I have spent the past few months re-editing this book and I am proud to say that it is available to purchase today. For the next week it is on sale for just $0.99 in Ebook format and I hope you will take a look
When darkness descends, who will survive the unthinkable?
In the brooding shadows of Odamere’s vicarage, Peter Gatgewood seeks refuge from the haunting specters of his past. What he and his family discover is a malevolence far beyond the ghosts of memory. As they settle into their new home, they quickly realize that the vicarage holds secrets darker and more sinister than they could have ever imagined.
Innocent fears turn to bone-chilling dread as Zoe, Peter’s daughter, begins to exhibit erratic and unsettling behavior. Convinced that something otherworldly lurks within the ancient walls, Peter is thrust into a terrifying race against time. His daughter’s revelation defies the laws of reality and forces him to confront the unthinkable: the existence of an abhorrent monster.
As the line between the tangible and the eldritch blurs, Peter Gatgewood must grapple with a choice that will haunt him for eternity. Will he save his cherished family from the encroaching darkness, or will he protect the sanctity of his beloved church?
In a Lovecraftian tale of cosmic horror, Unhallowed Ground, invites readers to venture beyond the realm of reason and into a nightmarish abyss of unspeakable terror.
There are a lot of moving parts at the moment and it’s feeling hectic, but there has been a lot of progress on things as well. If you’ve been following my social media, then you might have seen the book cover for the remastered edition of Unhallowed Ground (formerly Abomination) and the pile of pages which represent about a quarter of the first draft of The Ladies Adventure Society.
The Ladies Adventure Society Book 1
Status: First Draft WIP
As of this morning, the first draft is now 30,000 words. It’s picking up steam (pardon the steampunk pun) and is a fun project to work on. It’s still on track (there’s another one) for release early next year.
Unhallowed Ground: Remastered
Status: Uploading
Most of the publishing work on this is done now, and the updated edition is being loaded into all the bookstores. If you go on Amazon, or wherever, now, you could buy a copy and read it immediately, but if you wait a couple of days, I am planning to do a sale for the first week of October. I’m very pleased with how it has come out, and I think the new title and cover are great.
The Vampire Next Door: Remastered
Status: Editing WIP
After finishing the remaster of City in the Fire this morning, I moved straight onto this one. So far, only the first chapter is finished.
Social Media
Status: New Accounts everywhere
This week, in addition to the Instagram account that I already had, I have created and started using a Twitter account and a Facebook account. So far, I am still enjoying Instagram most, but you can reach out and talk to me on Twitter or Facebook as well now.
On Hold
The Ghouls: Remastered
The remaster is complete from my side of things. Once I have finished all the publishing work related to Unhallowed Ground, I will pick this back up and get the new cover done.
City in the Fire: Remastered
I finished the remastered edit on Friday morning. It is now in the queue to be published after The Ghouls.
The Shadow Walker
No updates on this one. The first draft is complete. I am not sure that I will publish it because the way I originally planned it to interact with The Ladies Adventure Society is no longer possible. I likely won’t look at it again until there is some breathing room next year.
And that’s a wrap. A few more bits of work to do here, then I am off to the theater to watch Miriam Margolyes’ new show Oh Miriam!
For the last few months, I have been working on ‘remastering’ some of my old titles and as part of that I have been re-considering the titles and book covers. The first remaster that I am launching is called Unhallowed Ground. I originally launched the book with the title Abomination.
The cover for the new edition came back over the weekend. Here it is:
This was the second version of the cover for this book. I made a mistake with the first one and chose an image that wasn’t suitable. I am thrilled with this one.
A weekly update on the projects I am currently working on.
The Ladies Adventure Society Book 1
Status: First Draft WIP
I started working on this book in August under the series title Twilight of the Angels. A few thousand words into that draft and something didn’t feel right. Rather than force my way through, which I could have done, I took some time away from it to come up with a solution. The Ladies Adventure Society had always been another title for the series, but the title didn’t quite fit with the book. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that was the series I wanted to write. So a bit of reworking later, that’s where I am. The new draft started last Friday and as of today it currently stands at 18,000 words. Or about a fifth of the way through the first draft. Best guess is that I will publish the book sometime next year.
Abomination: Remastered
Status: Cover and Formatting WIP
The re-edited edition is finished, and my designer is working on the new cover. The new-edition contains a lot of updates and corrections that should bring it in line with my original intention. Over the course of the next year, I am going to be doing remasters of all my old work. This one is the first and should be available from the first week of October, all things going well.
The Ghouls: Remastered
Status: Editing WIP
I started the re-edit of this on Thursday. It’s a more recent book than Abomination, and I’m finding there is a lot less to fix. So work is going quickly, and it looks as if it will also be available in October.
Social Media
Status: New Instagram Account
One thing that I have never done a good job at is social media. I am going to be using it a lot more this week and have set up a new Instagram account you can find by clicking here.
The Shadow Walker
Status: On Hold
The first draft is finished. While I work on the remastered editions, this will remain on hold. Hoping that I will release it in the next twelve months.
I have been writing stories since I was a kid. I can still remember lying on the floor in front of the TV with my new Ghostbusters notebook and pencil and writing a story about how Slimer became a Ghostbuster. That would have been when I was around seven years old.
It was all just for fun, but that was all it needed to be.
Many years later, I was still writing, although school and socializing meant I didn’t have as much time for it as I used to. I wasn’t reading so much either. Honestly, if things had carried on the way they were, I probably would have given up on the whole writing business.
Then I read The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition.
If you’ve read it, you know it’s a big book. Certainly the biggest I’d read up to that point. I went through the whole thing in a single weekend, and I was hooked.
From that point on, I read every Stephen King book I could get my hands on. There were a lot. I raced through them all. Some I loved more than others, but every one of them had something special about it. I started reading interviews, and then tracking down the books that he loved, and reading them as well.
And a funny thing happened along the way. It wasn’t just a love of reading that returned; it was writing as well. Suddenly, I was taking the idea of becoming a professional writer seriously.
After that I was buying the writers digest, submitting stories to magazines and following King’s advice from On Writing. I was on the journey that would lead me to where I am today and wherever I will be in the future. None of it would have happened if it wasn’t for Stephen King.
I was born in 1983 and for more than half my life, reading books has meant paper. The first ebook reader I ever saw was in Waterstones book shop. It was one of the old Sony Reader ones, which means it can’t have been earlier than 2006 when they were released. Probably more like 2007. This was the first time I had seen an e-ink screen, and I was immediately interested. Unfortunately, I was a student at the time and the £500 that it would have cost to buy put it well outside of my price range.
The first ebook reader I owned was the Kindle Keyboard, which was the third-generation device, and the first at a price I could justify. Amazon released it in 2010, which means I would have been 27 years old when I started buying eBooks.
In the 13 years since I bought my first digital book, I have never not owned an eBook reader. Most of the time, that has been a Kindle, but I have also owned a Kobo and an Onyx Boox. They have always been e-ink devices.
I have bought paper books as well during that time, but reading that way no longer feels right. Although I love the aesthetics of a paper book, and I enjoy seeing them on my shelves, nothing can really beat the ease and convenience of reading an eBook.
Regardless of how many pages the book is, when it’s the eBook edition, it is comfortable to hold and read. I can carry around an epic fantasy novel with the same ease of a novella.
When I have tried going back to paper books (from time to time I get nostalgic for them) I have found I read much less. It’s difficult to hold a paper book open in one hand while stroking a cat. Paper books close themselves when putting them on the table to read while eating.
With a digital book, I can also read on my phone if I have forgotten to bring my eBook reader with me, or if I have been delayed unexpectedly somewhere. If I want to, I can buy the audiobook version as well and split my reading between audio and visual.
I have never been one to take notes in actual books. Something about writing in a book has always felt wrong to me. But I can do that with a digital book and not feel any sense of guilt. When I sync those notes and highlights up with a digital service like Obsidian, I can carry my book notes around wherever I am. As well as back them up, so I don’t have to worry about losing the book.
Last year I started wearing glasses for reading. With a digital book reader, I can adjust the size of the text so that I can still read myself to sleep without needing to wear them. That’s a convenience for me, but there are millions of people who need larger text books to read at all. With paper they are reliant on publishers putting out a large print edition, but with a digital reader they can make any book large print.
Digital books are not without their shortcomings. I have bought paper editions that feature illustrations, for example. But advances in color e-ink and increasing screen sizes of digital book readers are likely to eliminate those limitations in the next few years.
I also owe my career to digital books. While it’s now possible for independent creators to publish both paperback and hardback editions, it’s hard to imagine print-on-demand existing without the independent author movement being fueled by digital books.
I have nothing against paper books and expect to continue buying them from time to time. I will certainly continue publishing my own books on paper, because I love having a physical copy of them. But I love digital books most of all, and cannot foresee a time when they won’t be my primary reading method.
