Keith's (Very Late) September Newsletter

Howdy Y’Awl

Bit late with the newsletter this month, on account of the fact that I totally forgot. I was working all weekend at the end of September doing live sports broadcasting and it was a nightmare. I came home late, slept, then went back to work. That was it. Didn’t even think about the newsletter until a few days ago.

One of the hardest things about being a writer who doesn’t make a living from his writing is the fact that I do several full time jobs, only one of which I get paid for. It’s exhausting, but what can you do? The alternative is to accept my fate and just work for a living, but that sounds boring AF.

Launch News

I was going to let this month slide until I remembered I have a book coming out. Not much point having a promotional newsletter if you don’t use it to promote your work. You all know about Glunda, which is coming out on the 31st Oct. What you don’t know about, and which I didn’t know about for sure until a few days ago, is that I will be doing my first ever in-person launch for Glunda at the Ministry of Steampunk’s HULLOWEEN event the weekend after next.

It’s a mostly free event on Sat 21st and Sun 22nd October, in and around Hull city centre. I will be doing readings of Glunda at 3pm on the Staurday and noon on the Sunday in the Hepworth Arcade, so do come along if you can to join in the fun. I’ll also be talking part in some panels on writing, as well as possibly reading a short story at the open mic, and trying to sell some books and badges in between if I can. It’s going to be a bit hectic, but it should be fun, and like I say it’s free during the day so it costs nothing to check out but a bit of time.

News From The Steam Factory

Apart from the above I have one other exciting revelation for you, and this is a newsletter exclusive for now. I have received the character art for Glunda which I will be using to promote the book. As some of you reading this will know production was a bit of a challenege towards the end, but I’m very pleased with how it has turned out. Have a look and see what you think?

That’s the title page from the ebook. It’s the same for the print version but in black and white to keep print costs down. I think she looks great, and I can’t wait to show her off to the world!

Speaking of the ebook, it’s available for preorder as we speak. Uptake has been slow, with just five orders so far, but I’m hoping things will pick up over the coming weeks as I release more promo images. It’s just unfortunate that this month seems to be the month Melon Husk has decided to finally break Twitter. My book tweets are getting almost no attention at all.

When I’m Not Writing

Two things to suggest for you this month: Adrian Tchaikovsky’s DOGS OF WAR and Netflix’s live-action version of ONE PIECE.

DOGS OF WAR was my first Adrian Tchaikovsky book so I didn’t know what to expect going in. I enjoyed it very much. The story of the emergence of hybrid animal soldiers and how they fit into society once they decide they don’t want to be soldiers anymore (more or less), this was a great read. Tight, well paced, and enough of a thinker without getting bogged down in morality for you to enjoy. Tchaikovsky is a good writer. I’ll be trying more of his work after reading this.

I knew nothing about ONE PIECE either when I started watching, which might have been to my advantage. A massive anime that’s been turned into live-action, if I’d gone in with expectations I might have been disappointed. One Piece is fun, and a bit nuts, and extremely well made, which is good because some of the characterisations stretch your credibility quite a bit. At times it is a challenging watch (for me anyway) because of how daft it is. But as one of the main charcaters says of Monkey D Luffi, the boy who would be King of the Pirates, the eunthusiasm is infectious, so you kind of go along with it. Give One Piece a go, and if after a couple of episodes you don’t agree that it’s stupid but also a lot of fun then that’s fair enough.

Okay, that’s it from me. Do come along to Hulloween if you can, and don’t forget to get your preorders in for GLUNDA THE VEG WITCH. Or if physical copies are your thing you’ll be able to get them on the 31st, when the book goes on wide release. NB: I’ll also be selling copies at Hulloween, if you want to be one of the first to get your hands on one.

As always thanks for your time, and I’ll catch you on the flip-side.

Toodle-pip for now.

Keith