Authors Electric

We’d like to introduce you to Stephen Livingston, who has bravely agreed to be our first guest on Kindle Authors UK. In contrast to many of our regular bloggers who are republishing out of print titles for our fans, here is an author at the very start of his career hoping to hook some new readers with his e-books. Over to you, Stephen… My career in traditional print format began shortly after graduating from the University of Glasgow where I’d gained a Master of Arts degree with honours in English Language and Literature.   I entered and was a winner of the inaugural Canongate Prize for New Writing with my short story “Choose Your Future”.   This story became my first published work in the prize-winning anthology Scotland into the New Era . From there I went on to win another short story competition, the EndPapers Tales Series, with my story “The Waster’s Tale”.   This was published in the anthology Glasgow Tales and I completed a post-g...

My e-Books: JAMIE AND THE WHIPPERSNAPPER (first published by Red Fox, now Kindled by Squinx Inc) MY MOTHER'S DAUGHTER (first published by Red Fox, now Kindled by Squinx Inc) THE DREAM DOG (first published by Walker Books, now Kindled by Squinx Inc) It's a perfect June day in my small London garden where I've planted beans, lettuces, strawberries and tomatoes. Eating food you've grown yourself is a very special delight. Even eating just two perfect ripe strawberries (one each for me and my husband) turns into an almost sacred ritual since we both seriously doubt there will be very many more. This exceptionally sunny June has produced some dramatic colour contrasts too - slabs of brilliant greens and yellows against dark, rich shadow. When I'm working on a novel, I'm leading a double life. I'm concerned, fearful for, and totally immersed in the characters and situations I've invented, and long after the book's been published, I still relate to...

Hello, and welcome to my first blog for Kindle Authors UK, something I’m very excited to be part of.  I can publish a book from my sofa!  Have, in fact, already published two – Overheard In A Graveyard and The Ghost Drum .  It feels a bit like science-fiction. I started young – I was 16 when my Dad signed the contract, with Faber and Faber, for my first book, The Devil’s Piper .  (I was too young to sign a legally binding document.)  The photo’s of me when I was about that age. In those days I hammered out books on an old iron typewriter, and it was hard work.  I could never type a page without making a mistake, I hated changing ribbons, and figuring out word-count was too much for my unmathematical brain.  In the late 80s I started hearing about computers but wasn’t too interested – they seemed expensive, and I didn’t want the bother of having to learn to use one.  Then a friend showed me how fast his computer could print off documents and I imm...

This post has been published in S parks, A Year In E-Publishing - An Authors Electric Anthology 2011-2012 . It has therefore been temporarily reverted to draft status to comply with amazon KDP Select's requirements.

I've always loved books. When I was a kid everyone else would be out playing but me, I'd be curled up on my bed lost in a book. I'd get through at least four books a day in the summer holidays. I must have read every book in the children's section of the library at least twice! And I can't go into a bookshop without coming out with a book. Or two. Or three. Books are my weakness, I can't get enough. Every now and again when my floor is covered with piles of books and they're spilling out of my cupboards I force myself to tidy up and give a few books away. Then my bookcases look like the picture above but it doesn't last long. Because I love books, the feel of them, the sheer joy of holding one in your hand, the turning over of the pages, I wasn't too fond of e-books at first, reading on a computer screen just didn't appeal to me. Then along came e-readers and Kindles and I was hooked. A good story and still being able to 'ho...

(That's me at the original launch. I find the key to readings is the 45 degree angle) No, really. We’re all writers on this site, so we’re pretty used to sitting tapping and scratching till the words come out. But as we’re doing introductions this month, I thought I’d say something about what I love most in this storytelling business. Talking. Reading to a live audience. I say it a lot but as a writer you really can’t beat looking into an audience’s eyes and listening to their laughter and gasps as you lead them through the labyrinth of emotions that is a story. I never really knew I’d love doing readings and shows. I’ve always been a bit of an exhibitionist. There was that time when we’d just got off the plane in Athens and I walked over the other side of the square so I’d be in the sight-line of a local news crew. And there was the phase when I’d go on any game show that would have me – Countdown, 15-1, Mastermind (Hannibal Lecter novels), Weakest Link, er, Brainteaser and pon...

Well I've just scraped in by the skin of my teeth. My ebooks have been up there on Amazon for a whole three days now, so I'm a genuine ebook author – and that feels so good! Can't actually recall when I first made a decision to bring some out-of-print books back to life in e-form, it was just a vague wishy-washy idea that was hovering around in the back of my mind. Once that idea stopped swishing about in the old grey matter and became something a bit more tangible I started focusing on three particular 'out of print' books that I would love to revive. In 2000 Scholastic commissioned me for four 'Sealed Mysteries' then only published three of them (ho hum!) so as well as the three out-of-print titles, there was also a book that hadn't seen the light of day. These 'Sealed' murder mysteries had the last chapter tucked away in a little seal and while I couldn't emulate that in an ebook, I could add a little quirky bit by leading the reader righ...

Whenever I finish writing a book I carry out a frenzied tidy-up of the area where I work, and for a day or two it looks neat and organized. Within a couple of days it's back to the usual mess: it seems I'm incapable of working in a clutter-free environment. But even when I've had one of those big clear-outs, there are certain things that stay; little objects, pictures or cuttings which have accumulated over many years and which for various reasons, will never be consigned to the rubbish bin or stuffed in the back of a drawer. As well as taking over desk space, surrounding walls and cupboard doors aren't spared from the general clutter build-up. Blu-tacked to the cupboard next to my computer for example, is my one remaining business card from the days when I was a magazine editor, a photo taken at my dog's first Agility competition, a couple of flukily won archery medals, a sighthound tassel, old press passes - and one of my favourite newspaper clippings. ...

For my first post, I thought I’d just introduce myself and tell you a little bit about how I got here to this blog. I’m a writer, yes – but like all writers, I was a reader first, and an early reader too. I remember my dad bringing me home a Famous Five (Enid Blyton) book every Friday evening – they were 17½p in shiny new decimal money. Yes, I am that old. I’d spend Saturday reading and by Sunday I’d be asking my parents why I couldn’t go camping on my own at age 7 like the kids did in the book. I grew up. Age 12 and I was reading Ruby Ferguson’s pony books – all terribly upper class with lashings of ginger beer. Then there was Malcolm Saville and Nancy Drew and then – nothing. That was it; the end of children’s books and straight into adult novels. Books for older teenagers and young adults just didn’t exist in the late 70s, so while I was cutting my adult reading teeth on John Wyndham and Robert Heinlein, I started writing the kind of books I wanted to read. I still have my first no...

This post has been published in S parks, A Year In E-Publishing - An Authors Electric Anthology 2011-2012 . It has therefore been temporarily reverted to draft status to comply with amazon KDP Select's requirements.