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Indie Author Spotlight…Allison Cosgrove

Indie Authors Spotlight is a weekly meme that will be held on every SATURDAY in the month. It is hosted by Beckie @Bittersweet Enchantment & CYP @A Bookalicious Story.

This week’s spotlighted author is Allison Cosgrove…

About the Author – Allison Cosgrove was born and raised in a suburb of Toronto, Ontario. A married mother of three daughters, she works in accounting by day and creates her own worlds by night. She enjoys spending time with her husband and daughters hiking in the woods or sitting by the fire reading a good book. She has had the love of reading and writing detective mysteries from the age of twelve but it has only been since the birth of her youngest that she has gotten serious about crafting some of her own works for others to enjoy. She credits her family and friends with being the driving force that has given her the strength to breathe life into her books. 

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A cult has been killing children for its rituals and only one cop knows who they are. Detective Stan Brookshire knows but his past keeps people from believing in him. Can he rise above the stigma that shrouds his past and stop a cult from taking yet another innocent child from her mother’s arms before its too late? 
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Want to know more? Check out the links!

Website:  www.stanbrookshire.com

Buy online at Amazon 


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Interview with…Author Tony Talbot

 Blog regular Tony Talbot’s latest book, Eight Mile Island, was released recently and to support its launch, we have a special author interview with Tony today, to help you learn a little bit more about him and his writing! 

Here’s Tony!

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1. You have invented an operational time machine, where would you go?

I’d go back into the past…maybe 17th century Vienna, and see a Mozart or Beethoven symphony performed for the first time.

2. If you could invite any five people to dinner who would you choose?

Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill, John Lennon, Ernest Shackleton and Ada Lovelace. I realise I have four men and one woman in that list!

3. You are stranded on a desert island; what three things would you want to have with you?

The Idiots guide to surviving on a desert island

A satellite phone with 4G Internet

Kelly Brook!

4. What is one book everyone should read?

Ooo…tricky. To Kill a Mockingbird.

5. If you could have any superpower what would you choose?

Flight, every time. Imagine the time I’d save at the airport.

6. What is your favourite flavor of ice cream?

Chocolate.

7. If you could meet one person who has died who would you choose?

There’s an Antarctic explorer I’m fascinated with, Apsley Cherry-Garrard. I’d love to pick his brains about Antarctica.

8. What is your favourite thing to eat for breakfast?

Leftover trifle.

9. Night owl, or early bird?

Neither! Mid morning from 11:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon.

10. Pet Peeves?

Driving while on the phone.

11. Do you have any other books in development at the moment? What are your goals for future projects? 

I started the first chapter of book five about the same time as I was finally wrapping up Eight Mile Island. I’d love to do a trilogy one day, but new ideas always pop into my head and I’m off on to something new.

12. Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.

I had a reviewer for my first book – Over the Mountain –  say it made them cry…since it is a very sad and serious book, mission accomplished.

13. What’s your favourite season/weather?

I love autumn. The colours are just amazing, and there’s more of a sense that a day with good weather is something you should get outside and enjoy.

14. If you could jump inside the pages of a book, and live in that world.. which would it be?

It would have to be the Harry Potter universe. Wouldn’t a tour of Hogwarts or Diagon Alley be something else?

15. What was your favourite book when you were a child?

I loved Bedknob and Broomstick by Mary Norton. I read it and re-read it time and time again, and it’s one of the reasons I love reading and writing. It soaked into me.

16. Can you see yourself in any of your characters?

All of them have parts of me, and all of them have attributes I wish I had…more bravery, more street smarts. I have to say most of them are smarter than I am!

17. Can you write a Haiku about your book?

very creepy location

from which there is no escape

visit eight mile island

18. What is your favourite quote from a movie?

“Now….bring me that horizon.” Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean

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You can enter to win your very own copy of Eight Mile Island for Kindle / PDF in our giveaway!

**CLICK HERE**

Welcome to Eight Mile Island. 

Dylan James is used to boarding schools. He’s been thrown out of so many in the past two years, he’s lost count. So when an elite academy in Oregon offers him a place, he doesn’t think he’ll be there more than a week.
 
But Eight Mile Island isn’t like anywhere Dylan has been before. In the dense forests around the school, there are things that look human but aren’t.
 
Things that are hungry, and waiting.
 
But that’s just the start of the mysteries, mysteries that mean Dylan may never escape. Even if he wants to…

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Want to know more? Check out the links!

Website: http://www.tony-talbot.co.uk

Twitter: @authortony

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonytalbotwriter

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/tony-talbot

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Just Finished.. The Tribe’s Bride

Blurb: 
When a university job interview goes south, Carrie Wade isn’t certain that she’ll ever find work in her field of ancient Native American Culture. Knowing the only job waiting for her is waitressing at a coffee house, Carrie indulges in a post-disappointment shopping trip. An old necklace in an antique store window catches her eye and she immediately feels as if she cannot walk away without owning it. The very last thing she needs to do is squander her savings by investing in a necklace that may have, at one time, belonged to one of the tribes she studied…but she can’t help herself. When she tries on the precious necklace at home, she passes out and wakes up in the tent of the necklace’s original owners, three Native American tribesmen from the late 1600s. Will she be able to get back home to the future or will she find out that the one place she was always meant to be was back in time as the tribe’s bride?

Novella: 26k Words
Self Published 

When I started this story, I honestly was a bit nervous.  I did not think I would enjoy the plot, a young woman traveling back in time and becoming the wife of three brothers.  To me, it seemed overwhelming, I have enough of a hard time being a wife to one man, I couldn’t imagine three!
I was very pleasantly surprised!  The story was tastefully written and never crossed the line into “oogy”, one of my favorite words to describe what I honestly thought this story would be.  In each of the brother’s there were qualities that would make up the perfect man..  if ever they could all coexist in one man.
The descriptions in this book are told in such a way, that I could believe the author had a real working knowledge of life back in the 1600’s for Native American tribes.
In the end, I am glad I read this book and will look forward to reading more!
I give this book 3.5 stars!

To enter the giveaway, click here.

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Guest Post…My Journey by Tony Talbot

 Blog regular Tony Talbot’s latest book was released last week! It looks fantastic and you can check out the book and teaser beneath today’s special guest post from Tony himself, talking about his writing journey, from first sentence to Eight Mile Island, his fourth novel. Speaking of the new book: you can enter to win your very own copy in our giveaway! **CLICK HERE**

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“Even a journey of a hundred miles begins with one.” – Chinese proverb

In case you missed it, I’ve just finished writing my fourth book in four years. I know, sometimes I can’t believe it either. Four books is four times as many as some people many in a lifetime; on the other hand, to some people, it’s nothing but the start of their career.

It seemed like a good time to take a look back and see if I’ve learned anything. How is Eight Mile Island (2011-2012) different from Over the Mountain (2008-2009)? What have I learned from it all?

One of the biggest differences for me is this, what I’m typing right now. My self-promotion for OtM was non-existent. I posted about it a few times on the Amazon boards (The awful ghetto of the meet-the-author forum was still a nascent nightmare back then). I didn’t have a webpage or a Facebook account. Didn’t tweet, didn’t know about Goodreads (Did it even exist?).

I’d finished OtM and sent it off to a few agents with no real results before I read an article about self-publishing. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I commissioned a woman I work with to design me a book-cover and I started to self promote. So there were all the twists and turns of uploading to get to grips with…

Initially I started SP’ing without much enthusiasm or sales, but I’m a persistent guy and I stuck with it while I started on my second book, Taken.

I’d finished that and number three – American Girl – when I stumbled across Goodreads at the start of this year.

And that’s when things started to happen. I offered some of my books up for review, and I’m getting some good feedback now – 4 and 5 star reviews, I’m delighted to say, and a growing group of people have me on TBR lists. I affiliated with this blog, and I started my own. I have a Facebook account for myself and all of my books, a website and a Twitter account.

And all that’s happened in the last seven months! It feels like I’d been feeling around in a dark room and suddenly found the light switch.

Self promotion is as least as important now as writing the book. And tied up with that is the book itself, how it looks and reads.

Something new for EMI…I decided to commission a graphic design company to do the cover for me. It was the first thing I did after I finished the first draft, and when the cover came back, it made me realise that something that looked this professional should be professional. Having a cover so good, it felt like I should step up a gear and do something more professional as well, but what?

I looked around on Goodreads, and quite a few people were talking about editors – my wife does a first edit for me, but she can’t catch everything.

OtM wasn’t read or edited by anyone but myself before it went live on Amazon, and I realise now how much of a mistake that was. A good edit would have caught some of the typos, and polished the parts I didn’t even realise are dull. A good editor can make a difference with just a few commas and a handful of comments.

So for EMI, for the first time, I hired a professional YA editor (jennifermoorman.com), and it made a world of difference. Literally, in my case, changing one word changed the whole of the book. Editing is something I have definitely improved. Buying a Kindle has helped in that regard. Funny how the loopholes and the typos jump out when it’s a different format!

And even when Jennifer and I were batting edits back and forward, there are still things we both missed. Editing never really stops…I’m a lot easier on typos in books now I know how hard it is to pin them down. EMI went through six edits compared to OtM, as a comparison.

All of this is, of course, expensive. Facebook is free, but my web hosting and blog costs money; my editor wasn’t cheap, and my cover set me back a few pennies. I’ve spent more money on EMI than any of my other books. It’s also, with all the editing and self-promotion, a book that’s taken me longer to write.

But I look at it as an investment. Make your writing look professional and people will respond to it. Have it professionally edited…do it for your readers if not for yourself.

I exist as a writer almost exclusively virtually and digitally, and all people know about me as a writer are the things they read about me on web pages like this and my cover photo. All they have to go on is my book covers and the samples they read. There are a lot of books to read out there, and I have to – and YOU have to, if you want to be a digital writer – make life easy for them. Be good to your readers, and they’ll be good to you in return.

Do I write the books any differently now? The mechanics of writing is easier now with all the writing I’ve done. I know where the commas go and what to do with paragraphs. That’s sublevel stuff now, a foundation I can rely on. I’m still learning it though – that’s another advantage of an editor – but I can concentrate on the story now without having to worry about speech marks.

I plan them out a little more now as well. I have a magnetic board in my office (a spare bedroom…I aspire to a writers shed at the end of the garden!) where I stick up a mind-map rough idea of what I want from the book. I don’t follow it to the letter though; it’s more of a spark for my imagination.

So that’s my journey from book one to book four.  It’s been a blast, and there’s no way I’m done yet! I have a plan for Book Five already…

At this rate, I’ll be back in a few years to talk about Books Six to Ten, the books I haven’t written and the characters I haven’t shared lives with…yet.

See you in five years!

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You can also enter to win your very own copy for Kindle in our giveaway! **CLICK HERE**

Welcome to Eight Mile Island. 

Dylan James is used to boarding schools. He’s been thrown out of so many in the past two years, he’s lost count. So when an elite academy in Oregon offers him a place, he doesn’t think he’ll be there more than a week.
 
But Eight Mile Island isn’t like anywhere Dylan has been before. In the dense forests around the school, there are things that look human but aren’t.
 
Things that are hungry, and waiting.
 
But that’s just the start of the mysteries, mysteries that mean Dylan may never escape. Even if he wants to…
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About the Author: Tony Talbot was born in the 1970s and started writing in 2008 after a dream he had and couldn’t shake. Eight Mile Island is his fourth book. Tony regularly contributes to the Aside from Writing blog and so look out for future features and posts from this great author.

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Want to know more? Check out the links!

Website: http://www.tony-talbot.co.uk    Twitter: @authortony

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonytalbotwriter

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/tony-talbot

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Indie Author Spotlight…John Hennessy

Indie Authors Spotlight is a weekly meme that will be held on every SATURDAY in the month. It is hosted by Beckie @Bittersweet Enchantment & CYP @A Bookalicious Story.
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This week’s spotlighted author is John Hennessy…
About the Author – Born in 1988, John Hennessy became entranced by the world of fantasy at a young age, playing video games and reading books for many long nights/early mornings. He recently graduated from Western Washington University, and now lives in the green land of Bellingham, at work on the second book in The Cry of Havoc series.
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Night 1: 12 billion taken.   Day 1: Confusion.

Night 2: 13 billion taken.   Day 2: Panic.

Night 3: 13 billion taken.   Day 3: The fight for survival begins.

In 2048, the human population borders 39 billion after the termination of
the birth control industry, and the realities of overcrowding have sunken
into the minds of the world, until billions mysteriously go missing. In
the wake of civilization’s collapse, a trio of teenage gamers from
Washington struggle to endure. Maggy, a strong-willed intellectual, leads
Darrel and Félix, two shy geeks, on an expedition down the west coast, as
they try to determine the source of humanity’s downfall.

At the End is a fast-paced post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel geared toward
teen+, featuring two strong female protagonists and two geeky male
protagonists. The book’s chapters alternate from Darrel’s point of view
and Maggy’s point of view.

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Want to know more? Check out the links!

Buy the Book! Amazon   Smashwords
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Guest Post…Ebook Piracy

Author Michael Cargill joins us today, with a guest post on Ebook Piracy and why it’s not shivering his timbers (sorry – bad pirate pun – forgive me, it’s Friday!)

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Literature is something of a latecomer to the digital revolution.  In some ways, this is quite surprising, as it predates other forms of entertainment like computer games, film, and TV by several thousand years.  Mind you, the older generations are often the slowest to get to grips with anything new.  After all, when was the last time you heard your granddad talk about getting an Xbox?

Some of the growing pains for ebooks, have been the same ones that other forms of digital media have gone through, and still are going through.  Piracy is one such pain.

The mere mention of the word ‘piracy’ generates quite an angry response from many people, whether they are a writer, or a reader.

To those people, I say you should perhaps step back, and rethink things a bit.  I’m an indie author, and I know for a fact that my work is available to download from torrent/pirate websites.  I know this to be a fact, as it was me who put them there in the first place.

Before I go any further, I’ll just mention a few things, to provide some context.  Firstly, you won’t see me on any bestseller lists anywhere, not unless that list is based on an otherwise empty shelf.  Yes, woe is me, get out the violin and all that.

Secondly, years ago, I used to be something of a profligate pirate myself.  My hard drive was chock full of computer games, applications, films, and TV shows.  I knew lots of other people who did the same thing as well.

Lastly, I have no formal legal education, or training.  This puts me at around about the same level as that bloke in the pub, who insists that it’s perfectly legal to shoot a Welshman with a crossbow, so long as you do it outside the city walls, on a Wednesday afternoon.

Just to be clear, I have no intention of getting involved with the tedious, semantic differences between copyright infringement, and theft.  I’m also mainly talking about the financial impact of piracy, rather than the copyright side of things.

So then: why did I upload my own work to some torrent sites?  Well, “Why not?”, is my response.  At the moment, practically no-one knows about me.  My ability to market myself is largely limited to blogs, Twitter, and pinning posters up on the trees along my road.  Now that my work is available by torrents, I have added one more avenue for readers to find me.  I created threads on the torrent site forums, informing them all of what I did.  I got a few replies from people thanking me, and wishing me luck.  In the few days following on from this, I had an increase in the number of hits to my blog, from people searching for terms like “Michael Cargill author” on Google.  Prior to doing this, that had never happened before.

Of course, the usual retort to this is “You don’t get money from pirates!”, to which I say is a load of poppycock.

As I mentioned earlier, I was once a profligate pirate myself.  Yet, despite the fact that my hard drives were heaving with illegally downloaded material, my shelves were also teeming with legally purchased material as well.

And the same goes for many people who pirate things.  There are numerous studies that show that the people who illegally download the most music, are also some of the biggest purchasers of music.  This won’t be true for all of them, of course, but it is a fact that cannot be ignored.

It’s also important to recognise that just because someone illegally downloads a book, or a film, or a song, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the copyright owner has lost a sale.  For a start, pirates will often download stuff that they have no intention of ever using.  They’ll often do it, just because they can.  I mean, who wouldn’t want to download the latest version of AutoCAD if the opportunity is there…?

A quick search on a torrent site reveals that I can download the entire works of Stephen King, in about fifteen minutes.  That’s everything that he has ever published, about sixty five books in total, right there on the Internet.  Ebooks are small in size, so they take no time at all to pirate.  However, to say that anyone who downloads them all has denied Mr King of sixty five books worth of royalty fees, is wrong.

First of all, very few people will ever go out and purchase that many books at once.  Secondly, that pirate simply isn’t going to read all sixty five of those books either.  He or she may read one of them, and enjoy it.  However, they aren’t that likely to immediately read another Stephen King book.  They are more likely to read something from someone else, whether it’s pirated, or legally bought.

The reading habits of a pirate are exactly the same as those of a ‘normal’ reader.  They will talk about it to their friends, and family.  They will join in with the discussions about it on Goodreads.  They leave reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and their blog.  After illegally sampling an author’s work, they may go on and purchase legitimate copies of their work.  This is something I did when I was a pirate.  It’s what I witnessed other people who pirated media do, as well.  It’s what some of the studies into piracy have shown, as well.

Of course, you don’t have to just take this indie’s word for it.  Bestselling author Neil Garman has taken a similar stance to ebook piracy.  He even made a video on YouTube about it, that is still available to watch, though he is someone who made his name (and fortune) long before ebooks ever existed.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that you can’t actually fight piracy, either.  For every anti-piracy method that is put in place, it is easily defeated.  Companies can spend thousands implementing an anti-piracy scheme, only to see it cracked within hours of its release.

An author could spend a huge amount of time, scouring all corners of the Internet, trying to hunt down those elusive illegal links to their work.  Yet, all that time is wasted.  It took me less than five minutes for me to put my own work up on a torrent site, but it might take days for a furious copyright owner to get something removed from a website.

Many people will say “if everyone pirated books, then authors would starve!”  Now, whilst that might be true, it’s also true that if everyone flushed their toilets at once, the sewer system would collapse.  The fact is, that not everyone will pirate books.  At least part of this is down to the fact that it requires a certain level of technical knowledge to pirate, that many people struggle to get over.  Some Kindle owners simply don’t know how to manually copy ebooks onto their device.

To be honest, I probably have more sympathy for the readers, than I do the authors.  They can be understandably annoyed when they see someone stealing books, and getting them for free, rather than paying for them.

In writing this short article, I’m not expecting to drastically change anyone’s mind.  However, the piracy debate has been raging for a long time now, and it really needs a more level-headed approach.  None of the heavy-handed antics employed so far have put so much as a dent in it.

I think we should embrace it, rather than hate it.

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Interested in knowing more about this subject? Check out the links!

Study: Piracy Does Not Deter the Production of Music, Films, Books – http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/study_piracy_does_not_deter_the_production_of_music_books_films.php

Study Shows That BitTorrent Piracy Doesn’t Affect U.S. Box Office Profits – http://www.geekosystem.com/bittorrent-box-office-study/

Neil Garman video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qkyt1wXNlI

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Want to know more about Michael? Check out his links!

Blog – http://michaelcargill.wordpress.com/

Twitter – @MichaelCargill1   Facebook

The Books…

Author Page on Goodreads

 Trailer for Underneath  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUBrxs38Dkc

Smashwords

UK Amazon

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Interview with…Author Suzanne Lilly

Today we’re welcoming author Suzanne Lilly for an interview…

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First off, let me just say these questions are the most fun I’ve had in an interview yet! Okay, now I’ll dive in and tell you my answers.

 

If you could have any superpower what would you choose?

The power to make people’s dreams come true. So you want to drive a Mercedes? Zap! You’ve got it. World peace? Zap! No problem. If I could make dreams come true, maybe the world would be a happier place.

 

In one sentence only, tell us why we should read your book.

If you found sunglasses that tell the future, wouldn’t you want to try them on?

 

Any other books in the works? Goals for future projects?

Untellable is coming out in February 2013. It also takes place in Honey Creek, Ohio, where Aspen Dwyer has run away to hide from her father who is a murderer. While she’s in Honey Creek, she meets the man of her dreams, Colton Moraine. He’s kind, strong, thoughtful, and good looking, and he doesn’t know anything about her past, which is just how Aspen likes things. But when her father gets out of prison and shows up looking for her in Honey Creek, all bets are off.

 

Everyone has a guilty pleasure – what TV show do you watch that you’d be embarrassed to admit?

I’m still watching Survivor. Can you believe it? I can’t seem to give it up. If Big Brother ever comes back on for another season, I’ll be watching that, too.

 

The one book I wish I’d written is….

Chocolat. The words are magic, the story is magic, and in the movie, Johnny Depp is, as always, magic.

 

How do you like to spend a rainy day?

Curled up on the couch with fluffy pillows, a soft blanket, a warm fire, and a fantastic book. I’ll need some hot chocolate, too.

 

What is something people would be surprised to know about you?

People always seem surprised to find out I took Tae-Kwon-Do. When I tell them, they just back away, real slow.

 

Where have you been on your travels that you loved? 

I love seeing new places! I loved going on an Alaskan cruise, and this past year I went to Rome. I heart Roma.

 

What are your favourite sweets?

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I hope they have those in heaven.

 

Any Pet Peeves?

People who say li-beary instead of li-brary. There’s an r after the b, people.

 

Social networking…Facebook or Twitter?

Twitter all the way! My phone cheeps when I get a tweet from my friends.

 

Print or Ebook?

Both! I adore my Kindle, but I like a paperback when I’m at the pool or the beach.

 

Thanks for joining us today for an interview! 

Thanks so much for having me on your blog today! Before I go, here’s a little bit about my newest book, Shades of the Future.

What would you give to see the future? Would you make your dreams come true? Would you change the things you didn’t like?

Mariah Davis loves animals, running, and her hunk of a boyfriend, Kevin Creamer. Everything looks bright for her until the day she finds a pair of sunglasses that allow her to see the future.

When she glimpses a disaster looming, she tries to avoid it but fails. She has a car accident that lands her in a wheelchair, smashing her hopes for a running scholarship to the veterinary program at Ohio State University. She pushes Kevin away, thinking he’ll want to end their relationship now that she can’t walk.

Will she ever learn to trust and love again? She could search for an answer in the sunglasses. But she’s afraid what they reveal might destroy her.

 

I’m on blog tours during the month of July, celebrating with a giveaway of a pair of designer sunglasses to one lucky commenter. I’ll be posting the schedule with dates and blogs on my author website, http://www.suzannelilly.com, and my TeacherWriter blog, http://www.teacherwriter.net. Follow me and comment each day to increase your chances of winning!

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Want to know more? Check out the links!

Twitter: http://twitter.com/suzannelilly

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Suzanne-Lilly/e/B006HY79IY

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5258804.Suzanne_Lilly

Author website: http://www.suzannelilly.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/AuthorSuzanneLilly

TeacherWriter blog: http://www.teacherwriter.net

Fridays at the Honey Creek Books blog: http://www.honeycreekbooks.com

Suzanne Lilly on Google +: https://plus.google.com/115758832631616324955/about

 

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Fifty Shades of…Granger

You would need to be living in a cave to have missed the recent Mr Grey mania – ASDA bookshelves across the UK have found themselves picked clean as ladies go out in force to grab the book. But what’s it all about? I’d like to say I knew – but from reading the Kindle sample, I’ve not felt especially inspired to spend my money on the book itself. So instead – I’ve taken what little I know from work colleagues who are reading it: there’s a contract, a dungeon and lots of saucy conditions…and instead given the Fifty Shades… treatment to some other areas of literature.

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Just sign the contract!

Just sign the contract!

The Gryffindor common room was buzzing with the sounds of early evening activity. Several tables were occupied by groups of students: heads down, lips pressed tightly together in concentration; diligently completing their homework. In a dark corner, away from prying eyes, the Weasley twins were testing their latest lunchbox items on unsuspecting first years. A small girl was turning blue as she had a severe reaction to a Cough-it-up Drops. “More cough, less choke needed,” Fred nodded, making notes on a dog-eared scroll. Several members of the quidditch team were playing ‘dodge the bludger’, near the stairs leading up to the dorm rooms. That is, until Katie Bell nearly got hit in the face by it and swiped the bludger away with an over-zealous bat of her textbook, directing it straight into one of the ornate, stained-glass windows.

“Fenestra Reparo,” Hermione muttered as she passed by the still shattering window, absently waving her wand in the direction of the wall. As her charm caught the glass shards, they swirled upwards and flew back into the frame, repairing the window perfectly.

There was a determined expression on Hermione’s face as she marched towards the fireplace and Lavender Brown – taking note of this – swiftly dodged out of her path. An instant later, Hermione was standing before the two boys sitting on the sofa, who up until that moment had been happily chatting about the pros and cons of performance enhancing magic in sports.

“…it’s just unethical, mate.”

“A-hem,” Hermione coughed quietly.

Two faces turned towards her, wondering at her abrupt intrusion into the conversation.

“What’ve you done now?” Harry asked, taking one look at Hermione’s face and then swivelling to look at Ron.

“What…me…?” Ron scrambled, sounding a little confused, but also a tad guilty.

“Yes, you!” Hermione confirmed, fixing him with one of her sternest frowns.

“What has he done?” Harry asked, looking to Hermione for clarification.

“Ron made a wager with me that I wouldn’t be able to cast a particular spell – I did it and now he won’t pay up!”

“Well…it wasn’t a fair spell…” Ron began to protest, before meeting Hermione’s gaze and falling quiet.

“Oh, mate,” Harry laughed, shaking his head. “You bet against Hermione on something magic? Guaranteed fail.”

“That’s not the point.” Hermione insisted. “Ron’s forfeit is to become my slave for a week and now he won’t make the unbreakable vow to do it. I have the contract ready and everything.” She brandished a sheaf of papers in front Ron’s nose to reinforce the point.

“Help me out Harry – she wants me to spend two hours a day working with the house elves to help me appreciate their situation…”

“You agreed to the terms,” Hermione reminded Ron, ignoring his pleading tone.

“She wants to dictate how long I sleep for at night…” he went on.

“It will help you perform better in lessons during the day – you’re always staying up too late, then moping around in class.”

“And I’m only allowed to eat at the times she tells me I can!”

“It’s all for your own good!” Hermione exclaimed, gesturing towards Ron’s stomach with her wand, eliciting a nervous squeak from him, before he realised she wasn’t actually going to do anything to him. “No one wants a chubby Keeper on the team now, do they?”

“What do I get if I stick to the contract?” Ron asked, looking hopeful for the first time since the conversation began.

“You get rewarded,” Hermione said.

“And what happens if he doesn’t stick to the contract?” Harry asked, inquisitive eyes darting between his two friends.

“Then he gets punished.” Hermione confirmed, with a business-like nod of her head.

“Oh, fudge,” muttered Ron, beneath his breath.

Harry nodded. “Don’t ever bet against Hermione on magic – definitely a fail, mate.”

by

Just Finished…Fall for You

Fall for You is a younger adult book, aimed at early teenage girls (I imagine). It is loosely based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and you know what? I liked it! After reading plenty of ‘heavier’ books recently, I was in the mood for something quick, easy and light – and that’s exactly what I got.
The story is set predominantly in the grounds of the Jane Austen Academy, a prestigious boarding school, which up until recently had been solely for girls. In this it reminded me of a modernised version of the Mallory Towers or St Clares books by Enid Blyton, which I loved as a child: who didn’t want to play lacrosse and have jolly tea parties on the pavilion with the other gutsy girls who filled the dormitories of those books? Maybe just me then. But Lizzie – our leading lady surprisingly enough – certainly had shades of this about her.
As a character I found Lizzie irked me a little in the first couple of chapters – she was a tad on the bitchy side and I just thought she was mean with Anne and Emma particularly. However, I also get that this was part of her character establishment – after all she needed to be a little snooty and judgemental didn’t she. Thankfully, she mellows out pretty quickly and in with some slightly Louis Lane style tendencies sets off to investigate the mystery surrounding the new owners who are making so many changes to her beloved Academy.
This was a little jaunt down memory lane for me in terms of reading as I don’t tend to do ‘girlie’ romance stuff very often. But the younger girl inside me who devoured Sweet Valley High books (please don’t judge me too harshly!) in her early teens and wanted to go to boarding school, really enjoyed this lightly fluffy, fun take on Austen’s book. It is well-written, with good dialogue and enough variety in the supporting characters that they have depth and interest. The main characters are only ‘lite’ versions of the originals – Georgiana, Dante and Lizzie being the most like their counterparts – and the events of Fall for You only pick up some key scenes from Pride and Prejudice rather than being a complete re-telling, which I think worked well for the story. Nice reflections of the original book, without trying too hard to replicate and mimic, which I think would have felt very contrived.
Overall thoughts: if you like a little romance, fluff and fun, then I’m sure you’ll enjoy this! 3.5* 
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Tony’s Thinking…On Losing a Story

A few months ago, I’d just finished writing another novel, and was wondering (maybe dreaming would be a better word) what would happen if I was suddenly granted my wish…to be a full time writer and at that a famous full time writer. Kind of suddenly discovered like JK Rowling, people everywhere reading one of my books.

What would my life be like? Imagine that…never having to leave for work in the morning and never having to drive through snow or rain or rush hour traffic. To sit at my desk all day and (to quote Steven Spielberg) ‘to dream for a living’.

But it wouldn’t be all regular royalty cheques and a quiet home. I know I’d get easily distracted, sitting there in an empty house. I’d be forever checking my Goodreads reviews, my Facebook friends. There would be constant pressure to Tweet my every move. Not to mention the endless meetings and flying to Hollywood to meet with Mr Spielberg for the movie deal, and the endless parties and other things I’m sure I’d hate. Would be tough, I’m sure, having to fly to the Caribbean and lie on a beach.

I digress into my fantasy there, but thinking about how my life would change set me thinking about a story, as such things do. I imagined a housewife, bored with her life. She has everything she ever wanted: beautiful home, devoted husband and adorable kids. But still she’s bored. She’s always defined by how other people see how she relates to her family. She’s always a wife, or a mother…never just her.
Finally, she starts writing one day, just to slay the boredom and the incipient feeling that life has more to offer her. She writes, and she writes, telling no one – this is something just for her. Eventually she writes a novel and sends it to an agent, and they accept it, but still she tells no one what she’s doing.

Which is where the story starts: she’s sitting at her kitchen table, looking at an advance from an agent and a publication deal that would free her from her domestic life forever. All she has to do is cash the cheque and make it to the airport, and her life is her own. The story is about how trapped she feels, and whether she’d be more free if she was suddenly flung into the spotlight.

I loved that story. I really felt for that woman and what she was going through. It might have been realistic if she just told her family what she was doing when they came home, but I wasn’t interested in that; I wanted to go through what she was going through.

But here’s the really terrible thing: I lost that story.
I thought I had it saved on at least ONE of the computers I use, or the memory sticks that hold my work, but I can’t find it. I must have saved it somewhere because (being the tech guy I am) I always hit save before I print. And I printed two copies: one for me and one for a writing friend.
I can’t find my printed copy, and I NEVER throw my work away. I have hopes my writing friend can find it and I can re-type it. I’ve even tried a file recovery…but nothing.

Why not recreate it? You might ask. That’s a hard one to explain…stories are ephemeral, flighty things, gone with a breeze. If I re-write it, it won’t be the same story. I know I won’t be able to recreate the same…intimacy…with the woman in the story, I won’t get into her head the way I did when I wrote it on a whim. I won’t know who she is as well as I did before.

I’ve never lost a story before, and it’s gone as though it never existed. And I feel bereft. I’ve lost a story and it feels like I lost a friend as well, and they’re such hard things to grasp at the best of times. I know all the arguments: hit save, hit save, then hit save again. I did. I do.
But this time it wasn’t enough. Farewell, lonely housewife.

I’ll miss you.

(Stop Press 18th June 2012: My writing friend found my story! Thanks Portia! You can read it here)