Category: Uncategorized

Writing/Publishing Update: Wings to Success

I finalized with Penina the contract for her painting Wings, which was the inspiration of my new novel, Guardian of the Sky Realms. She will sign in the next few days, and once the niceties are over, I will be able to use the painting for my novel’s cover. Brilliant! Thank you very much Penina for your kind assistance.

The proofing of Guardian will be completed this weekend. All that will be left is the block formatting with InDesign. My novel was planned to be published in October – still on track, and perhaps can even be released earlier.

I have some commitments in the publishing game, but once the pressure is a little over, I look very much forward to returning to my first novel, The Scepter and the Orb, and think long and hard what I want to do with it. I love it and it is the introductory book to a vast world I created (Evyntyde). The real area of interest is whether I split it or not, to make the production more economically viable. I think it is likely I will go that way. I think, because I have learned much over the last year or so, that I may also do a serious revision. Oh well.

I have four short stories to go, set in the world of Evyntyde, which will complete my anthology. This is likely to be my second Title that will come out, both courtesy of IFWG Publishing.

My second Evyntyde novel, Crystal Peak, will have to wait a while. A bit of a shame, since it is two-thirds completed.

Regarding publishing, I recently finished editing and proofing Biola Olatunde‘s wonderful adventure novel, Blood Contract. This should be come out next month – I look forward to it. Another edit job I did – The Devil Came East (crime thriller) by Geri Fitzsimmons and Andy Stephenson, was held back from publishing a few months to allow synchronization with some marketing activity. I think it will also be published next month – and I have a very good feeling about that one. It is so very good in its genre. I also have had some luck getting Paul Goat Allen to review it (shortly). My next edit job is an inspirational novel, by Linda Lenehan, called They Never Gave Up. I look forward to that job.

All in all, a pretty busy time for me. (I love it).

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Bloody Angioedema

It hit me again. I have had angioedema (chronic, impact type) for probably 20 years – and over the last year or so had a few nasty scraps with it. I win, and it means a drug regime that I will have to carry on with for the rest of my life. Fortunately, until recently, it was a case of just a lot of antihistamines.

I have had a bad throat infection for a while and antibiotics didn’t appear to do me much good, so when my breathing was struggling a bit, I got scared. Went to hospital last Sunday and lo and behold, it turns out that my lungs are fine, my heart it good, no cholesterol or blood-sugar level issues, and yes, I still have my myco-bacterial infection. But it turns out the infection and my angioedema have been playing silly-buggers with each other and that’s why the antibiotics didn’t work. In a nutshell, because I didn’t figure on angioedema playing a part, nor my GP, we were not hitting it the right way.

After two nights at Epworth Hospital in Richmond, Melbourne, I am on track again. Medication to get rid of angioedema symptoms and the infection, and more knowledge on how to stop this happening again.

Bloody Angioedema.

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Great Result

The painting, Wings, by Penina Gal, was the original inspiration for my YA Novel, Guardian of the sky Realms. Well guess what – the artist has agreed to allow me to purchase rights to have it used as the cover of my novel. Incredible result – not only is it (obviously) highly pertinent to my novel, but it now has a very powerful connection to it as well.

I am expecting, based on how close to finalised all this is, that the novel will be out in October. Very excited indeed.

You can find the painting on her website (look for the purple coloured thumbnail, called Wings).

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Young Adult novel to be published

It took eighteen months longer than planned, but I have completed my Young Adult novel, Guardian of the Sky Realms.This story has an amazing origin, starting off as a short story inspired by a painting, and now it is a polished novel of 62k in length.

It only needs final proofing and a cover – I have been in touch with the artist who painted Wings in the past, and I am now trying to negotiate the use of her painting as my cover. It is only fitting, and it will look spectacular.

Well, I am guessing this will be published in October. Wish me luck!

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Dr Eisenmajer

OK, not big on plugging people, even generally. However, re my previous post, I have to say this guy is great. I saw his introductory dvd and I am won.

Let me explain. Throughout the 3 odd years that my wife and I have dealt with our daughter’s condition, it has always been, in many ways, uncertain, and certainly unscientific. Initially it was a case of "development delay" with the possibility of low spectrum autism. Then it was likely to be "autism", and finally, last year, it was diagnosed formally. "Asperger’s Syndrome" is a name used to keep clear of the baggage that goes with autism. The trouble was, for Jen and me, that the extent of her condition, and the prognosis, was never clear, and despite having a terrific group of people helping with early intervention — all helpful to one degree or another — we are still in the dark on the myriad of little things we need to fine tune our ability to help the little darling, and no-one to give us definitive answers.

Then we saw the dvd. This guy described to a tee the symptoms of what our daughter had, and talked about the way autistic people think. Gave us strategies. It was a major help for us.

Contentment

Had the pleasure an hour or two ago of finishing the core edit of Biola Olatunde’s novel, Blood Contract – which IFWG Publishing will publish in a few weeks. She is a lovely lady living in a part of the world that we can only partially understand how dangerous and hard life can be, and yet she is a poet of impressive skills, and has written a short novel with a lot of narrative capability, and a strong social message. Given the circumstances she is in, I consider editing her work a privilege and I most certainly look forward to seeing her novel become available to those readers in the world who like a good adventure yarn set in an unfamiliar part of the world and circumstances, and with some thought provoking messages. I dearly would like to see her work become successful – and we certainly will do our best to help!

Turning Points

This title isn’t meant to be an oblique and very ‘in’ joke referring to my friend Jack Eason’s novel in progress. Rather it refers to something real happening to me and my co-owned company, IFWG Publishing. It amazes me how often when something important happens, or not happens, it seems to clump together with other things following the same pattern. I suppose one could call these punctuated moments on someone’s time line, as being a turning point.

Over the last week some ugly things happened in my day job (‘day jobbe" as Jay Lake would call it), but not in terms of job security, more in terms of forces majeur affecting professional outcomes. I was assigned a six month job with an engineering firm to put their house in order, but unfortunately internal politics will probably unravel all of my work. We will see ( 🙂 )

I didn’t get short listed in the Text YA Writing Contest. This was disappointing, but hey, am used to it. It is a long journey to get regular acceptances – have to deal with it. I will, of course, now actively try to get Guardian of the Sky Realms published, or actively represented.

In terms of my company (my night jobbe), had a big breakthrough yesterday – Paul Goat Allen, an excellent and respected spec fic blogger-reviewer, actually reviewed Jack Eason’s Onet’s Tale, and provided good words, a mix of positive and constructive statements. This also reflects on the company, and this is all very good for all of us. I am hoping we have an ongoing relationship with Paul.

Finally, the company has matured sufficiently where we had to make decisions about the scope of our work. We chose to narrow our genre focus to non-fiction, children/YA stories, and spec fic – with some narrowing in that field as well. Of course, we are, and will continue to, support those authors we have committed to who are outside of this new scope.

So…a lot happened and I guess I could last week a turning point.

Finally

Finally completed polish of Guardian of the Sky Realms. Jenny will post to Text Publishing for their YA Contest tomorrow. Friday is the deadline.

Took longer to write due to distractions, hence the small margin for error… but very satisfied with the results. 60k of what I think is original, exciting adventure – now to convince others!

Will do a little editing this month and then… wow, back to my Evyntyde novels!