Time Off, building work in the Marina, Twitter and Promos.

Time Off: A Proctor Novel.

I had an idea for an interesting twist for the proposed novella, Proctor: Time Off and I sat down and re-wrote large parts of the plot.  This increased the book to around seventeen chapters which will probably bring the it in at 70,000 words, or 250 pages (ish) which makes it a novel, so although time-wise it fits in after the third novella, it's a full novel.

I don't want to ruin the surprise, but Proctor bumps into some old friends.  I'm very excited about writing this and will hopefully start writing it in earnest this coming weekend.  It's mostly going to be planet/ space-station based and you can definitely expect the usual fast action, high body count style of the novellas, but with some of the more in-depth descriptive prose and character building of the Night Time in Shanghai series.

I'm hoping to finish the novel by June this year and, unlike the Proctor Novellas which are mostly self-published and available in paperback and ebook through Amazon only, I will be taking this novel to the usual round of agents and publishers and get it traditionally published, as I did with the Night Time series.

Just one more thing to say about it - warrior monks!

Building Work in Mercia Marina.

A few weeks ago, building work started in the marina, on the spur of land where the Boardwalk is (for those that know the marina).  Diggers moved in and dug up the 'sensory garden' and put in footings which involved the removal of hundreds of tonnes of mud and the delivery of hundreds of tonnes of aggregate.  This week, they have started using the pile-driver (right of picture).

Boy, do they start early!  Imagine thirty tonne aggregate lorries turning up at 6:45am and dumping their loads.  Yesterday, the pile driver was driving reinforced concrete foundation posts in, pretty much all day.  Not the peaceful idyll I was hoping for... ...soooo... I'm considering moving on.  When I asked at the marina office, I was told that the work could well continue until December, and it's not like there's a shortage of other marinas on the network, so although I love the people and the place, I also love peace and quiet and a good night's sleep, especially when I'm writing, as when I'm on a roll, I can be writing 'til 1am.  Anyway, if I do move to another marina, it will need to have the right facilities at the right price, so I'm going to give it some thought, but a pile-driver running for eight hours, forty or fifty feet away from my boat is not acceptable.

At the moment, I'm considering going one of two ways, either towards Sawley - there's a few smaller marinas up there - or possibly down to Northamptonshire, maybe back to Braunston for a while, or perhaps to Blisworth.  Anyway, it needs some thought.  I have some good friends and a lot of family close by and it would be a shame to see less of them.

Twitter and Promos.

As I mentioned in my last blog, I've joined twitter and I'm slowly building a small following on there.  @AndyEllisAuthor if you wish to add to their number.  I'm mostly using it to promote my books and retweet scientific, astronomic and scifi tweets.

I've decided to do a short promotion for this weekend only, for Proctor: The Art of Living.  

Books don't really get listed in speculative searches on Amazon until you get up to fifty reviews, so I'm hoping this promotion will get a few more copies read and maybe a few more reviews.  Right now, the only way to find my books is to either search for them directly, or to search for me.

Everyone I know who has read it, loved it so give it a go!  For a novella, it's quite long at 136 pages (and the print is quite small), but it's pacy and keeps you hooked.  If you do read it, or if you have read it, please leave me a review.

I have made up a series of quote promos for Twitter...

That's it for now - check back regularly for updates on the writing of Time Off, and a few quotes!

Andy Ellis, still in Mercia Marina, March 2017

Art of Dying Published, Bibliography, Reviews, Where Next...?

Finishing The Art of Dying.

Last weekend, I had a bit of a revelation about how The Art of Dying should end.  I went back through a few chapters changing a couple of details to make it work, then I wrote the last two chapters.  The new ending increased the book length by a couple of thousand words, then I went through a second edit and sent it off to my two beta-readers.  For this book, I am using two new beta-readers, one in the UK and one in the US.  They are both members of a writing group I am part of and are both working on their first books.  On Friday, I heard back from them.

The guy based in the UK got back to me in the morning and said he really enjoyed the book and after chapter three he was unable to put it down - to quote him - "Just f****** wow, mate! powerful stuff!" - sounds like he liked it.  The only negative (apart from a few spelling mistakes) was that he hadn't really been convinced by the first chapter.  I heard back from the second later the same day and again, he really enjoyed it, though he sent me a long list of corrections and comments, each of which I went through and considered.  Again, he hadn't been convinced by the first couple of chapters, he said that they "swam around in circles" like a "shark looking for something to kill", though he added, "Awesome book though mate, don't misunderstand me. I'd empty the wife's purse to buy it if you weren't already sending me a copy."

After doing the second edit, I had a few reservations about how the book started myself.  One comment I regularly get about my writing has been that my stories are slow to get off of the ground.  In the past, I hadn't worried too much about this as I like to get the reader into the place where the story is set first which means some introduction to the characters and locations.  I think in my books, the places and the people are very three dimensional - to quote a review for Night Time in Shanghai, "a totally believable future landscape, inhabited by people we can all recognise. ...richly embroidered locations and character's actions..."  I suppose I also thought that if people couldn't be bothered to get through the first chapter or two, then it was their loss.

But... Well, novellas are more of an instant fix, even if they are quite meaty (mine are all around the 150 page mark and all small print).  In the first chapter of The Art of Living, although I did clearly build the world on which the story is set, the chapter very quickly gets into the action.  The first page isn't a grab you by the throat thing, but if you can get a few pages in, the action starts to flow and does so 'til the end of the book.  In the Art of Killing, I took a similar approach, though the book remains pacy throughout - I wrote it in a way that allows the reader to understand the locations very early on so little more in the way of descriptive prose is required after that.  The underlying comments I get back from all readers of both is that they are hard to put down and brutal.

So what about the Art of Dying, I hear you ask.  Well - I went back and did a re-write of Chapter One and it now starts like this...

"The ship swung out wide and started to turn for another pass. The station shuddered as the few missiles that had got through the point defences impacted the repulsor shields that Proctor had hastily reinforced. He rapidly checked to make sure that there was no damage or breeches. A few collectors briefly flashed into the red as they operated outside of their designed specifications, but they managed to absorb the massive energies that flowed across the station's skins. Field emitters mostly stayed green and orange. All good then. As the attacking ship turned, it's repulsor fields fought hard to arrest it's speed, radiating energy across the spectrum and making the ship glow dull red. Those on board were saved from pulverisation under the enormous gees by a Higgs field that changed the way matter reacted with the underlying fabric of space around them."

It is basically the same as I had done initially, but I left some description etc., until the following few paragraphs - if you were to be brutal, would you read on?  I'm pretty sure I'm still not good at starting a book to grab the reader's attention from the off - I do like to gradually immerse the reader in the place and introduce them to the people - make them like the ones they should like and hate the ones they should hate before getting on with killing all the good guys (that's only partly a joke).

Anyway - I'm getting bogged down.  Give them a read, but try and be forgiving of the first couple of chapters - it'll pay dividends once you're into the meat of the book.  Actually, I'm probably being harsh - I haven't had bad comments back from anyone I have met (even casually) that has read any of my books, so perhaps I'm focusing too hard on this issue.

Proctor:  The Art of Dying, Proctor Novella Three (Mar 19, 2017, Amazon Publishers, 45,000 words, 141 pages)

ebook https://www.amazon.co.uk/Proctor-Art-Dying-Novella-Three-ebook/dp/B06XQQ8WCQ
paperback - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1520825757
from Amazon (They don't seem to have linked the two editions yet, though I'm sure they will soon - they've only been out for a few hours at the time of writing)

"Mason's Haven – a world ravaged first by a rebellion, then by a civil war that has lasted for more than a decade and turned the once beautiful world into a radioactive wasteland. The remaining small fraction of the population that the world once supported cowers under huge repulsor shield domes that cover the last few remaining towns and cities - awaiting starvation - happy to sell themselves into slavery for a meal and a way off of the blighted world.

Street, a planner for the Conservationists, must find a way to turn the tide of the war and defeat their enemies, the Liberationists. He turns his eyes skyward...

Hired as security and defence for a black-corporate space station feeding off of the steady tide of fleeing population from the war-ravaged planet below, Proctor finds himself trapped when the station's defenders flee from certain death. With the last few remaining women and children to fend for and only the help of communications specialist Kate Sterling, will Proctor find a way to survive? And even if he does, how will he find a way to escape?" (back cover notes)

Bibliography

Now seems the ideal time to do the same as above for all of the rest of my books...

Night Time in Shanghai (Nov 30, 2016, Austin Macauley Publishers, 86,000 words, 301 pages)

ebook/ paperback and hardback - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Night-Time-Shanghai-Andy-Ellis/dp/1786290545 (available from all good bookshops)

"Emma Rain is a top-notch pilot looking for work to get away from a frontier mining system, but she has lots of secrets to hide. Kramer is the greedy, sadistic captain of the trade vessel Night Time in Shanghai, living well outside of the reach of the law. Where thousands of human colonised systems spread across the galactic arm and large corporations, democratic governments and religious cults vie to control the resources of entire systems, revenge can be a long time coming - a dish served as cold as the harsh vacuums of space...
...and sometimes things get complicated..." (back cover notes)

Proctor: The Art of Living, Proctor Novella One (Feb 2016, Amazon Publishers, 44,000 words, 136 pages)

ebook/ paperback - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Proctor-Art-Living-Novella-One-ebook/dp/B01BTC0MSM

"Five years after being cast adrift in a galaxy he doesn't understand, ex cult-marine Proctor - bred, boosted and engineered to kill - finds himself in yet another war zone, doing what he does best. But things don't go to plan, and with his finances nearly exhausted, he's looking for work.

Two interstellar corporations are bound by a non-aggression treaty but slowly continue to fight a secret war, oblivious to the human cost. Mark and Radek Weston know all about the human cost as families starve on their blockaded home world of Scott. Mark risks his life to obtain information that could end the silent war for good, but how are they going to get it home? ...and who can they trust to help?

In an adventure that spans worlds across the vast tracts of human space, will Proctor learn what it means to be alive?" (back cover notes)

Proctor: The Art of Killing, Proctor Novella Two (May 2016, Amazon Publishers, 54,000 words, 165 pages)

ebook/ paperback - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Proctor-Art-Killing-Novella-Two/dp/1520242794

"In the mountains of Tanpei, hidden deep below the rocky surface, lies Cavern City. The City Fathers, a self styled 'Black Corporation' have filled it with chemfacs and now use the city to supply a vast region of space with the popular drugs 'Float' and 'Spike'. Hasseed, the vicious, sadistic leader of the City Fathers gathers wealth and extends his power, all the while protected from above by miles of rock.

Proctor steals a valuable ancient artefact, killing Hasseed's second in command deep in the caves of Cavern City, and flees across the continent. A chase ensues and Proctor finds himself fighting for his life every step of the way against seemingly impossible odds. As the net starts to close and Proctor's situation becomes increasingly desperate, Hasseed's security chief, Garrett, begins to suspect that there's more to this than meets the eye, but if so, who is this 'Proctor' and what is his ultimate plan?" (back cover notes)

Reviews.

I know I'll have said all of this before, but lots of people write to me and tell me how much they enjoy my books, then I bring up the 'R' word and never hear from them again - why are people so reluctant to write a short review?  You don't have to go into great detail - a few words and a star rating is enough.  Please - if you have read one or all of my books, go on to Amazon and leave me a review.

I am slowly gathering a few reviews, particularly for The Art of Living, but dozens of people have commented to me on Facebook groups and via PM how much they have enjoyed that book, but still only five reviews...?

I want to spend as much of my time writing as possible, but the simple fact is, that unless it pays, I'm going to be lucky to get out more than one or two novellas a year, and sinking my teeth into something longer takes far more focus so that can only happen if I can dedicate serious hours to it.  Want to see more from me? Leave me some reviews.

You can write a single review and copy and paste it to Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Waterstones/ Austin Macauley for Night Time in Shanghai (or wherever else you can find it - give it a google).

So Where Next...?

I've started tweeting - @AndyEllisAuthor - give me a follow - only been at it a week, so I'm just getting used to it and don't have many followers yet.
And I use Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AndyEllisWriter/
For updates and all the latest news, check these out.

I'm going to have a week or two away from writing.  My usual week day goes something like this - wake up - day job - evening meal - writing - sleep (weekends are just writing).  I need a break.

Whilst writing The Art of Dying, I had a nice idea for another Proctor Novella - Proctor: Time Off (I think!) and I wrote out a plot and chapters for it - I'm going to write this next and would expect to release it in around three months, then (hopefully) I'll get on to writing the third in the Night Time in Shanghai series 'Machine War'

As those who follow me will know, I have written the second book in the Night Time in Shanghai series, 'The Gaps Between The Stars'.  I'm hoping to get busy publishing that soon as well, though currently it's on hold awaiting sales stats for Night Time in Shanghai, the first of which will be available in May.  I still hope to publish it through Austin Macauley later this year.

Andy Ellis - still in Mercia Marina, March 2017