Aelfric and Shieldmaiden go FREE

You might remember a recent post whereby I described my decision to withdraw my books from Amazon’s Select scheme, well I’m sticking to that choice. It does mean though that I have ‘free’ days to use up, which is good news to the readers amongst you.

Aelfric – Bloodied Spears is now free, 19th May to 20th May.

Shieldmaiden is free, 19th May to 23rd May.

Get them now, they won’t be free again on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/JM-Winspear/e/B005W2KOAC

http://www.amazon.com/J-M-Winspear/e/B005W2KOAC

A Great Review for Aelfric

I just had to post this review of Aelfric by the talented writer and editor, Vanessa Finaughty. http://www.vanessafinaughtybooks.co.za/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=view&catid=15&id=3103&Itemid=172&lang=en#3103 

Recommended to Vanessa by: It caught my eye.

Recommended for: Fantasy lovers who enjoy fast-paced stories

I own a copy, read count: 1

Aelfric – Bloodied Spears is a nice light read despite the serious storyline, which will leave you contemplating the reasons for war and how daft they are, amongst other things.
Aelfric is forced into battle on the field of Cremen while his sister, Aelfwen, is left to the mercy of the brutal man who betrayed her brother.

The story follows Aelfric’s swift transition from boy to man, and he soon proves he’s more man than some twice his age. Take the desperate need to protect his sister, add the fact that he cannot do this until he’s fought an idiot king’s battles, throw in an evil sorceress with her own agenda, a few monsters, a love-struck queen and a fearsome warrior friend, and you have Aelfric – Bloodied Spears.

Winspear’s descriptions are particularly colourful and original, which probably played a big part in making this such an easy read that I read it in one sitting. The characters’ interactions and dialogue were realistic, enabling me to relate to them easily. My only complaint is that the character who died at the end died far too quickly – he was such a despicable person that I’d liked to have seen him suffer a bit. You will, no doubt, share my sentiments after reading the book.

I recommend this novella to anyone who enjoys a fast-paced fantasy that’s easy to follow, entertaining and well written. It’s worth the money.

Farewell Select, Farewell

The time has arrived for tough decisions to be made; well, not that tough really. My novellas and short stories are approaching the end of their terms with Kindle Direct Publishing’s Select scheme – some are in their second terms. For those not in the know, Select is an exclusivity deal with Amazon. In return for such exclusivity authors are granted 5 days within their term of ninety days in which they can promote their books as free. Not much of a deal I hear some say? Well, it all depends how many free books you give away during your promotional days – the more you get rid of, the higher in the rankings you will appear. From this boost in the rankings is supposed to appear a sales boost when the book returns to paid. That’s the theory anyway.

Therein lies the clincher for me; I have felt no benefit at all from being tied to Select. Granted, my books have reached a bigger audience by giving them away for nothing and that can only be for the good; yet then again I could of course have given them away for free on Smashwords when and how I pleased. 

Before you all harangue me with success stories I concede that for some authors Select has been of tremendous benefit; just not for me. 

So that’s the gloom. The good news is that in the next few weeks my books will again be appearing on Smashwords and thereby filtered slowly outward to the likes of Apple, Kobo, Sony, etc. 

I don’t mean this post to in anyway put people off of Select; I just needed to give my point of view. I’d love to hear of anyone else’s successes or failures or indeed just your thoughts in general.

J

Weekend Giveaway

To make amends for the lack of a post this week I am going to be doing a ‘Freebie Weekend’, woohoo! From 23rd March through to Sunday 25th March I will be giving away the fantasy novella, Aelfric – Bloodied Spears, and two fantasy shorts; To Skin a Troll and The Huntress.

Now I figured that the easiest way to get these freebies is to go direct to my Amazon author pages; so here are the links for UK and US. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/J-M-Winspear/e/B005W2KOAC/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005W2KOAC

Should you enjoy them (or indeed hate them), feel free to leave a review.

Cheers

JM

 

Can Your Dad Come out to Play?

Strange things happen when you are undertaking acts of retrograde delinquency. Whilst creeping down past the station with skateboards beneath our arms I spotted a white van on the seafront all rigged out with emergency lights – all the bling and trappings of the law. I mentioned to son number two that we might have to wait a while. He asked whether we were to be arrested for skateboarding on the seafront. I replied that he would probably be too young to be arrested.

 As we peeked over the parapet I could clearly see that it was not the Police but the Royal Navy Bomb Disposal van. With relief I said, ‘We’re alright, it’s only a bomb in the sea.’  So off we went with a cheerful wave to the sailors. Skaterboy and Dopeydad released.

After much scooting about and hilarity I proposed a rest outside the public lavvies where there are some nice seats arranged for viewing the mudflats. A man approached us, he looked a bit sheepish at first, he was about my age, a little older maybe. What’s this I thought, a strange proposal outside the toilets?

‘Nice board,’ he said, not to my son, but to me. ‘I’ve got one in the car, my son won’t come out anymore.’ He looked terribly sad at this state of affairs. ‘I’m too embarrassed to do it alone.’

Well, the two of us broke into much reminiscing about how it was ‘in the day’, tearing about the streets on homemade boards and go-carts, that sort of malarkey. It’s a shame really, to think that at some stage you must grow up and do what is expected of you, and that for most adults, myself excepted, skateboarding would be the height of folly. At a certain age one must undertake adult pursuits such as following a small white ball round some despoiled woodland and knocking it into a hole with much hurrahing and back clapping and drinks all  round.

He looked so mournful this chap, that I almost offered him a ride of my board, almost proposed that we would be here next week and he could come out to play with us if his parents didn’t mind. I didn’t of course, and we parted with thoughts of how it was ‘in the day’.

The Vengeance of Dragons

I was having an online discussion the other day with my good friends at http://www.vanessafinaughtybooks.co.za/ and http://www.k3books.com/ about the relative merits of trolls and dragons. As you can see, it was a most valuable and adult discussion as to whether a band of my bark-skin trolls could comfortably defeat Vanessa’s fire-breathing dragon – yes we are all adults thank you very much; stop tittering you at the back! To fantasy writers these things are quite obviously important, I promise. Anyway, the main discussion was as to whether the dragon would be able to spot the tree-crawlers at all, to which I proposed she would not be able to espy them, and would be at the mercy of their rocks and pointy sticks. 

Anyway, on to the reportage. Whilst walking the hound yesterday I came across these scenes; a great mess of tumbled and broken branches, as if a great beast had forced its way through the woods in strong pursuit of something or someone. My first thought was to my beloved trolls. I called up the hound and we hastened to their home.

As you can see, the troll house is quite empty, and looking rather forlorn and squashed, and with the general devastation about the surrounding woodland I can only surmise that the dragons have wreaked their vengeance upon my rash words of scorn. I shan’t mock them again.

Regular followers of my nonsensical blogs might remember mention of ‘The Old Duffers’ Club’ surfing expedition that was due to take place today. Unfortunately, due to the biggest storms of the year so far, it has been cancelled; hence this post. It must also serve as a warning as to the type of material expected over the next few days as I suffer the pangs of ‘holiday cancellation angst’.  

If you should get the chance, feel free to check out the websites mentioned above, I highly recommend them both.

Until next time…

JM

Everything Must Change

I took a walk the other day, through the town of Leigh-on-Sea; I needed some scenes you see, for a story. I could have just remembered it, as it was, when I was a boy. I was born there, you see. In a way I wished that I had used the powers of remembrance and imagination; because everything changes, in time. It is often unsettling when childhood memories – always the most fond and vivid – are erased and supplanted with something new and alien, and with that new memory are extinguished all of the old and cherished ones. They become ghosts, their bodies are now missing or inhabited by something else.

I peered into the window of a shop and saw in my mind two small boys selecting guns and uniforms for their toy soldiers, in my mind only of course, because the shop had closed, and now emptiness looked out from its windows. It will no doubt become a coffee shop in the not too distant future, that seems the fashion anyway. So, close them all! Be done with it. Who now needs the fishmonger, which, as well as fish, would sell hot tomato soup and chips for a few pence on a Saturday morning. Draw the shutters on the grocers, the butcher, the baker; coffee’s what we need, lots of it, cappuccino, frappaccino, and choccaccino, by the gallon.

It reminds me of something my Dad once said, ‘Never go back, it’s never the same.’ I think at the time he was alluding to women yet it’s relevant to all things. As for scene setting, the stage appears to be empty now and I can conjure with it what I wish.

JM