Authors Electric

What's the point of blogging? As others here have pointed out, strenuously blogging and Facebooking your book and/or yourself doesn't necessarily result in attracting new readers or produce much by way of increased sales.  Halloween countdown ... Christmas countdown ... I nearly pulled a muscle in my brain thinking up things to post on the FB page for Haunting Hounds each day during October last year, counting down to Halloween. And then did it all over again for December, producing an Advent Calendar countdown to Christmas (another traditional time for telling spooky tales).  And then let off steam by adding a 12 Days of Christmas countdown (or count up) too.  The people that saw the posts seemed to quite like them and they got shared about, but it didn't crank sales up by more than a few copies. It's a shame as my share of the profits all go to Scruples Whippet Rescue ... 12 days of Christmas ... Blogging and FB-ing can be pretty...

From ghosties and ghoulies and long leggerty beasties, And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us ... Yes, the witching season is upon us once again this month! If you're looking for something both seasonal and canine, might I recommend Haunting Hounds? Although I don't normally make a habit of plugging my books here in such an in-your-face manner, I will make an exception for this one, as it's in aid of a really good cause:  50% of all royalties are going to Scruples Whippet Rescue , which does a wonderful job of rescuing and helping to find new homes for whippets in need. It was really good fun to write; and although it's a little bit tongue in cheek in places, there are a couple of stories that really gave me goosebumps when researching them, such as the tale of the Newgate Black Dog and that of fighter pilot Guy Gibson's Labrador who became the mascot for the Dam Busters squadron.     As well as o...

A book I love so much that I not only have a precious battered paper version but digital and audio editions too. (Incidentally, Neville Jason narrates it brilliantly) Listening to Desert Island Discs recently, I thought about what my own choices would be. And as I’ve mentioned in one of my previous blogs, my desert island book would definitely be TH White’s Once and Future King. Except that nowadays, the advent of e readers means that you don’t have to stop at just one book. Instead of a single volume, before the ship sank, I’d snatch up my Kindle instead – preloaded, naturally, with a selection of 3000 books, and complete with a cover incorporating a light so I could read at night. Maybe I might finally get around to tackling War and Peace, as well as working my way through some of the backlog of reading that has built up. The desert island experience might actually turn out to be rather pleasant. For my luxury I was considering asking for Ray Mears, as his survival exper...