New Year, Fresh Start

It’s 2023, the brand new year, a brand new beginning in trying to get my book sold. It’s been 6 months since ‘Immortal and the Hex’ was released on Amazon, and I finally decided to put the book on Goodreads. There it can reach a wider market, and more people will purchase all three books.

While I allow people to slowly come to terms with my series, I will be editing book number 4. It will be a long process. I have over 900 pages to edit and see if I can make it slightly shorter. I hope that in 6 months, I will have the book almost fully edited so I can work on the cover.

My writing style is unique, creative and complicated. I hope when people read the books, they will see the story and enjoy what is being told and take the journey through the written word. I know people won’t like it, or I know that it may look messy to some. I may need to work on it later in life, but the story is being told. Books 1-3 are available, and I hope people will read ‘Age of the Immortal’ without being deterred by the parts they don’t like and read beyond to get to the end.

Happy New Year

Goodbye 2022, the year is over. A brand new will start with new hopes and dreams, new goals and new challenges. I will begin editing the fourth book and work out a cover for it. I will work out prices for the paperback for book 2 and 3. I look forward to new readers, new followers and a bigger audience. Share to your friends, family, co-workers and tell them about Age of the Immortal and the Immortal Legacy series.

New Year’s Eve Fireworks.

New Year's Resolution

As 2022 comes to a close, a new year is not far away, the past few years have been crazy and anything is possible for 2023. This year I have done many things, I thought would be impossible, I graduated in person for the second time; I contacted people overseas to design covers for my book, I spent 3 days editing a book because the original file was lost. I ordered 100 copies of my first book to sell. I had a book launch with a very realistic looking cake. I attended events that have been online due to the pandemic.

I also learned a lot, how to use Instagram, created this very website. I learned that there are good people and then there are scammers when it comes to online activities.

My plans for 2023 are simple, each day I will edit up to 5 pages for Book #4. And each week, I will work on writing pages for the fifth book. When the fourth book is edited, I will get to work on designing the cover. I plan to put ‘Class of the Immortal’ on iTunes in January and organise a paperback version from Amazon for ‘Immortal and the Hex’ sometime before April.

I plan on looking for markets or other ways to sell my physical copies of the first book. I hope that those who have read it will let others know and spread the word so in 2023, the sales will begin to increase.

Instagram Reel

December's Longest Day

Today the sun rose at 5:41, and being the longest day of the year for us, the sunset is at 8:08; this means that the sun will be up for 14 hours and 27 minutes. Being the longest day means two things, the days are getting shorter, and the year is almost to an end.

This year has been a big one, in April, I found cover designers for my book, and in May, I got them printed and published online for the first book. In July, I had my book launch. I then submitted book two and designed a cover for my third book. In November, I released my third book. During that time, I had interviews with the radio, a university student.

My hope for 2023 is to have the fourth book edited and a cover designed for a Winter release. I also hope to be working in schools as well as going around NSW for my first book. It is a big dream, but little by little, with every sale it is possible. With still 50+ books at home, I hope they will be all out of my house by April.

Christmas Miracles

Being Christmas, there are parties happening everywhere with different groups of people. I am happy to tell people that I am an author or I write books and if they didn’t know already, it really gets the conversation going. But when someone buys the book after hearing about it, really brings hope that others will be interested in it too.

Only 3 days left of the Christmas specials, Class of the Immortal will return to full price on the 22nd. I used advertising to try to get sales, I have put up posts and stories. I am hoping for miracles.

On the first day of the special someone bought the second and third book. Now let’s hope more will buy it before Christmas. I am happy for it to take a while to get popular but I am hoping that people do know about it. The more people that find out about my series can buy it in their own time and tell others.

Christmas Promotion

To begin, this isn’t exactly what I wanted. I had hoped I could do something different for my Christmas Special Promotion, but I didn’t read the rules for Amazon correctly when I first planned this, and it is what it is. From the 14th of December/ 13th (for the UK and the US) for the next 7 days, my third book, ‘Class of the Immortal,’ will be on special with up to 80% off. That’s right; you can get the third book for less than $1 USD.

I have decided to do a Facebook ad, and try to get people interested in buying it from Amazon. It may cost me, but I am trying before Christmas to get as many sales as possible.

This special will end on the 21st of December (local time) which will be the day before the solstice. Be quick, grab all three books from Amazon before the price returns. Next week, Immortal and the Hex will have a paperback available but until then, it is only Ebooks except for the first.

Birthdays and Celebrations

December is a busy month, birthdays - Mine was in the second week - Christmas, New Year’s Eve. I gave my main character, Mitchell, a birthday in December too. When you celebrate a birthday, you are celebrating the fact you have survived another year. You went through trials, tests, courses and challenges. Each day is a new day, and they add up to a year on Earth. For my protagonist, that gets longer and longer with each passing decade.

Next week, when Christmas is less than 2 weeks away, there will be a special treat for those who haven’t bought the books yet on Amazon. In less than a week, there will be an early Christmas treat for the third book. Keep an eye out and take advantage of the gift this season.

Tease of what’s coming

For those interested in a signed physical copy who live in NSW, ACT or Queensland, get in contact, and I can send you the book. There are still 50-60 books left.

Where in the World?

December has arrived, Christmas is weeks away, and holidays, presents, family, friends, feasts. I would love to travel the world and see Christmas in different places, but all the traveling I do is in my imagination when I read books, when I research for my novels, I create images of the countries I mention. The first book may be in the past, but it takes you around the world. That’s where I hope my book will take me or at least where my book will be found.

This week leading to my special treat for Amazon Buyers, I will be sharing a picture with a place around the world on social media. I already posted the reel with them all. Share what ones you like, comment the location or a landmark found nearby. Tag a friend that has been to that country. Comment below what countries you want to have appear in the window. The more material I make the more I can advertise.

Inspiration comes from Anywhere

Last week, I had my interview aired on Hope 103.2, it was about writing on the train. Part of the interview is below.

The thing about writing, is where does the inspiration come from, where does concepts, plots, characters start. My imagination is big enough and crazy enough to come up with out of this world ideas, but inspiration for other things comes from what I watch, read and hear. On Friday last week, I went to see 1000s of students perform dance and song routines for the School Spectacular, it was a live performance I haven’t seen since 2019. The choreography was wonderful, the song choices were perfect and the costumes were creative and clever. Where I was sitting, I got to see the singers and the dancers. Closer than I got to see them when I was there in 2019. The thing I did notice was that from side on, you have to look around or move your body to see the big screens they had. This was also filmed to be broadcast later.

Australian’s Got Talent was on this year, they had dancers, singers, musicians, acrobats etc on stage in front of the judges and audience. The thing about BIG groups or dance numbers when they are aired on TV is that the camera cuts to the judges, audience and the dance is continuing. With big dance groups, the cameras focus on areas on the stage that have something happening that the producers call ‘important’

Let’s just say that after the experience I had in Homebush watching a live show, every detail is important. Let’s just say I am inspired by what I saw to make note and write something that will appear in my future novel.

Voice on the Airwaves

Last week, I had an interview with one of the hosts on the radio station I listen to. He hosts the 9-12 segment. This was my first over the phone interview that was related to my new career; been an author - my writing. It all started at the beginning of the month, when I made a comment on their Facebook page. He sent me a message via Facebook wanting me to expand on what I written and he was very interested. He then asked if I wanted to be interviewed on the subject and I said sure. We arranged for a time for him to call me to get more acquainted. He was very interested in the fact that I spent time on the train writing my novel. He wanted that to be the focus of the interview and arranged the second phone call.

Thursday afternoon, he called up and after the formalities, we began the interview, been my first time ‘interviewed’ I didn’t want to steer the conversation away from the main theme. So I answered honestly and was vague about my career. Overall it was a great interview. After the five-ten minutes, he thanked me and promised it will be on air the following week.

Tuesday 22nd November: I wake up and after awhile, get a message “Thanks again for having a chat with me. I can put your interview to air today around 9:45. Listen out! I can also send you a copy of the interview” I was originally told it was going to be Wednesday but any day is okay.
Now this radio station has thousands of listeners, not just in NSW but in other states and overseas. Long time ago, (about 7 months or so - back in April), a host of the very same radio station was leaving and read my farewell message on air as her very last message. And how she started it was by saying “Remember this name, he’ll be a famous author one day” I didn’t know how I could live up to her words, but I am going to try. This was a small step. I don’t know how many people will remember that back in April, but at 9:45, my interview was broadcasted across the Sydney and when the interview was over, he mentioned my series and told people to look it up.