Tag Archives: Hidden Fire

Sale on 1st Edition books

LIMITED OFFER

First Come First Served

In December, with any luck, I will have a 2nd edition of both Hidden Fire and Fire Betrayed available, ahead of publishing the third FIRE novel, Fire Awakened, in the new year. I know it’s been a while but I’m feeling more up to writing and stuff. I got the new Prologue written for Fire Betrayed this afternoon and some corrections made to the text.

Anyway, I have three of each of the first edition left from my author’s copies. Normally I sell them for £8 each but to clear stock, as it were, if you buy Hidden Fire I’ll send you Fire Betrayed for free. £8 + postage.

Email me if you want a signed copy. I take paypal payments.

My First Rejection

To be fair, this is the only publisher I’ve submitted to.

I heard back from Sara at Inspired Quill yesterday evening, although I only read it this morning. Unfortunately, they aren’t accepting Hidden Fire this time round but the advice she gave was really useful. I’m going to go back and look at both Hidden Fire and Fire Betrayed again, with her feedback in mind.

I was chuffed with this:

wonderful authorial voice that flows well and is a pleasure to read. Your characters are interesting, and it’s obvious that you know every detail about the world you’ve created.

… I like the way you don’t end every sentence with ‘said’ or ‘she shook her head’ (or similar!)…

I’m just sorry that currently, Inspired Quill doesn’t have the resources to offer you a contract and work with you.

 

The feedback boils down to:

  • Dialogue can be hard to follow when there are groups – non-verbal cues
  • More telling than showing – non-verbal cues
  • Episodic (good because keeps readers engaged) but needs a unifying arc running through.

The autistic writer has a problem with non-verbal cues and tone of voice. Now there’s a surprise! (This is a humorous comment, not a criticism of the feedback).

I can work with this. It’s not a problem.

I published Hidden Fire and Fire Betrayed a year ago, and I’ve learnt a lot since, especially during my dissertation writing. My supervisor, although a bit harsh at times, pushed me to write better, and his advice coincides with what Sara has written, to a certain extent.

Yes, it hurts my ego a bit and I’ll be shying away from doing anything for a while, but, I know how I react. Give me a couple of weeks and I’ll start work on them all again.

Completely random thought re: criticism and autistic people:

People say auties are rubbish with criticism, but I think it’s just a case of us needed longer to process and reflect so our automatic response is ‘nope, not happening, not doing it’, because, I at least feel like, when people criticise they expect immediate change and improvement and it’s just not possible, so ‘shut down and refuse’ is the go to response. Given time and no pestering, it’s possible to integrate the criticism into my worldview and work on it, but I need enough processing time (about two weeks). I don’t know if that’s how other auties feel, but that’s how it works for me. Maybe, instead of just listing ‘doesn’t respond well to criticism’, people should ask about how we feel and approach criticism, how we process and integrate it, instead?

HIDDEN FIRE now available to order from my blog

I’ve been fiddling around with CreateSpace and worked out that I have an eStore. Yes, I know, shocking that it’s taken me a month to work this stuff out. That it because I’m not great with technology, and the having to move stuff has been messing with my critical faculties.

So, if you want to buy the book direct, without having to go through Amazon and give the author a little bit of extra cash, order here

I will be adding the link to the book page too, so it’s easy to find later.

Thanks

Ahh! Copies of my book have arrived!

A box of books turned No automatic alt text available.up this afternoon. My books, ten of them. A lot sooner than I expected. I’ve sold four already, so the rest are for the book launch. I’m considering ordering more, but I haven’t got enough money yet.

It’s rather exciting and i like the feel of the books. I’ll probably be making some changes for the next book, smaller text probably.

In other news, I’m working on the short story that goes with this novel. It might become a novella at the rate I’m going 😀

Hidden Fire Progress report.

I have finally got all the changes made to the text and now I’m getting Hidden Fire set up on CreateSpace – for the paperback – and KDP for the ebook. I hadn’t realised I could do both through KDP and used CreateSpace first. I’m jumping from one page to the other but I think I’m about sorted. I’m just waiting for my cover design now. I’ve got a few weeks so it’s no rush.

I plan to have the book available for pre-order in early June, ready for publication day, my birthday, 17th June.

What I really need now is beta readers, to go over the text one more time. There’s time to make any changes, but I need people other than me to read through to catch anything I’ve missed. I hate poorly edited books, as you all know, so I don’t want mine to join that list.

After I’ve got the book made, I’ll be looking for reviewers, so if anyone wants to read a fantasy novel and review it for me, either on their blog or on Amazon I’d been happy to send a copy.