The Passing Place

The April Report…

Posted on May 2, 2019 by Mark Hayes

Occasionally people ask me about my book sales, these people fall into a couple of loose categories, curious friends, and other writers who really want to know… Mainly I find that in the case of writers it is often because they’re new to self-publishing and occasionally a little starry-eyed. One tries not to shatter illusions, or infer that your personal experience is the experience of all. But for those who think that writing a book and self-publishing will be their way out of the rat-race, I feel an obligation to temper there expectations a little. Success is also something you can only measure by your own expectations, and after several years of self-publishing, my expectations are perhaps a little jaded, unlike my enthusiasm which remains undimmed.

Jim C Hines, an American author whose blog I follow because he writes really fun interesting novels, and also because he is a social activist on a number of subjects on which I share similar and very firm opinions. Basically, he is a very fine fellow and I recommend both his blog and his novels to anyone. But among other things, he also produces a candid annual report on his income as a writer and has been since 2007, which makes for interesting reading and if you look through them all you can track his career as it has developed from being a part-time writer all the way up to going full time a couple of years ago and growing a beard ( which is apparently the thing to do when you become a full-time writer.) Jim is not self-published ( at least not exclusively) and his experience is not the experience of self-published writers. But he is very open and his experience and the financial side of being a writer.

In the spirit of those Jim C Hines annual reports, and because people do often ask me about book sales etc. I thought I would share a little of my own experience, though you should bear in mind I am a self-published writer of genre fiction, a small fish, in a puddle, basicly, but some of you may find it interesting reading.

April report:

This April has been a bit of a watershed for me, for a number of reasons. Firstly I did my first ever convention as a writer, which was by varying degrees terrifying and wonderful at the same time. this was at Scarborough Scifi convention SCS which I was invited along to by the good people at 6E publishing as we were releasing the first Harvey Duckman Anthology at the convention, in which as you might be aware I have a Hannibal story. But I was not only there to launch Harvey Duckman on the unsuspecting world, but I was also there showcasing my own novels, which I sold a few copies of, and gave out cards and flyers on mass.

Further to this for the first week of April, I was giving away the Kindle version of A Scar of Avarice on Amazon, the novella being a cross over of Passing Place and Hannibal universes, this was a not so subtle ploy to showcase both.

I also bit the bullet and started using AMS to advertise my novels, both in the US (myself) and the UK (thanks to 6e, as using AMS in the UK is a nightmare if your not an Amazon vendor).

In short, I had a lot going on in order to push my books and had it gone badly I suspect I may have ended up a tad disheartened.

Now the first thing you need to realise is that I have been self-publishing since Cider Lane came out back in 2015, and in that time I have released three novels and a novella, none of which, apart from A Scar Of Avarice, is linked to the others. Sales on the month of release tend to do well, but after that, they drop off steeply. There are months that I haven’t sold books. generally, these months are in the long gap between releases, when I am not trying very hard to push books and if I am been honest my drive as a self -publisher has run out of fuel. But a lot of things have changed in the last few months, including my approach, aims and goals. Which is why when I looked back on April this morning this was the pair of graphs I was looking at.

Okay, clearly I will need to explain a little about what the graphs are actually saying.

The upper graph is Amazon book sales, both paperbacks and kindle
The lower graph is Kindle Unlimited page reads
The different colours refer to different titles or editions
This doesn’t include direct sales at Scarborough
This also doesn’t include Harvey Duckman Anthologies
I’ve also taken out the free copies of Scar ( there were about 65 in total of those)

To be clear, this is a damn good month for me. Every single one of my titles sold multiple copies. Every single one of them also had at least one copy read on kindle unlimited on which I had a total of 3336 page reads for the month, which is the most I have ever had in a single calendar month. Total sales on Amazon discounting the free novella was 20 books, if I guestimate the pages reads into books (it varies on each title, so it’s less than straight forward, passing place is a long book, the novella isn’t ) those amount to about 11 books. And if I add in the books, I sold at Scarborough, which was roughly another 10 (I would have to actually count paperback and do maths to be sure) that’s 41 books sold.

The point here is this, just sitting around waiting for books to sell gets you nowhere. You might not think 41 books is a lot of sales but baring in mind this is now over 4 months since the release of the first Hannibal novel, those 41 sales are not sales to people who have bought my books in the past, these are new release sales. Three of those sales are Cider Lane a novel, not in a genre I actively write in: or blog about, that came out four years ago. Eight of them are Passing Place which is itself almost three years old now. All in all, this was a very successful month for me. The question, therefore, is why…

Which is a difficult question because for most of the month I have been using AMS advertising, which accounts for some of these sales, There are also the direct sales at SCS which is an entirely new thing for me. It has also been Indie April, and I have been busy helping the Indieverse and a couple of sales have gone to other Indie authors, or have been because other Indie authors have shared my posts etc. There are also all the cards I handed out at Scarborough. There are all the free novella’s I gave away that have hopefully caused a few readers to consider buying some of my other books. There is the high position the Amazon charts that my books have achieved, and there are Harvey Duckman readers, enjoying The Cheesecake Dichotomy and then perhaps deciding to give my novels a try.

In short, it has been a hectic month, with a lot going on, but importantly I have done well by my terms, and hopefully, May will build on this.

So if you’re an indie writer, and you want people to read your work, my advice is simple, keep on pushing, working hard and doing what you can to get people to give you books a try. Hard work pays off.

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The Hopeless Interview…

Posted on April 29, 2019 by Mark Hayes

As an indie author, I try to be a bit of an advocate for indie novelists and indie creators in general. But while my reviews may entertain, and hopefully even point some of you in the direction of books which you will both love and cherish but would have escaped your notice otherwise, authors themselves fascinate me almost as much as the books they write, as indeed do artists of all kinds. As such, because its a way to get them to answer my own questions, I do the odd interview with indie writers here. Today, therefore, I’ve had the absolute treat of interviewing Nimue and Tom Brown, (which is to say they emailed me back the answers to a few questions, but it sounds way cooler if I pretend I actually went to interview them…) Which makes this The Hopeless interview. Which is apt because I am on occasion a hopeless interviewer…

Tom and Nimue are collectively responsible for art, stories and tentacles in the series of graphic novels set on the island of Hopeless, which lays somewhere of the coast of Maine, it’s not clear if Maine is aware of the island hidden behind a remarkably persistent fog bank, but if it is I suspect if Maine is aware then there are warning signs on buoys all around it with skull motives and ‘Warning Do Not Pass’ written in red paint all over them. At least, I would assume its paint… But I digress…

Tom takes the leads on the art and while Nimue takes the lead on the stories but they both do both, which just speaks as to how utterly talented they both are. Hopeless started out as a webcomic, before coming to print. The Hopeless Vendetta web site is run as a collaborative which encourages the Browns fans to get involved with the Island setting, which is now it’s in the process of becoming a roleplaying game, tarot deck, a cuddly spoonwalker and all manner of other things. I don’t know precisely what a cuddly spoonwalker is, but I know I want one…

But enough from me, on with the interview, and a lot of Tom and Nimues artwork as they sent me a boatload, and who doesn’t like eye candy, of course, if you eat too much candy it might rot your soul, but who needs a soul in this day and age anyway…

What do you feel drives you to create?

For both of us, it’s about a desire to put something good into the world. We’ve both lived
through difficult and challenging times when imaginative worlds have kept us going. We
hope to provide some of that same resilience and inspiration for other people.

How would you describe your next graphic novel to someone who has never read
anything you have written before?

We have been described as being like a dark Studio Ghibli, so that’s a flavour. But, we’re
some way into a story here, its as well to begin at the beginning. (The Gathering)

Where, when and how do you do the majority of your creating?

We have a living room studio writing shed, and these days pretty much everything
happens either at the table or on the sofa. Previously we’ve co-created in a narrowboat,
and for a while before that, we were working on opposite sides of the ocean and passing
things back and forth online.

What was the first book/author you really connected to, that made you want to write
yourself?

For Tom this was Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Ways comes, and all of the
comic books in the world at all!
For Nimue, there wasn’t a time before books (she remembers back to being about two!)
Probably the consciousness that books are things made by people, and that people can
make, goes all the way back to Winnie the Pooh.

There is a strange phenomenon on the internet and Twitter in general of Authors cats.
Several authors have started putting up daily pictures of their cats, as a running
monologue of their lives, and more are doing every day it seems. It’s all become a bit
weird… Do you own a cat and can we have a picture of it?

We co-habit with a cat (own doesn’t seem quite the word) and provide assorted services,
including tin opening and tum rubbing. In return, we are treated to late night arias, usually performed in the bathtub. There are also cats who live in our heads, and we have sent examples of both.

What’s your favourite / worst, form of procrastination?

Tom’s preferred method of procrastination is to over-research, spending far too much time getting, for example, the exact right table for the period and location even though you can only see a corner of it in two panels.
Nimue procrastinates through the medium of housework, which may be as well because otherwise frankly she would never do anything in the least bit domesticated!

One of my favourite Hemmingway quotes is ‘write drunk, edit sober’ what’s your
favoured tipple if you’re writing?

We tend to imagine when drunk and work when sober. In terms of tipple, we like real ale – hoppy for preference. Tom likes whiskey, Nimue favours vodka, but we’ll both generally drink whatever is offered us, or happens to be cheap! When we’re working, its all about the coffee – black, strong, and with a steady supply of biscuits.

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What do you love most about creating?

Each other. We got together as a consequence of working on the Hopeless Maine graphic
novel series. We’re both at our happiest as creators when passing things back and forth
between us, and jamming on each other’s ideas. What we make together is invariably
bigger than the sum of its parts, and it’s the energy of co-creating, and getting excited
about each other’s work, that keeps us going.

And on that heartwarming note of life, love and happiness we bid Nimue and Tom adieu for now. You can find out more about Hopeless Maine at The Hopeless Vendetta, or follow Tom and Nimue on twitter by clicking on their names, Hopeless is also on Facebook at hopelessmaine and if you’re a wise person of great taste in art and storytelling you can even buy the Hopeless Maine graphic novels published by Sloth Comics in a multiplicity of places; including Waterstones, Amazon, and if your lucky enough to attend on steampunk fairs and conventions all over the place.

To go read them yourself, because you know you want to, click on the links below :

Book 1 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hopeless-Maine-Gathering-Tom-Brown/dp/1908830123

Book 2 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hopeless-Maine-Sinners-Tom-Brown/dp/190883014X

and on pre-order Book 3 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hopeless-Maine-3-Tom-Brown/dp/1908830166/

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Indie April #9: A multiplicity of worlds

Posted on April 26, 2019 by Mark Hayes

It’s Indie April, a celebration of all things Indie, be it novels, movies, music or art. The idea being to encourage interaction between indie creatives, and that most elusive of beasties the wider audience, and it is a time to celebrate all those wonderful indie creatives and their work. As a writer, my focus (I know, I know, this bits always the same in these posts, look just skip down a paragraph why don’t you…) is on bringing indie writers (and artists) to your attention. So for the rest of the month, I will be periodically featuring some of the best the independent scene has to offer. Some of these will be names familiar to those who read my blog, some will be new, but all of them are undoubtedly wonderful and deserving of a wider audience. So take the plunge and invest in some indie goodness, give an indie writer (and artists) a try, I guarantee you’ll not regret it.

Passing Places and Hannibal Smyth: Mark Hayes

Mark writes novels that often defy simple genre definitions, they could be described as speculative fiction, though Mark would never use the term as he prefers not to speculate. When not writing novels Mark is a persistent pernicious procrastinator, he recently petitioned parliament for the removal of the sixteenth letter from the Latin alphabet. He is also 7th Dan Blackbelt in the ancient Yorkshire marshal art of EckEThump and favours a one man one vote system but has yet to supply the name of the man in question. Mark has also been known to not take bio very serious.

Now I know what your thinking, ‘This is a tad nepotistic, isn’t it?’ well, I refute that claim on a technicality as I am not my own father, and I am not putting forward a relative’s work ahead of anyone else’s. So no this is not nepotism, just blatant self-promotion. But as I have been pushing loads of awesome books by loads of awesome indie writers all month, you’ll forgive me if I at least take a moment to push my own. I’m an Indie Author too… anyway back to writing this in the third person, which is frankly weird…

Mark writes in an eclectic and character-driven style. His 2016 novel Passing Place is set in a fictional bar that travels the multiverse so it doors open out into different points in time and space, as well as diffrent alternative versions of reality. It follows the journey of a widowed musician who at the end of a grief-driven journey across America takes a job at the bar because of the sign in a bus station window that advertises the bars need for a piano player, one who must know ‘Forever Autumn’ which by sheer coincidence happens to be the favourite song of the musicians dead wife. Also, he takes the job because a cat tells him to do so. In Esqwiths Passing Place, as he plays piano he meets a series of unlikely characters who tell him stories, wierd wonderful strange stories and each in their own voice, each of which helps the musician in his search for the answer to that most unforgiving of questions, why?

One of the characters who wandered through an early draft of passing place was an ignominious lying braggart called Harry Smith, who served in the Royal Air Navy of a clockwork version of Queen Victoria. While Harry slipped out of the Bar door and never made the final novel, old ‘Arry went on to become Hannibal Smyth, a no less ignominious swine but a tad more lovable than his original incarnation. The Hannibal Smyth Misadventures is set in a version of the world where Good Queen Sticky Vic never died and has sat on the throne of an Empire upon which the sun never set for two hundred years. Told in Hannibal’s own idiosyncratic way by the man himself, the first of this series of novels ‘A Spider In The Eye’ was released in January this year. The next ‘From Russia With Tassel’s’ is due out sometime this summer, with two further novels planned in the series, because quartets are more interesting than trios (or so mark claims)

There is also a cross over novella set in the Passing Place, in which Hannibal drops in for a drink and tells a tale or two. (literally drops in as he has fallen off an airship somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean at the time)

This is the point when I give you a few links to other posts on marks work. But as this is my blog that would seem a bit silly… click on anything 🙂

Aside from his own novels, Mark also has a Hannibal short story in the Harvey Duckman Presents Anthologies. Which by no coincidence what so ever was released last month … Just waiting for you to read, so if you fancy a taster of both Mark’s work and 13 other Indie writers of SciFi, Fantasy, Steampunk and Horror, you could do worse than get yourself a copy, so click on the lovely picture below 🙂 There may be more indie April stuff to come if I have time, if not it will be indie May….

Posted in amreading, amwriting, books, dreamlands, dystopia, Esqwiths, goodnews, Goth, Hannibal Smyth, Harvey Duckman, horror, humour, indie, indie novels, IndieApril, indiewriter, Passing Place, pointless things of wonderfulness, sci-fi, self-publishing, steampunk, writes, writing | Tagged #scifi, amwritingscifi, horror, humour, indie, IndieApril, indiebooks, indienovels, sciencefiction, steampunk | Leave a comment

Indie April#8: The Isle without Hope

Posted on April 20, 2019 by Mark Hayes

Hopeless Maine: Tom and Nimue Brown

Tom Brown and Nimue Brown, collectively responsible for art, stories and tentacles in the series of graphic novels set on the island of Hopeless, somewhere of the coast of Maine. Tom leads on the art and Nimue on the stories but they both do both, which just speaks as to how utterly talented they both are. Hopeless started out as a webcomic, before coming to print. The Island setting is now it’s in the process of becoming a roleplaying game, tarot deck, a cuddly spoonwalker and all manner of other things. I don’t know exactly what a cuddly spoonwalker is, but I know I want one…

These novels had been on my to buy list ever since I first saw Tom Brown’s gorgeous Burtonesque artwork, but it is Nimue Brown’s writing that sets this truly apart because no matter how beautifully atmospheric the artwork (and it is beautiful, grim, dark and utterly gorgeous) a graphic novel lives and breaths through the writing. So while the art is a feast for the eyes, the words need to be a feast for the soul, which they are. Just the chapter titles alone give you a taste of how beautifully written this is, ‘My mother wants to drink me’ and ‘I don’t think I will ever get used to being dead’.
You can not help but be drawn into the strange, dark, tragic lives of the character, and the grim foreboding haunted island of Hopeless, somewhere of the coast of Maine, or somewhere else perhaps.
As I said this was on my to buy list a while before I bought it, but I am so glad I did, and if it needs any more compliments from me, let me just say this, the moment I finished reading it, I ordered the next book… and now I am damned to wait for it to arrive…

You can find out more about the island of Hopeless, Maine and its many strange, occasionally grotesque, endlessly weird and grimly fascinating inhabitance at https://hopelessvendetta.wordpress.com/ and the books are available on Amazon, in many a local comic shop, and if your lucky enough to get to one when they are there and not busy fending off tentacles steampunk festivals and other such gatherings.

This is normally where I do the earlier posts bit, but there ain’t any because I have only just read the first book and the review I wrote for Amazon is what you have just read… However, those who follow my Lovecraftian reviews which I have been doing for so damn long I may never finish them all will know I normally rate Lovecraft’s stories with tentacles. So given this is Hopeless, Maine, in a slight divergence from the norm for these posts I’ll give it a tentacle score as well…

PS: I have also now don’t an interview with Nimue and Tom and you can find it by clicking on the bit that says Interview Click here, which is this bit, so click on it…

Also, as your doubtless aware by now, this is the part of these posts where I come up with a reason why I have a Harvey Duckman link at the bottom of this post. The excuses for doing so when the writers (and artists) I am talking about have nothing to do with the anthology have become ever more tenuous. Someone is bound to point this out at some point. But as I am one of 14 other Indie writers of SciFi, Fantasy, Steampunk and Horror within its folds, one of which is Craig Hallam who I know really likes Tom and Nimue’s work, I’m going to do it anyway. So you could do worse than get yourself a copy by clicking on the lovely picture below 🙂 More indie April shorts coming as soon as (I figure out who to do next, probably Katie Salvo, writer of life stories of German philosophers sisters and their incestuous relationships shes not in Harvey either and I’ll probably need an even more tenuous link in her case…

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Indie April#7: Magpies of Misanthropy

Posted on April 18, 2019 by Mark Hayes

It’s Indie April, a celebration of all things Indie, be it novels, movies, music or art. The idea being to encourage interaction between indie creatives, and that most elusive of beasties the wider audience, and it is a time to celebrate all those wonderful indie creatives and their work. As a writer, my focus (I know, I know, this bits always the same in these posts, look just skip down a paragraph why don’t you…) is on bringing indie writers to your attention. So for the rest of the month, I will be periodically featuring some of the best the independent scene has to offer. Some of these will be names familiar to those who read my blog, some will be new, but all of them are undoubtedly wonderful and deserving of a wider audience. So take the plunge and invest in some indie goodness, give an indie writer a try, I guarantee you’ll not regret it.

The Tales of Tantamount: Meredith Debonnaire

Meredith Debonnaire is a young unrepentant bibliobibuli who claims to be in training to be a hermit, and sometimes vanish for a long long time into the depths of her brain and only emerge months later, possibly wiser and in need of hot chocolate. With a degree of self-knowledge, few ever attain, she has been known to claim ‘There is an 80% chance that I am talking total bollocks, but I’m afraid I can’t say for certain.’ But if this is the case it is bizarre bouncy fizzy frivolously fascinating bollocks (this sentence may have gotten away from me, but let’s not dwell on it). If she is sane, only the magpies know, and they are intransigent in the telling of their secrets…

Tales from Tantamount is, well, somewhat eclectic. It is many things and can be read as many things. It is easier to say what it is not, what it is not is the corpse of an idiosyncratic French poet reanimated by Salvador Dali then forced to recite the history of a town in verse while constructing a 1/1 scale model of Stonehenge on the southern coast of Playa Traviata on a wet weekend in July… Tales from Tantamount is definitely not that, for a start, the poet isn’t French… What it actually is is a bunch of fictional snippets from a year in the life of an odd little town somewhere never the river Seven, where Historian is a somewhat more exciting if generally short-lived profession, on account of history in the town been a tad fluid, particularly on Wednesdays. As it should be added is some of the architecture. You can, so Meredith informs us, find out more at the Tantamount public Library, which is probably at the bottom of the high street today, but we can not say for certain, it is the year of the sad plastic bag after all… Just don’t head down there between 2:15 and 2:35 as that’s when the Carrion is due, and it’s best not to be on the streets at that point…

You can find out more about the history of a small town near the river Seven that never was, and the dark secrets that lay in wait in its carrion haunted streets at https://meredithdebonnaire.wordpress.com/ and soon, or so the magpies tell me, in a rare moment of forthcoming, be a collected and expanded Tales of Tantamount in paperback, with lost of extra stuff even some art by Tom Brown of Hopeless Maine fame, because strange towns on the edge of reality tend to cling together, or possibly fight wars of poetic fury, its hard to be sure. But I for one and looking forward to it. (I’m a fan in case this post was not a clue)

Meredith also has a novella out there in the world called ‘The Life and Times of Angel Evens’ I have not read this due to the problem with the earth’s rotational speed influencing the day-night cycle in limitation of the number of hours in the day. Because it sounds interesting and I want to, so at some point, I will.

This is normally where I do the earlier posts bit, but there ain’t any, so instead here is a public warning notice form Tantamount Town council, there may be a link to further things connected to it, I dare you to click on it… Go on just click on it, you know you want to…

Aside from her own novels, and weirdness, Meredith’s blog is also followed by at least two of the writers in the Harvey Duckman Presents Anthologies. Which is the most tenuous link yet but it remains just waiting for you to read, though the first print run has sold out rather quickly, so it’s now paperbacks are only available on POD … There may not be the secrets of magpies within its pages but there are 14 other Indie writers of SciFi, Fantasy, Steampunk and Horror within its folds, so you could do worse than get yourself a copy, so click on the lovely picture below 🙂 More indie April shots coming soon with Tom & Nimue Brown the creators of another odd place on the edge of imagination, Hopeless Maine…

Disclaimer: normal service will resume shortly when I stop trying to channel Meridieth Debonnaire’s own brand of sanity and return to writing these from my own. Besides, frankly, she is better at writing like herself than I am, odd that.

Additional: Meredith is now releasing the complete Tales from Tantamount in an ink and paper format popular in libraries and retailers of such things. It not released yet, but details will follow when it is no doubt as I intend to buy one at the first opportunity to do so. While it is still being compiled, edited and in possibly written in some respects, there is a cover by the endlessly talented Tom Brown of Hopeless Maine fame. So until I can put a link up for the book itself, here’s a peek at the cover… try not to dribble when you behold it…

Additional additional…

Tales From Tantamount has now been released, so there is a free preview available and the Amazon link here as well… enjoy.

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Indie April#6: Boston Metaphysics

Posted on April 16, 2019 by Mark Hayes

It’s Indie April, a celebration of all things Indie, be it novels, movies, music or art. The idea being to encourage interaction between indie creatives, and that most elusive of beasties the wider audience, and it is a time to celebrate all those wonderful indie creatives and their work. As a writer, my focus (yes, okay, I know, but I have to write this bit…) is on bringing indie writers to your attention. So for the rest of the month, I will be periodically featuring some of the best the independent scene has to offer. Some of these will be names familiar to those who read my blog, some will be new, but all of them are undoubtedly wonderful and deserving of a wider audience. So take the plunge and invest in some indie goodness, give an indie writer a try, I guarantee you’ll not regret it.

The Boston Metaphysical Society: Madeleine Holly-Rosing

A TV, feature film and comic book writer, Madeleine is the winner of the Sloan Fellowship for screenwriting, and the Gold Aurora and Bronze Telly for a PSA produced by Women In Film. She also won numerous awards while completing the UCLA MFA Program in Screenwriting. Having run a number of successful crowdfunding campaigns for her comic, Boston Metaphysical Society, Madeleine now teaches a crowdfunding class for independent creators at Pulp Fiction Books in Culver City as well as guest lecturing at Scriptwriters Network and Dreamworks. She also finds time to actually write books…

Great Houses jockey for power, treachery, subterfuge, and demonic threats. In an alternate-history Boston of 1890. Madeleine’s is a world of steam power, airships, mixed with ghostly goings-on, preta-natural powers and class struggles. Boston is a city divided by wealth and privilege. Great houses rule like feudal lords of old while their vassal’s shelter beneath their banners, while on the south side of the city those without the protection of house live lives of coal soot squaller. (confession time, I am only about a third of the way through A Storm of Secrets as I write this, and need to get this blog out because I have a list of others I need to do before the end of the month… It is, however, a wonderfully engrossing read.) Madeleines world is vivid, and fully realised, the way any tale set in an alternative history should be, merging real history with the possibilities of another path which could have been taken. Drawing on the comic’s, this first novel has a depth to it that, along with the superb writing, makes it easy to slide between the pages, and wonder at a Boston that never was…

You can find out more about the history of a Boston that never was, and the dark secrets that lay in wait in its fog-bound streets at http://bostonmetaphysicalsociety.com/ and you can, of course, find Madeleine’s books and graphic novels on Amazon and elsewhere, including her guide to creators using Kickstarter, on which she is something of an expert, if not indeed the queen.

Earlier posts…

Interview with Madeleine Holly-Rosin
Review of A Storm of Secrets ( coming soon I promise)

Aside from her own novels, Madeleine also has liked at least half a dozen of my posts about the Harvey Duckman Presents Anthologies. on facebook and twitter. Which is a tenuous link even by my standards but it remains just waiting for you to read, though the first print run has sold out rather quickly, so it’s now paperbacks are only available on POD … Madeleine may not have a story in there but a couple of writers of Steampunkery and 12 other Indie writers of SciFi, Fantasy, and Horror do, so you could do worse than get yourself a copy, so click on the lovely picture below 🙂 More indie April shots coming soon with Meridieth Debonnaire the creator of the utterly awesome Tales from Tandamount, who is also not in Harvey Duckman, but only because the Magpies stopped her I suspect…

Posted in amreading, books, grathic novels, Harvey Duckman, humour, indie, indie novels, IndieApril, indiewriter, novels, sci-fi, steampunk, supernatural | Tagged #scifi, alternative history, horror, IndieApril, indiebooks, indienovels, reads, sciencefiction, steampunk, steampunk fantasy | 3 Comments

FREE novella

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Mark Hayes

I’m giving away my novella/mini-anthology A Scar of Avarice this week on kindle

So if you like satirical steampunk, alternative histories, sci-fi, horror or just a damn fine read, grab a FREE copy while you can before it goes back to full price

#steampunk #sciencefiction

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scar-Avarice-passing-nefarious-steampunk-ebook/dp/B07DVT6FZ2/

or for those beyond the bounds of Her Glorious majesties realm…

Posted in amreading, books, Canadian steampunk, fiction, Hannibal Smyth, indie, indie novels, IndieApril, indiewriter, novels, Passing Place, pointless things of wonderfulness, reads, sci-fi, steampunk | Tagged #, #novel, amreading, Canadian steampunk, Hannibal Smyth, kindle, kindlesale, kindleunlimited, novelist, novels, reads, steampunk, writing | Leave a comment

Indie April#5: Of a man and his rat

Posted on April 11, 2019 by Mark Hayes

It’s Indie April, a celebration of all things Indie, be it novels, movies, music or art. The idea being to encourage interaction between indie creatives, and that most elusive of beasties the wider audience, and it is a time to celebrate all those wonderful indie creatives and their work. As a writer, my focus (yes I know you have read this bit before…) is on bringing indie writers to your attention. So for the rest of the month, I will be periodically featuring some of the best the independent scene has to offer. Some of these will be names familiar to those who read my blog, some will be new, but all of them are undoubtedly wonderful and deserving of a wider audience. So take the plunge and invest in some indie goodness, give an indie writer a try, I guarantee you’ll not regret it.

The Brennan and Rix Stories by Peter James Martin

Peter James Martin is Teesside born and bred. An aficionado of the weird and wonderful folklore and tales of the northeast and he weaves this into his tales of a supernatural detective and his partner, who happens to be a rat. When not writing, he is busy trying to survive the rigours of raising two boys and a new baby girl and two Shih Tzu dogs and a cat.

Who does not love a sarcastic rodent? Well okay, maybe I am on my own there but I grew up with Roland Rat on the TV so its part of my DNA… Add to that list poor long-suffering Brennan who has to put up with Rix baiting him at every opportunity. These stories (collected into one volume) are an insight into the strange and the wonderful, drawing heavily on local folklore, a sense of place, and a feel for melding the real and the surreal this is a delightful read. Think Harry Dresden, Jim Butchers much put upon Chicago Magician, transplanted to the side of the river Tees, struggling to scratch a living while others seem to do well off his back, not least Rix, who has the personality, manners and on occasion eating habits of a…. well a rat, clearly. It’s fun, it’s not as silly as you might imagine, it’s haunting and on occasion a lot deeper than you may expect. It’s a dark world out there, particularly when there is a goblin problem in the sewers below Stockton High Street…

You can find out more about the folklore which lies behind the stories of Brennan and his rat at https://tstpjm.blogspot.com/ and other news as well, also you can, of course, find Peters books on Amazon and elsewhere, now, care how you go, there be beasties about, and I ain’t talking about Rix…

Earlier posts on Peters novels …

Dresden on Teesside

Aside from his own novels, Peter also has a short Brennan and Rix story in the Harvey Duckman Presents Anthologies. Which by no coincidence what so ever was released last weekend… Just waiting for you to read, so if you fancy a taster of both Kate’s work and 13 other Indie writers of SciFi, Fantasy, Steampunk and Horror, you could do worse than get yourself a copy, so click on the lovely picture below 🙂 More indie later in the week next up Madeleine Holly-Rosing the kickstart queen of American Steampunk wonders (who also is not in Harvey Duckman, so I may not mention it at all, I said may…)

Posted in amreading, books, goodreads, Harvey Duckman, horror, humour, indie, indie novels, IndieApril, indiewriter, Lovecraft, mythos, novels, rites, sci-fi, supernatural, writes, writing | Tagged amreading, harveyduckman, horror, indie, IndieApril, indiebooks, Lovecraft, lovecraftian, rats, reads, spooky, supernatural, talking rats, teesside | 2 Comments

Indie April#4: Riftmaker

Posted on April 10, 2019 by Mark Hayes

It’s Indie April, a celebration of all things Indie, be it novels, movies, music or art. The idea being to encourage interaction between indie creatives, and that most elusive of beasties the wider audience, and it is a time to celebrate all those wonderful indie creatives and their work. As a writer, my focus (this will come as little surprise) is on bringing indie writers to your attention. So for the rest of the month, I will be periodically featuring some of the best the independent scene has to offer. Some of these will be names familiar to those who have read my blog before, some will be new, but all of them are undoubtedly wonderful and deserving of a wider audience. So take the plunge and invest in some indie goodness, give an indie writer a try, I guarantee you’ll not regret it.

Riftmaker and other novels by Pheobe Darqueling

Pheobe Darqueling became interested in Steampunk back in 2009, which rekindled her long-dormant love of writing fiction. She started her first blog on Steampunk in 2012, but in 2017, she left it to become the second editor for SteampunkJournal.org, the world’s most popular Steampunk news site. Aside from writing novels, and editing anthologies, she is busy becoming the Queen of all things Steampunkery across the internet.

When I read her first Novel, Riftmaker, I was both surprised and delighted by the width and scale of her ambition. A strange world linked somehow to ours by rifts, yet when humans pass through they take on the forms of animals. While animals take on the forms of humans. In the hands of a less talented writer, this could have been a recipe for confusion, but Pheobe has the craft and style to match such ambition. A plethora of characters and complexity of sub-plots interweave like many strands of a web to create a novel rich in depth and broad in scope. A novel full of wild idea’s, strange sights and odd characters all with their own hope and dreams. Yet Pheobe never gets you lost, even at the heart of her miraculous clockwork city… Her next novel, No Rest for the Wicked is out now too.

You can find out more about the what lies at the court of the Queen of all things Steampunkery at her blog https://phoebedarqueling.com/home/ and you can, of course, find her books on Amazon and elsewhere, and at steampunk gatherings from the USA to Germany…

Earlier posts on Pheobe’s novels …

Riftmaker

Aside from her own novels, Pheobe also… Actually, I jest… Unlike the first three Indie Authors I have featured this week she doesn’t have a short story in the Harvey Duckman Presents Anthologies. Which by no coincidence what so ever was released last weekend… Just waiting for you to read… Pheobe may not have a story in there but a couple of writers of Steampunkery and 12 other Indie writers of SciFi, Fantasy, and Horror do, so you could do worse than get yourself a copy, so click on the lovely picture below 🙂 More indie later in the week Peter James Martin the creator of the Brennan and Rix tales, of a man and his talking rat (who may be in Harvey D, but that would be telling …)

Posted in amreading, books, fiction, goodreads, Hannibal Smyth, Harvey Duckman, indie, indie novels, IndieApril, indiewriter, novels, reads, sci-fi, self-publishing, steampunk, writes | Tagged #scifi, Canadian steampunk, Hannibal Smyth, harveyduckman, indie, IndieApril, indienovels, sciencefiction, short stories, steampunk | 2 Comments

Indie April#3: SimCaviler

Posted on April 10, 2019 by Mark Hayes

It’s Indie April, a celebration of all things Indie, be it novels, movies, music or art. The idea being to encourage interaction between indie creatives, and that most elusive of beasties the wider audience, and it is a time to celebrate all those wonderful indie creatives and their work. As a writer, my focus (this will come as little surprise) is on bringing indie writers to your attention. So for the rest of the month, I will be periodically featuring some of the best the independent scene has to offer. Some of these will be names familiar to those who have read my blog before, some will be new, but all of them are undoubtedly wonderful and deserving of a wider audience. So take the plunge and invest in some indie goodness, give an indie writer a try, I guarantee you’ll not regret it.

The SimCaviler Novels of Kate Baucherel

A sci fi fan since first seeing the Daleks from behind the sofa, Kate Baucherel has worked in and around tech enterprises since before the world wide web was invented, and is fascinated by the rapid change in our world, the huge potential of emerging technologies, and the challenges we’ll face. This passion comes through in delivering day to day digital strategy for businesses and in writing cybercrime fiction.

The future is a strange place, both familiar and not in equal measure. When it comes to authors predicting the world of tomorrow who is better qualified than an expert on emerging technologies. If you want to know what the world will be like in twenty years time you could do a lot worse than to ask Kate or read her Sim Caviler novels. Elegantly paced thrillers that hang heavy on the worlds of cybercrime and cybercrime fighters. All set just a couple or three decades from now. A world with a shiny bright veneer, but dark undertones. In a world where cryptocurrency is king and hackers fight wars of the keyboard. All this made all the more believable because this world of tomorrow is based on the technology that’s coming oh so soon, with characters that feel and sound real, because the world they inhabit is, we just haven’t arrived there yet, but we will…

You can find out more about the endlessly fascinating real world of emerging technology as well as Kates fiction at http://galiadigital.co.uk and you can, of course, find her books on Amazon and elsewhere, and emerging Tech conferences around the world…

Earlier posts on Kates novels …

Aside from her own novels, Kate also has a SimCavilier short story in the Harvey Duckman Presents Anthologies. Which by sheer coincidence (stretching with each post I will admit) was released last weekend… Just waiting for you to read, so if you fancy a taster of both Kate’s work and 13 other Indie writers of SciFi, Fantasy, Steampunk and Horror, you could do worse than get yourself a copy, so click on the lovely picture below 🙂 More indie later in the week next up Pheobe Darqueling the writer of the fabulous Riftmaker novels and queen of all things Steampunk (who is not in Harvey Duckman, so there 🙂 )