Guest Post Ian Jones

Alright, last stop on the North of the Rock blog tour. Here’s Ian Jones’ top five things about being an author. Enjoy!

Top Five Things About Being An Author

1. Give yourself a chance. If you have an idea, no matter how vague or incomplete make a note of it as soon as you can or it will be forgotten. I learned this the hard way. Once it is there in black and white, even if there are only a few lines it will always get you back into thinking about it again.
2. Be confident, don’t let self-doubt get in the way. This happens to absolutely everyone and it has been a major factor in me never going into the public domain in the past. I believed that I was writing for myself, because I enjoy doing it. But then a couple of people read what I had written and I got good feedback, and I started to believe in myself more.
3. I can write whatever I want. I can change completely whole areas of a city if I feel like it and nobody can criticize me for doing it, and this is a great thing about being an author. Anyone can come up with an idea and just write, real life facts become unimportant. My only exception to this is when I am writing about an action that is taking place, possibly the police or similar then I do try to be as correct as I can be. I really don’t want to upset anyone especially those who have difficult jobs to do!
4. Try to write when you can. This is important as lots of great books get started and never finished, and it is often difficult to find enough time. I do have a ‘real’ job, which does make it difficult but I do work at finding time, even if it just an hour or so to write. Of course, there are times when I sit down and the words just flood out, then others when I struggle for a paragraph. But I think that is the nature of it. If I could have this as my sole profession I believe I could probably complete two books a year.
5. Enjoy it. I have never wished to be a millionaire, or for fame. In fact I hope to spend my entire life in happy anonymity. So for me I am just happy to write and to eventually see it printed. Of course it could well turn out that ultimately In have sold very few books, well at the very least at least I have had a really good time doing it.

Author Information

Residing in London, Ian Jones lives with his wife and daughter, a cat Gloria, tortoise Gary and three fish; Daphne, Velma and Scooby. He currently works at a Taiwanese hardware company, looking after Europe and works as an Electrician in his spare time. Ian Jones has been writing since he was twenty years old, though he mostly wrote black comedies and seemed unable to finish a complete novel. Fortunately, ten years ago, Ian Jones tried his hand at writing thrillers and published his very first novel, The Handsome Man. Since then he has had many other books published via Kindle Direct. Lost in Vegas is actually the second book that he wrote.

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Lost in Vegas:           Amazon      Goodreads

North of the Rock:   Amazon      Goodreads

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North of the Rock Blog Tour

I’m later getting this up than originally intended. Went to Pride today and then, kind of took a nap for mumble hours. Got another blog tour for you all. Check it out, and remember to give the other stops on the tour some attention. They’re awesome too.

Monday 10^th June Book Read 2day

Tuesday 11^th June Rambling Mads

Wednesday 12^th June A Daydreamer’s Thoughts

Thursday 13^th June Luna’s Little Library

Friday 14^th June Life with KtKinnes

Monday 17^th June Big Book Little Book

Tuesday 18^th June Infinite Pages

Wednesday 19^th June Donna’s Book Blog

Thursday 20^th June Curvy Constellation

Friday 21^st June Lauren’s Bookshelf

Guest Post: Nick Lovelock

Hey all, as promised, I’ve got a guest post for you all from Nick Lovelock. He’s talking about his favorite parts about being an author. Enjoy!

My Favourite Things About Being An Author

I’ve always been a very imaginative and creative person, which more often than not has caused problems especially in school when at which time I was supposed to be studying American Political Change after the Civil War. However my margins were full of doodles of steam tanks, Gatling guns and l sorts of Steampunk ideas that started my journey of bringing it all to life. These doodles the prologue of the illustrations that appear throughout Gemenicia, and so far I have worked through over thirty A5 notebooks that are filled with ideas and practice pictures. I love the idea that I can be working non-stop on every different aspect that makes up one of my novels, or in this case the fifteen novels I have planned for the future.

Being an Author was something that I never envisaged myself doing from an early age, as I went through a few phases that began with wanting to be a lepidopterist, then an Archaeologist, and finally a musician. However nothing has come so naturally to me than writing, it’s something that I find incredibly easy, to come up with an idea from simply thinking or looking at something new. Filling up one of my notebooks which I carry around with me at all times with notes that will come up with or doodles that will one day become the illustrations that feature throughout my future novels.

The influences I have for the most part seem to be relatively obscure to others of my generation, and I love the fact that I am able to bring new life to them through homage’s and parodies, giving them a chance to reach a wider audience. World building has always been a major passion of mine, beginning with sand castles and moving to Lego Kingdoms. I loved to mix medieval with futuristic and build extremely complex models that would remain as they were for about a week, then another influence would come along and I would start trying to imitate that. However building with Lego has its limitations, and now that I have the chance to build an infinite world through being an Author, and that is a feat only possible through such a creative outlet, that and being an artist or film maker.

Being an Author gives me the opportunity to create characters that are given much more opportunity to grow and mature than others are with an hour and a half of screen time. It’s a challenge to give them a multi-coloured personality through the media of writing, but it’s a challenge that I find very fun to attempt. My first major change in the way I approached Steampunk fiction came when I was exposed to David Lynch’s masterpiece Twin Peaks, and it gave me the idea for which the following three novels after Gemenicia will feature. The idea of a great fantasy world having real people that have real life problems, that a small amount of fantasy that they can’t really comprehend will give all the story I need. This opportunity to put my theory into action is what I find to be the best part of being an Author.

Seeing the final product for which I have worked so hard on a feeling that doesn’t come around very often, and holding the first produced copy of Discoucia and then Gemenicia is what the magic of being an Author is all about.

Nicholas Lovelock lives in a small village in Oxfordshire and has already published Discoucia, the first part of the Alavonia Series which spans multiple novels set to be released in the future. He enjoys riding around the countryside as well as illustrating his own works, as can be seen in his second novel Gemenicia. These Illustrations in stark black and white provide a glimpse into the world of Alavonia and how he sees it, as well as showcasing the different locations and characters that make up the Alavonia series universe.

He is a keen musician capable of playing the electric guitar as well as the acoustic and the piano, often trying to play like his musical heroes David Gilmour, Jimmy Page and Jeff Lynne. His coin collection has transformed from a hobby to a passion and obsession as he attempts to collect one of every issued coin in Great Britain. He is over halfway in that respect collecting such treasures as a 1675 Charles the Second Crown and an extremely rare Edward the Seventh Half Crown of 1905, and has begun metal detecting in an effort to tick some boxes in the Hammered Coinage section.

His love of Steampunk literature and cinema has been with him from a young age when he first saw the film ‘Wild Wild West’, sought out the original series and discovered a world of fantasy that he has painstakingly tried to pay homage to in his novels, to bring the wild west to an English setting and to create something that has never been done before.

History has always been a major passion of his as he makes many references in his literature, from characters whose personalities resemble those of eccentric historical characters or monarchs. The ability to change history through literature was one of the things that attracted him to become an author in the first place, to create similar timelines and put a unique spin on the mundane.

Gemenicia Blog Tour Schedule

Check it out all, a new blog tour’s starting up and you’re truly is hosting one of the stops. Links to all the stops below, check it out!

Guest Post: Peter Aengenheister

All right, guest post time! Today we’ve got a list of five reasons why you should read Armour Piercing, right from the author! Enjoy!

1. Timing! The number of us that lived through the first Cold War, or at least a good part of it will remember The Cuban Crisis and how close that brought us to the brink of a Third World War…. We are nowhere near that at the moment, hopefully, but the sabre rattling has started. Alleged interference in Western elections by Russia, the assassination (and attempts) of ex-Russian defectors et, US v North Korea relations, all are raising the temperature of International East-West politics… This book gives a hint of what a return to those days could bring.

2. If you like the genre, then it ticks the boxes. Lots of action, twists and turns. It switches from hunted to hunter and back again. You will want to keep going … you won’t find an easy place to put it down…

3. Locality features – If you know East Warwickshire, Northampton, Rugby, Oxfordshire, Rutland or Stamford and parts of Lincolnshire, you will be able to follow the action closely with local knowledge. A reader will feel a part of the action. I also draw heavily on my experience in the newspaper industry, which I know a lot of ex-colleagues will find interesting.

4. There’s a very special connection, a person known to you all, that I won’t reveal who it is to non-readers of the book… Intrigued, you will be!

5. It’s a damn good read!!!

A defecting Russian space scientist, awaiting debrief, is in a Warwickshire safe house that comes under attack by an assassination squad. He escapes with plans for a conspiracy involving key members of secret services across the Western world. The only person he knows in the UK, or could possibly trust, is Pete Armour, the man who was to be his de-briefer. Killed before he can reach safety, he has hidden the secret papers where only Armour could ever find them. Armour becomes the target when he and a female newspaper reporter find themselves thrust together and on the run from at least two secret service agencies and British Intelligence, who seem more hell bent on killing him than helping him. And there is a price to pay. There’s always a price to pay. This is the first of the Armour trilogy. A gripping read. Fast-paced, a thriller packed with action, twists and turns.

Find it at: Goodreads   Amazon

 

Author Information

Peter Aengenheister was born in Amersham, Bucks. At the age of 18, Peter became a trainee reporter at weekly The Bucks Herald in Aylesbury and the Buckingham Advertiser. Over the next three decades, Peter worked as a reporter, News Editor, Sub Editor and Editor. He worked at The Chronicle and Echo for nine years, and edited the Daventry Express and Rugby Advertiser for nine years a piece.

He then left journalism to work as a fully trained clinical hypno-therapist. Since then, with one of his colleagues, he set up a business selling LED lighting to the industrial and commercial sector. Despite writing stories on a daily basis during his 36 years in journalism, ARMOUR PIERCING is his debut novel.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PeterAengenheis

Armour Piercing Blog Tour

Hey all, I’m running a little behind on getting this posted up, but check it out! New blog tour and a ton of nifty blogs to check out along the way. Give them a look, there should be plenty of nifty posts up. Speaking of, the house keeping post for the week will be up tomorrow.

Monday 4^th March

Yet Another Blogging Mummy!!!

Tuesday 5^th March

The Attic Life

Wednesday 6^th March

Donna’s Book Blog

Thursday 7^th March

Lauren’s Bookshelf

Friday 8^th March

A Daydreamer’s Thoughts

Monday 11^th March

Love Books Group

Tuesday 12^th March

Jazzy Book Reviews

Wednesday 13^th March

Big Book Little Book

Thursday 14^th March

Celticlady’s Reviews

Friday 15^th March

Orchard Book Club

Survive Blog Tour Schedule

Check it out, here’s the schedule for the blog tour I mentioned a few days back. You guys should give the other stops a look when it’s their day. Enjoy!

Monday 17^th September The Bookish Fairy Blog

Tuesday 18^th September Lauren’s Bookshelf

Wednesday 19^th September Reads All The Books

Thursday 20^th September Infinite Pages

Friday 21^st September 6 Feet Under Books

Sunday 23^rd September Abookitasia

Monday 24^th September A Daydreamer’s Thoughts

Tuesday 25^th September The Bookish Fairy Blog

Wednesday 26^th September Jazzy Book Reviews

Friday 28^th September Rosies Writes

Saturday 29^th September Fantastic Book Dragon

 

Fall Into Books Reading Challenge

So, I meant to have this posted yesterday, but I’m going to be taking part in I Am A Reader and Clean Wholesome Romance‘s Fall Into Books reading challenge. That means a month of daily prompts, most of which I think I can fill, and giveaways from the generous folks helping support the challenge. This should be a lot of fun. The prompts are below. And, if you’re interested in joining in you can check it out here!

Up Date

Hey all, I’ve been a bit sick the last couple of days, so I haven’t gotten around to posting this like I’d meant to.

Second Star Books has their website up and running and May’s box is available to subscribe to now. You can find it here.

Since this is their first month in business quantities are limited. Enjoy!

The Night Dahlia Blog Tour

So, this is a little late going out, but my review for The Night Dahlia was meant to be part of a blog tour. Until now, I haven’t had the chance to post up where the other stops on the tour can be found, so I wanted to fix that. Check these out and enjoy!

Mon. March 26  Books, Bones, & Buffy

Tues. March 27 From the Shadows

Wed. March 28  Just a World Away

Thurs. March 29 The Qwillery

Fri. March 30 Through Raspberry Colored Glasses

Mon. April 2 The BiblioSanctum

Tues. April 3 The Speculative Herald

Wed. April 4 Tympest Books

Thurs. April 5 Fantasy Book Critic

Fri. April 6 Horror Talk