What's in a name?

As part of my ongoing quest to make my writing as good as it can get, I'm renaming a major character. (Can you guess who?) I joined a facebook group of writers and several strongly felt that this name sounded more like a pharmaceutical product than someone a reader could identify with and cheer for throughout the ups and downs of the adventure.

On reflection, I have to agree. Thing is, I don't buy that many drugs so it didn't have that connection in my mind. And I doubt that many of my readers, aged around eight to thirteen, would think, 'Ugh! Sounds like medicine!' But for those for whom it would create a bad taste in the mouth, here goes...

I formally rename Merratol as...   Mertyl.

I hope you'll continue to make her welcome in The Calling, whatever her name is.

Mertyl. I'm not used to it yet. OK, what does that remind you of? Any associations? Maybe a Welsh mining town? Or a trademarked variety of roofing material? ;-)  I don't know. Maybe 'Valin' sounds too much like that other drug, whatsitsname...

Anyway, you can see the immense power of publishing on the internet. I can upload an updated version of my manuscript for free, at any time, both to Amazon Kindle and CreateSpace, so that the ebook and the printed book reflect the very best that I can do. The CreateSpace book does become unavailable for about 48 hours while the file is updated and reviewed.

Free again!

From this Thursday (November29th) until Sunday, The Calling will be free at Amazon Kindle. Go ahead, help yourself! If you like science fiction and you're somewhere around the age range eight to twelve or thirteen, it might be the thing for you. Or if you have kids at that age, get it for them.

Also this Tuesday The Calling will be advertised on Young Adults Promo Central   including an interview about the book and the writing process.

Happy reading! And remember, if you would like to write a balanced review of the story on Amazon, that would be a service to other maybe-readers and to me as well.

Selling Books in Thunder Bay

So finally a box of 25 copies of The Calling arrived on the doorstep a few days ago. And despite my doubts about the printing quality, the covers and insides look terrific. Thankyou CreateSpace!

I've started talking to the book shops in town and expect to have at least one book signing sometime in the next few months. Sorry that I can't be any more vague than that!


Anyway, it means I can spend a few minutes designing a poster to use at such events, and to display wherever the book's sold. Victor Habbick's artwork crackles and flames off the screen! It's a pity that the copy I ordered for him has my original home-made cover on it! Is that artistic license or poetic injustice? I can't decide.

Young Science Fiction

While I'm waiting for the first delivery of The Calling in print, here's a review of another young readers' science fiction author. It will be brief, since I haven't yet read a whole book of his!

Sigmund Brouwer is the author of a significant series of young-reader science fiction, as well as many novels for adults. His Mars Diaries stories were published some years ago and have been updated by the author and re-released as Robot Wars. They feature a physically disabled boy named Tyce who lives on a colony on Mars. He learns to use a mind link to control robots and takes part in some amazing interplanetary struggles. Actually I did skim-read one or two of these some years ago when they were still Mars Diaries, but then we had to move house and move continent and I couldn't fit them in the suitcase! I hope I can buy the series for my sons who are just the right age now.

The stories are thought-provoking. Sigmund Brouwer is a great writer, and he brings out all the character struggles and conflict very well. Search for them at Amazon or start at the link above. I hope to be able to write as well as he does... when I get the time!

The Calling : on a screen near you...

Click Here To View a Preview Video for The Calling

OK, now I get to write one of those "The Making Of..." special features you find on the second DVD in the case. ;-) Basically, yesterday I saw on Twitter a web page dedicated to publicising indie authors' promotional videos. And it was a free special offer. What independent author can refuse free publicity?

But the issue was time, not money. I had to go out in a couple of hours, to keep a number of appointments I couldn't put off or miss. So I rushed into the video-making business, planned a script, ran out of time...

...Finally finished it today and uploaded it, much shorter and simpler than I'd envisioned at first. This was mainly because I checked a few of the other authors' clips and saw what kind of thing was popular. I'm now all revved up to produce a more in-depth, chatty thing where I talk to the camera about the story. But don't hold your breath!

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By the way, the breathtaking new image you see in this video, and that now graces the covers of the Kindle and print editions, is by my new friend Victor Habbick, a professional photographer and artist who lives in Scotland. He kindly produced the image of the crashed space fighter in exchange for a copy of the book! He claimed that his wife will take it into the school where she teaches and read it to the children, but I think he might have a peep between the covers himself. Anyway, a BIG THANKYOU, Victor!

And the music soundtrack is borrowed from the astounding Celtic Christian folk-rock band Iona and their album The Book Of Kells. I've emailed the band for permission to use the 45 seconds of music but received no reply so far. So I haven't published the video on Amazon yet.

THE CALLING : Science Fiction for free on Amazon Kindle!

So I have The Calling, this great adventure story about Valin the average nomad, who has to rescue the man who saved his life. It's the sort of science fiction story I would have read in my pre-teen years, I think, if I had heard about it. I'm working hard on the publicity side of it these days, learning the best way to tell people about the novel.


Amazon Kindle has this program called KDP Select which allows authors to promote their book for free for up to 5 days out of 90. I'm going to try it out on Monday October 8th and see what it does to the book's rating. The idea is that there are large numbers of cash-strapped readers out there who are hunting for free reads. I have to admit I've been there and tried it! Then, when lots of them download the book, its rating climbs. Then, after the free period, others will notice the book more and be more likely to buy it.

Science fiction is a funny thing. A writer is constantly inventing things that don't exist, and may never exist, spinning yarns that sound more plausible than their cousins in the Fantasy department, but still, the more startling and even shocking a story is, the better it may catch on. I admit that The Calling is not especially shocking: very little gore, no teenage vampires, no nauseating aliens dismembering their tranquilized victims. Instead I hope that The Calling portrays realistic characters caught up in events way beyond the normal routine of life, and discovering inner resources and inner conflicts too. The way they resolve those conflicts may help some of us think through how we can resolve our own messy lives. And I trust that enough readers will appreciate this side of the story to tell their friends about it.


We'll see. Do you want a free e-book? A pre-teen (mid-grade) science fiction story? Visit The Calling at Amazon Kindle on Monday October 8th. The promotion starts at midnight, US Pacific time, which is about 10am UK time. It runs for 24 hours. Maybe we'll meet up there.

More on Valin's Log

I remember reading The Lord Of The Rings and wondering where elves came from, and what happened to King Aragorn next, and who lived in all the spaces on the map of Middle Earth, and what adventures you could have if you wandered off the eastern edge of the map...

Then I discovered books like The Silmarillion, a collection of stories building up the history and folklore of the main story. So that answered some of my questions. Painting a broad and colourful backdrop to a story is a great thing to attempt, and I'm amazed at how much Tolkien accomplished.

I hope to construct just such a foundation for The Calling and, eventually, the Beyond The Elder Stars series. You can find what I've done so far if you click on Valin's Log to the left of the screen, under 'John's Handy Links'. Be sure to explore some of the worlds that Valin has heard of under Star Catalog, although he mainly writes down the stories of travellers he's met in Elmara City. To catch a glimpse of a few of the spacecraft he knows about, visit Tech Specs. The other two side-buttons fill in some of the big blank spaces in the planet Elmarune's history and geography.

It's a big project I've set myself. Please be patient and forgiving as it slowly takes form - I'm doing it in my spare time. And I'm not giving everything away: Valin doesn't know much at all about the Inborls, and at this point has never heard of Drokstrak or Elha. In fact, at this point even I don't know very much about the Inborls...