Fragments

Fragments is now available to buy.


As I stated in my last blog post, if you buy direct from my publisher you will get over 5000 words of extra content free.  For Fragments, it's a piece entitled 'Show, Not Tell' and it gives you the original version of the opening of the novella in the collection - The Fool.


The Fool is occult thriller, concerning a murder in a church in London.  In the extra content, you can compare the published version on the story, with the original draft.  It's an illuminating read on how I write - how my initial drafts are stories where I tend to tell the reader what happens, and then I go back and re-work the story to add in more detail and layers, turning it into a 'show' piece - I show the reader how people reacted, not tell them.


Only Osier Publishing has the extra content.  You can click the cover of Fragment on the top right hand column here, or click here.  Osier is via Paypal.


You can also buy Fragments on ebook from Amazon and from Smashwords.


When you buy from Osier, you can choose between a kindle format, an ePub or a PDF.  You do not need a kindle or an ebook reader.


When you click to buy, you'll be asked whcih file type, then taken to paypal.


When you've paid, an email with a link will be sent to you.  When you click the link, you'll go online and the file will download onto your computer.


If you have a kindle, or an ebook reader, and you've bought either a kindle file (mobi) and an ePub file, you move that file over to your kindle/reader.


If you bought the PDF, you can read the file directly on your computer.


It couldn't be simpler.


Enjoy.

Publishing Changes & Extra Content Editions

My publisher has revamped their site, and their name.  Sarah Barnard, who puts up we me admirably, has relaunched under the title Osier Publishing.  Very cool new name, with all sorts of new growth, pagan and mystical connections that I'm very pleased to be a part of.

As part of the re-launch, Osier is now supplying kindle/ebook/PDf downloads of all its titles, directly from the site. 


So both Changeling, and Fragments, will now be available from Osier.  Fragments should be out this week.


In order to make it a really good deal, and to reflect that Osier is selling in-house books, Sarah came up with the idea of  adding Extra Content to the editions bought from Osier.


I thought it was a great idea, and from today, you can buy Changeling direct from Osier, with an extra 5000 plus word document attached.  It's called 'Un-Princing the Dark'.  It contains the first ever page written of Changeling, as well as two long section that never made it into the book.


The new pieces show an older, more traditional view of the vampire/captive dynamic.  Dreyfuss is a wee bit more Dark Prince and Joanne a wee bit more accepting of his various character tricks.  A wee bit.

When you compare these pieces with the final text, you can see how hard I had to work to take the 'Prince' out of Dreyfuss, and just leave the 'Dark'.  It does say a lot about our culture that when you put a powerful madman in front of a young woman, there is an expectation of some level of romance and 'saving' going on.  The Beauty and the Beast.  


Well, I went for pure Beast.  But the excerpts show different paths that were taken earlier on.

There will also be 5000 plus words of extra content in Fragments.  I'll tell you more about that, when we've got it up and running on Osier this week.

Fragments - Cover Poll

Version A

Version B

Version C

So, which cover do you like best, and why?

  

New Book - Blurb Help

By the end of this month I'm going to publish my second novel, a collections of short stories called 'Fragments'. Well I say short stories, not quite.  It's two quite long short stories, and a novella.

All three are horror, with the novella being an occult thriller.

Now, this collection like Bedlam Maternity, will be ebook only.  No paperback planned.  So the blurb can be longer than the blurb that is servicing both a paperback, and an ebook. 

But I really like the brevity I was forced into on writing the blurb for 'Changeling'.  It took me weeks to condense  the story and work on presenting it simply, without using cliches and way to many adverbs.  Something you all helped me with.

I think I may have the opposite problem.  I think the following may be too stark:

Fragments

Three stories to chill the marrow in your bones and make your soul shiver.

Sleet Dreams

Maggie has just enough to get by in the summer.  Winter, and cold and snow, drives her to the edge.  She dreams of being warm all the time, escaping to the south and never touching snow again.  One day she finds a fur coat: the fur coat of her dreams.  No matter how hungry she gets, she knows she’ll never be cold again.  Maggie finds out the hard way to be careful what you wish for...      (11,600 words)

                           

Alma Mater

Alma was a very particular mother.  She raised her very particular child, a very particular way.  She knew the best way to make her child independent, attentive and obedient.  Perhaps she has done her job too well...    (6.850 words)

The Fool   

Maryam Michael is a freelance investigator for the Office of the Congregation of the Arcane.  It’s her role to determine if there is a genuine occult influence in matters that concern the Roman Catholic Church.  Maryam is not happy to be called out of her cosy retreat to attend a murder in London.  She’s even more unhappy to discover that the murdered boy has been bled to death on the altar of a Roman Catholic church... and the main suspect is the parish priest.  And that’s before it gets complicated...      (26,800 words)

Now, all three are dark.  The Fool isn't as dark in tone, but is occult.  I'm not sure I'm getting that through.

What do you think?  Suggestions?  Or am I doing okay here?

How I Write - Names & Meanings

Having discussed the importance on naming my characters, earlier in this blog, I thought I'd share some research I've been doing this week.


It's been on Bedlam Maternity, which I'm now hoping to get finished in the next couple of months.  It's a horror based in a maternity unit in the East End of London.  Present day, although there is a connection back a few centuries.


I have five present day mothers-to-be to name.  As well as a main character.  All are involved in the mystery of deaths in the maternity unit.  All have special characteristics, that are important to the narrative unfolding.  All have a history - a specific age, and a specific class and family background. I could have stuck a pin in a phone book, but I'm not like that.  I love names, their meaning, and their power.  So, after some serious research, I offer you the following characters: all of whom could be found in the East End of London, on any street.


Rose Templar is our main protagonist.  Rose is a midwife, in her mid-fifties.  A Catholic woman who has lived and worked in the East End for over 30 years.  Part of her local parish community.  'Rose' as she is of an age where it was slightly old-fashioned when she was born, but fits entirely with her background.  Roses are strong, and fragrant, and can be wild and thorny, and not over cultured.  Our Rose is like that.  But there is a softness, in heart and complexion, and intent.  Templar.  This is our holy warrior, fighting for what is right and to keep the poor safe on their travels.  A lone warrior, dedicated in service to others, through religious belief as well as innate personality.  Rose is country old fashioned British, but I never make it clear which area of Britain.


Eliza Jennings -  Poor Eliza.  A name that evokes age old London, and street urchins.  A diminutive of 'Elizabth' which means 'God's Oath' or "God is my Oath'.  Jennings as we used to have a butcher named Mr Jennings, where I used to live.  A solid, working class British name. Eliza existed - see the later narrative.  But she was nameless.  I decided to give her a name, and hopes she forgives me my impertinence in fleshing her out as a person, with a name and background.


Shafiah Begum - my first dead mother.  (I didn't kill Eliza and her twins, someone else did.)  Shafiah means 'intercessor'.  And Shafiah is, indeed, an intercessor in the story.  Begum means an unmarried woman.


Mercy Nakalinzi - Mercy is from Uganda where many of the women are named for human emotions of care and concern.  Mercy does not receive much Mercy in her life.  The internet provides lovely lists of surnames that are popular and appropriate to different countries.  Therefore I chose 'Nakalinzi' as it is easy to read and in tune with her origins.


Omega - a lost soul.  Omega is 15, scrawny and homeless and desperate.  Omega is the name she chose for herself, for her street persona.  She thinks it means ''last" or 'the end', and she feels she was last in everything, so it is a good name.  But it actually means "great".  I'm aware of the irony, she isn't.  Her real name is Alice Smith, but no one ever finds that out.  Omega is so much more cool, honest!


Kaja Sobczak -  is a Polish immigrant, recently arrived.  Kaja mean 'pure', and Kaja is a pure and gentle maid.  Sobczak, her husband's name, means son of Sob.  It's a common Polish name and I chose it as it is identifiable and matches Kaja.


Cerys Roberts - is Welsh, as is her name.  Cerys means 'love' and 'Roberts' means 'bright fame'.  I wanted my final mother that Rose fights for, to shine with love.


There are several other females in the books (it is set in a maternity ward!) and it's quite hard naming a lot of women for their own time and geography.  One, Maggie Saro-Wiwa, is an incidental character who is Rose Templar's boss.  She is named after Ken Saro-Wiwa, a writer who was executed by the Nigerian Government, for speaking out against human rights abuses undertaken to extract oil for Shell in his homeland. Maggie is Nigerian and fights for human rights.  The human rights of mothers and babies.  She has seen the worst atrocities of war, in refugee camps in Africa, before settling in the East End of London to help mother's birth.  I hope she is a small, but fitting tribute, to Ken.


We live in a world, where we still kill writers for speaking out, and I have never forgotten Ken Saro-Wiwa.  To this day, I'll let the car run out of petrol, before I'll buy from Shell...