Tag: Covid

MJ’s Review of 100 Ways to Write A Book @AlexBPearl #writing #reference #book #review

Synopsis

These author interviews initiated by Alex Pearl during the Covid epidemic started as a small lockdown project. But before long, Alex’s requests for author interviews on social media elicited an overwhelming response, and the project soon took on on a life of its own.

Within these pages, authors from a wide spectrum of backgrounds wax lyrical about their backgrounds, motivations, and working methods. Among this throng, self-published newbies rub shoulders with award-winning bestsellers from all corners of the globe, including the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Israel and Sri Lanka.

They provide a fascinating insight into this mysterious process of creating imagined worlds on the page.

Huge thanks go to the 100 authors who very kindly gave their time to participate in this project, as well as their consent for their words to be reproduced here in print. They are in no particular order:

Paul Waters, Jessica Norrie, David F. Ross, Drema Drudge, Chris Chalmers, Mark Farrer, Sue Clark, Hannah Tovey, Belinda Hunt, Glynn Holloway, Mark Eklid, Julian Dutton, Christopher Bowden, Alan Gibbons, Lily Mackenzie, Ian Critchley, Jadi Campbell, Tom Atkins, Jane Risdon, Charles Harris, L.C. Tyler, Fran Hill, Malcolm Knott, Nikki Dudley, Jacqui Castle, Ron Impey, C.J. Booth, Ashok Ferrey, Jennifer Irwin, Beth Duke, Vicki Olsen, Pete Langman, Pauline Morgan, Jonathan Peace, Sandy Manning, Shelley Wilson, P.J. Roscoe,
Anthony Neil Smith, A.A. Chaudhuri, Jon Richter, Carolyn Hughes, Trish Moran, Madeline Dewhurst, Jeff Pollak, Louise Fein, A.B. Kyazze, Jack Byrne, M.A. Hunter, Tessa Harris, M.J. Mallon, P. R. Black, Nina Soden, Bill Arnott, E. Chris Ambrose, Paul Kane, Sam Blake, Douglas Skelton, Louise Mumford, Philip Henry, Hazel Prior, Lauren Emily Whalen, Laura E. Goodin, Simon Van der Velde, Dr. Manuel Matas, Jane Bettany, Regina Puckett, S.G M. Ashcroft, Michele Kwasniewski, Judy Stanigar, Robert Craven, John Darling, Pramudith D. Rupasinghe, Richard Dee, Sophy Layzell, Lorna Dounaeva, Diana Stevan, Bradley Harper, Paul Gitsham, Sion Scott-Wilson, John Dean, Liz Martinson, C.J. Carver, Tony J. Forder, Sharron L. Miller, Patrick Osborne, Peter Turnham, Jude Lennon, Anna Holmes, Chris Calder, Jane Buckley, Rachel Brimble, Gail Aldwin, Anne Coates, Ian Riddle, Christina Hamlett, James Morgan-Jones, Alison Huntingford, Gila Green, Helen Pryke, Emilya Naymark, Marcia Clayton, James L’Etoile

ALL AUTHOR PROCEEDS WILL BE DONATED TO PEN INTERNATIONAL 

100 Ways to Write a Book by Alex Pearl

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I was thrilled to be a contributing author to this project by Alex Pearl. So, much so, that I have my own paperback copy of this on my bookshelf at home. It’s a great read and a way to discover new authors in a variety of genres and how they all tick. What struck me the most about this is how interesting and varied all the contributors are. We may all have different ways of approaching writing but we all love to write and this shines through!

Highly recommended read and for a good cause – Pen International.



View all my reviews

Do get a copy!

About Alex Pearl

Alex’s first novel ‘Sleeping with the Blackbirds’, a darkly humorous urban fantasy, written for children and young adults, was initially published by PenPress in 2011. It has since become a Kindle bestseller in the US. In 2014, his fictionalised account of the first British serviceman to be executed for cowardice during the First World War was published by Mardibooks in its anthology, ‘The Clock Struck War’. A selection of his blog posts is also available in paperback under the title ‘Random Ramblings of a Short-sighted Blogger.’ In 2019, his psychological thriller, ‘The Chair Man’ that is set in London in 2005 following the terrorist attack on its public transport system, was published as an ebook by Fizgig Press. The paperback followed in 2020.

Alex lives in NW London with his wife and two children who are far smarter than their old man.

He is quite possibly the only human being on this planet to have been inadvertently locked in a record shop on Christmas Eve.

You can visit his website at https://booksbyalexpearl.weebly.com/

https://linktr.ee/mjmallonauthor

The Mad Life of A Writer – Bloodstone (The Curse of Time Book 1) #newrelease republishing #YA #fantasy #holiday #woes #covid #stresses

An author’s life can get somewhat manic at times. Recently, I travelled up to Edinburgh to see my family. I was so looking forward to a break, a chance to unwind, spend time with mum, dad, my brother, friends and my MIL.

Here I am with mum and dad in the beautiful botanical gardens in Edinburgh.

Whilst on holiday the inevitable happened, I had this feeling it would. My publisher Next Chapter asked me to check all the files for publishing! And to do this within five days.

This wouldn’t have been too bad if there was one file but there were 9 in total including clear print, (which I have no clue what this is for?) epub, mobi, large print, hardback, and a range of different sizes too.

All very impressive, beautifully formatted and edited but a little voice cried out but… I’m meant to be on holiday… this will take me forever!

Forget it sucker. Writers don’t ever get holidays.

Next up, what next? My eldest daughter Natasha has been ill for a couple of days and it turns out she and her friends have covid. What? So, crank up my worry notch ten thousand paces. I couldn’t see her for 10 days – most of my holiday. She was alone in her flat in Glasgow and was running out of food. Crank up the worry notch even more. Luckily, the kind guys on reception took her online order up to her flat and left it for her by her door.

Apparently the first four days of her covid experience involved nasty coughing, temperature, vomiting and other nasties. Thank goodness she is well now.

After the fellows at Track and Trace gave her the all clear I popped over to Glasgow to see her and stayed in her student flat. That was an eye opener – I didn’t sleep for two nights. There was a fantastic reggae party going on somewhere – I wish I’d been invited – I loved reggae as a youngster! And the sea gulls were joining in too, squawking merrily. The upstairs flat were doing some kind of odd manoeuvres in the middle of the night. Natasha slept through it all – obviously used to it – exhausted post covid with ear plugs in.

Nevertheless, Natasha and I still managed to have a couple of days fun in Glasgow.

We went to Hanoi Bike Shop, a tasty Vietnamese restaurant where we tried the surprise menu with extra spice! We didn’t know what was coming but it was great and fun to try new things.

We went for a walk afterwards…

Natasha’s moving to Edinburgh (she’s starting her teaching job in August – whoop, whoop so proud to have a Secondary English teacher in the family, and delighted that my youngest daughter Georgina has been awarded her degree a 2.1 in Fashion with Business Management.)

I offered to help take some of Natasha’s endless coats and books through. My suitcase handle decided not to work all the way from her flat to the station. We missed the train by a few minutes, (no way was she able to run as she was still a bit weak after covid,) so we waited for the next one. As soon as we sat down the suitcase handle decided to pop up! I asked some advice from the train staff about the validity of my ticket and he called me pal – this is Glaswegian style for mate, like hen (which is a common colloquialism in parts of Scotland,) this brought back memories of my student days in Glasgow!

Now, here’s the thing, we are told to keep apart, mask up, etc, etc. But the train was packed! There were two young girls on board who thought showing off their perfectly applied make up counted as more imperative than wearing a mask. And there was a guy too – unmasked, but no make up – I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt perhaps he had an exemption?

So, long story short I’m back home now. Back at work. What else can happen? Oh, a small matter of losing 22 reviews on Amazon…

Republishing my debut has had its problems. Sneaky metadata and a title change has caused Amazon to treat this new edition like an all new spanking new book but without the benefit of a new book’s promotion.

And this message from BookBub: The new edition of Bloodstone (The Curse Of Time Book 1) has now been added to your profile. I want to share that previously published works are not eligible for New Releases for Less or New Release Alerts. I’m sorry about this.

Laughing hysterically! Not to worry, I’ve got this.

I like a challenge.

So, please… I’d love some help with reviews…. and you can call me whatever you want…. hen, chick, pal, whatever.

Bloodstone is available for free on kindle unlimited… and on Amazon outlets. Here’s the link:

MyBook link: http://mybook.to/bstmm
Amazon Preview Link: https://amzn.eu/iwyO8p3

UK link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bloodstone-Curse-Time-Book-1-ebook/dp/B097QZBKNY/

US Link:

Thank you to all those who are helping out with the review shenanigans. The reviews are starting to come in… And to future reviewers thank you too. Where would we be without you?

Any reviewers who would like a copy please get in touch at marjma2014@gmail.com

The impromptu blog tour will be starting in a few days time. More about that soon. If you would like to join in with hosting me on the tour let me know in the comments.

Thank you so much for these recent promotions and author interviews:

In conversation with Alex Pearl: https://booksbyalexpearl.weebly.com/m-j-mallon.html

Julie at a Little Book Problem https://alittlebookproblem.co.uk/2021/06/30/desert-island-books-with-marjorie-mallon/

It’s just as well I have a sense of humour… and am determined to make this work.