Red Sister by Mark Lawrence. Nuns and magic and... just wow!

 Imagine an ice-bound world where the polar caps have expanded as the power of its sun dwindles. A world where life is confined to a 50 mile wide corridor circling the globe, and maintained by the power of the focus moon. This is the world of Red Sister. The world of Abeth, where the ice-wind howls down and hurls shards of ice at those foolish, or unlucky enough, not to have found shelter.

I was lucky enough to receive an Advance Reader Copy of Red Sister, and I have to say, Lawrence does not disappoint. The first book in a new trilogy, Red Sister is a departure from Lawrence's previous novels which take place in the Broken Empire. There is an immediate difference from his previous books, both in tone and content.  Red Sister is far closer in tone to the Red Queen's War than to the Broken Empire trilogy, with none of the hateful protagonist that many found themselves loving despite themselves.

Most of the characters in this book are female, with men playing largely minor roles. Lawrence also has both homosexual and disabled characters, and does a fantastic job of making neither fact matter. All characters are treated purely as people.

Nona Grey is unwanted and broken, given to the child-taker without a price, and consigned to a life of blood and violence as she passes on the Convent of Sweet Mercy. If you were expecting women devoted to a life of meditation and seeking to be closer to god, you will be disappointed.

"It is important, when killing a nun, to bring an army of sufficient size."

Lawrence paints a picture of a world where mankind is just barely clinging on. The worldbuilding is organic and unfolds slowly through the eyes of the characters, through flashbacks and stories, rather than by bombarding the reader. 

The magic system is both simple and effective, with magical power passing through the ancient bloodlines of Hunska, Marjal, Gerant, and Quantal, each conferring various abilities. Strong blood strains (primes or pure strains) are a rarity, and strong mixed lines are rarer still.

Nona's story unfolds as she adapts to life in the convent and progresses with her training. She is faced with the challenges of discovering what friendship is supposed to be, and learning the lessons of trust and betrayal, as she studies the business of violence, poison, and blood. But Nona is not without a past, or enemies, and both have their part to play in this tale.

The prose is what we have come to expect of Lawrence. Lyrical and bordering on poetry in many instances. There is a dark beauty to the author's writing which makes it hard to put down and I am already waiting for the sequel.

Red Sister will be released by Harper Voyager in both hardback and ebook format on April 6th and is available for preorder now.

a paperback edition and the coolest book launch ever!

So when "Fae - The Wild Hunt" came out back in March, I knew I wanted it to be out in paperback. I wanted it in bookshops, and I wanted to be signing it and generally getting out there and meeting people who'd read it and enjoyed it.

I'll be honest, and say I also wanted to hold it myself. It's a bit childish, but I need to feel it in my hands, smell it... maybe hug it a little. Is that so wrong? Judge all you want, I don't care...

Anyway, the slight snag was in finding a publisher who was insane enough to take me on and get this thing out there. As I might have mentioned once or twice, there is an insane amount of competition in this game and even getting your book considered is a feat in itself.

If I'm really really honest, then it also has a large amount to do with my own impatience. I could have sat home, editing and polishing the book and sending it off to agent after agent,  publisher after... Well you get the idea. I wasn't prepared to do that forever, and so I decided to self-publish it on kindle and the other eBook platforms.

Since day one people have been asking for a paperback edition, and I have looked long and hard to find a way to do this. There are a quite a few self-publishing options out there, but using most of them would result in the price of the book being much higher than I think is reasonable. If I wouldn't pay that amount myself, then I definitely can't expect other people to.

And so there it sat... I was doing okay on eBook sales and it was all ticking along nicely, but the lack of paperback edition nagged at me. Like an itch you just can't quite reach. The funny thing is that paperback sales, unless you are selling  absolutely shed-loads of books, really don't make a writer much. The real money is in eBooks but it's really kind of hard to sign an eBook and tends to mess up the screen. Even the various e-signing apps out there don't really give the same impact.

BUT.... (and you can gasp in anticipation here if you like...)

I have managed to find a way! That's right folks, I am releasing a paperback edition which should (we hope) be available from August 14th!

But hold on... that's not the cool part. (Again, a gasp isn't going to be out of place here... give something back you know?) No the cool part is just how, and where, I'm going to launch this puppy. There is a little gathering happening in London on this weekend in August. An intimate gathering of say... SEVEN THOUSAND PEOPLE who are all going to LonCon, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention!

I will be there! Not camped out on the pavement outside but actually in the dealer zone! I'll have my own table and paperbacks for sale. I will be signing, hanging out, and probably giving away some cool things too.

For those that don't know, this thing is truly huge. Patrick Rothfuss, Robin Hobb, Peter V Brett, and Joe Abercrombie will all be there, to name but a few. And there, in the midst of literary greatness, will be me... (*gulp*)

So there you have it... cat out of the bag and all that. If you are going to LonCon then be sure to scout out the dealer zone and see if you can find me. I'd love to meet anyone who has read and enjoyed the book. I'd love to meet anyone who hasn't read the book but quite fancies a copy. Hell I'd love to meet all of you... Come on over.

For those that can't get there but who still want a copy, it will be on sale via amazon and the usual sites. I'll have to think up something fun to celebrate the launch.

Now, all those people that are on my mailing list knew all of this days ago. They've also been able to read some of the next book. I've put a form just below where you can sign up to get cool news like this, and also to receive raw snippets from the sequel. These are as fresh as it gets, sometimes not even proofed. It's as close as you can get to reading over my shoulder as I type!

That's it for now. I have a new editor cracking her whip and revisions to make. See you in London!

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I might just be crazy but... why not?

I'm probably crazy for thinking this one up but here goes. Reviews are all well and good but it's rare that I get any real feedback on my book. It's written now and although there is some editing going on with it, it's unlikely anything major is going to change between now and when the paperback comes out (yes I did just let that slip didn't I?).

So this brings me on to the sequel. It would be great to have some real feedback, what works and what doesn't and why... This is usually done with a handful of beta-readers who go through the book in secret, but does it have to be? This got me thinking. What if there was a way you could read the book as it was being written? What if you were emailed a few pages every couple of weeks? It wouldn't totally spoil the finished product for you as it would naturally change as we progressed due to your feedback and my own edits. Plus I wouldn't send entire chapters, just snippets. It would be a totally organic way of writing, the book would evolve as it was written.

You'd have to have read the first book to really understand the second but it's only a few dollars/pounds/yen and actually only 99c at the moment (well until Thursday). It's a bit of a crazy idea but hey... why the heck not. You provide the eyes and some feedback... I'll do the rest.

I'm posting the form here... let's see who signs up.

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Kindleboards, Spotlights and Wine...

A feature spotlight on Kindleboards today, check it out here. Apparently they are the biggest internet kindle forum going so hopefully this will provide some exposure for the book. I've also dropped the price down to 99c for the event so grab a copy while you can. For those of you on Nook and Kobo don't despair because my exclusivity with Amazon ends mid June. Because of this Fae will be rolling out to all the other platforms like Kobo and iTunes with June 16th as the release date.

All hail and rejoice! Let there be wine and women and song! Or... you know... read a book?

Of Slash, Garage Rock and Writing...

I'm writing today. It's hard. I'm out of practice and the whole process seems forced and unnatural. It's a bit hard to describe it to a non-writer, wow I just read that back and realised how pretentious it sounds. This doesn't make it any less true though. That said, I've never discussed this with any other writers, so maybe it's just me. There's a point when you just fall into it and it just flows... It just happens. This is the stuff that you read back when editing weeks or months later and wonder who wrote it.With me though, there is a feeling that goes along with it and I'll try my best to explain it to you.

Many, many moons ago a ROCK GOD was born. Not in a hospital  with nurses or a bedroom attended by a midwife, but in a garage attended by a couple of mates and a misguided belief in his own musical ability. I had a cheap fender knock-off, a scratchy amplifier and little to no talent. I didn't know the difference between and arpeggio and an archipelago but I was convinced I was going to be able to learn.

The funny thing about music, and I am pretty sure I am plagiarizing someone here but can't remember who it is, is that musicians are rarely taught. They are born. You can take someone and show him the right finger positions, make him learn the notes and the timings, teach him the tunes... This will not really create a musician... a true musician has the music inside of him and the former will never equal the latter.

This was me... the latter. I practiced (a bit), I learned (a bit), I am fairly sure I contributed to my neighbour's wife's early demise with my incessant racket... Every now and then though, it worked. I remember trying to learn to play "Sweet Child of Mine", (Guns and Roses people come on!) it was massively ambitious and unrealistic. I didn't have the talent for it, or the patience to truly practice it, and never really got past the guitar intro and the first solo. The thing is quite hard to play... lots of quick finger movements and it's really really easy to ruin it.

Every now and then though I would get it, no missed notes... no poor fingering leading to buzz from the frets... and it felt like flying... or balancing on a unicycle... One wrong move would ruin it but for the moment it was glorious.

This is what writing feels like to me when it's flowing. It is words bypassing my brain and coming direct from fingertips to screen. It also has the added bonus of not sounding like someone is torturing a cat with a guitar and so far as I know... my writing has never contributed to anybody's early demise.

And We're Off!

And We're Off...


So here we go... everybody ready? Got your coffee? Snacks? No bathroom breaks after this... We're off!

Okay so I've written a book, you may or may not have heard of it, "Fae - The Wild Hunt"? I didn't really set out to write a book, it wasn't something that I ever thought I would be able to do. The idea had always appealed to me  and in a fit of madness I thought I'd give it a go. In a weird way it's not that hard, in the same way that running a marathon isn't that hard. You start running, you don't stop... you run some more. Writing a novel was the same way for me. You start writing, you write some more.. and eventually it's finished. So I sat down one day and started typing...

Alright I know I am oversimplifying but before people start hurling abuse at me I have run two marathons and at it's most basic level it really is that simple. So where did this leave me? Well having finished the story I then had proof-reading (really dull), editing (even more dull), polishing (frustrating) and then sending it out for others to read. This, incidentally is the single most terrifying thing I have done in my life. Also the most irritating. I'm a man. I make no apology for this. Men are not by nature, patient creatures. At my core is a spoiled child trying to get out  (although I do let him out to play when nobody else is watching but shhh!) and I wanted instant results, instant gratification and of course, everyone in the world to love my book immediately.

After all these steps and some truly brilliant editing efforts  (thanks Clare, Dawnmarie and of course Gillian) it was time to start submitting. I sent it off to probably twenty varied agents and even a few publishers. Again the spoiled child got in the way. He ranted and sulked and jumped up and down a bit... Why weren't people beating a path to my door? Why didn't I have three agents and four publishers fighting over me already?

The answer to all these questions of course is that the market is competitive. Not just a little competitive either but hugely MASSIVELY competitive! Agents are drowning in submissions they have to sift through. Publishers are swamped in agents trying to sell them their client's work. It's just all a bit frantic and mad. So eventually I decided to self-publish. Not entirely though. I'd seen David Dalgish and Andy Weir publish their work as eBooks and achieve amazing results. Andy Weir actually had 30'000 downloads a month within three months and then was snapped up by a publisher.  Incidentally if you haven't read "The Martian" you really need to. It's amazing writing and this is why he was snapped up and my massive ego aside, this did at least show it was possible.

So I published as an eBook on Amazon exclusively to start with (though I'll be expanding out into Nook and Kobo and iTunes and all that good stuff on June 16th). The initial reaction was brilliant. I hit best seller lists as my friends and family and people who'd caught my facebook ramblings about the book rushed to grab a copy. Then came the slow decline... You see what people don't always realise is the sheer number of books and eBooks on Amazon. The numbers are so large they don't really mean anything anymore. You can picture ten or even a hundred books... a thousand in a stretch. Amazon has over 2,600,000 titles, and even then I am missing a few. You can't even imagine that amount of books. Like three or four HUGE libraries piled on top of each other. That's what we're talking about here. So how the heck was anyone going to find MY book??

And this is what brings us up to the present. THIS is the major difference between traditional publishing and self-publishing. The marketing. I'm a writing... I'm not a marketer. I don't want to do press releases. I don't want to be that guy standing on a virtual corner of the internet screaming "buy my book! Really it has fae in it and how cool are they? I mean really nasty ones too at times... it's far better than that other crap you were looking at. Hey no.. where are going?? No not that book! MY BOOK! MINE MINE MINE!!!" And really this is what a lot of internet marketing ends up being. I want to be doing readings and signings in bookshops...

So I decided I'd start this blog, talking about how we got to this point. About the next book (apparently I have not been deterred that easily) and the writing process. Also about the weird and wonderful world of print books and my quest for a publisher. At the moment I can't find a way to publish in print without gouging the customer. I like my book. I know I'm biased but it's good, really it is. It's not as good as Terry Pratchett though, that's something that would just be astounding to achieve and it won't happen on my first attempt. Because of this I refuse to print something that would have a higher price than his work. It's not reasonable and it's a bit arrogant. The problem is that the cost of producing a book with the companies I have looked at (and who will give me a hope of getting it into bricks and mortar shops) drives the price up beyond that.

So for now we will stick with the eBook and keep searching for a publisher/agent. I'll work on the sequel to my novel and try hard....really hard to ignore the child screaming inside my head "PUBLISH MY BOOK! BUY IT BUY IT.. MINE MINE MINE!!"