Welcome

May 2012

As some of you may have noticed, my website has been down for a few weeks. This was due to an unfortunate stuff up by my hosting company. I have spent a frustrating time trying to get it back up and running, and we have thankfully reached there in the end. Unfortunately, given the amount of time it has taken and the fact that we are now at the end of April, I have decided to skip an April news post and jump straight on to May.

On happier news, Dragons Rising has now gone to the printers. I am currently trying to wait patiently (and not really succeeding) for a package of printed books to arrive on my doorstep, which will also mean that other packages are appearing at your local book store. As always, orders are available through the Alto Books publisher’s website (

On other writing news, I have progressed a little on SongForge book 3, but not as much as I would have liked – I was spending too much time getting my website back up and running. But it is progressing, and my mind is always mulling ideas for what is to come. I have also been working on The Raven King first draft, giving it a reread and polish.

The other reason I have not worked as much on my writing is a game called Mass Effect 3. If you have played it, you will know why my free time has reduced. If you have not, then I suggest you take a look .It is without a doubt one of the best games I have ever played. Love or hate the ending (and if you take a quick look on Google, you will see an awful lot of people who love the game and despise the last ten minutes) it is one of the best written and detailed games I’ve ever played – and since I have been playing games since the Commodore 64 days, that’s saying a lot.

If you have played the game and hated the ending (and I actually didn’t hate it – didn’t love it, but didn’t hate it), I urge you not to hit out at bioware. They have crafted a brilliant final chapter to a fantastic series and we should all respect the work they have done for us.

 March 2012

Work was slow this month due to illness. My son, William, picked up a bug from kinder and brought it home, and it went right through the family. It knocked me out for the best part of a week, so I got nothing done on any front. The remaining time, however, was busy as always.

I have read through the final typeset of Dragons Rising, making a few minor corrections and fixing any last minute typos that have crept into the manuscript. I’m embarrassed to say I found a few of them on this read-through – I must be slipping in my old age! Still, I think they have all been found and fixed, so we can move on to the last stages. Now that we know the spine size of the book, Myke Mollard can do his magic on the front cover and finalise the images on the spine / back of the book. Once that’s done, it’s off to print.
Not long now, I hope!

I’ve also been finalising the blurb for NuRunner, which considering how few words actually goes on the back of a book, is not as easy as it sounds. It’s very difficult trying to distil all the heart and soul of a book into a few short paragraphs, while at the same time not mentioning anything that might spoil something for the reader. I’m up to rewrite number four at the moment and I’m still not entirely happy with it.

I’ll just keep writing and reworking until I have something I’m happy with …

And finally after all this reading, editing, blurb writing and website tinkering has started to slow down, I have turned my mind back to new writing. I have started putting thought to paper for the last book in the SongForge trilogy. It will take months at least before these ideas form something solid and I get it all on paper to my liking, but I thought you would like to know that things have started!

February 2012

It has been a very busy few months, with a lot of things happening on the book front. As some of you may have noticed, the new website is slowly coming together. It’s taken far longer than I expected because I have been spending all my free time finishing and then editing my latest book, The Raven King. It’s a Thriller / Espionage novel set in the land of Vaaldania, a country savaged by civil war and invasion. I’ll have a new page set up with a more detailed description in the coming weeks. Now that I have some free time back, I will try to keep the updates more regular!

I have two new books coming very soon, one of which is Dragons Rising, SongForge book 2. I am just waiting on my exceptionally talented cover designer, Myke Mollard, to finalise the cover art, then the whole thing will be sent to the printers and delivered to stores not long after. Fingers crossed it will be available to all in the next few weeks.

The other new book is called Nu Runner, a Sci-Fi / Thriller set in near future earth. I have already created a page for this with a blurb and cover art below to whet your appetite. Nu Runner will be published globally as an e-book, available on ibooks, kindle, Google books and a few others as well.

Otherwise, I have been filling my time thinking, editing, playing with my kids and walking the dog. I will return to the Aspen Portal sequel soon and then turn my mind to the final book in the SongForge series. Busy, busy, busy …