Today I discovered that the timer on my effectively prehistoric Kodak has died. When this tragedy happened I do not know. It passed away peacefully in the back of a drawer, its fate only coming to light when, of course, it was needed in a hurry. Now, a normal person would simply wait for a passing buddy to take aim with a camera so the required shot could be taken. This would have been much easier. Instead, as I needed to get the image emailed off sharpish, I had to improvise with the camera on my PC. First there was too much light coming in from the window beside me. Then, with curtains closed, there wasn't enough light so I created something of a homage to Heath Robinson with an assortment of spotlights and tinfoil reflectors. I had been asked to pose holding my books. That's easier said than done when one hand is needed to operate a computer mouse. And smile - but not so you end up looking as ridiculous as you feel while posing like this. Well, here's the result. Pleas...

Sunrise Wave; A4-size, mixed media, 2017. My week's annual leave seemingly passed in the blink of an eye and I enjoyed my time off, and took the dogs on several extra long walks.  I managed to get some of the garden pruned back too - most of the roses and the St John's wort.  The bin's full now so I will have to wait until that has been emptied before finishing the job. I went to the Tate Gallery in Liverpool to see the "Constellations" exhibition, which thematically links select works by well-known artists of the past century to look at different contemporary approaches to similar subjects.  The diverse exhibition brings together works by Lowry, Rothko, Braque, Duchamp and Warhol, and many more, and is well worth viewing. I also saw their small Roy Lichtenstein exhibition plus a third exhibition, this one by two lesser-known artists, Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley. After a much-needed pit-stop at Cafe Nero, I visited the ever-fabulous Walker Art Ga...

In appreciation of my Yahoo! newsgroup, some of whom have been members for several years already, I'm offering Tamsin: An Artisan-Sorcerer Story at the bargain price of $2 USD. If you're feeling left out of this offer, which runs until May 18th, 2014, then the solution is easy.  Join the TOTALLY FREE newsgroup to take advantage of this and future offers, chat via email to other members, and be among the first to learn of my forthcoming publications, public events and other news. Join here:- https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/adelecosgrovebray/info Or join by sending an email to:- adelecosgrovebray-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Here's the new ebook cover for Tamsin.

One of our garden's visitors A friend challenged me to sum up the themes of my novels in just two or three words. After a few moments, I said that Tamsin is about making choices, Rowan is about taking responsibility, Bethany Rose is about overcoming adversity;and Fabian is about taking control. It was an interesting exercise as I'd not consciously thought about it before. Have a go yourself, either with something you've written or with a few favourites novels. If you're wondering what's happening on the writing front: (a) I've nearly finished correcting the proof copy of Bethany Rose ; (b) the Seaside Stories anthology is still receiving a few submissions; (c) I'm selecting and completing work for another short story collection; and (d) there was an article about cryonics in Marie Claire magazine's August issue which featured me and two friends. I hadn't known the relevant magazine issue had come out until Freddie told me. She and I have b...

Get ready for some great ebook bargains! All through July, the first novel in my Artisan-Sorcerer series, Tamsin will be at 50% its usual cost. Many other ebook titles will be at 25% their usual cost, while Spanish Jones and The Karens will be entirely FREE! All you have to do is visit Smashwords  then make your choice. A wide variety of ereader formats are available, and if you don't have an ereader you can download a free one from Adobe or Amazon, or download an HTML file which you can read on your usual computer. And when you've done that and read your heart out, how about writing a few reviews on Smashwords, or on your blog or forum - or will you take part in this forthcoming competition? Competition Time! Are you artistic? Create a web banner or some fanart based on the Artisan-Sorcerer series! Entry fee = NONE! Prizes = FREE EBOOK copy of the forthcoming 3rd novel in the Artisan-Sorcerer series,  BETHANY ROSE, for every contribu...

Having read through Mark Coker's free ebook, The Secrets of Ebook Publishing Success , it seems I'm already doing pretty much everything he suggests - with one main exception.  The front covers of Tamsin and Rowan didn't give quite enough information.  A browser needs to be able to know, at a glance, what the product is and if it's likely to be their kind of thing. So, after a bit of thinking, I've now re-worked the front covers slightly by adding a subtitle which reads simply, "An artisan-sorcerer story."  This lets a browser know they're looking at a series, that the series doesn't have a number and so can be read in any order, and also gives a minimalist description of what the book is about.  Having re-done the covers, I then uploaded new versions to Smashwords and Kindle.  Rowan is currently only available on Kindle, but the paperback version should be out within days.  After May 17th, Rowan will have completed its three month's e...

Snowdrops in my garden. I've been wearing my techie hat today, giving this site a much-needed re-design.  Instead of having all my books for sale in one heap, on one page, I've split them up.  Now all the short stories are together, the two poetry ebooks are together, and Tamsin and Rowan  have dedicated pages.  It's easier for people to find what they're looking for, and I can add character sketches and other relevant bits 'n' bobs. I am also considering shipping the bibliography to HubPages.  There, it can rest in peace while satisfying the zealous administrator aspect of my make-up.  Here, it's a bit pointless maybe?  People might be confused between which material is currently available and which is not.  It always surprises me how long these 'little jobs' can take.  Let me know what you think, anyway.  And if you've any bright ideas for making the site better, please feel free to share them.    ...

The paperback edition of Tamsin is now available from Amazon.com  and the Amazon UK outlet should be available in a few days. Last night's Riverside Writers meeting was interesting.  One of our members, Elizabeth Gates,  has a BA. Honours in English Language and Literature and an MA in Linguistics.  Since 1985, she has been a practising journalist. She is also an experienced ghostwriter. In 2005, Elizabeth trained as a personal and executive coach with the prestigious coach training school, Coaching Development. Since then she has developed the Lonely Furrow Company, which specialises in writing coaching and communication coaching using transactional analysis, neuro-linguistic programming and accelerated learning techniques. Elizabeth ran a workshop on how to overcome writers block.  She had put a considerable amount of forethought into the workshop, and included a few simple writing exercises, the first of which asked us ...

The paperback cover for "Tamsin" The paperback version of Tamsin (ISBN 9781468092684) is now available from here.   It will be become available on Amazon in around a week's time.  The ebook is already available, of course, and the ebook costs less. It will be interesting to discover which sells the most - the paperback or the ebook.  At this point I suspect it'll be the ebook but time will tell.  Not everyone owns an ereader, obviously.  I don't; I've got Adobe's free ereader on my PC, but I would like a Kindle simply because it saves buying half a rainforest's worth of paper each year.  Plus ereaders are so portable.  You can carry a library with you wherever you go.  When an ereader can double as a laptop (so I can write in Word then store the file for use on a PC-compatible CD), then I'll definitely get one.  Or maybe someone's already invented a gadget like this?  If so, let me know.  I won't even attempt to pre...

Yesterday I dropped the prices of all of my ebooks, and overnight I've seen an increase in sales.  One of the highly useful aspects of self-publishing with today's technology is that any author is free to make changes like this at the drop of a hat.  We can experiment to discover for ourselves what works and what doesn't, and adapt accordingly with a few clicks of a computer mouse.  The power is in our hands, rather than with a committee who "know best". Logic dictates that it's better to sell, say, 1,000 ebooks at $1 each than a few books at $6.99.  Logic also dictates that it's better to sell books than to leave them gathering dust on a shelf - hence my foray into self-publishing.  I've been traditionally published in the past, in fiction anthologies and as a non-fiction freelancer.   But could I sell my novels to an agent or publisher?  I was told they're not commercial, or too "occult", or too strange.  Let's let readers d...

Here is the proposed paperback cover for Tamsin , which is due out in January 2012.  The blank white square is where the barcode will go.  As of this afternoon, the ebook edition is available via Smashwords, and the Kindle edition will be online within a few hours of my typing this.  Further distribution will follow.  Scroll down to a recent post to see the ebook cover, which has the same rose on the black velvet background, with the title above that.  Different format, different cover specifications - as ebooks don't have a back cover or a spine, obviously - hence the minor adaptations. When self-publishing, a person has a choice of paying someone to design covers for them or creating covers for themselves.  If you're weak on design skills the first option is probably the best.  Don't underestimate the importance of how a book cover looks.  Think of your own behaviour when browsing in a bookstore, whether it's online or a brick-...

  

  Coming soon.... Tamsin Set in Liverpool, Tamsin tells the story of a young woman's experiences with two very different secret societies. Kai's philosophy is spiritual but bizarre. Fabian is gorgeous but his company brings Tamsin into danger. How can she choose between them? This is a vampire story like you've never encountered before. No teenaged angst, no gentlemen weeping at the beauty of the night... This is real-world grit.   

Ed Alleyne-Johnson plays his electric violin. Thursday saw me in Chester, having a day's break from proofreading Tamsin.  After a pleasant lunch of chicken escalopes with prosciutto di Parma and mozzarella, I wandered onto Eastgate Street and immediately recognised the distinctive sounds of Ed Alleyne-Johnson's electric violin.  He was busking by one of the short flights of stone steps leading onto the mews, which are something of a tourist magnet because of their 'olde worlde' charm. So, after enjoying the music for a while, I wandered round the shops.  Why are Xmas decorations up already?  It's November still!  I really dislike the gradual spreading-out of this festival, with all its attendant kitsch.  If it was contained to the main fortnight it would be far less tedious. Each year at Riverside Writers, when we're setting our monthly writing project, someone will try to push for December's story or poem to be on a Xmas theme.  By far...

Sales of hardbacks, which is apparently the most lucrative category of books, are down by 23%, though some authors are doing better than ever due to increased sales in ebooks and clever use of interactive websites. Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2011/08/17/the-worlds-highest-paid-authors/ What does all this mean for the unsigned author?   How will the downturn in sales effect the number of new publishing contracts?   I've been thinking about what it actually means to be published.  It's fair to say that every writer dreams of having their work read by thousands if not millions of people.  I'm no different.  As much as I enjoy the creative process of writing and editing subsequent drafts, I also want my work to be read - and hopefully enjoyed.   And some of my short stories, one extract from Tamsin, some poetry and non-fiction have been published over the years.  But I want more; of course I do...

Two very different sketches, of two very different personalities...

Top: Fabian; Second & Third: Rowan - pencil and coloured pencil sketches on lined paper. Some of my fictional characters had their origins in old RPG forums and/or blogs.  Fabian, Tamsin and Bethany Rose certainly did, though all have evolved considerably since then.  I've always found the creative process interesting for its own sake.  As well as using character charts, I occasionally sketch the fictional people I write about.  This week, I've been looking for a way of compiling these in a way that appeals to me.  Sketchbooks, being largely experimental or given over to quickly-done work, oftentimes end up containing a few tolerable sketches hidden away amidst a pile of glorified doodles.  Well, mine do anyway!  I'd like to put together some kind of album-cum-scrapbook which combines the best sketches and maybe even some finished art, photography and various mixed media to depict each character's... well, ch...

Work on Bethany Rose has kept me busy, as I’m on the last three or four thousand words now. The total word count will run over my intended 100,000 words but as I’ve already decided to delete one minor character completely that’s not an issue. This is only the first draft, of course; there’s a lot of work to be done yet, editing and polishing. Some people balk at this aspect of writing but I thoroughly enjoy it. I’ve enjoyed writing Bethany’s story. Her character’s an interesting mixture of contradictions; sensitive but strong, creative but practical, and incredibly brave in the face of awful circumstances. She’s a very different person from Tamsin, that’s for sure. But I won’t say too much about her publicly for now. I’ve also been enjoying our two chickens. In the spring, Mum began talking about having two pet chickens. She gave it some thought, and by early summer they were in residence in her small garden. Richard laughed and told her we’d have them by Xmas. Well he was right, a...