Roadkill

You’ve seen the cover and synopsis. Here are some quotes from the first reviewers:

“A rip-roaring adrenaline ride that will leave you breathless. You can practically taste the gasoline. D’Lacey is a man on a mission; I’d get out of the way.” Adam Millard, author of Skinners and Dead Line

“Like nothing you’ve read before. A frenetic, blistering bullet train of white-knuckle reflex.” Dread Central

“A breathless race to the finish line of oblivion.” Starburst Magazine

I know I speak for Michael Wilson – editor and owner of This Is Horror – when I say we’re incredibly proud of these early responses.

We launch on 8th June at Waterstones in Coventry, where I’ll be joined by Adam Nevill and Jasper Bark for another brilliant This Is Horror event. If you can’t wait that long, you can pre-order right now – but honestly I’d really love to see you in Coventry on the day!

Black Feathers formats and availability

In the UK you can buy Black Feathers in two physical formats: mass-market paperback and paperback.

The mass-market paperback is smaller and therefore has more pages. The paperback version is the one with the foil laid into the cover art and, to my mind, is the more presentable version. There’s a difference in price of course – £8.99 for the paperback against £4.62 for the more compact format.

On Amazon it’s easy to confuse the two so make sure you know what you’re paying for and that you get the version you prefer.

For US readers, mass-market paperback is the only physical version of Black Feathers on sale.

However, the book is also available in CD, audio download, and is a DRM free e-book if you purchase from The Robot Trading Company

Happy reading, whatever you choose…

The Author Exploitation Business

Reblogged from David Gaughran:

• 

Writing is a glamorous occupation - at least from the outside. Popular depictions of our profession tend to leave out all the other stuff that comes with the territory: carpal tunnel syndrome, liver failure, penury, and madness.

Okay, okay, I jest. I love being a writer. Sharing stories with the world and getting paid for it is bloody brilliant. It's a dream job, and like any profession with a horde of neophytes seeking to break in, there are plenty of sharks waiting to chew them to bits.

Read more… 1,861 more words

Something all authors ought to know about - it was rather shocking news to me.

News 1st May 2013

While I chip away at the rewrite of The Book of The Crowman, here’s my latest:

It’s almost a month since the launch of Black Feathers – book one of the two-part Black Dawn series.

Some happy-stats of how it’s gone so far:

• 750 shelf adds on Goodreads
• Over 40 very positive online reviews, including Publishers’ Weekly
• Great magazine reviews in SciFi Now and SFX
• Made the Buy One, Get One Half Price shelves in WH Smith
• Made the 3 for 2 promotion in Blackwell’s
• Number 5 in the fiction chart in Blackwell’s, Edinburgh
• Over 1200 views of the trailer

Following the London Book Fair I heard from my agent that Blood Fugue is still selling well. It recently received high praise from the BFS and This Is Horror, if you’d like to find out more.

The contract to re-print MEAT and Garbage Man has been amended giving Andrews UK worldwide rights in English. This will make both titles available in e-book and print in America, Canada and Australia for the first time. The e-book will be enhanced with media content and watch out for the brand new cover art – can’t wait to see it!

I’ve been on three recent podcasts – This Is Horror, NOObs on a Plane and Scrolls – talking about projects old and new as well as being grilled in-depth about Splinters.

Finally, my This Is Horror chapbook Roadkill has gone on sale.

For the moment, I’ve got my head down making The Book of The Crowman shine with Black Light. I probably won’t make much noise until that job’s done…

Black Feathers book trailer

I’m not sure there are any words that fully do this video justice. From my point of view, it’s two minutes of pure joy.

My sincere and heartfelt thanks to Horrod and Harris for their awesome work.

BLACK FEATHERS MASTER NEW H264 from HORROD AND HARRIS on Vimeo.

Black Feathers events

There are two launches for Black Feathers, one in Edinburgh and one in London.

Daniele Serra’s wonderful event artwork.

The Edinburgh launch, (30th March, 3-5pm, Blackwell’s) a combined event with Horror giant Gary McMahon and Zombie godfather David Moody, has sold out of seats – no wonder, considering the cannibalistic Jasper Bark is hosting the evening – but extra tickets have been printed for standing room.

Please e-mail events.edinburgh@blackwell.co.uk with the subject line ‘This Is Horror Event’ or call 0131 622 8218 for your free ticket.

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The London launch (5th April, 6.30-9pm, Big Green Bookshop) is also free, with snacks and beverages provided. There’s no need to book for this one. I’ll do a brief talk and short reading and spend the rest of the evening chatting with whoever turns up.

I have to admit, I’m pretty excited about these two evenings and can’t wait to see the book finally ‘fly’ – it’s been a long time in the making.

My sincere and heartfelt thanks to the organisers:

Ellie Wixon of Blackwell’s, Edinburgh for inviting me and for publicising the event so brilliantly; Michael Wilson for flying the ever-popular This Is Horror banner over the launch and bringing in such big names; Simon and Tim for turning their shop into a BIG PARTY!

SciFiNow gives Black Feathers half a page and a big thumbs up!

I’ll let the photo speak for itself but I was delighted to see this posted on Facebook by JD Gillam

SciFiNow Review

- thanks for sharing, sir!

What an exciting week!

I had an email from my agent saying we’ll soon be signing a deal for the audio rights in MEAT and Garbage Man. Taken with the scheduled reissue of both titles in e-book and print by Andrews UK, it’s a sign that both books have long tails and real staying power. I couldn’t be happier about it.

Since my last round up another swathe of great reviews have come in for Black Feathers. As you can see from the countdown to the right, there’s less than a month to go until UK publication (and less than three weeks until the American release)!

The final printed copies arrived at Angry Robot HQ this morning – gorgeous or what?

My thanks this week go to Jason for his BoneBreaker post, Horror Fiction Review, Bane of Kings (for The Founding Fields) and the wonderful woman I know only as ‘karen’ who put this awesome response on Goodreads, resulting in forty shelf adds! Karen, you are awesome!

This Is Horror are also having a big Joseph D’Lacey week with a written, in depth look at Splinters and a two-part podcast on the project. Part one was very difficult to listen to for me, as three horror experts carved a Y-shaped incision into the book and completely dissected it. Still, the verdict was good and the podcast contains another chance to hear Richard Kellum reading the infamous Son of Porn (adult content).

I have two Black Feathers launches coming up and will dedicate a full post to those in the next few days.

Have a lovely weekend!

As I’m unable to achieve anything else today, here’s a poem…

Spice Girl by Joseph D’Lacey

It was all champagne and laughter,
Real love, real ales and beers.
By morning all the fizz went flat,
I’d seen the curry in your ears.

You’d hid it well the night before
Beneath your flowing silken locks
But you’ve got lughole biriyani
And some chutney in your socks.

There’s passanda in your pockets
And chapatis in your pants.
The vindaloo that’s in the loo
May spoil this new romance.

When I saw you in that beer tent,
I never thought to worry
That you’d stuff naan bread up your nose
And plug your ears with curry.

There’s bhoona in your brassiere,
Tandoori ‘twixt your toes.
Where you keep your hot Madras
Shiva only knows.

You truly are a spicy lass
That could be my good luck.
Let’s go share a takeaway
And then a nice hot Bombay duck.

Editing advice for The Write Club

I’m doing a two-part editing post for Wayne Simmons – author of Flu, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Fever and Doll Parts. It’s intended for writers who are keen to improve their abilities quickly. Part I outlines some specific editing passes that will tighten up your fiction.

Part II takes the extensive re-write of Blood Fugue and deconstructs it, showing how every editing pass can improve your work – with the goal of pushing it from unpublishable territory into that promised land of the published.

Other good things:

I’m grateful today for the latest two reviews of Black Feathers, the first from Tiara W whose extremely positive Goodreads appraisal is also on Digital Tempest and Bibliosanctum. Thanks also to Australian author, Alan Baxter, whose review appeared on Thirteen O’Clock very early this morning. Another considered summing up and a sign, I hope, that people everywhere are ‘getting’ what Black Feathers is all about.

Meanwhile, I’m still tinkering with the look of the blog so expect things to disappear and reappear over the next few days, as well as new content arriving as if by magic…