It’s been a long while since I’ve written a blog. I’d blame the pandemic, but I’m not sure it has to take full responsibility, although it had a surprising effect on me. It made me insanely busy. But first things first – the launch of The Verindon Alliance went well. I had to do it online only, as we were in the middle of a lockdown, but I held a Facebook live event, which you can see here, if you would like to, and it received a fairly good response. Sales have been encouraging, and this has been reassuring, especially […]

I think I was born to be a story-teller. All my life I’ve loved story-telling in all its forms. The story can be mine or it can be someone else’s. It doesn’t matter. The enjoyment is in the telling. 🙂 It’s interesting as I look back on my life, as I can see how all the things I’ve learned along the way have helped me with my desire to be a story-teller. After all, if you want to be an author these days it’s not enough just to be able to tell stories, you also have to be a marketer […]

It’s now only six weeks until Christmas day. Does that scare you? I think I’m on track with all my Christmas shopping and everything, so I’m not too worried. Some presents have already been bought and wrapped in preparation for putting them under the Christmas tree. There are more still to buy but in most cases, I have a good idea what I’m going to get, so I feel reasonably prepared as we draw closer to the festive season. As Once Confronted has just been released, this time of year is also phenomenally busy as I try and be everywhere […]

Once Confronted is out now! It was released this weekend and I’ve already held an online launch. The local launch is next weekend. To celebrate its release, I thought I’d tell you the story behind it. It’s a little long, but I hope you can get through to the end. 🙂 On Saturday 20th April 1991 I was working alone in a bookstore. I had objected to working by myself, as I was worried that something might happen. However, I was told that I would not be allowed to work at night by myself but that nothing would happen in […]

Yesterday I visited A Lot of Books in Ipswich for my first proper bookstore signing with Once Confronted. Unfortunately, the mall where the store is located was almost deathly quiet yesterday. We believe that the commencement of school holidays might have had a lot to do with that. Fortunately, I still sold six copies of Once Confronted but it was hard work to win those sales. As ever at these events, I frequently had significant conversations that encouraged me in spite of the fact they didn’t result in sales. The first two people I spoke to were both fledgling writers […]

In all the preparations for the launch of my new book, Once Confronted, I’ve been looking for new ways to promote it, and that has led me to ask the question – where do people usually buy their books? I’m guessing that you’re like me. You probably prefer a paperback purchased from the bookstore but those ebooks are so convenient. I regularly purchase an ebook first, then if I like the book enough to want it on my shelf, I follow it up with the paperback version later. Having said that, I’ve bought a lot of paperbacks this year to […]