it is much more personal than that, there is no script and what you are talking about is you. A writer's work is part of them, the offspring of their imagination and at times I felt vulnerable.

What you soon learn is that people are genuinely interested in you and your work. They want to engage with you and they will ask you questions that you didn’t expect. For example, in my last talk there was a great deal of interest in self publishing and we had a great discussion about the pros and cons of producing your own books. What I have found is that the interest people have in what I say makes it easier to speak with every passing event; I have become more relaxed and enjoy it more.

There may be many of you that dread the thought of public speaking and think there is no way on earth you could do it. I would say to you that it is a fear that you have to overcome if you are going to engage with your readers and potential readers. Here are some quick tips that might help.

• Start by speaking to your local library or bookshop, they will be only too keen to help a writer from their area and they are often looking for ways to encourage people to come to their establishment.
• Before you go, practice what you are going to say but don’t have a rigid script. It doesn’t matter if you forget to tell your audience everything; you often get a chance to pick up on anything you missed during the Q&A.
• Tell people about your journey to becoming a writer and why it’s important to you.
• Don’t be scared to be yourself, the people who come don’t expect you to be an actor, so be honest.
• Show your passion for what you do and your audience will be more interested in you and your books.
• Have books to sell or leaflets to advertise your books if they are only available online.
• Most importantly, enjoy it. You will get to meet some great people and you may even inspire a few of them.

I hope these tips will encourage you to get out and talk about your work. It’s great fun and you will create a new group of readers and maybe even friends.

If you would like to know how to self publish and sell your books, go to Indie Authors Scotland for information on our Bookcamp training course.

Creating the Harlequin

Today sees the publication of the second part of ‘The Harlequin”. The story stretches over three separate crime sprees that take place over the course of two decades and run like a thread through Tom Russell’s career. I thought I would share a little of the creative process that has given birth to the book.

The idea came from two simple thoughts, what if someone killed from a distance and how would that be possible. The answer came with the idea of powerful hallucinogens and how they can affect how someone perceives the world. When I added it to the notion of making it appear like an April Fool’s Day prank the notion of the Harlequin began to take shape.

I had thought of giving the killer the moniker ‘Jester’ but I felt that it was too close to ‘Joker’ and thus the Harlequin was born. The books were originally going to be entitled 'Fooled' but when I was creating the cover I found the Harlequin mask and it was so perfect it became both the feature of the cover and the name of the book.

In the prologue of the first part of the book, as the cruelty and terror of the prank is exposed, I got to play with a genre I have never written in before, horror. The first three incidents on the first of April 1993 are described from the point of view of three people having a psychotic episode as a result of the drugs that were placed into cakes. What they believe they see is not normally the stuff of crime writing and it meant I was allowed to let my imagination run riot with demons, super criminals from comic books and a classic movie villain. 

The Harlequin isn’t responsible directly for those first deaths, indeed he is twice removed from the actual murders/suicide, but it is his sick mind that has created the circumstances. When he doesn’t get the reaction he was hoping for, he takes a more active role and two further deaths result. It is obvious that revenge is his motive, but revenge for what? Russell has recently qualified as a detective constable who is part of the team trying to discover what that motive might be.

In part two, that feeling that the Harlequin needs recognition for what he has done is at the forefront of the story, as he commits murder in broad daylight in the middle of George Square. I felt that he would be desperate for the press attention that had been denied him during part one. He wants to see his pseudonym in the newspapers and some acknowledgement of his intelligence. Tom Russell is now a detective inspector and is at the very heart of the investigation.

The second part starts on the first of April 2003, within days of the start of the invasion of Iraq by Allied Forces. I use the timing to add something different to the story as Special Branch becomes involved. It was something I hadn't originally intended, but it fitted perfectly.

I have started to write part three and have given myself a tough deadline of April Fool’s Day this year to complete it. It will see the acceleration of the Harlequin’s desire for recognition as he takes his crimes on to the Internet to broadcast his twisted brilliance to the world. Alex Menzies appears for the first time and she takes centre stage as Russell’s world begins to crumble around him. You’ll need wait until April to see how that unfolds.

This is the trailer I created for the book.

The Harlequin - Part 1 is available for FREE download until this Friday and Part 2 is published today.

I hope you enjoy it.

Deadline day

One of the differences between being a traditionally published author and an author who self publishes is that dreaded word ‘deadline’. There are both advantages and disadvantages to not having a deadline, but for independent authors we can be tempted to use the absence of a particular date as a reason to prevaricate and write yet another draft. It’s easier to hold on to a book than let it loose on the big bad world.

I thought today I would share with you a couple of tricks that might make you a little more disciplined and help you to focus on finishing your book.

Three and out

Discipline yourself to write only three drafts of your manuscript. Your book will never be perfect, and after three drafts, some of the spontaneity and creativity will be lost. That simple discipline will make you focus on the task and mean that you are less likely to wait years to publish your book.

Set your own deadline

It’s easy to let time slip away and you will always find reasons not to finish a book. Whether it is simply life getting in the way or concerns about how your book will be received, without a deadline, you are more likely to stop yourself from publishing.  Why not choose a date that is significant to you as your publishing date? Last year I published a book on my mother’s birthday. If you choose a date that means something to you in the year ahead, you can use it as a target. It’s amazing how many more words I can write in a day when I know that day is approaching.

These two simple techniques won’t turn you into a writing machine, but they will help you to set and meet goals and help you to publish your own books regularly.

For training and tips on how to self publish, pop over to Indie Authors Scotland.

Guest blog - Michelle MillerAllen

Michelle MillerAllen joins me this month with a list of the places that have inspired her writing as life took her from New Mexico to Scotland.

Getting to the Only Thing…

About the time a manuscript has become so huge in my psyche that it is taking over daily life, making it difficult to speak coherently to other humans, impossible to tend to tasks like bed-making, cooking or the day job--

Then it’s time to pack an overnight bag, typewriter or laptop, dog, supply of java and chocolate and take myself away, to escape the structure of daily life.  To find a space where I can get lost in the book, let it be the only thing for 20+ hours a day, perhaps broken up by two hour naps, snacks instead of meals…notes taped to walls and mirrors, room to pace and read pages out loud or talk myself through a tricky plot point.  No phones, no conversations, no alarm clocks.  Just The Book.

1982:  The Albuquerque motel was probably called the Blue Aztec or the 66 Lizard, but I remember it as the Brown Bag Motel. A very seedy place with a broken neon cowboy sign, lock-picked doors (telltale splinters), straggly cacti along the parking lot and 1950s atomic-age curtains which hadn’t been cleaned since then. Gaunt men with leathery skin came and went from the rooms on either side of mine, clutching bottles of rum or vodka in brown paper bags.  There were cigarette holes in the bedspread. 

Perfection! 

I sat my IBM Selectric on the small desk next to Gideon’s Bible, taped my character note cards to the mirror, plugged in the Mr. Coffee.  For the next 48 hours I worked on my novella and never opened the curtains onto the white-hot sunlit Route 66.  Those were the days of cut-&-paste, so scissors and tape were in the tool kit, when a paragraph needed to be relocated. 

Anonymous, solitary, focused, the only sound that of typewriter keys.  Although a non-smoker, I vaguely recall smoking a brown cigarette or two from the vendor on the corner…just to act the part.       

1992:  My new novel needed to be edited.  An opportunity arose to house sit with my dog for a week in a friend’s adobe hacienda in rural New Mexico.  I had graduated from the Selectric; using her computer, I brought my chapters on discs (back then they were small, blue, square and hard), piled the printout draft on the kitchen table.  I plugged in the espresso machine (and bean grinder), lived from a well-stocked refrigerator (gourmet cheeses, salad and cookies) and paced in my socks up and down the wide tiled hallway, in and out of the many rooms, reading the pages aloud, scratching out paragraphs. 

At night my dog and I were both hypnotised by the sounds of cicadas in the trees and moths banging against the screen door.  I red-penned the manuscript at the kitchen table while the desert night breeze tickled my legs, wafting in from the open door, where my dog softly woofed at the moon.

2005:  Ardnamurchen, Scotland, staying in a self serve house on Loch Shiel, I set up a writer’s corner near the window overlooking the water and the 13^th Century ruins of Castle Tioram.  On an antique vanity, I placed my laptop and manuscript box, red pens, coffee mug. 

With only the sounds of the water and the occasional stag, I worked on a murder mystery set in the very house I was occupying.  My heroine stood out in the water at low tide, frantically trying to reach someone on her mobile phone which didn’t work…her dog had seen his master kidnapped and was distressed, racing up and down the fog on the beach.  Real life, the self-serve holiday – receded into the mist and the story became the thing.  This time the writing sessions were broken up by long hikes out into low tide with my dog.  If we stared long and hard enough, we could almost see America over the water. 

He was happy, I was happy, the book was happy.  (Well, the kidnap victim wasn’t too happy but…)

2010:  I needed time to refocus.  I saved my pennies and rented a few days at a Scottish hunting lodge during Christmas holidays, staying in a chalet by myself.  My Christmas gift to me.  This time I cooked healthy meals which included a glass of red.  I walked my dog a few times a day and we stared at horses and Christmas lights in the falling snow.  Then back inside, back to the laptop, up 'til the wee hours, into my fantasy book for children. 

Real life was very complicated that year; the children’s book was not.  Here, the world was safe and silent and white, and I was deep into a mythical forest with a feisty wee heroine and wild dogs that could morph into trees. 

My real dog, smelling like wet snow, snored by the fire.  Otherwise, the book was the only thing.

 MMA 

Michelle MillerAllen is just finishing Indie AuthorsScotland's 'How to Self Publish' course and will be publishing one novel on Kindle and POD this Spring 2014.  'Guardian of the Dark School’ is a paranormal mystery with erotic undertones which takes place in the wild mountains of Northern New Mexico.  In Autumn 2014 she will publish a family book (Print On Demand), ‘The Green Dogs of Lonely Woods’, about the human/dog relationship, with illustrations by Stoke-on-Trent artist Chris Bell.  Her previous award-winning novels were published in America by Amador Publishers, Albuquerque New Mexico.  If you would like to get in touch with Michelle, who now resides in Scotland, she is on Twitter at @3RedWings or visit her at michellemillerallen.blogspot.co.uk