Reason to be Shy, Salisbury Plain, Real Life Spookiness...

I'm from the south-west of England, from an area crammed with amazing places (though I'm sure everywhere else is also crammed with amazing places, it's just that I know these).
Wells, Glastonbury, the Somerset Levels, Bath, Bristol, Dorset, the South Coast. I've written about some of them in my stories, and I'll keep on referencing them, and today it's the turn of Salisbury Plain.
For my latest story, I needed somewhere weird and wild, yet near the Somerset levels where my stories are set. Salisbury Plain fit the bill.


It even has villages that stand, undamaged,but empty for 50 years, since the army began using the area for practice. Where better to set an spooky story? I couldn't think of anywhere that made a more eerie setting.
Obviously I'm not the first to think of this. Thomas Hardy set some of the greatest novels in the English language in the area, notably Tess of the Durbervilles, which even has a Stonehenge Scene.
If you're interested in how I dealt with it, check out Reason to be Shy, available now on Amazon for 99cents, a short, paranormal mystery. Click on the image below, artwork courtesy of the eternally talented Olly Prentice.




If not, enjoy this clip, day-to-day life on Salisbury Plain. Not your usual kind of place...

Wool, Hugh Howey, 99cent stories, and a New Story with a Twist

Hugh Howie and his story WOOL are another of the romantic, Indie Author rags-to-riches stories, like Amanda Hocking and 50 Shades of Grey.

Hugh Howey worked in a bookstore and wrote in his free time. He published series of books, with moderate success, and then he produced a 60-page dystopian short on Amazon, for Kindle, and slowly, but steadily, it became incredibly successful.  WOOL is set in an underground bunker, where thousands of people hide from the dangerous, post apocalyptic atmosphere. The little society is believable  and intriguing, as are the characters, and the slowly revealed lies that underpin it all

The story is imaginative  and beautifully written, and the fans cried out for more. Which Howie provided, a series of novellas, set in the same world, and introducing a series of enticing characters and fascinating storylines.

And so, in classic style, he quit his job, made a million, got a book deal, and now, astonishingly, has a film deal with Ridley Scott!

You can find out more about Hugh and his success, in this fascinating interview here:

I liked the idea of these short, quick to read, cheap stories, and the idea for the plot of one of them bubbled up in my mind. It's set in the world of Levels, my paranormal series. Though not directly interacting with the plot of the first three books it's set at the same time as the third, Lullaby of Lies.

The exciting thing about this story, which is 12,000 words long, and which I wrote in a week, is that it's put a completely new spin on Levels 4, and given me an exciting new character, Oh Sanden, who will take centre stage in the new - as yet unnamed - book.

It was also really fun to construct a short story which was essentially all about the twist. I only had space to focus on one character, a couple of locations, creepiness building, and then the twist. That kind of discipline is a lot of fun to work with.

I'll release it on Sunday February 17th for 99 cents, and thanks to the super-talented Olly Prentice it will look like this. Put it in your diaries...

FREE EBOOK

Song to Wake to will be free for the next 3 days. Hopefully you've read it. If not, now's your chance. If you have, tell a friend...

The UK version is HERE.

And the American version is HERE.

Once you've got it, please come back and read the making of 'Lullaby of Lies,' below. The Youtube clips are lovely...

ThePrizeFinder - UK Competitions

The Making of Lullaby of Lies...

Here's a little bit of film that inspired some of Lullaby of Lies. If you've read it, you'll know exactly which bit. If not, I hope you enjoy two of the most adorable actors in existence...




So, to give you a bit of background, and in no particular order, ten things:

1, I knew what the plot of this was going to be before I finished Song to Wake to. I was inspired - partly - by another, very successful YA paranormal story. I won't say which, though...

2, I started writing it in December, but in January and February I hit some kind of wall, and spent hours staring at empty computer screens... or playing around on wikipedia. Somehow I picked up the pace again, it may have been when it stopped raining...

3, Most of it was written at my dining table, though significant bits were written on a trip to the Jordanian desert, by the Red Sea at Aqaba, in Istanbul and Amman airports, in a car on the highway to Petra, and the first draft was finished in the parking lot at the entrance to Jesus's baptism site at the river Jordan. It was polished in front of the TV, showing the Olympic swimming, at JFK airport, in a Starbucks on 31st and 6th, and on my sisters sofa in Dalston, East London ...

4, I proofread it 3 times. My number one wish is to be able to afford a professional proofreader, until then I have to do it myself, which is quite possibly my least favourite part of being a writer. However, it's possible you may find mistakes. If you do, let me know, and I'm sorry...

5, Linked to the above, I've decided (and this is possibly an absurd decision) to make the language and spelling of the Levels series 'mid-Atlantic.' I say sidewalk for pavement, and asphalt for tarmac, and couch for sofa, BUT I spell tire tyre, center centre and realize realise. I'm trying to be inclusive, but it's possible I'm annoying everybody...

6, This may be the last of the series written in first person. With more and more characters it's getting too difficult to tell the story properly. One of the most important strands of this story is the introduction of Hurley, but it was very hard to show what he's really like from Maddie's point of view. If you've read Lullaby of Lies you'll know that there's the promise of a whole team of new characters, and there's no way I can tell their stories only looking through Maddie's eyes. Changes are coming...

7, The next Levels book will be released in 2013, before that I'm going to bring out the first two books of a different series, called THE WATER BOOK. It's from a boys point of view, it's not paranormal, and it features an age-old obsession of mine. Watch this space...

8, Before that I'm going to have a little contest on the blog, with a $30 Amazon voucher prize...

9, Jon Esmere has turned into one of the most interesting characters I've ever written. He constantly surprises me, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how he develops, and how his relationships with the other characters (one of them in particular) changes.

10, The other character I'm growing to love is Hurley Laker. I like him so much that I'm writing a little short story about what happened to him, Jenna, and somebody else, when Maddie was distracted. I'll be giving it away to all readers of Lullaby of Lies.

That's it for now. I'll leave you with a bit more of Emma and Ryan. No reason, apart from them being so pretty and so funny. Enjoy...

New Release!

After quite a lot of work, Lullaby of Lies is AVAILABLE.
Americans can get it HERE
Brits need to go HERE

Obviously I'm biased, but I think it's quite good. I'll post in the next couple of days about writing it. In the meantime, get 'em while they're hot...

Lullaby of Lies

Is on its way. I'm squeezing final editing around an epic summer vacation (New York, London, and now Bucharest) which I'll hopefully write about here in the autumn. In the meantime I've got some more work from the legendary Olly Prentice. Here is the draft cover...

and here is a little taste of the content...

Flames blossomed from the windows of the boarding houses. Screaming children ran from burning doorways, but the grass they ran across erupted into fire. A boy chased a football across the field, before realising that flames were chasing him. He stumbled, and fire enfolded his entire body

Cover Designer - Guest Post

When I heard J D Field had started writing a series of novels I hoped to get the chance to design the covers, so when the opportunity came about I jumped at it! It was always going to be an interesting project seeing as we live in different continents, but the initial brief soon set my mind at rest. Reading a snippet from the preface I could see that these were going to be exciting books. 

The brief asked for an image of a lake or pond, at night in the countryside with the water being a rich blue colour. And to have the moon and stars reflected in it, and possibly the title. The image was to be centrally located on the cover and possibly vignetted so that it faded out to black. 

I am a walking enthusiast and photographer as well as a graphic designer, so this project was perfect as I set about looking for the ideal lake near to me to photograph an adapt to fit the brief. There are 2 reservoirs nearby. Arlington and Bewl water. I chose Bewl as it is more natural looking and is also close to Bedgbury Woods which also contains a few lakes so there should be plenty of opportunities. Here's some of the original photographs. The chosen one is in the background. The others were lovely shots but contained too much detail. In the end we cropped in on the horizon of the chosen one:

The typeface to be used was also very important and if possible to try and do something a little different with it. I knew of one called Plantagenet Cherokee that had many alternate versions of each letter plus some glyphs of old letter forms and symbols. These could be used to add some character and a sense of history to the covers. This typeface would also be a defining link  and 'brand' between covers in the series. 

After doing some ideas for typographical arrangements of the title, I chose a photograph to work on and emailed JD Field some initial designs.  

It was decided that the vignette idea wasn't really working, instead we opted to extend the image to the edges of the cover but add in a rocky silhouette to the front to keep the shape. After some more to-ing and fro-ing of the design to perfect the balance of the elements and colours, the first e-book cover of The Levels Series was finished. A similar process was followed for Rock anthem and now it is time to start thinking about part 3. What will it be? Well you will have to wait and see... Here's a selection of the changing designs clockwise around the finished printed book

Read more about my walks,  (some of which I do to support the charity Hope for Children), kung fu training and photography at http://hard-walk.tumblr.com/ or follow me on Twitter @ollyeast

A Dream Come True

Last week I had a dream come true.

It's not often you can say that. It was a dream I've had since - probably - age seven.
Yes. I can fly.




No. It's a different dream. It's the one I've had since I learned 'Roger Hargreaves' on the Front of the Mr. Men books was the name of a person, not a company, like Ford.
The dream was too have a book in print. Of course, back then, I had no idea it would look like this (massive thanks to the creative genius of Mr Oliver Prentice).

The first long story I wrote was more or less a rip off of parts of the Green Grass of Wyoming and Silver Brumby books (you can find them HERE  and HERE). I think the plagiarism is forgiveable. I was ten.

In the last twenty years I've completed three novels, three screenplays, two TV pilots, two radio plays, and written the first halves of five different novels. I've sent a couple of hundred submissions to agents and publishers.

Nothing stuck.

Then I heard about Amanda Hocking's success, thought 'I can do that' and last September published SONG TO WAKE TO as an eBook. I never planned to self publish in paperback, in fact, for years I've felt a little bit sneery towards self-publishers. However, once I released the eBook, it became the natural next step.

Though it was only natural thanks to Createspace, Amazon's astonishing one stop shop. You upload your text and they tell you what to do to turn it into a book. They tell you how to create a cover (or in my case they tell Olly how to make a cover). You decide how much you're going to charge for it, and BANG, it's on sale on Amazon. Every time somebody wants one, they print it. Plus now I have things to give away as prizes in competitions, bribes to reviewers, etc, etc.

But most importantly, those of you who don't read eBooks can get a copy for yourself, HERE

The Clockwork Prince, Levels latest, Euro 2012 and Ronaldo in tears

The last month has been all about teams. I've been reading the Infernal Devices and watching the European Championships. It's been dramatastic.

Beautiful young men, running around trying to save the day, while gorgeous girls watch them with bated breath and vicious villains hack them to the ground. Crowds of remorseless enemies attacking like robots and success and failure balanced on a knife edge.

And then there's the Infernal Devices, Clockwork Prince, one of the best books I've read in a really long time. The breadth of characterisation and the complexity of the plot is breathtaking. The romance becomes perfectly complicated, and the mysterious ambitions of the Magister become ever more twisted. The setting is fantastic, Victorian London and Yorkshire and there is such attention to detail. There are minor characters - a slightly deranged old Yorkshireman, and a gloomy Irish kitchen maid who are beautifully drawn and much more than walk on parts.


My one problem with the book is that the reason Will Herondale is like, well, like Will Herondale, is revealed and for me it didn't quite work. It requires the reader to believe that a series of quite odd actions and convictions are possible, and more than that, they can continue for years with nobody finding out about them. I'm sorry if this sounds a bit cryptic, but I don't want to give anything away. if you've read the book, you'll know what I mean.

Returning to my original point,  The Infernal Devices divides its readers into teams. Team Will, or Team Jem, while the book itself is jammed with teams, there's the Magister crowd, there are the Shadowhunters and the Downworlders - themselves split between the Lightwoods and the Institute crowd, and werewolves and vampires. And they all play against each other.

Which of course, the footballers don't, they face off one at a time. The Greeks and the Germans in an occasion crammed with drama, tragedy, a bit of austerity. The English and the Ukrainians, mistake fuelled and cagey. Every night ends in tears. Fat, shirtless men wipe their eyes in the stand. Tonight the Spanish and the French. Each occasion is loaded with excitement, but it's only ever a two-way affair.



And this is why the Infernal Devices beats football. It's just more complicated. Though, at the moment I could do with it being much less interesting and the football itself being very dull indeed. I've got  ,  Song to Wake to to release in paperback and as a free eBook in a week's time and Lullaby of Lies to polish. The 3rd Levels book will hopefully - like Clockwork Prince - split readers into Team Eddy and Team Jon.

No time for distractions!

Rainman, Belle Dame Sans Merci and Lullaby of Lies

Writing first drafts of novels can turn you a little bit into Rainman. You start off, and it's all about the small numbers. You go as fast as you can to get to a hundred words, three figures. Next is 111 ( you need to get rid of the zeros) next is 125 (an eighth of a thousand) 200,  222, 250, 300, 333, 400, 444 and 500.

That's ten results to celebrate before you've written five hundred words. If you know what to say, if there's nothing on TV and you can stay away from the internet for long enough, you can do it in twenty minutes.

The first five hundred words of Lullaby of Lies is mainly preface. It's going to be re-written, of course, but it includes this line, that I like enough to be fairly sure it will still be there when it's finally available.

'Morgan’s fingertips brushed against the wall and two fingernails fluttered to the ground, like the pale wings of a dying moth.'

It's all the same on the way to 1000. From then on, the thousands are the milestones. They're the excuse to stop and have a cup of coffee and stare out the window. But of course there are new super milestones. 1111, 2222, etc. These are cool, as are 2,500 and 7,500, up to 10,000 then you add 11,111 to the mix, as well as the mega-super milestones, 25,000, 50,000, and 75,000.

Which is where I am now with the first draft of Lullaby of Lies. 75,000 words. Hopefully today I'll get to 76,666 and tomorrow 77,777. How awesome will that be? To be honest, if you're not completely sunk in this thing like I am, not very awesome at all, but like I said, writing novels makes you even odder than you are to start off with.

This is going to be bad news for those of you who are waiting eagerly for Lullaby of Lies, and I'm sorry. When I finish the first draft I'll set a definite release date, but I guess it'll be August. Between then and now, though, there are going to be some pretty exciting Levels events and give aways, so watch this space. In the meantime, here's the last sentence I wrote, including word 77,777.

'I ran back towards Kieran. His face looked like a hideous skull with the jaw strained unnaturally wide and all his teeth gleaming as he forced out the end of a dying scream.'

What do you make of that? 

Oh, and one other little clue. take a look at the picture at the top of this post. 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci.' It's not there just cos it's pretty...

Brad Pitt on a horse, win a book, have genuine input into the title of another book, and some Mortal Instruments.

What's in a title?
In the case of the title of this post, the answer's easy.
Too much.
But title's can fail in all sorts of ways. Don't judge a book by it's cover. Absolutely. That's right. But its title? Judging a book by it's title is one of the things you're supposed to do.
The Mortal Instruments series are my current favourite YA books, amazing characters, plotting, imagination.
Rubbish titles. 'City of Ashes,' 'City of Glass.'
Yawn.
'City of Fallen Angels' is the best, but it's not actually true, so that's hardly fair.
'The Iron King.' Similar.
There's definitely something about books in a series having vanilla titles. I guess it's difficult to be both striking, and fit into a theme, but I'm going to give it a shot. After 'Song to Wake to' and 'Rock Anthem' the third levels book will have a title that's got something to do with lullabies. I've got two options.

'Lullaby of Lies'
or
'Lullaby for a Sleeping Lion.'

Please tell me what you think. I'd be really grateful for any input. Use the comments section to tell us which title you prefer, and if you like, tell us your favourite book title. I'm going to start off with 'Legends of the Fall.' Not the film, the book by Jim Harrison, which is brilliant. The film is overblown and histrionic, but if you advance the clip at the top of the page to minute 3:00 you'll find its winning scene. This is how all men should ideally arrive, preceded by a vanguard of galloping horses. It's an Eddy Moon moment.
I look forward to getting your input. One of the comments will win a FREE copy of Rock Anthem...