Keith's Monthly Newsletter

Keith's Monthly Newsletter

September 02, 2020

Hello Subscribers old and new

And welcome one and all. This month's newsletter is a few days late. It has been a crazy few weeks for me, in the lead-up to releasing my debut novel, so yesterday I had to go up the largest mountain in England to take a break from it all. But I'm back now, bigger and stronger than ever (only with slightly more achy calves than before).

First up, congratulations to our three winners on their signed hard copy of Dexter & Sinister. They will be winging their way towards you as soon as my author copies have winged (wung?) their way to me. Because of print-on-demand I still only have proof copies of my own novel, which is kinda weird, but also par for the course in these crazy times I reckon.

Thanks to everyone for entering, and sorry if you didn't win this time. But I'm sure to do another newsletter giveaway some time, as this one was such a success, so your efforts have not been in vain. You will be entered into any future giveaways without having to do anything more. Neat, huh.

Adieu To August

As the month of August comes to a close it is safe to say that I am knackered. Putting Dexter & Sinister out into the world has been pretty full on. I've had to turn my hand to book design, video production, online marketing; all sorts of things, in fact, best done by professionals. Thankfully I have a bit of experience in most of them, so whilst what I've produced may not to be perfect, it is at least fairly polished.

But whilst blind luck, a little bit of know-how, and a can-do attitude go a long way, some things are best left to who know what they're doing, and designing a book cover is one of them.

I'm very lucky in that my cover designer,

, has been a great person to have in my corner throughout this whole thing. Not only did she design ever aspect of the excellent wraparound cover above, but she has been wonderfully patient as I have navigated the vagaries of Amazon's self-publishing platform, where the slightest change can have all kinds of knock-on consequences.

Just look at all the proofs I had to get done!

Can you see all the subtle differences? The way the name and logo drift up and down the spine? The variations in length? It's been a nightmare trying to get everything just right, and having to wait 3-4 days for proofs to be printed and delivered hasn't helped either.

But it's done now. The paperback is available to

, and it is fantastic, (even if I do say so myself).

News from the Steam Factory

The launch of Dexter & Sinister went about as well as I could have hoped. I was able to get my launch videos up as part on the Ministry of Steampunk's Sanctuary online festival - both the

video as well as the

.

I'm really glad about that, because I put a lot of work into them. I'm talking about two days of filming, with some firework foley work just to get the sound right (not to mention a lot of time online looking at waistcoats and pocket watches).

As well as being part of the festival I also did a book reading on Instagram, as I wanted to do something for myself to mark the occasion. I wasn't going to get a big party, so I had my own little party, and I invited the entire world.

Like my sophisticated broadcast setup?

My thanks to those of you who came. It really meant a lot to me that you were willing to listen to me talk for half an hour, and it was really nice to be able to share the moment with other people, even if they only appeared as names on a screen.

And for those of you who didn't know or couldn't make it, the full video is up

for you to enjoy. In it, I read the first chapter and a bit of Dexter & Sinister, I toast my novel with a little bit of bubbly (cherry cola), and I blow out the candle on a delicious chocolate cupcake (which may not have been the first I ate that day).

It has been a long process, getting my book out into the world. Dexter & Sinister is the culmination of thirty-eight years of hard work and hope. And whilst nothing along the way has happened exactly how I thought it would, I'm happy to say that I have ended up with a debut novel that I am very proud of indeed.

What I've Been Reading

This month's book read was Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett.

Now, I've read it before. It's one of my favourites in fact. But this time I read it purely for research purposes. I wanted to see how they handled the internal formatting of the e-book, given that Sir Terry doesn't use chapters, but simply puts line breaks in between blocks of text.

Of course, once I started reading I couldn't stop. That is the genius of Terry Pratchett. And whilst reading Guards! Guards! I think I've figured out why that is (a little, at least). Apart from the engaging characters and witty writing, it's the presentation of the story that gets you so hooked.

Terry Pratchett writes like you're watching a movie. He introduces several storylines at once, and then inter-cuts between them, never quite coming to a conclusion on any until the very end. He gives just enough new information on each thread to keep you going, but never enough that you are completely satisfied. There are no nice, neat, end of chapter wrap-ups for us to mark and put down the book. We read the next bit because we HAVE to read the next bit. And even if we do get some kind of conclusion on one storyline, there's always another two or three left that we want to know more about.

It's very clever, and a lot of fun, and it's something I will definitely learn from. I've never gotten bored reading a Terry Pratchett novel, and now I think I understand why.

And that's it from me for now. A long one, I know, but as I've just published my first novel I hope you will forgive me the indulgence.

Normal service will resume on the 1st of October (whatever "normal" is). Until then stay well, stay safe, and my absolute best to you all.

Toodle-pip for now.

Keith