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Milestone achieved
After seven years and fifteen books I have reached, what i consider is a milestone in my writing career. Book ten in my sci fi action adventure space opera, the Col Sec series is about to be published.
The book is called Annihilation and it follows closely the adventures of the Wildfire Team which by now has been depleted after the tragic loss of two of their team mates in the last book. The…
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#amwriting#could this be the end?#fifteen books and counting#sci fi action adventure#space opera#ten year milestone
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Art as a reflection of reality.
Art as a reflection of reality.
Is anyone else getting bored with these overlong story acs that tv series use nowadays that span an entire series to tell a single story, because I am sick of them.
Movies and tv just lately are full of doom and gloom and devoid of hope and the stories they tell are a reflection of that. Now I know an argument can be made that the movies and tv, ie popular media always reflect the times that…
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#dark times#hope#media coverage#media reports#movies#reality#reflection of our times#truth#tv series#writing
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Exciting development
I recently employed a PR Consultant to help me market my books. The direction he took was to target both myself and my partner Joyce Johnson who writes under the name of Aldrea Johnson as a couple who have shared interests in writing. When we met we learned that we shared interests not only in writing but in other subjects as well, we both love comic books and movies and reading among other…
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Time flies
It’s been a year already since I lost my mum and it has gone by incredibly fast. The old adage os ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ doesn’t really apply here because learning to live without her has been hard to say the least. I didn’t see her as often as I should, I suppose but I always knew she was there if I wanted to and knowing that not to be the case has been hard to deal with.
I have…
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A diversion which became something so much more
A diversion which became something so much more
I had just finished writing Ronin the first book in what was to become the Col Sec series I was in a difficult place personally. My partner and I were moving house and there were all sorts of complications both with work and everything that this move encompassed. What had started out to be a relatively simple process was hindered and made worse by factors out of our control and a few that were…
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#action adventure#blog#blogging#inspiration#moving house#new author new series#new series#ongoing series#series#stress#techno thriller#thriller with a hint of sci fi#unsuspecting success#up and running#writing
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New kid on the block
New kid on the block
The Death List was the first book I published under the name of Jack Dillon and it was an homage to thriller writers I had loved growing up when I first discovered the genre back in the seventies.
I think the first thriller book I read that made me think I could do this as well was Touch the Devil by Jack Higgins which came out in 1982 the year my son was born. I bought the book through a book…
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#am writing#best seller#book stores#exciting reads#indie author#inspiration#Jack Higgins#pen name#pseudonym#self-published#thriller#writing
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Setting the record straight
Setting the record straight
There is a debate going on that asks are Prologues and Epilogues necessary in the modern novel. In the Col Sec series I used them in Ronin, the first in the series as a way to set the scene for what was to come and to tie up any loose ends. In Omega I used the Epilogue to finish off the story and to give a little teaser for the next in the series. I used the same technique in Discovery and all…
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#antagonist#character development#compelling characters#location setting#new series#plot devicec#protagonist#roller coaster ride#sci fi action#scope#story telling#vivid imagination#writing
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Favourite book cover
After publishing fifteen books I thought I’d do a poll and see which is everyone’s favourite book cover. I’ve had the privilege of working with some extremely talented people over the years so it’s time for them to show their wares and take a bow for all their hard work. I will list each book cover in order of series printing starting with the Col Sec series, followed by the ATLAS Force series…
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#book covers#cover art#editing#experience#inspiration#new series#self publishing#skills#thrillers#writing
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True start to a new series
True start to a new series
After two false starts, the Col Sec series kicked into high gear and the series really began to take form with Discovery, Book Three.
Discovery saw the return of who was to become the series protagonist, Kurt Stryder, the hero from Book One, Ronin. The book begins where Omega, the previous book left off at the memorial service for those who had died in the catastrophic attack on Col Sec…
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#alien worlds#character development#inspiration#new characters#sci fi action#sci fi action adventure#self-published#series#story arc#threat levels#war in space#writing
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Omega is the second book in the Col Sec series and holds a special place in my heart.
I’d finished Ronin which was going to be a stand alone book and was thinking about my next book. What should I write, could I even write another book? At the time Casino Royale had been released with Danial Craig taking over the role of James Bond. Bond has always been a favourite of mine ever since I saw my first Bond film, Goldfinger when it was first released in 1964 so when I saw the reboot of the franchise with Casino Royale I had an idea of writing a spy thriller. I already had a Universe I was familiar with in the Col Sec Universe from Ronin my earlier book so I thought of using that again. I had a problem with the main character though. My hero from Ronin, Kurt Stryder was not a normal human at the end of the book. He had undergone a change so radical that it limited his participation in this next book and I chose to keep him out of the action altogether. Instead I chose Matt Hawk who played an important role in Ronin but would take centre stage for Omega.
Matt Hawk is a normal human, well almost, if you take into consideration that he grew up on a world with a slightly heavier gravity than that of Earth’s and therefore was stronger than a normal human, had a stronger skeletal structure and increased stamina too. A Recon Delta Marine seconded to Intelligence Division he is tasked to investigate a sighting of a possible terrorist on a distant planet. He is aided by a team of Recon Delta Marines led by Colonel De Boer. They encounter resistance but Matt overcomes the terrorist and takes him back to HQ in New York. What happens then starts a series of events that see Col Sec pitted against an enemy who is determined to destroy not only Col Sec but General Sinclair personally.
Omega is a terrorist organisation that has its fangs deep into business and government alike. Using an army of clones bred for battle they set about to destroy Col Sec.
Maxwell Eisenhower is the CEO and owner of MaxCorp a megacorp that had been supplying both Col Sec and Omega with weapons and tech stolen from its main rival RandCorp. Eisenhower also runs Omega as a cartel running missions behind the scenes. The recent event at Col Sec HQ was not sanctioned by him.
Jonas Wilde, Eisenhower’s right hand man was the one who sanctioned the event at Col Sec. He was ex-Recon Delta but was kicked out for failing his psyche eval. He blames Col Sec and Sinclair personally for being kicked out of a career he loved. He has plans to wrest the reins of Omega from Eisenhower which he does and goes on the warpath against his enemy.
Tanya Wilde, Jonas’s daughter who at first has no idea of her fathers dealings and turns against him turning to Matt Hawk for protection.
All four of them are pitched into the mix as Matt tries to protect the innocent Tanya whom he grows increasingly close to. The action moves to Earth from distant planets as Matt and Tanya run for their lives as Jonas throws the might of Omega against them. On Earth a huge starship Omega has control of attacks Col Sec HQ destroying it. In desperation Matt takes the fight to them.
At the end of things when everything seems to have worked out one final twist throws them back into the thick of it once more.
Who will survive this contest of wills, Col Sec or Omega?
Like I said earlier this is one of my favourite books out of the entire series, it has a plot that spans across the galaxy with a huge finale on Earth but that’s not the end of the book. Things seem to calm down but kick right back into high gear once more, and then when you think that’s got to be it there’s more. As I finished the book an idea hit me how to continue what I now considered to be a series and seeing as how I was missing writing about Kurt Stryder I decided what the next book would be about. I even threw in a little cameo right at the end which leads nicely into the start of book three, Discovery.
More of that next time.
Book 2 Omega
Exception to the rule, ‘no one remembers number two’ Omega is the second book in the Col Sec series and holds a special place in my heart.
#blogging#inspiration#James Bond#new series#Omega#saving the world#sci fi action#self publishing#skills#suspense#thrillers#writing
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I was wandering around my local library looking for an action packed sci fi book to read. I had recently re-watched Total Recall starring Arnold Schwarzenegger on Blu-ray and wanted something like that to read.
Sci fi had always been a favourite genre of mine every since I learned to read. The fantastical journeys these writers took the reader on were simply breathtaking in their scope. Visiting new worlds or living out in space in some station or a starship just sparked my imagination making me want to write my own stories.
As I wandered around the library searching for something to read I became increasingly frustrated. In the end nothing sparked my interest and I returned home empty handed. I had been dabbling in writing and had churned out some ideas for sci fi novels which all resembled either Star Trek or it’s bastard offspring, Star Wars none of which satisfied my creativity. I had read somewhere in an article aimed at potential writers that if you were starting out as an author the best book you could write would be the book you wanted to read because you would never get bored in the process.
With this in mind I set out to write the book I wanted to read at that moment. That book turned out to be Ronin, the first book in my Col Sec series.
To simplify things I set the book in the mid twenty fifth century so that I could imagine new locations and also if I chose to set any part of the book on Earth I was confident that the locations would be inviolate to scrutiny.
In Ronin we meet Kurt Stryder, the hero of this story and when we first meet him he is a typical soldier in the Special Forces of Col Sec, or Colonial Security called Recon Delta. He has a strong moral compass that steers him toward doing the right thing no matter the cost, something his father instilled in him when he was a boy. He told him that for evil to triumph all that is required is that good men do nothing. It was something that guided Kurt throughout his childhood and on into the military. He had a burning desire to make a better world and joining the military was his way of doing that. When the offer of joining a special program was presented to him along with others in Recon Delta, a program that would help change the future of the military and perhaps the entire human race forever, he jumped at the chance and eagerly volunteered. This program had been sabotaged by the Colonial Confederation’s main rival, The Elysium Alliance who having learned about the program and what it was set out to produce sent in an agent to make it appear as if it was useless but steal all the data pertaining to it. Kurt was the only survivor once they find out about the infiltration.
Kurt is changed beyond anyone’s imagination. The program was supposed to improve a soldiers ability to heal so that battlefield injuries would heal faster making the soldier capable of withstanding much more and to be able to carry on in combat with heightened endurance. The medical applications alone would be worth billions on the open market and the military applications were beyond a price. Kurt had indeed been changed, enhanced to a degree whereby simple cuts and bruises healed almost immediately and major injuries such as broken bones took slightly longer. He was virtually indestructible.
The Elysium Alliance plans to learn the truth behind the Confederations claims that the program was a failure. General Solon sends agents to capture Kurt to force the truth out of him and General Sinclair, his opposite number in Col Sec has agents in play to prevent the same. What ensues is a power play game with Kurt caught in the middle.
In this first book of the Col Sec series Kurt Stryder is forced to make a number of choices that will determine not only which path his life will take but perhaps millions of others in the galaxy. Fast paced, the action races across the galaxy from a Research station in deep space to Earth then across to several other planets while this deadly game plays out to the inevitable outcome after which Kurt must come to a decision. Does he continue as a pawn of his government, a soldier in Recon Delta or remain a soldier but one without a master, a Ronin?
Photo by Hristo Fidanov on Pexels.com
Book 1 Ronin
First of many… I was wandering around my local library looking for an action packed sci fi book to read.
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One of my favourite authors was and to some extent, still is, Jack Higgins and I remember reading an article about him back in the day, I think it was around the mid eighties when he was in the height of his fame. The article stated that he had humble beginnings, which I could relate to, as the same is true for myself and he had aspirations of becoming a writer. He set out to write thrillers and chose a few pen names along the way and landed a publisher for his work. Back then the best seller lists were populated by actual writers and not a list of celebrities who could cook or happened to do something that someone thought was interesting or were simply famous for being famous, for this I refer to those who populate so called Reality TV. Let’s face it people, this is as far from reality as it gets, they work to a script and are put into situations specifically to garner some reaction. Instead of Reality TV I think it should be called Car Crash TV because at times its like watching a car crash, you know its going to happen, you know its going to be gruesome and yet you still watch.
but I digress.
Jack Higgins hit the big time with a book called The Eagle Has Landed written under his pen name of ‘Jack Higgins’ He went from earning a modest living writing his previous books to earning a six figure income relatively overnight. The article went on to say that he earned six figures alone from royalties from his previous novels without writing any other books as his popularity was so high. Now back in those days a six figure income, to me anyway was something you could only dream of. Here was a man who very few people knew anything about except what we learned of in the rare interviews he gave or we read about on the inside of the book jackets that covered his books, books which were read and loved by millions of readers throughout the world and yet you could walk past him in the street and not recognise him.
This was just one of the reasons I took pen to paper and began to write.
Nowadays though with the advent of social media people crave to know every intimate detail of celebrities lives, what they eat, what they wear, where they go to holiday, to shop, everything. Authors too have to embrace this culture of celebrity to some degree at least. Social media means readers can access an author’s life like never before, or so it would seem. The more security conscious of us still keep a modicum of privacy veiled over us. On the downside of that though is the reality that if you are not a million seller, who cares?
The sad fact is nowadays even with the advent of social media and the influx of Indie authors to the business, to build a readership has become that much harder. Before when Jack Higgins was in his prime the publisher would market the work and he was left to write the next book. Now only the few big publishers who have best selling authors on their books will market their work, organise book tours, signings and so forth, if you are an Indie, good luck with that. Book shops won’t stock your book if it’s POD so a book signing is out of the question and unless you have your readership then you probably won’t sell many books. Marketing a book from a relatively unknown author, and I class myself in this group even though I have self published fifteen of my books and had another published by a small press, is a full time job just to keep treading water. To get anywhere you have to be outstanding in your field or be noteworthy in some respect. A bad example of this was the author who recently tried to copyright the word ‘cocky’. It stirred up a whole lot of press and probably sold her more books but for all the wrong reasons and as readers the public can be fickle so that kind of strategy is only for short term gains. In a year no one will even remember her.
I did everything that the advisors of Indie authors advise you to do, write more books, I’ve done that, like I said my tally now stands at fifteen books with more in the works, write a blog, well this is evidence of that, have a Facebook page for your books, I have two, one for my sci fi series and one for my thrillers I write under the pen name of Jack Dillon. I’ve done everything that those in the ‘know’ tell struggling writers like myself to do and more and still I am where I am.
The truth is, and I know there will be a lot of writers who claim this to be not so, that’s if they ever bother to even read this, to get ahead in this business you have to get noticed. It’s as simple as that. It doesn’t matter how or for what as long as you get noticed. People have to know you’re out there, and as obvious as that sounds it is true. The hard part is getting noticed.
I read somewhere that Amazon publishes thousands of new books daily. If that is even remotely true then how does a writer stand out from that crowd especially if you work a day job to survive and have limited time to market and an even more limited budget? It would be easier to stand on the bank of a river during salmon spawning time as the salmon swim upstream and try to pick out just one particular fish to eat for your supper.
After almost two decades of writing and publishing I am faced with the reality check that I will never make a living from writing books. I know they are good, all the reviews say so but for them to sell in volume is like swimming upstream in spawning season and as I get older my arms are now beginning to ache from the continual strain. I remain the eternal optimist though, I still look through publishers websites searching for the right one to publish my work, I’m hard at work writing with three books in the works which will be out soon so although this might sound like I’m giving up the reality is farer from the truth than it would seem from reading the first part oft this article. I love to write, to tell stories and as I continue I notice that I am getting better at the craft with every new book, every new article so I will continue.
I think my expectations are now just that little bit closer to reality though than when I started. I know now that I’m not going to be the next Jack Higgins. I am content to be the first me.
Book 9 Armageddon
Reality check…. One of my favourite authors was and to some extent, still is, Jack Higgins and I remember reading an article about him back in the day, I think it was around the mid eighties when he was in the height of his fame.
#action thrillers#adventure thrillers#blog#blogging#comic books#editing#high stakes#inspiration#new directions#proof-reading#sci fi thrillers#self publishing#skills#suspense#tech savvy#thrillers#website building#writing
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I was asked recently what was the role of an author and at first the answer seemed obvious to me.
Let’s take this in the correct context though. First off the conversation I was having was basically a questionnaire for a publisher and it was in relation to this that I was asked the question. ‘What did I consider to be the role of an author’. I think I replied that the role of an author is to write, something along those lines at least. To be fair, I was tired, I’d had a long day and was under pressure to get some things completed before retiring for the night and I didn’t give it the thought I should have.
It was only later that I did give it some thought and realised I could have said so much more. Today’s role of an author is very much different from that of even ten years ago. Back when I was starting to think of writing anything the idea of a best selling author seemed to be the perfect job. You had wealth, the freedom to do what you wanted and fame without anyone, or at least the vast majority of the public knowing who you were. That to me was an ideal situation because I am a bit of an introvert and the thought of meeting new people generally sends me into panic mode, I hide it well by coming up with excuses why we don’t or shouldn’t go to certain things. In reality it’s because it scares the shit out of me. So to have all of that, wealth, fame, recognition but the ability to walk down the street as normal would be absolute heaven for me. By the time I started writing so much had changed. Self publishing was beginning to take off and more and more writers were turning to it. Also to be fair an awful lot of them were dreadful and it was this initial influx of writers who hadn’t had the training or done their research or even bothered to employ a good editor that gave the self publishing market such a bad name. I hold my hand up and say that at first I was among this number too. I learned in time that to be a writer you have to put in the work, you have to hone your craft and once that is done an editor is needed to polish it up further, the very best of writers still need the work and guidance of a good editor, and then there is social media, which brings me up to date. In the past the publishing company did all the promotion work for the author, organised interviews, book signings, book tours and everything associated with the marketing aspect of getting a book ready for the public. Now even the big publishing houses expect the writer to do their share of the work, mainly to keep an active presence on social media. For an Indie author all of that is left to the author so to answer the question at the top of this article, the role of the author nowadays is that of first point of contact with their audience. Not only does the author write the work but they have to present it to the public as well. They have to be accessible to the public like no time before because the modern society expects their idols to be available at all times.
Now this can present a problem, not just for introverts like myself but to the majority of writers who have to work a day job to pay the bills. Keeping a social media presence is one of the most time consuming aspects of this business and in reality is probably a full time job in itself so anyone who can juggle this along with a full time job and find the time to write is going above and beyond.
So there you have it, this is what I consider to be the role of an author I just hope it doesn’t deter any aspiring writers from attempting this because for all the hard work and long hours it can be one of the most rewarding things to do. If you get paid as well well that just puts the icing on the cake.
The role of an author. I was asked recently what was the role of an author and at first the answer seemed obvious to me.
#blog#blogging#editing#experience#inspiration#self publishing#skills#tech savvy#website building#writing
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Back on track
For the past three weeks I’ve not had my laptop due to an ongoing repair job which I have to say was all my own fault. Note to self, never nod off with your laptop on your knee whilst holding a mug of tea, it has disaster written all over it.
Well that’s what happened and said laptop had to go into the shop for repairs. The damage was more extensive than I had suspected though, it needed a new…
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#blogging#charcters domain#city break#city love#editing#experience#extended family#family time#fond memories#holiday#inspiration#London#suspense#thrillers#writing
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On a recent trip to London I visited the Waterstones book store in Trafalgar Square where I picked up a copy of the new James Bond book, Forever and a day written by Anthony Horowitz. That sounds far grander than it was, we were on a city break on one of our allotted annual leave breaks so we chose our capitol city to do some sight seeing. What follows, isn’t a review of said book per se but more of a telling of what happened next.
The book was the second James Bond book written by Horowitz, the first being Trigger Mortis and both of them were set in the original timeline Fleming wrote his series in, late fifties, early sixties. Forever recounts the story of how Bond earned his Double O status and the subsequent mission after his promotion.
I have to say I really like Horowitz’s style of writing, I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy his first outing with Bond when I read that it would be set sometime after Casino Royale. I was looking forward to a more modern adventure with the super spy but once I started reading it the fact that there were no mobile phones, no modern computers or GPS tracking or any of the other standard stuff in espionage stories didn’t hamper being fully immersed in what the writer had to say. Remembering that fact I jumped right into Forever and was totally lost within reading the opening sentence.
The era the book is set has a much more relaxed pace to it which at times gives you the illusion that nothing much has happened and yet you have to continue reading. As I worked through the book it reminded me of early books by Fleming and what interested me as a young man in the thriller genre. I dare say books like these encouraged me to write at a later date, maybe not right away but when I did start to write my own books the experiences gained from reading these books helped formulate what I wrote at the beginning. Since returning from London I find that the influence has reached deeper. The style of writing back when Fleming was in his hey day and copied remarkably close by Horowitz with his two Bond adventures was a much more stylised way of painting pictures with words. The writer would set a scene with a flourish of prose that lit up the imagination of the reader. Modern thriller writers tend to stick to short sentences mainly for pacing I suspect and it was a style I adopted after a particularly scathing review of my first book which told of endless run on sentences. Clearly this reviewer had never read anything older than himself but at the time I thought that was what the modern reader wanted to I adapted. After reading Forever I now know I was correct the first time and will continue to paint pictures with words.
I am a writer forever and a day.
Forever and a day On a recent trip to London I visited the Waterstones book store in Trafalgar Square where I picked up a copy of the new James Bond book, Forever and a day written by Anthony Horowitz.
#blog#blogging#Capitol city#city breaks#editing#exciting reads#experience#fond memories#high stakes#indie author#inspiration#James Bond#London city#proof-reading#saving the world#self publishing#Sixties#skills#suspense#swinging sixties#thrillers#writing
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New covers, new upgrades
New covers, new upgrades
Jack Dillon is my pen name for a series of books that are similar to my Col Sec series but are set in present day. In fact there are two series of books, one is the SI6 series and the other is the ATLAS Force series. The latter has three books, The Satan Strain, Wire Tap and Pray for Death. The other series has two books, The Death List and Crosshairs.
The second books in each series have been…
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#ATLAS Force#ATLAS Force series#editing#exciting reads#experience#high stakes#indie author#Jack Dillon#new editions#new series#saving the world#self publishing#SI6#SI6 series#skills#suspense#thrillers#writing
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Reaching new heights as a writer
Reaching new heights as a writer
Practise makes perfect as they say and as many writers will attest, the more you write the better at it you get.
When I first started writing and taking it seriously it was something I never considered, not consciously at least. What I mean by that is that I never wrote something and thought, ‘well it doesn’t matter, the next one will be better’. I did realise though that I tried different…
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#ATLAS Force#editing#exciting reads#experience#proof-reading#saving the world#skills#suspense#thrillers#writing
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