Reasons why I have this blog

Why did I start this blog? Partly to promote the books. Partly because I am really interested in learning processes, and I wanted to document the journey from not having a clue to how self-publishing worked to… well, having more of an idea exactly what I didn’t have a clue about. But also, partly in […]

A question and a statement

Firstly: dear WordPress, why make it so hard to find a login page when I accidentally log myself out? Leaving a comment on my own blog doesn’t work, and just leads to the Orwellian situation where the comment gets screened until I verify that I’m not a spammer and unscreen it. Secondly: dear people who […]

ISBN

I have bought an ISBN for The Maker’s Mask! This is all getting scarily real. I think I may have to go and drink some Baileys.

Proof copy, and triumphant return of husband

Firstly, my husband is back from riding from coast to coast to raise money for the British Heart Foundation! Secondly, arriving on the same day as him was my proof copy of The Maker’s Mask. I was gladder to see him. Really. 🙂 On the whole, I’m pretty pleased with it. The good news is […]

Look at us, we’re cover plus

I’ve bitten the bullet, bought image rights from istockphoto.com, and been playing around with cover images. This one is for The Maker’s Mask, from a photograph by Peter Zelei and a piece of concept art from loops7: And this one is for The Hawkwood War, from a painting by Yaroslav Gerzhedovich and the same art […]

Font saga continued and thoughts about tropes

Well, both books are now in Bookman Old Style (I typed that ‘Boomkan Old Style’ the first time round, which sounds like an explosive device out of an Evil Dead movie) and I think I’ve dealt with all the mysterious extra pages, and the pages at the end of a chapter with only two words […]

Palatino Linotype is not Palatino…

… as I discovered yesterday when trying to upload a document in a font I thought Lulu recognised. My fault for not reading the font guidelines closely enough. So, I’ve been mourning Palatino Linotype and seeing how the book looks in various other font types. And yes, I realise that this is a first-world problem. […]

Read an excerpt from The Hawkwood War!

New excerpt up here! Warning: The Maker’s Mask and The Hawkwood War started life as one book and still make more sense if read together – there is a resolution at the end of The Maker’s Mask, but there are several plotlines that carry over – so if you know you’re planning on getting at […]

And in non-book news

My husband is planning to ride from coast to coast [1] on a unicycle to raise money for the British Heart Foundation in a couple of weeks’ time. He’s already ridden from Bristol to Cardiff. The British Heart Foundation do really important work, so if you have some spare money to throw his way, his […]

What I’ve been doing this week, and another excerpt

So far this week has been taken up with getting to grips with Word 2010’s formatting tools and with the newest version of The GIMP, in order to make title page images for Maker’s Mask and Hawkwood War. I’ve also found a bit of time to work on Heavy Ice, and here’s an excerpt. Herakleion […]