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Now that libraries have closed because of Covid-19, I am running a FREE eBook offer for Book 1 of The Main Man Trilogy. For details of the books, please click here. For Book 1 click here - FREE on Smashwords until 31 May For Book 2 click here - FREE on Amazon KU Also: If you would like to spend the odd 10 minutes reading one of my short stories, please click here.
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Book 1 of The Main Man Trilogy will be FREE until 20th April on Smashwords. They are running this special sale to help readers cope with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Libraries are closing everywhere, so please pick up your free ebook here.
From 25th to 29th February, Book 2 of The Main Man Trilogy will be FREE as an Amazon eBook, and will remain FREE to Kindle Unlimited subscribers for the foreseeable future.
Book 1 of The Main Man Trilogy is soon to be placed with Smashwords and Draft2Digital as well as Amazon. This means that from 24th February it will no longer be available to read for free with Kindle Unlimited.
However, I am running a FREE promotion from 21/23rd February. I am also upping my personal promotion of the book through various websites. Any reviews on Amazon will be gratefully received. Here's a taster from Book 2 Tightening His Grip.
Our antihero Darren (Dan), is performing the final number with his other band members, Gerry and Oz. And guess what poor Leah has in store for her later. From Chapter 25 I grab my cat pee-coloured wig from the holdall next to Oz’s drum kit and put it on before facing the audience. I raise my chin, pucker my lips and hold up my right hand, pressing the tips of my thumb and index finger together and straightening the other three to form 666 – the mark of the Beast. I stay silent for a moment, waiting till I hear Trump’s whiny, high-pitched, New York accent. ‘Let me extend a welcome to you all, even to the losers and haters.’ A cheer goes up before a tirade of boos and catcalls. ‘Call that a welcome? I don’t. You’re not very nice people. In fact you’re nasty people. I should have insisted the management build a wall between us. In fact, call this shit-hole a suitable venue for the President of the US of A? I certainly don’t.’ The booing has started again, so I straighten out my arm and fingers and show them my palm, saying, ‘Quieten down and listen to me, why don’t you?’ A couple of dickheads from my politics tutorial group are standing at the back. My blood starts pumping overtime at the thought of the heckling they gave me at the Oxford Union on Thursday. I point a finger directly at them. ‘Any more of that – and the management won’t ever let you back here. You’re just not special enough.’ I turn to Dan and Oz and indicate for them to start the intro. I go straight in, jabbing my finger at each member of the audience in turn. ‘I won’t stand for you minions With your half-baked opinions. Screw you with your views, You think they’re all true? Fake news is abuse. You’d better think twice, It’s not very nice, And what’s this about Calling me the Anti-Christ?’ I’m flying – gyrating my hips and waving my arms about randomly as the tongue-twisters slide out, faster and faster. Like when I played the Modern Major General in the Pirates of Penzance at school. People are whistling, clapping their hands in time to the beat. This attention – it’s addictive. I need it to go on forever. All your shit about obstruction and collusion, It was just an illusion, confusion, so up yours, you losers. I’m no longer your mate, The way you’re spreading the hate over SkyGate. I don’t recall a leader who’s ever been cleaner, Absolved from all crimes and misdemeanours. I’m transparent, that’s more than apparent. I’ve done nothing wrong! ‘It’s hardly a crime Handling goods that aren’t mine, To fondle your missus, Steal a few kisses Before grapping some pussy…’ The catcalls have started again and Leah has completely wrapped herself around her column. Is it supporting her, or will the roof cave in if she lets go? The way girls look at me – God do I need that. My mind’s wandering… Concentrate, will you! Last verse coming up. You won’t be working for me With your tosh about forming, Storming, norming and performing. It doesn’t happen that way, You don’t get a say. It’s your loss, And I couldn’t give a toss because… Who am I? You’ve got it. I’m the Boss. I’m the Man, And you don’t get a say. Because I’m the Boss of The US of A. It’s finished and the applause is like gunshot from an automatic. Gerry and Oz put a hand under my armpits and drag me away before relieving me of my wig. I give Leah a wink as I march offstage and out of the stage door. As I walk to the car, I text her with instructions as to where to meet. She’s with me in a couple of minutes – out of breath and pale as she climbs into the car. I turn on the ignition and pull away from the curb. ‘So… What did you make of it?’ ‘Wow!’ she says. ‘Just… wow!’ She’s staring at me in adulation, which is only to be expected after the accolade I got just now. To celebrate having reached 1,5000 followers on Twitter, Book 1 in The Main Man Trilogy will be FREE as an eBook from 6th/7th November.
 I'm very excited about the cover for Book 3 of my trilogy, again designed by Iona Adair. I love the way she has shown my antihero Darren, walking a precarious line between success and disaster. It has inspired me to get on with the writing, hoping that the book will live up to the cover!
To celebrate the publishing of Book 2 in The Main Man Trilogy: Tightening His Grip, I am making it available for free from 27th to 29th June. It is also permanently available on Kindle Unlimited for free, if you are a subscriber.
The same offer applies to Book 1: His Willing Marionettes. Just click on the titles. His Willing Marionettes is now available as an eBook on Amazon. From Sunday 3rd march until Thursday 7th March I'm doing a free promotion. If you take advantage of this, I would be grateful for a review on Amazon, however scathing! A bad view is always better than no review at all.
Please click here for offer. As I have already mentioned, His Willing Marionettes grew out of a couple of prompts supplied by members of a writing group. The main body of the book evolved in the same manner – a title for a short story would be suggested and, instead of doing as I was told, I would come up with a new chapter for my WIP, whose working title at the time was The Main Man. Examples of these prompts are The Morning After, The Ring and The Old School Photograph. The Morning After – for those of you who have read the book – is self-explanatory. I didn’t get round to actually writing the preceding chapter until much later on. I had never written a sex scene before, and the thought of having to get into the mind of a fifteen year old girl tentatively, and rather unwillingly, embarking on her first experience was more than daunting! With regards to the other chapter headings – I knew one would become the build up to the climax, whereas the other would come about a third of the way in. Consequently, nothing was written in any logical order and things were getting out of hand, so...
I got myself some cork board and some geography pins and pinned these chapter titles, and the others that were to follow, in the places where I assumed they would end up in the finished book. A loose framework was beginning to emerge and my next job was to fill in the gaps in between. As you can imagine, this was an incredibly time-consuming process involving countless revisions. After finishing the book in draught form, and eager to start on the sequel, I joined a 10 week writing workshop with Joanna Smith who runs the Black Dog Writing Group – introducing us to structuring the novel. I was surprised that, by either fluke or accident, I had got it mostly right, apart from being heavy-handed with the amount of backstory placed right at the beginning (a problem of using the original trio of short stories as a Prologue to the book). Another problem arising out of this was the positioning of the Inciting Incident – the event that sets the story rolling – in this case Leroy’s death. If Leroy hadn’t died, it’s unlikely that Darren would have hit on his twin sister Grace; neither would he have been obliged to recruit the services of Joel. To get around this problem, I decided to delay revealing what actually happened to Leroy by introducing it in flashback later on in the book, when Darren finds himself in a similar situation as Leroy's. Book 2 Tightening His Grip was structured from the start and proved a much faster process. Interestingly, I had to remove content from Book One so that it could become the Inciting Incident for the sequel. At this point, I had already submitted the manuscript for Book One to a handful of agents without success, for which I am now grateful! I was originally afraid that the structured approach to writing would act as a straitjacket from which I would never escape. I’m somebody who prefers to wing it. But, as it turned out, it was not much different from my original method with the cork board and geography pins. The structure proved to be just the skeleton of the story, and the writing of it, the flesh. I was amazed by the freedom it gave me to alter elements along the way – particularly the ending, which underwent numerous changes in direction. That’s the problem with embarking on a series – I had to come up with something that would whet the reader’s appetite for more. I hope I manage to do this – for a few of you at least. |
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