Tuesday 14 August 2012

An honourable mention: Michael K. Rose

SpecFicPick is a speculative fiction webzine hosted by Michael K. Rose which recently ran an interview with me and a feature on 'Threshold Shift'.

I had been e-mailing book bloggers ever since I released 'Threshold Shift' and 'Five Byte Stories' into the real world in an attempt to drum up some interest and sales. I wasn't having any success until Michael sat up and listened. Since the release of those two items on his site I have actually enjoyed sales in the United States to people I definitely didn't already know. A sign that Michael's publicity machine does work. He has also very kindly given me a lot of sound advice regarding the use of facebook and twitter as a means for further publicity and introduced me to an Indie Author's network I never knew existed.

As far as I can see Michael gains nothing from this himself and has helped me purely because he wants to. A successful Indie Author in his own right, he doesn't need to offer a helping hand to beginners like myself but does it anyway

A little bit of publicity for Michael in return:

His Amazon.com page and Amazon.uk page

I've read his short story collection, and stories like 'Sleep' and 'Main & Church' really stand out as examples of a writer with ability, confidence and range.

Check out his personal blog

Thanks Michael.

Meanwhile for me, it's back to the keyboard for some fiction writing...

  




Friday 10 August 2012

'Cassidy Jones and the Secret Formula' book review


*****/***** Effortless
Amazon Verified Purchase
I was lucky enough to get this during a free giveaway but will definitely be shelling out on the sequel. Despite it being a children's book I found this incredibly easy to read, and when considering the word count to other books, it is a more than respectable length which I chewed through in 2 days, which for me is an event in itself. (I am not a fast reader)

Cassidy's struggle with her newfound abilities and emotions do a lot to ground this book in reality. There are real consequences to her actions, and all the relationships, with their complicated 'doomed' teenage nature have the ring of truth. I enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed the action sequences, which managed to sing in my imagination without being over described. The villain was a little comic book, but I like to think of that as a nice splash of colour which made everything else fit. Looking forward to reading the sequel.