Posts Tagged ‘writing’

Phoney Baloney

Posted by XanderRichards at 3 June 2012

Category: News

Last week, the missers and I got new ‘phones.

Since then, we should technically have lost a load of weight through exertion due to the steepness of the learning curve.  These are the latest Android ‘phones, with all the bells, whistles and gadgets one might expect of such technologically advanced devices.  Mine even receives satellite co-ordinates and stuff from the Russian GLONASS birds.  But to grapple with all this new technology has been something of a stretch for us old Luddites.  Thank God, they’re pretty easy to figure out, if complex.

Mine has an application called Polaris Office.  No, it’s not ICBM launch control and telemetry systems, it’s kinda like regular Office on your PC.  But I was pleased to discover that it’s compatible with my old MS Word 97, which I prefer over the newer versions in approximately the same manner as lounging on the deck with a beer is preferable to dying in agony.  I love my old Word 97 and I’m really glad this new ‘phone supports it because it means that some of the next novel is likely to be written on there (not whilst in heavy traffic, I promise).

And talking of which (tenuous little segue there), it’s going well.  I’m busy sending the boys somewhere they’ve been before in search of a fresh revelation.  Sounds mystical I know; let me assure you that it’s not.  I’m enjoying the writing and getting well back into my stride.

I’m also selling books!  The printed version is actually going rather well, which pleases me enormously (grab one here).  I haven’t received any figures for the e-book yet, but they’re coming around the middle of this month.  Hopefully sales have progressed well into single digits!

So with that I’ll leave you for now dear reader.  I’ve got plenty of reading to do meself, and a couple of reviews to write.  Catch you soon!

Roger and out, X.

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Sequel Roaring Ahead

Posted by XanderRichards at 25 May 2012

Category: News

Thank God for planning!  I started planning the sequel to ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ quite a long time ago and I’m glad I’ve had the time to think about it.  The reader will know that the idea for the original arrived in 1987, so I literally had twenty five years to figure stuff out.  This time, not quite as long.

But, that being said, I’ve got a very good storyline (although I’ve yet to bounce it off Jeff, my editorial consultant).  This time it’s, shall we say, creepier.  The TDR.12 boys are still causing all kinds of mayhem and having a good laugh at each others’ expense, but there’s a more international flavor, totally different settings and a lot more difficulty for our heroes.  There are three new characters introduced but some old favorites returning as well.  Altogether it advances the COAST universe, but adds its own unique spin too.

I’ve got the sequel all plotted out and now I really just have to knuckle down and do the writing.  I’ve got the plot synopsis finished although, last night, I had another great idea which I’ll have to squeeze in.  At the moment, the prologue and chapter 01 are done with a short section of chapter 02 written.  It’s a very different beast than AAOB, but that’s exciting for me as a writer.  New territories to explore, new problems to be solved… great!  Brain food.

This week the missers and I got new cellphones, shiny gadgets with tons of features.  In particular I’m impressed with the satellite navigation on mine.  Not only does it read the American Navstar birds, but is—as far as I know—the first ‘phone to read the Russian GLONASS system as well.  Added to this is A-GPS functionality, which uses the phase differences between cellsites to accurize the satellite fix.  We tried it out whilst backroading last weekend and it was nothing short of amazing.  With the map display on the ‘phone we were watching the features pass the window as they appeared in perfect synchronism on the screen.  Whilst this kind of technology may be commonplace to some (perhaps you, dear reader), it’s a pretty new thing for us and we’re having some fun with it.

And that is all for now; have a great weekend!

Roger and out, X.

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Six Days To Go

Posted by XanderRichards at 24 April 2012

Category: News

If the retailers don’t get my spy novel out on Monday 30th, I’ll doubtless be really embarrassed.  But I guess it’ll happen when it happens.  I’ll just have to make sure that the firework display, orchestral concert, circus, global press conference, space shuttle flyby and all the other huge launch events can be flexible.  I wish!

I’ve made some new author friends thanks to the wonder of Twitter.  One of them, who seems to be a very good writer, has kindly offered to review ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ so, by way of return, I’m going to be reviewing the first novel in their sci-fi trilogy.  I’ve got some research and another book to read before I can get my teeth into it, but I’m looking forward to it.  The story concept is fascinatingly unique.

And talking of story concepts, I guess apart from supporting the marketing efforts of my first novel, I have to write the second.  This is a slightly daunting task because, firstly, my brain has mostly been out of writing mode since I finished the first one and, secondly, I had the story of the first in my head for twenty plus years, so it was (relatively) easy.  This time it’s a fresh story, new situations, virgin locations and additional characters—to whatever extent, a new world to play in.  But I’m looking forward to it.

In other news, I’ve found a Print-on-Demand company who are offering incredibly reasonable prices and low minimum order numbers, so it looks like I’ll be able to do a short print run.  The printed copies will mainly be sent to reviewers, but also given to the many people who’ve really helped me out with this venture.

Right, that’s all for now.  Only six days to go… set your diaries to ‘stun’.  Don’t forget to check out my author page on Facebook!

Roger and out, X.

 

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It Plans To Escape On The 30th…

Posted by XanderRichards at 12 April 2012

Category: News

I’m talking about my spy novel, of course.  Using the word ‘release’ always brings to mind a picture of a wild animal being let out of a cage in a countryside location, something like what you’d see at the end of a Billy The Exterminator episode.  So maybe I’m releasing it . . . or maybe it was planning to escape all along!

So, after a little back-and-forth, I finally accepted the proof epub file a couple of days ago and Bookbaby can therefore commence sending it out to their retail partners.  In testing though, I learned quite a profound lesson; all e-readers are not created equal!  Now, I don’t own a physical e-reader yet.  The closest I got was trying it out on a friend’s wife’s Sony Reader.  At home, however, I dutifully downloaded and installed Mobipocket, Sony Reader for PC, Kindle PC, Calibre, Adobe Digital Editions and Nook for PC.  Well, I gotta say that the results varied wildly.  There was different formatting, different fonts (although that can be changed on some), different aspect ratios for the cover image, different indents, different spacing… the list goes on.  After some pretty exhaustive searching through the text for oddities and idiosyncrasies, I have concluded that Nook for PC and Sony Reader for PC definitely look the best and offer the most accurate display, with the Nook having a slight edge over its Japanese cousin.  Now, remember, these are computer applications, not physical e-readers.  But if I was to base a choice on what I’ve seen of the apps, I’d buy a Nook.

Due to the delay in my acceptance of the… err… e-proof, not all the retailers may have it up on their websites for the 30th, but no worries.  All the appropriate links will go up on this site as soon as they become available.  There should be reviews coming out soon, and I’ll link to those as well.  Only eighteen days to go!

And talking of momentous dates, this weekend marks the hundredth anniversary of the famous Titanic disaster as you have doubtless gathered from pretty much any media, all of which seem obsessed with the subject right now.  It does hold a fascination for us for some reason.  Must have been a ghastly, horrible night.  My dad would’ve been two years old at the time.  I think it’s lesson to us all never to tempt calamity by saying “even God Himself couldn’t…”

Roger and out, X.

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Now The Fatalism Sets In

Posted by XanderRichards at 30 March 2012

Category: News

Review copies are going out…  Once in the hands of the reviewers I’m at their mercy!  Let me make this perfectly clear though:  I don’t expect glowing reviews; I want honest ones.  If any book review happens to be both, this blogger will be very pleased indeed.  N.B.; if you’re into reviewing books and would like a review copy, please get in touch.

It’s funny:  I’ve finalized the manuscript for my spy novel and sent it off to Bookbaby for epub (the filetype that most e-readers use) formatting.  Yet I’m so used to coming up with ideas and edits for the text that my brain’s still doing it without having to try.  This is a bit of a pain because some of them are good ideas which can’t be included now—but they might make it to the sequel(s).  I also find I’m worrying about small details as though they’ll ruin the whole thing in the eyes of the reviewer.  Yesterday I went off on some mental rabbit-trail about a character holding a certain object, only to find that in my nervousness I’d recalled it inaccurately and there was nothing actually wrong.  I think I need to chill.

Printing out review copies has been an interesting exercise.  How to fill a room with the essence of laser printing or what?  They make a certain highly recognizable niff which seemed to pervade the whole office.  It turns out that the book prints on exactly a hundred pages of letter, double-sided with a ten point font.  I don’t know what speed this particular laser printer is supposed to run at, but it made short work of the 172,000 word book and squirted out three whole copies before the toner died (which, in fairness, was already getting low).  When I went to buy a new toner cartridge I realized—with shock—the methodology by which the printer manufacturers are driving such nice cars:  The printer may be a couple of hundred bucks, but the four toner cartridges total more than twice as much and there are no third-party versions available.  So everyone rushes out to buy the printer thinking what a good deal it is, then they have to sell their children to afford the next toner.  Whilst such cunning on the part of the manufacturer reeks of cheating in my eyes, I do kinda wish I’d thought of it.

Right, I must away.  These review copies aren’t going to laminate, bind and post themselves!

Roger and out, X.

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It’s Done!

Posted by XanderRichards at 26 March 2012

Category: News

Today I sent Bookbaby my spy novel ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ for publication!!

I’ve set a provisional release date of Monday, April 30th.  Can anyone tell me the significant event which happened on that date in 1945?  Of course there’s no connection; it’s just coincidence.

I’ve been assigned an ISBN already (that was quick) and conversion to the appropriate e-reader formats is ongoing.  We’re on the way, folks!

Roger and out, X.

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Getting Closer

Posted by XanderRichards at 24 March 2012

Category: News

Get excited:  It’s coming!

The last week has been a bit of a blur with all the copyrighting of my spy novel and associated business.  I’ve made some very useful contacts and learned a lot.  If I thought I knew anything about copyrighting before, I certainly do now.  A great big thank you to Kenny Van Horne who was amazingly helpful.  I also got myself a mailbox address to use for professional purposes.

The next thing is to decide on a release date.  This is something I’ve got to hash out with Steve, my social media marketing tech guru.  I hadn’t really considered this question before, but Steve tells me he needs a little bit of lead time to ramp up his efforts before the book comes out, which is fair enough.  It’ll also allow time to do press releases and other things that I can take care of from my end.  Now, I’ve had a number of people tell me that they want this espionage thriller released yesterday, and I’m very grateful for the enthusiasm.  But don’t worry, another week or two isn’t going to hurt.

Steve’s been talking some very encouraging figures and I confess it would be great to make mega millions off book sales, but I’m a realist.  Let’s be honest; ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ is just one of a great many new espionage books.  However, look at the example of Suzanne Collins’ ‘The Hunger Games’, the movie of which opened yesterday across North America.  The first novel in the series was originally published a mere four years ago.  Very quickly the publisher quadrupled the initial production run and now there are nearly three million copies in print.  Not only is Collins just the sixth author to join Amazon’s ‘Kindle Million Club’, but it was announced recently that she’s become the all time Kindle top seller.  That’s an awesome story of success.  So yes, I’m a realist, but a hopeful one.

Anyway, get excited; it’s coming.  ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ will be out soon and everyone will be able to read it.  I’m excited myself, but also quite nervous.

Roger and out, X.

 

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Finally! Here Is The Title!

Posted by XanderRichards at 20 March 2012

Category: News

Dear friends, readers, interested parties and random websurfers, I received confirmation today that my copyright registration is all clear and I can therefore announce the title of my spy novel.

COAST: An Act Of Burial

What’s all this about, I hear you ask, so let me explain.  The narrative revolves around a highly secret ‘black ops’ unit who are tasked with the retrieval of two hijacked tactical thermonuclear warheads.  Their unit is called the Covert Operations And Surveillance Team or COAST for short.  COAST hovers between the military and a civilian agency in terms of administration and organisation.  Thus its agents operate comfortably in both the gritty world of bombs and bullets and the sleeker, somewhat more civilised but nonetheless sinister world of international espionage.  Think of it like James Bond meets the SAS.

As to the meaning of ‘An Act Of Burial’, well, you’ll have to read the novel and find out for yourself.

Also check out the final version of the cover image.  Hasn’t Jon done a brilliant job?

With the copyrighting in place I can now proceed with publication.  Expect more news within the week!

Roger and out, X.

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Spy Gadgets Now Include Rifles

Posted by XanderRichards at 15 March 2012

Category: News

Today—which is, by the way, the Ides of March—I had news from a friend in the United Kingdom from whom I sought advice when writing the action for the finale of my spy novel.  I needed to know what would be a good rifle to feature in the book and Guy Wood was incredibly helpful.  He also kindly made sure that I knew how to delineate between what is a bullet, a cartridge and so forth, commenting to me at the time that a book he’d read was somewhat spoiled by the author’s lack of knowledge in this area.  So no worries, we got it sorted and one of Guy’s favorite rifles makes a brief but definitely significant appearance in the finale.

Now, Guy’s website is a brilliant tech resource for firearm enthusiasts, target shooters, hunters and the like.  But upon visiting it recently I discovered that he now does book reviews.  I therefore asked if he would be kind enough to review my novel when it’s published and guess what?  He said yes!  I therefore think that the least he deserves is a mention in my blogger postings and I plan to include his website in a Resources page which will go live after the novel becomes available.  But for now, here’s Guy’s awesome website, Rifles In The UK.  Please go and check it out!

I met with Jon the artist today and he kindly gave me a whole bunch of materials he’d worked on to ‘rehearse’, if you like, for the cover painting.  Now, I find this stuff absolutely fascinating, so I think what I might do at some point is to make a video of the ‘evolution of the cover’ and morph between the different iterations.  I think it would be fascinating to watch how it changes.

If you’re new to my website but not social media, why don’t you go and befriend me on Facebook or follow my inane ramblings on Twitter?  Both of them now get my Question Of The Day, a little feature I’ve started doing for fun.  Each day a new (and hopefully challenging) espionage-related question is posted.  There are no prizes right now, it’s just a bit of fun.  But why don’t you have a go?

Finally, did you hear that the Encyclopedia Britannica is to cease of publication as a piece of printed literature?  That’s tragic!  I suppose like most things the online revolution has affected it, because it’ll only be available in future via that outlet.  Shame but, hey, they call it progress.  I’m not entirely sure I agree.

Roger and out, X.

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Copyrighting News

Posted by XanderRichards at 13 March 2012

Category: News

Great news!  The copyrighting of the cover painting of my spy novel happened today.  So the image is ready to go.  All I have to get is a letter of permission from Jon the artist (hopefully less than a thousand words LOL) so that this blogger doesn’t end up behind bars.  I’m not great with legalese, so I’m using a broker to take care of such things for me, rather than creating a lot of litter myself by filling the forms in wrongly.

I recently had a discussion with a colleague who asserted his opinion that copyrighting is going to die out and that this was a sign of the times.  I’m not sure I disagree.  I think in the long term it’s certainly possible.  Let’s face it – all over the world people are infringing others’ copyrights and some seem to have a very cavalier, “catch me if you can” attitude.  Nonetheless I’ve heard of several successful prosecutions in recent years.  Who doesn’t have a music MP3 of a commercial market record on their computer somewhere?  Anyway, I think copyrights will stay as they are for a good few years yet, so I’m slotting into that bracket.  I am still hoping to be able to announce the tile of my espionage book by the end of next week!

Changing the subject in a hard left curve, I am so grateful to live in Saskatchewan.  When I lived in Europe I was always forgetting the time change, daylight savings as they call it here.  I remember my embarrassment at turning up to places either an hour early or an hour late, depending on the time of year.  Now I suppose we’re all so engaged in social media that we’re unlikely to miss it thanks to many online reminders.  But here in Saskatchewan we don’t have to remember it and I’m really glad about that!  I’m sure the spies in my novel would have some clever spy gadgets which would figure out the time change for them, but maybe an ordinary GPS receiver will do that, I don’t know.

So anyway, that’ll do for now but I can’t deny I’m excited.  I don’t want to say too much, but Steve’s internet marketing tech is starting to work amazingly well.  Shhh… don’t whisper a word!

Roger and out, X.

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