Ever wonder how people end up as an indie author? Adam McVeigh joins us on the blog today to tell us his story…

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   I’ll keep this brief…or at least as brief as it needs to be. I had no grand childhood plan to become an indie author; nor a grand teenage, or young adult plan for it. I think, if I remember correctly, I actually wanted to be a police officer. Why that didn’t happen? I do not know – something to do with the requirement for a high level of fitness probably. Anyway…one event led to another and my main interest arrived at being a community campaigner for social issues in the town where I live in South Lincolnshire, England.

I quickly learned that being part of an active community meant that social media was an essential tool, and being able to use it efficiently even more so. I started many campaigns and did my best to rally fellow residents by establishing and posting regularly to a blog. Over a period of four years, I think I must have typed enough words to fill several novels, and I enjoyed doing it.

I eventually hooked up with a friend and together we founded a community group. It wasn’t long before we found ourselves right in the middle of what was to be a two year, fairly high profile, campaign against a development company. When things were going well (a rarity) he suggested that given my love for writing and documenting, it would be good for me to write a book about our experiences fighting…well, I guess, ‘The Man.’ That was it for me; instantly I had visions of the completed product. But, as every indie author knows, the vision is one thing – achieving it is another.

I got straight down to typing out the beginnings of the manuscript without a clue as to what I was doing or what lay ahead. As you would imagine, I came unstuck very quickly and put the project to one side. The idea, nestled snugly at the back of mind, never really left me, and I would be constantly reminded of my friend’s belief in me during interviews with the local press. He would always answer the first question put to us by firing back to the interviewer the proposition that they should hire me as a freelance writer. Was I really good enough to be a freelance writer for the local press? Most certainly not, but his cheering was always appreciated though.

Sadly, he didn’t get to see the end of our campaign as he died three months before it was concluded. It was with his death that I decided to make completing the book a priority, and with little money and even less time to spare, I dived into the world of the indie author. I had a lot to learn. In fact, I still have a lot to learn. But, although I wrote much of the book with a heavy heart, I found the joy and satisfaction in running a long project to its end with the amazing feeling of seeing the finished product. It was because of that joy and satisfaction that my motivation carried me forwards to keep writing, and now I’ve settled in the genres of fiction.

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Christmas nineteen ninety-five: a physics teacher takes his family on holiday to the snow-covered village of Gwennal, in Cornwall. When his five-year-old daughter tells him that she has seen Santa Claus, unwelcome and chilling events begin to plague the family’s stay at their seventeenth-century cottage. His choice of accommodation is further brought into question when his wife suffers a series of mind-bending paranormal horrors. Firmly believing scientific explanation－just like his fourteen-year-old son who plans to follow in the career footsteps carved-out before him－he suspects that she has relapsed to her abuse of prescription painkillers. Until, that is, the comfort blanket of science becomes an instrument of torture when staff at a local museum reveal more than he can bear to discover.

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Want to know more? Check out the links!

Adam McVeigh lives in South Lincolnshire, England. His first book, Keep Off The Grass, a narrative non fiction account of his time as a community and political campaigner, was released as an independently published paperback in January 2015. His fictional works are primarily psychological and paranormal thrillers that are inspired by real life events and scenarios, including recent titles: Polly, and The Hanging Bridge. Both are short, quick read stories that form a ten volume collection due for publication in 2016.

 

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Zephaniah-Horror-Novella-Adam-McVeigh-ebook/dp/B00UGFVZ80

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13706575.Adam_McVeigh

Author website: http://adammcveigh.com