Mad dog & English hen stay out of the mid-day sun. Standing around like a headless chicken. Summer has arrived.  How long it lasts, this being Britain, is another matter but for now the sun is blazing and the sky is pretending to be Mediterranean.  A mere two weeks ago I was glad of my winter coat as hail stones and biting winds howled down the mouth of the River Dee.  Today all the house windows and the French doors are thrown open and, as can be seen from the two photos above, the menagerie has been hiding from the heat of the day.  And these are just the pets I could find.  The other hens had vanished beneath shady shrubs, and our cat Jasper is nowhere to be seen.  Fear not, she'll return at 5.55pm sharp in time for food at 6pm.  She always does. Jasper is once again without a collar.  We no sooner buy her a new one and she contrives to lose it.  I told Richard that we might as well just tie a £5 ...

Joe Konrath's written a great blog post here , which explains the veiled ramifications of publishing contracts.  If you are still in the long-winded and frustrating process of hunting down an agent and publisher, I recommend that you take the time to read this post as it could change the way you think about the publishing industry and, if you're still dithering over the prospect of self-publishing, help you climb off that fence. Self-publishing used to be classed as the last bastion of the desperate.  Writers who self-published were giggled at, the usual assumption being that if you had to DIY it was because no 'proper' publisher thought the work worthy of investment.  And so the wannabe writer tended to pay for course after course, searching for the magic pill which would cure whichever literary malady prevented the blossoming of their ambitions.  If only their work was good enough, polished enough, individual enough while still nestling neatly...

Neil Gaiman addresses an audience of university graduates in this interesting video, in which he talks about creating good art, writing, self-belief and the changing face of distribution.  Watch it here:  http://player.vimeo.com/video/42372767?color=ffffff   

My neice Catherine sent me this (slightly squiffy!) press cutting, from the Leigh Journal , in which I'm talking about Rowan .  If you click on the image you will be able to read it. The emphasis on vampires is a bit misleading.  Rowan really isn't a novel about vampires, although Aiden claims to have certain vampiric abilities (which Fabian seems to dismiss).  Rowan is more concerned with a young man taking control of his life and finding his place in the world.  I don't want to say too much, and therefore spoil the story for you.  But I can truly say that since publishing Rowan on Smashwords yesterday, copies have been selling at a much improved pace.   

As of this morning, Rowan is now entering wider ebook distribution.  For the last three months it has been exclusive to Kindle KDP Select, but having completed its time there I chose not to renew it.  So now you can download it from Smashwords in a selection of ereader formats, and once it's worked its way into their Premium Catalogue (which usually takes around two weeks) it will be distributed to the various outlets listed in the side-bar here. If you prefer a paperback copy, you can get that from Amazon.com also.   

A bird in the bush... It feels weird going for a walk with only one dog in tow.  Even Emily keeps looking behind her and waiting, as if half-expecting Ygraine to emerge from behind a clump of long grass.  Emily's missing her life-long buddy too.  And the heap of old jumpers between the wall and my computer desk feels very empty.  Ygraine always snoozed there while I worked.  I have begun compiling short stories for the forthcoming sequel to Dark Tides , which I've called Dark Waters .  However, since planning these two short story collections I have re-released the two Amazon Shorts ebooks, A Wirral Otherkin Trilogy and Quiet Lives , thinking that as they were already in publishable condition it would be silly to leave them gathering dust on a shelf.  A bird in the hand..., etc.  Compiling Dark Waters, I realised that too many of the stories which I'd earmarked for that project already feature in those....

All her life, Dawn has been told she isn't beautiful. Armajeet is bored by compromise. The generation gap dances through an ordinary family. And the witch who welcomes a door-to-door salesman grants an unexpected gift. Appearances can be deceptive…and nothing is as it seems in these four short stories:- Beautiful ; Dear Harry ; The Four Seasons ; and Mirror . Quiet Lives The new ebook from Adele Cosgrove-Bray. ISBN: 9781476010632 (for all outlets apart from Kindle) ASIN: B0081P81QG (for Kindle)