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 into a marketable nook

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.  So this project will have to slow down a bit until I'v

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)   

You can read this interview with me by Scarlett Rugers here .   

Munch's famous The Scream has just sold for the extraordinary sum of 120 Million Dollars .  Personal taste is, of course, totally subjective - but if I had 120 Million dollars I certainly wouldn't spend it on that ghastly painting! So, what would you spend it on?  A better house (or at that price, several better houses with plenty of spare $$$ left over)?  A collection of vintage cars?  Open your own holiday resort on an island, as a business investment?  Donate a sizable sum to life-extention research?  Over to you...   

Ygraine My Little Princess Pedigree name: Santosha White Earl 11th April 2000 - 2nd May 2012 

Three stories of selkies and faeries. Encounter the notorious fae of Caldy Hill. Meet the secretive selkies who swim beyond Hilbre Island then walk on land in human form. Discover the magic of Wirral's ancient history in these enchanting dark fantasy tales. Includes: Frog , New Year's Day and Swap .  Price = $1.99            ISBN: 9781476028736 (for all outlets except Kindle) ASIN: B007YFRI9U (for Kindle) A Wirral Otherkin Trilogy was previously published by Amazon Shorts in 2007.  I've decided to re-release it, and as of this morning you can now download it directly from Smashwords.  Kindle's edition is in progress - give that a few hours  and it will be in their system.  It will take a few weeks for it to filter through to the other outlets, (but Smashwords offers a variety of ebook formats anyway).   

You can read this interview with me, done by Steve Andrews here .  Enjoy!   

Emily keeping her visitor company. It was furry and had a face.  That's all Emily knew.  Furry things with faces are toys, aren't they? So there I was, making cups of tea while my neice told me how she hoped she'd done in her end-of-second-year university exams, when I happened to glance out of the window to see Emily wrestling with a grey furry thing.  "Er, Catherine, isn't that your bag?" Of course it was. So we sprinted out of the house and into the garden.  Sitting proudly on the lawn was Emily, merrily wagging her stumpy tail as she chewed a hole in the corner of Cat's Japanese monster bag.  We ran one way, Emily ran the other, round and round the thorniest tree in the garden (as Cat's forehead can attest), saying stuff like, "Emily put it down!", "Emily, drop it!", "Emily, no!"  True to the nature of a Jack Russell having a fine old game, she ignored this completely and continued running rings round the pair o

I was interviewed by Matt Posner for School of the Ages .  Enjoy! One slight mistake - I didn't work in a pottery shop, but in a pottery making pots...but that's no big deal!   

You can read my interview with Laurie's Paranormal Thoughts and Reviews .  Enjoy!   

Jennifer Rainey interviewed me for Independent Paranormal.   I hope you enjoy reading the results.   

Here's a bit of interesting news for history buffs.  Apparently, rare and ancient texts owned by the Vatican and the Bodleian Library are going to be put into digital form and made available for public study.  This amounts to something like 1.5 million pages of previously largely unseen documents, which include works on the kabbalah, the Talmud, Hebrew manuscripts and the Gutenburg Bible. I wonder who decides which texts to share and which to keep private, and why?  Conspiracy theorists could have a field day, pondering over alleged plots to retain the world's Really Big Secrets for a small elite. Personally, I've found the best place to hide something is in plain sight.  Thinking back to my time as a library assistant in the Religion and Philosophy Library, at Liverpool's Central Library, I can easily remember the thousands upon thousands of books stored away in the stacks.  Wouldn't it be great if each and every one of those - and all those like them, stashe

According to an article in USA Today , 21% of the nearly 3,000 people asked had read an ebook since December last year. This indicates a big change in the way people are buying and reading books, a change which looks set to continue snowballing.  And of course that's more good news for writers - not just American writers, either, because in case this fact has slipped you by somehow, people from all around the world can now buy ebooks from writers who live all around the world.  I still say paper books won't vanish altogether, but will become the preserve of big art and photography books - right up until the day when an ereader can also act as a projector, so its user(s) can see a big version of whatever's on the screen.  When you look at a painting, you want to be able to see it in sharp detail rather than squint at a fuzzy, pixilated miniature version. The demise of the familiar pulp paperback format is, however, inevitable.  I won't mourn its passing.  Last time

Don't look, it's a dream! What's this white stuff? How to get dry - puppy style! Emily with her late Uncle Mutley Ygraine, circa 2007. Tidying up old files on my computer, I came across these old photos of some of my pets.  Enjoy!   

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 exc