Top ten success… Order my yacht!

~ GraydonJonesWriter

Spotify is playing James Brown, “I Got It (I Feel Good)“

I’ve been suffering from a nasty chest infection since just before I released “Annika Dash and the Unicorn from Space”. This has restricted the amount of dancing around the kitchen with my t-shirt over my head that I can do. Still, it couldn’t dampen my spirits as I watched my first book dip in and out of the top 10 of Amazon’s “Best Sellers in Children’s Science Fiction Comics & Graphic Novels”, achieving #6 on the 1st of April 2024.

[Top Ten 1st of April 2024]

I didn’t expect that feeling to be surpassed, but this has been… twice. First, when I received pictures of a young reader, from the other side of the world in Australia, opening my book. Second, last night I discovered my book received its first review on Amazon. No idea who left this, but I couldn’t sleep last night — I was so excited.

[Independent review 6th of April 2024]

The one sad thing is that, with being poorly, I haven’t been able to present copies to my niece and her big brother. I certainly didn’t want to give them my germs! Hopefully, this is something I will do over the next few weeks. In the meantime… mums the word. It’s still a surprise I want to share.

So, what’s next?

I didn’t do a book trailer for TUFS. But I’m working on one now. It’s really to determine what is possible and what I can do myself. I could release it retrospectively, or save it for Annika Dash’s second adventure. Whatever I do, working on this trailer is an interesting project. I composed the soundtrack, wrote the script and compiled the art and images. I have also had the script performed by a professional voiceover artist. I’d say I have a draft or concept finished, but I’m still considering what to do with it.

What else? Oh yes! I’ve started working on a follow-up story, which I’ll refer to as Annika Dash 2, or AD2, and have a concept for a third story.

The bare bones for AD2 I’ve shared with my posse (Sorry Tim/Tracy, this is way cooler than calling you my trusted beta readers… Note to self – Graydon to change the title of Beta reader messenger group to GJ’s Posse). These are just ideas at the moment, such as, what Annika will do when [insert baddy’s name here] will try to [insert something really awful here], because [insert baddy’s motivation here], and therefore [insert the consequences here]. As you can see, pretty detailed thinking going on 😉

Incidentally, I’m not ordering a yacht, but I have to go to the shops for eggs, milk, and butter. And melon

Dressing gown and slippers

~ GraydonJonesWriter

No, this isn’t an opening scene from one of my favourite writers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Though I’ve always had a hankering for a Sherlock Holmes-style smoking jacket, calabash pipe and deerstalker. What do you think? Okay…maybe not – I don’t smoke, nor do I stalk deer (unless it’s with a camera).

Back to today. I really am sitting here in my dressing gown and slippers, despite feeling totally unwell. [sniff, cough] I’m sitting here because there’s only…

Five, Cinq, Fünf, Cinque, Cinco…

…yes just 5 DAYS TO GO until Annika Dash and the Unicorn from Space will be available.

The last few weeks of frantic work learning about self-publishing, using the KDP software, and tweaking the cover and manuscript until it all fit together perfectly, was worth it.

My next worry, believe it or not, is my signature. If medical qualifications were based on how illegible your signature was, I’d be a Consultant Surgeon. Before you consider me pretentious, friends and family have asked me to sign their copies. Flattered by this, I agreed without hesitation.

Gosh, I’ve just thought of something else – what else would I write – besides my signature??? I guess I’ll cross that bridge next. Meanwhile, back to my signature.

I have a pad close by and later, armed with my favourite pen and a toasted Hot-Cross-Bun, I’ll practice. It mustn’t be too plain, nor too flamboyant. Maybe I could get Amanda to do it for me – her handwriting is amazing – no, I couldn’t. Why has my handwriting become so bad? It was rubbish when I left school and worsened at college. Then, working in IT for nearly 30 years, I swapped my biro for a keyboard, so used a pen less and less. I guess James Bond has this very same problem: he’s not able to use his biro unless he wants to shoot someone or blow something up. Yep, 007 must have rubbish handwriting too.

Anyway, having established 007 is much like me, if you have any ideas about how to fix my handwriting in 5 days or less or just want to get in touch, please use my contact form.

My first book

~ GraydonJonesWriter ~ 2 Comments

Annika Dash bounds into action in my first book, a children’s story, written for my little niece.

Those who know me would tell you I was happily writing about spaceships, lasers, and aliens from outer space. I had no serious aspirations about publishing my work, as I was content saving the universe from the comfort of my study in rural Lincolnshire. I felt nothing was more satisfying than giving those nasty little green, bug-eyed creatures a darn good thrashing – single-handed!

Then, a chance meeting – a family meal – revealed my niece had taken an interest in my writing, and asked if my stories were about unicorns. What could I say? The rest, as they say, is history

The paperback is due to be released at Easter 2024, with the Kindle edition following later in the year.

The illustrations are by Aisha Haider, a brilliant artist and illustrator.

Here’s some information for you. It’s taken from the Amazon page, which will be revealed nearer the publishing date.

“A family day out, a rock from outer space, a tricky museum curator and his bungling assistants. What do they all have to do with unicorns? They all feature in this thrilling, fun-filled adventure for girls and boys aged between 7 and 11, starring our small, determined young heroine, Annika Dash...”

From the back…

“8-year-old Annika Dash doesn’t want to go to the Space Museum with her family, but when she discovers a real-life unicorn needs her help, Annika sprints into action! Will she be able to save the small creature from outer space? Or will Mr Henry Littlegood, the Space Museum curator, capture the unicorn and turn her into his prize exhibit?”

Last Train to London…

~ GraydonJonesWriter

That’s what’s playing on my Spotify. And this is probably the last post of 2023. Some of the eagle-eyed amongst you may have spotted that this is also the first and only post of 2023. I (may) get back to that later, but there was a reason it was playing.

I had just listened to the previous track on ELO’s Discovery album – The Diary of Horace Wimp. Why? Well, Horace is one of the villains in my latest story and one of my lovely beta readers hadn’t heard of the name before. She also struggled with its pronunciation. Of course, I wanted to show that Horace is an actual name and not something I had just dreamt up. And, after a few days of head-scratching, I remembered this song.

Want to know more about Horace? Well, I’ll say more in the new year. Until then, have a very merry Christmas and happy new year.

Artemis

~ GraydonJonesWriter

08/12/2022

A bit late for November, but here it is.

Technogasmic

Did you watch the launch of Artemis 1?

I must admit to enjoying the full technogasmic experience, watching the liftoff of Artemis One on 16th November 2022. I doubt I’ll see the colonisation of Mars, or even the Moon, in my lifetime, but the thought of the Artemis programme and what they’re hoping to achieve is truly awe-inspiring, and something I will follow closely.
If you missed the launch, go here for the entire YouTube event broadcast live by NASA.
I used the word — my own, newly invented word — technogasmic, because of the excellent commentary that accompanied the video.

Some of the highlights for me:-

T -06:12, They bring the High Energy systems online.
T -04:57, Space Force arm the Flight Termination system… This gives Space Force the ability to self-destruct the rocket if it goes in the wrong direction.
T -02:30 Watching the engines ‘gimbal’….
T -01:30 Computers now on internal power
T -00:30 ALS takes over – Autonomous, Launch Sequencer.
And, of course, the spectacular ignition sequence…
T -00:07s, Flooding the mobile launcher with water

For anyone writing Sci-Fi, this was inspiring.

I must mention some of the camera angles and the quality of the pictures. Visually stunning, and a far cry from the picture I saw as a small boy in 1969. The TV was a small black and white box that my mum and dad rented, but, on it, I was blown away watching Apollo 11’s liftoff and then Neil Armstrong’s walk on the Moon.

Talking about that old TV…

National Space Centre

My birthday treat this year was a trip to the UK’s National Space Centre. It’s located in Leicester because of the research links the local university has with space agencies such as NASA and the ESA, dating back to the early 60s. Back then, their focus was on X-ray and research technology.

There were many interesting things to see ranging from a Blue Streak rocket from the 1950s, an actual 1960s Soyuz spacecraft to mock-ups of a room with… yes, an old TV set that people ‘back then’ would have watched the Apollo 11 moon landing on.

The high point of the day, for me, was the Sir Patrick Moore’s Planetarium. Blew me away – sufficed to say, well worth a visit.

Escape from Hades

My own writing is going well, and I’m on track to complete the rewrite to ‘Escape from Hades’ by the 16th of December. This rewrite was to improve the beginning of the story. I believe it has worked, and in doing so, I changed some of the cast; again, I believe that has worked. Over the coming weeks, I will revisit the blurb and synopsis after completing the final 2 chapters. I’m hoping to have the whole thing reviewed by my development readers by the end of February.

Vicky – Wattpad

What else? Oh yes… I popped a short ‘deleted’ scene from another work in progress (First Contact) onto my new Wattpad account. This was prompted by hearing NASA’s Artemis Space programme was bringing together Google and Cisco to create a voice-activated control system…

I can hear the late James Doohan saying “computer”… those were the days 😉

Finally, let me wish you all a very happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year… And don’t forget to watch the stars.

In the air tonight

~ GraydonJonesWriter

The title? In truth, I couldn’t think of anything to sum up this month’s writing, so I bucked the Facebook trend of choosing the last thing I ate and the colour of my underwear and went with what I’m listening to — Phil Collins’ defining work.

Now, what a month. Gathering my thoughts I spent a lot of it in bed or under the weather, but despite this, I have completed much writing, including the re-write of my current story, Escape from Hades. I say completed, but in reality, it’s the section where I connect the new beginning of the story to the existing middle and ending. I had suspected this would be a smooth transition, but introducing three new characters and handling the demise of two others has made more things difficult for me. Yet, here on the 23rd of October 2022, I have completed that connection and, in my opinion, quite smoothly. There is the small matter of the remaining 40,000 words, but I’ll think about this tomorrow.

What else? Oh, I enjoyed some good TV, endured politics, and helped other writers by critiquing their stories.

I’ll save the good things for last and touch on the state of the Country. As a layman, I don’t see why our government can’t use a windfall tax on the energy companies to 1, help pay for government borrowing and 2, force the energy companies to invest NOW in green energy, like they should have been doing these past 12 years. But I’m neither a politician nor an economist; I’m just… enduring it, like many others. Rant over.

Good TV. Well, we’ve enjoyed watching the latest series of Professor T. Ben Miller is one of the best character/comedy actors around today, and, in my opinion, highly underrated. His portrayal of the Cambridge University criminologist Jasper Tempest, who suffers from OCD and a traumatic past, sees Miller at his understated best assisting the hapless local Bobbies to solve complex wrong-doings. I understand [from IMDB] it is based on a Belgian series of the same name, and one can’t help but draw parallels with Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. This parallel echoes his past performance in another BBC production, Death in Paradise. Again, Miller plays an understated, genius detective solving the unsolvable using Agatha Christie-esque tools. Well worth a watch.

Ben Miller – Professor T

We’ve some pretty good movies, too. The latest was The Duke, starring Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren and Matthew Goode. It was after watching this film, based on a true story of one man’s determined if naïve fight against social injustice, that inspired me to write my [little] political rant, above. The characters are lovable and despite the predictable, feel-good ending, there is a little unexpected twist. Again, well worth the watch.

Last but not least, I have been determined to give back a little to fellow writers. As a member of a critique group, I, for the first time, volunteered to help other writers by reading their work and pointing out areas where they might improve. My most important rules were: to choose genres I would read (and therefore understand) and TO BE KIND. I truly believe in what we practised when bringing up our children. It’s easy to knock someone down, but it is better to be the wind beneath someone’s wings or the fertile soil in which they can grow.
With that, I can’t see a better way of signing off.

Andy Weir

~ GraydonJonesWriter

I use ProWritingAid when I draft my stories. It’s an essential piece of software for authors and has a dedicated and expansive online following. The team behind it not only offers responsive technical support but provides many educational resources for aspiring writers.
For example, the company provides an academy and holds an annual writer’s week. During this week, they provide free webinars and networking events that focus on a particular genre. One of my favourite activities is the Featured Author talks.
Authors contribute to the week by coming onto webinars where they set out how and why they write what they write, and answer questions from eager young writers and fans.
My favourite author interview this year has to be Andy Weir.
The Martian is one of my all-time favourite stories, and it was interesting to hear Andy describe how it became popular through the power of social media before being picked up by a major publisher.
Despite the Martian ‘rocketing’ to success, he came across as a very down-to-earth guy who just loved to write.
As Andy laughed and joked about his path to success, several things surprised me. I found his approach to research mirrored my own. I like to manufacture a story that is as believable as possible, and as long as it is internally consistent — that’s the important bit — I won’t let real science stand in the way of the story.
Andy gave an example of how the Martian ferocious storm that left Mark Watney stranded on Mars couldn’t have happened in reality, but it made a great opening scene. Though he went through some alternatives, such as Martian lightning, I think he made the right choice; as Slartibartfast would say, “I’d rather be happy than be right any day.”
Another surprise (or was it a surprise, really?) was that, like three other Sci-Fi authors featured during the week, Andy shared a technical background, not unlike my own.
Would all these coincidences rub off on me and my writing? I doubt it. I think it’s all about having a spark of an idea and putting in the work to make it something readers want.
It turned out that readers didn’t want to read Andy’s follow-up novel so much, but he explained that he thought this was because he had created a protagonist that wasn’t wholly likeable. It was an interesting idea that I believe can adversely impact your story. Having not read the book (Artemis) I couldn’t comment on whether or not I agree with Andy’s assessment of his lead character. I would say, however, that there have been at least a couple of stories where I have taken an instant dislike to the lead character and just abandoned the book.
Andy’s next story looks as though it will see him back to being a best seller. ‘Project Hail Mary’, is already popular with readers and is set to be a movie starring Ryan Gosling.
Even more important, though, I’ve put this book on my reading list.

Third time lucky?

~ GraydonJonesWriter

Okay, I admit it. I am a terrible blogger. But you know how it is, right? Always distracted by this and that, mainly what I want to blog about, my writing. So the conundrum is, how to have something to blog about if I haven’t anything written to blog about?

According to many writers, a blog is an important way of getting out there. connecting with your readers. I could go on to defend my position but time is ticking so I’ll just apologise and try to do better with this attempt at blogging.