World Book Day (oh, and some other day. Let's not dwell on that)

It's the 3rd of March, 2016, and it's World Book Day according to the hashtag on twitter. So happy World Book Day, everyone! Buy a book, read it, love it, leave a nice review, hug the author and tell them everything's going to be okay - don't worry about lying to us, we're very gullible.
You could even get one of my 3! Hell, you can even get the first one - Crystal Eyes - for free from Smashwords, iTunes and Barnes & Noble!

It is also, as I write this on the 3rd of March, 2016, less than 24 hours away from me, Allen Donnelly, exiting my 30s.
Tomorrow will mark the fortieth anniversary of my birth, way back in 1976.
God that sounds like a long time ago...
I remember thinking that forty seemed so far away, so oooold, as to be almost inconceivable. And yet here we are. Or rather, there I will be tomorrow.
Here's a pic of me at about age 4 or 5 I think. With some rhubarb. Not sure why...
I don't actually care about turning forty, it's just another number and, hopefully, we'll all get there eventually, but I do tend to get a bit maudlin around birthdays - I enjoy wallowing in existential angst too much not to indulge when give such an opportunity.
If nothing else, it offers an opportunity to look back at what you've accomplished over the last decade...

Moving on.
Let us save the wallowing for tomorrow, when I intend to do nothing but play video games, eat unhealthy food and probably drink some wine, and today focus on the here and now.
I'm still working on the sequel to Heroes Wanted. Some books, Heroes Wanted included, flow like water, the words all but tumbling out of me. With other books, like the sequel for example, every sentence is a battle, every word has to be dragged out as if it were blood from a stone. Every time you think you've got a hold on it, it twists in your grasp and you need to shift directions.
This one's been a battle and I'm still not done.

I've still not heard anything back about The Salvager from the Angry Robot open submissions thing. I desperately want to get that book out there because I think it's awesome but it's going to have to wait; tough for an impatient old man like myself.

Away from literature, I'm trying to get better at the arting and the drawing (which I tend to post on my Tumblr and DeviantArt pages). This drawing is supposed to be Furiosa from Mad Max, by the way. Just in case you were wondering.
I might try sticking some of the less crappy efforts on Etsy or something. Can't make any less money from it than I do from the book sales...
Ahem.

Well, I've managed to avoid doing a morning's work by writing this blog post so I guess it's lunchtime and I'm a couple of hours closer to being 40.
FORTY!

Have a great day!
Al.

It's Christmas Time!

And this Christmas, why not give the gift of Crystal? My critically acclaimed (by at least a couple of people on Amazon and Goodreads - that counts, right?) first novel, Crystal Eyes, is now FREE!

Unless you want it from Amazon, that is. They won't let you set the price of books to nothing so it's stuck at the exorbitant price of 99 cents on there.
I mean, I have no objections to you going to Amazon and giving me money for it - quite the reverse, in fact - but you can get it for nowt from pretty much everywhere else.

Am I not generous? Am I not benevolent? Am I not desperate for attention? The answer to one of those questions is definitely "Yes", I'll leave it to you to decide which one of them it is.

In other news, I've sent The Salvager in to Angry Robot's open submissions thing. As always, throwing anything at the world of publishers is a long shot, but so it goes. We'll see in a couple of months I guess. 
If that doesn't work then I might try an agent, or maybe I'll just put it up myself like I have with the last three.
I think it's a cool story (I'm biased, obviously) and Aimee, one of the main characters, is definitely a favourite of mine.
Right now, I'm still working on the sequel to Heroes Wanted, tentatively titled...erm...I got nothing so far. Heroes Wanted 2: Hero Harder. I dunno, it's a work in progress.

As for Christmas itself, I've done nothing. Well, that's not completely true - I've bought some food and sent some Christmas cards. The festive spirit is really something that happens to other people.
Also, I understand that some film or another has just come out that people are excited about. Tragically, thanks to my ancient, decrepit dog and her knackered heart, I'm not going to be able to go to the cinema to see it as I'm reluctant to leave her on her own for that long.
I suppose it's theoretically possible that I might be able to avoid spoilers until it comes out on disc or streaming but let's face it, the odds are not in my favour on this one.
Ah well, I look forward to seeing it in a few months. I'm talking about Star Wars, by the way. Did that need saying? Probably not but I thought I'd better be clear.

Finally, let me leave you with the traditional farewell for this time of year...
May the Force be with you!

And a merry Christmas as well, I guess.

Well that didn't quite work!

They'll etch that on my tombstone, if I get one, which I probably won't because who wants to be in a bloody tomb?
This took a morbid turn.
Anyway, I was referring to my attempt to get The Salvager published via the Inkshares crowdfunding publishers. I still think that Inkshares is a cool site, with many cool ideas, but it definitely relies on being able to build up a hefty buzz on the social medias, something I'm rubbish at. There also seems to be a fair amount of authors all funding one another so it's hard to judge how it will all work out.
My next attempt will be to submit it to Angry Robot Books, who are running an open submission period from the 15th of December through to the end of January. It's a long shot but, well, what isn't a long shot when you're trying to get a book out there into the world?
Here's the link if you're interested - http://angryrobotbooks.com/2015/09/announcing-a-new-open-door-period-at-angry-robot/

NaNoWriMo is going on! Normally I'd have been all over this but I was helping my dad install a new kitchen in my house so I completely forgot about it - I'm a solid eleven days behind now but I'm going to see if I can still do it. It's the sequel to Heroes Wanted that I'll be working on, because writing a sequel to a book that hardly anyone bought is a guarantee of success. I proved that with Sorrow's Herald.
That was sarcasm, just in case you didn't pick up on it.

Outside of writing based shenanigans, I'm still playing a load of Heroes of the Storm (and glaring at the empty space on the BattleNet launcher where the Overwatch play button ought to be - c'mon Blizzard, please invite me to the beta!) and Elder Scrolls Online on the PS4.
Also got the Heart of Thorns expansion for Guild Wars 2 but I've not managed to put much time into it yet.

That's it for now. I'll leave you with a pic I did to try (unsuccessfully) to promote The Salvager on Inkshares - it's the main character, Aimee Westmorland, in a poster that is probably familiar to you.

View fullsize

Until next time,
Al

The Last Full Stop

Just for a change I'm not pimping my own stuff in this post, instead I want to talk about The Shepherd's Crown, the latest Discworld novel from Terry Pratchett, which was released today. And I don't know if I want to read it because it is also the last Discworld novel.
For most of my life, I have loved everything Terry Pratchett has done, and the Discworld novels in particular. They have been a constant presence, making me think, brightening my outlook when things were bleak, providing a world that was at once both fantastical and magical, yet also intrinsically human and grounded in reality.
And always there was the knowledge, the anticipation that there were more stories from the Disc that I would be able to read, a new adventure to go on with Vimes or Rincewind or Granny Weatherwax. It was always something to look forward to, a bright spot in the future regardless of what else was happening.
But that's it now. There won't be any more. When - if - I reach the last full stop of The Shepherd's Crown it will mean a world where there will never be a new Discworld book to read, there won't be a new adventure that I have yet to experience. I don't like the sound of that world, that world is a cold and unfriendly place.
So, as perverse and weird as the logic is, there's a large part of me that doesn't want to read The Shepherd's Crown because at least then there will always be a new Discworld novel out there that I could read, there'll always be a new adventure waiting for me, as there has been since I first picked up Guards Guards in my local library more than twenty five years ago because it had a weird looking cover and my mum had mentioned that she'd heard of this Terry Pratchett guy whose books I might like (which I was initially resistant to because it was a suggestion from my mum and I was nothing if not a contrary pain in the ass as a kid. Some might say that not much has changed).
Ah, maybe I'm just scared of how much it will hurt to reach the end, or I don't want to admit that there is an end - denial ain't just a river in Egypt and all that.
If there's one thing I'm one hundred percent certain of, however, it's that Sir Terry would say that I was being an idiot and to just read the bloody thing, because that's what it's for.
If I'm being honest, I know I'll end up reading it eventually, because it's a Discworld book and I must, but it is going to suck when I finish it. That's a moment I'm not looking forward to.

Man, I miss Terry Pratchett.

Share My Ink!

An unusual battle cry, to be sure, but relevant in this case!
It's only been a little over a month since Sorrow's Herald was released to literally no fanfare but already we move on to the next one!
Allow me to introduce you to Aimee Westmorland, THE SALVAGER!

A new, light hearted sci-fi adventure about mechs, friendship, booze, mechs and evil big businesses. And also mechs.
Did I mention the mechs?

Anyway, the reason for the odd heading is this: rather than my usual method of self-publishing, I'm trying out the relatively new Inkshares site. They're a crowd-funded publisher - you list your book on their site and people pledge a pre-order (no money is taken yet), if the book gets enough pre-orders then Inkshares publishes it in much the same way as a traditional publishing house would, including providing editing, proofing and cover designing services at no expense to me (I like this bit in particular).
Right now, there's also a co-promotion thing running with the Nerdist which could be pretty cool.

So here's the begging bit (you knew it was coming, right?). I need people to pre-order The Salvager, and then get their friends to do the same.
I should note that you get $5 credit just for signing up to Inkshares so if I do manage to get enough pre-orders it'll barely cost you a bean! You can earn even more credits by using the links on the project page to refer people - in fact you might even end up getting it for free (for more details see the page for The Salvager)!
It would mean a huge amount to me to get that kind of help.
You can expect me to bang on about this an obnoxious amount over the next couple of months, to the point where you might even get sick of it. I've tried very hard to avoid being a spambot on all the social medias but if that's what it needs then, well, that's what I'll do. Whatever it takes! Performing monkey mode: ACTIVATE!
Seriously though, nothing's off the table here.

While I'm abandoning what little dignity I have left (there are people who know me who laughed out loud when they read that) and begging, I'd love to see more (some?) reviews for Sorrow's Herald and Heroes Wanted on Amazon or Goodreads. Good reviews, for preference, but I'll take what I can get.

That's it for now. Still decorating (I am sooooo slow at it), still writing, still playing daft games, still wading through the masses of hair that the dog's shedding. All good fun!

Until next time!
Allen