Saturday 16 May 2015

Power to the Reader. Power to the Writer.





Before the digital age the reader did not have that much power. Readers as a group did in so far that they could express their like for a particular author by buying their book but the individual reader, they had very little influence. Since the revolution, however, the power of the individual has grown exponentially. Whereas previously publisher only took notice of sale figures and the comments of reviews appearing in Sunday newspapers the rise of social media and internet based market platforms like Amazon has shifted that focus somewhat.

This shift has come about in a response to the growth of independent authors. Previously writers the output of such writers was termed ‘vanity publishing’ and scorned accordingly. There was even a belief that if you published your own work in your early struggling career then you were highly unlikely to be picked up by a literary agent or publisher later on.

Curiously this attitude never took root in the music industry where many fledgling artists, Elvis Presley amongst them, recorded their own work first. Indeed, the ‘demo tape’ became an essential method of attracting record company attention and was considered a legitimate means of doing so. No one ever referred to it as ‘vanity recording’.

Of course writing a book is a little different to writing a song. Books need to be proof-read and edited before they get anywhere near being published and that is a process that can take almost as long as writing the thing in the first place. For an independent author this represents a major task but in comparison to getting a literary agent to take on your work it attains a degree practicality.

With the arrival of the e-reader in the shape of Kindle and Kobo the market for electronic books has exploded. In fact the market has grown so quickly that a void appeared that traditional book publishers could not fill and it is this that has led to the appearance of the independent authors. Many were quick to exploit the new technology and to offer readers who were experimenting with this new form original work at a discounted price. A significant proportion of the readers liked what they found.

As with anything the quality of e-books varies enormously. There are some very good writers out there who failed to win attention from agents and publishers and yet who have found an audience in the e-book world. There are also some writers who turn out sub-standard work. To separate the wheat from the chaff marketplaces like Amazon offer purchasers a chance to both rate a product and write a review about it also. This has proven to be a very helpful tool that allows shoppers to get an idea about the product that they are thinking buying, however:


Like so many human inventions the review is open to abuse. There are, sadly, some people who have a habit of posting negative comments. I do not understand this approach but then I acquired the skills of constructive criticism at college. When I review a product on Amazon or a hotel of Trip Advisor I always do so honestly. I simply cannot see the point in taking the time to write a review, particularly about a book, that is intended to be hurtful only. Even if the book is that bad, a ‘stinker’ as Stephen Fry calls them, then follow the precept that if you cannot say anything good then say nothing at all. A product that has been out for some time and garnered no reviews is not likely to be on anyone’s shopping list after all.

It follows, however, that there is another side to this argument and it is one that I wish to make in respect of the independent author particularly; if you have something good to say then say it! New authors need reviews and ratings. It is beneficial in two ways. First, a series of good reviews brings attention to the author and this is what they both need and want. Having invested an awful lot of time and effort in their work the independent author would like someone to read it and express an opinion. They are not selfish in this respect, songwriters, actors, painters, in fact any instigator of a creative enterprise wants to know if the public likes what they do. It seems to be a natural human requirement.

In respect of independent authors the reader possesses tremendous power. They can talk almost directly to the author and tell them exactly what they thought of their work. For me as one such independent author it is a leap of faith to actually put my work out there into the public arena but I will never forget my response to reading the first detailed review of my book; it made everything worthwhile. I don’t have that many reviews to my name as yet, only 22, but they all mean something to me. They do to anyone who has spent time crafting a project, in whatever format, and putting it out there for people to consider.

I wonder if many readers appreciate the power that they have at their disposal through their digital connection with the e-book world? By taking the time to put together some comments, it does not have to be a critical essay after all – unless of course you are so motivated – the buyer can actually help an author that they like to reach a much wider audience. This is a power that the reader possesses. They can influence the career of someone else. They can become instrumental in spreading the word about a book that they have read and opening up the world it contains to other readers.

The majority of independent authors sell their books at discounted prices to begin with and although they dream of commercial success, I know I do, the reality is that they make very little money at it. My royalties do not amount to much even after selling over 1600 books but I love what I do. I create my won worlds in fiction and share them with other people who, for the most part, seem to like what I have done. I would like to reach more people, to have more readers, and everyone who buys a copy of my work can help in that respect. Hopefully, after reading this post you might be one such person who will do me the honour of rating my books and writing a brief honest review so as to encourage others to take the plunge,

Sunday 10 May 2015

I’ve Walked Les Ramblas but Not With Real Intent





I visited Barcelona in November 2014 and, as a tourist, I was obliged to take a wander down Las Ramblas. Despite being largely a tourist trap area there is something quite wonderful about the place. As I walked along with everyone else, glancing at the street entertainers and the various stalls that all seem to sell things of a questionable quality that you don’t need, the Manic Street Preacher’s song, If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next came to mind. It is a piece about the Spanish Civil War and the line quoted is a reference to George Orwell’s account of the fighting in Las Ramblas; the activity that actually lacked any intent apparently. It was a scene on more than one occasion, however, of fighting and death.

Many historical novels contain violent confrontation as part of their story, not just between protagonists but often between armies or fleets of warships. Indeed historical novels often seem to embrace conflict on an epic scale. In ‘The War Wolf’ I recount the story of the Battle of Fulford Gate, an engagement in which some 15,000 warriors fought; a considerable number for the time. People seem to find it exciting. Certainly war as a subject has been a part of human culture since the first written language was developed. The Battle of Megiddo is widely considered the first engagement to be reliably recorded and that took place in the 15th century BCE. Ever since then we have researched, recorded and written about human military encounters.



In that respect I am no different. The period of 1066 is characterised by three very violent encounters by the three opposing sides, Saxons, Vikings, and Normans. One aspect of writing about a period where written records were not habitually kept is that it becomes easy to lose touch with the human element of the actual events. We can only imagine what the Battle of Fulford Gate was like for the participants because no one thought to write down their experience, or if they did it has been lost to time. The very site of the battle itself is also being lost to time as the modern world encroaches upon it. When I researched the battle I had to look elsewhere to get an idea of what it might have been like. Fortunately warfare did not differ that much from the time of Megiddo to the advent of gunpowder. Heavy infantry supported by light infantry, missile throwers and some cavalry, although not in the case of the Saxons and Vikings, was the general order of battle. It was not difficult to transfer a Greek hoplites experience of the Battle of Plataea in the Persian Wars to become that of a Saxon frydman fighting before the walls of York in 11th century England.

For all the use of creative licence, however, my account of Saxon warfare remains strictly third-hand at best. When George Orwell wrote about the fighting in Las Ramblas during the Spanish Civil War he did it from personal experience because he was there. Walking down Las Ramblas, with or without intent, knowing that people died there during one of Spain’s most bloody periods of civil strife reinforces the human aspect of what happened. Men died on both sides. These men were sons, brothers, husbands, fathers to other people. They went out of the world violently and left a hole in the lives of the others. The men who died at Megiddo and at Fulford Gate were no less the same and the friends and family that they left behind suffered no less either.

Although I acknowledge as a writer the intrinsic excitement of reading a battle within a story I also recognise that in every instance there must be human loss. I try to make my characters sympathetic to the reader in order to try and get that point across. In ‘The War Wolf’ there are no good guys and bad guys, no evildoers and heroes in the clichéd sense. The Saxons are fighting to defend their lands, their people, and their way of life. The Vikings are fighting to take what they can for reasons that legitimise their actions within their own way of thinking. The same applies to the Normans as well. Indeed, both the Norwegians and the Normans are pressed by political concerns that lie beyond the boundaries of England and yet both are tied to the Saxon crown by blood through a shared history.



As I walked Las Ramblas I was reminded of the fact that the human story is a fascinating one that can seemingly be presented in an almost infinite number of ways. The important thing to remember, I think, is that no matter which way a writer decides to tell a part of that story they must always strive to retain the humanity of their tale. Battle is indeed exciting to read about if your life is not at risk during it, but even within the safety of a book the author should also remind the reader that there is always a cost to human life when two warriors meet in a fight to the death, and it often extends beyond the two combatants as well.

Saturday 2 May 2015

I Wish That I Was A Dinosaur!



It is a fact that when someone refers to another person as a ‘dinosaur’ then what they are alluding to are qualities synonymous with being slow, obsolete, and even close to extinction. It is rarely meant as a compliment except when used by people who are actually interested in dinosaurs.

Guess what? I am interested in dinosaurs!

I have been fascinated by these animals ever since I received a book on them for my birthday when I was a child. This one in fact:




Reading this book for the first time proved a watershed moment. I wanted to be a Palaeontologist from that moment on. Unfortunately my academic abilities never allowed me to achieve that particular dream as a profession; my mathematics is very weak despite several attempts to improve it. I did, however, become something of an amateur Palaeontologist and I remain so to this day.

When the above book was published dinosaurs were seen as nothing more than big lizards that spent all morning sat in the sun until they got warm enough to move. Once they reached an optimal temperature then they would set off and do dinosaur things, like eating each other, before night came and they had to sit down again as the lack of sunlight placed them back in a kind of torpor.
Then this book came along in 1986:



Dr Robert T. Bakker was and still is the enfant terrible, of Palaeontology. He looked at dinosaurs with young eyes and was certain that we had gotten them wrong. ‘The Dinosaur Heresies’ is so named because it attacks the extant theories of dinosaurs modelled as giant reptiles that had persisted unchallenged for decades. Inspired by his mentor John Ostrom Bakker used his considerable talents as an artist to redraw dinosaurs as active animals more alike to mammals in terms of physiology and appearance than they were to lizards. He supported his dynamic representations with a considerable amount of science presented to less well educated readers like myself in a very accessible fashion, or ‘popularist’ as some of his critics would term it.

This new representation of dinosaurs was one of very active animals that lived more like the warm-bloodied (endothermic) mammals that the cold-bloodied (ectothermic) reptiles. They did not lumber anymore but ran with agility and speed.



Instead of the sprawled reptilian pose favoured for the reconstruction of skeletons Bakker suggested something much more revolutionary. The drooping tail was lifted from the floor and the animal became something far more effective in the process.



Deinonychus was discovered by John Ostrom and its reconstruction as an active predator was contentious at the time but it was the only one that explained the animal’s sickle shaped claws that armed its feet.

This was not a slow moving, obsolete, dullard of a creature. Clearly Deinonychus possessed traits that were more commonly seen in mammals. It was swift, powerful, agile and intelligent. This was an animal that evolved to meet changing demands of both its environment and its ecological niche. It was superbly adapted to carry out its role as a small to middle sized predator.

Of course, as someone with a passionate interest in Palaeontology and dinosaurs in particular I appreciate all of the facts above. Dinosaurs were the supreme forms of life for over 231 million years whereas mammals only really came to prominence less than 65 million years ago. It was only the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs that actually allowed mammals and birds, the only dinosaurs to survive, to rise to their position of supremacy.

So for me being termed a ‘dinosaur’ is actually a compliment not a criticism. I would dearly love to be as successful as these fabulous creatures were. I’d like to be around for as long as them as well but that is another matter!