Authors Electric

Hello everyone, sorry to follow on from Reb yesterday, it's purely coincidence that Reb and I are both hanging up our AE blogging pens, but I think this will be my final blog for Authors Electric. I’ve loved reading everyone’s blogs over the years, but my writing is leading me further away from Indie writing, so it’s difficult for me to write on topics that our blog’s readers will be interested in. Happy to say I’m busy writing for reluctant readers, with about a dozen books published now with educational publisher Badger Learning. These are for teenagers with a lower reading age than their actual age. I’m also writing crime novels for Bloodhound Books; and as always magazine articles on all kinds of topics.   However, something I can write about for this blog, which ties in with Indie publishing and mainstream publishing is that the latest book accepted by Bloodhound is actually a collaboration between me and a good friend. So, two authors and one title. Coll...

Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Fest Over the last few months, there's been something on my mind that's not totally wholesome – crime! No, I'm not about to commit any dastardly deed, I'm talking about crime writing. I know we're Author's Electric, but I hope you'll forgive me for talking about my latest book, a crime thriller published by Bloodhound Books.  I wrote Kill or Die (under a different title) some years ago. I sent it off to a couple of publishers, who rejected it for very different reasons. One said it was too graphic and gory, the other said it wasn't graphic enough for a crime novel. So what did I do? Put it away in a drawer and forgot all about it. A couple of years ago I came across it again, and noticed a handwritten comment on the front page from a reader who had said they liked my style. Encouraged, I read through it again myself, and decided it wasn't too bad. So I re-worked and re-wrote and then eventually sen...

Today is something of a Red Letter Day for me, as it sees the release of my first adult crime novel. It's called Kill or Die , and while it's not self published, I hope you will indulge me giving it a little mention here. It's being published by Bloodhound Books, who have been a real pleasure to work with. I think we've all had bad experiences at some time or other with some publishers, but I'm feeling really fortunate to be working with two publishers who are just brilliant. My other one is Badger Learning who I write hi-lo books for reluctant teenagers. I'm not exactly new to writing crime, as my children's books for Scholastic back in the 1990's featured murder mysteries - but murder in the best possible taste! No blood or gore. Whereas in Kill or Die there's definitely bit of the sticky red stuff! It's funny though, how it's okay to write about murder – unless it's involving animals. When I was just starting to wr...