My latest novel – a story of magic and intrigue set at least partially in the crowded metropolis of London in the 1850s is now available at amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and other regional amazons.

The protagonist is Barnaby Silver, a young man newly come to town to confront the past that his mother, a powerful sorceress, fled from when he was just an infant.

He will discover that his powers and his heritage make him not only an outcast from mundane society but also from the Order of Magi that exists secretly in the heart of the city, and from the hidden Faerie realms that border the human world – both the wild woods of Green Jack and his court, and the nightmare pastiche of the worst slums of London ruled over by the sinister Constable Rook.

Outcast or not he has truths to uncover and a web of conspiracy to unravel before he learns the truth of his mother’s long ago flight from mortal peril, and where exactly he has been running to for all his life.

Currently available as a Kindle e-Book with a paperback edition to follow in a week or so

NaNoWriMo is a great idea. A community supporting its members in writing 50,000 words of a novel throughout November. It helps deal with one of the big issues about writing, that of the primary task being getting the words on paper (or screen etc) without letting second guessing or procrastination get in the way.

A great idea, but I’ve never been tempted, and the reason is entirely down to me and my understanding of my own psyche.

It’s the same reason that I stopped setting myself speed goals on the treadmill at the gym. I went through a period of setting a distance target rather than a time target during my workouts and spent a good three or four weeks noting the constant improvements in my speed. After that time though I plateaued. I’d improved my time over the distance by about 20% and that felt good, but suddenly I was hitting the same time or (horrors) slightly worse and coming off it exhausted. And all of a sudden I wasn’t looking forward to the treadmill. All of a sudden I could fail. That made it not fun. I switched back to just hitting a duration target on my runs and keeping up the best pace I could of course, but not constantly trying to beat my own best on a regular basis.

I think this is why NaNoWriMo never appealed to me. I enjoy writing. I enjoy the periods away from my keyboard, usually while walking, where ideas take root, grow and change, where I GM plots and characters in my own heads and see what they do. Whole sections of dialogue, of plotting, of foreshadowing emerge from nowhere, take form and work themselves out, and then when I sit down to write it tends to be nine-tenths done but there is still plenty to discover when the actual writing takes place. I love it. At the keyboard I feel like a combination of architect, GM and explorer and discover the fun surprises within my own creation. It’s play, art and wonder all in one.

If I set myself a word target though, if I set myself a “50K words in November” goal then all of a sudden there would be a fail state. I’d run the risk of not succeeding. Worse though I think there would be a good chance that I’d succeed but it would have been a duty, a task of work cranked out for the wrong reasons.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m all for self discipline. I firmly believe, as King says in On Writing that you don’t sit around waiting for the muse… you go to your writing place and you write and then the muse knows where to find you. I’m not arguing against that, I’m simply saying that for me making the process a competition against a goal would take away what I enjoy and add a level of additional stress that would get in the way of things.

I’m still improving on the treadmill. I’m about two revision chapters away from finishing The Crow Journal and I always look at NaNoWriMo posts by my friends on Facebook and Twitter with a twinge of envy. It’s a great concept and a great community effort, and I wish I could join in, but knowing myself I don’t dare.

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Finn’s first novel A Step Beyond Context is available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com and a few others as well. It’s a punchy genre-busting mystery with a heroine who is a Regency lady, a high tech mercenary and much more.

I’m not a girl, but it is Sunday, and here’s Debbie Harry and Blondie just because:

Continue reading “Sunday Girl” →

Yes folks, the debut novel is marking the first anniversary of its release with a special ONE WEEK ONLY sale at amazon.com and amazon.co.uk – from 8am on 26th March until April 2nd you can pick up this reality-shifting novel of intrigue, adventure, magic and manners for less than a dollar (or less than a pound for those of you of a British persuasion).

I’m British myself so in the spirit of shameless self promotion and hyperbole I will confidently say: It’s good!

I don’t buy from Internet ads. I really don’t. I totally get that the commercial realities of modern life require, under the capitalist model, that to get things means you have to spend other things, so that the people who make the first things can take the things you give them and use them to buy other things. I get it. But Internet ads never clicked (haha) with me. Too anonymous, too distant, too much risk of unknown vendors running away with an armful of my things shrieking “caveat emptor!” as they disappear back into ancient Rome.

BUT…

Continue reading “Impulse Buy” →

Hey! Hey you, c’mere. Want to buy some words? They’re fresh. More or less, and they’ve been put in an order that makes sense. More or less. The first hit is cheap, you’ll like it. And you can quit anytime. More or less.

Continue reading “Words for sale – may contain ideas.” →