Category: WRITER

Lotus: Can you escape from the Labyrinth?

This week: my new book, Lotus, a rant about Formula 1 and Who Killed JFK?

As promised, the title announces a new book, to be published in the next 2 weeks. If you receive the free newsletter, you will know what that book is.

My new book, Lotus
We have all seen the impossible staircase of M.C Escher; you know, the one where you go round and round but never go up or down? Escher’s Staircase was the working title of my new book. Here is my first stab at the blurb:

“Robert Lath dies in the trenches of World War One. But he wakes to find himself on a never-ending flight of stone steps. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot reach the top or bottom. Then a face appears and offers him a choice; a choice that might damn his soul.

A friar, helping a time-traveling werewolf, a merchant spaceman, a painter, a monk, a private detective and a Medieval knight all battle against illness, seemingly the result of a game with Satan, and human frailty to find salvation but are they all the same man? Continue reading “Lotus: Can you escape from the Labyrinth?” →

Is it taking me longer to publish books?

Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate Front Cover today

Actually, I know the answer, it’s a rhetorical question, but readers keep asking me this question, so here is how I do it. Other processes might be better so please tell me what you do; I am eager to know!

When I first starting publishing books, independently in 2006, nobody had any interest in my books at all. Apart from one short story, which a few kind souls told me had merit, I could get nobody I knew to read my stuff, not friends or even family.

By the time of completion of my first draft for Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate, things had changed. Several people were now interested and I felt lucky to have three readers of the manuscript (MS) before publication. This helped me a great deal to improve the book although I really had to bit the bullet because I needed, among other things, to cut 15000 words from the overlong manuscript. This resulted in a big improvement so I had learned that readers of your pre-publication MS, beta readers, can be a very useful part of the writing process. Continue reading “Is it taking me longer to publish books?” →

Top Quality Science Fiction in Urdu?

Inchoate is finally published in Urdu

I am over-the-moon to announce that Inchoate, my science fiction story about a time-traveling paleontological investigator, is now available FREE and in Urdu. My deepest and sincerest thanks go out to Atiya Adil, a teacher, for undertaking this huge task and seeing it through to its conclusion. It is extremely satisfying to see this project come to fruition after such a long period of sustained effort.

I have long wanted to provide a free and representative sample of my work to people in Asia and the Middle East, of whom I seem to have many followers (I have more followers in Cairo than any other city and more followers in India than any country other than the UK and USA). I frequently see mountain-loads of downloads in these countries during my free promotions so I know the readers are there and I also know that getting online credit to buy books, let alone having the outlet to buy them, is not easy there. Now, these readers should be have both.

Below is just a short excerpt from the Urdu version. Continue reading “Top Quality Science Fiction in Urdu?” →