STOPPING POWER IS OUT NOW!

My latest short story, STOPPING POWER, and what I’m calling an Agent Carrie Harris Undead Short Story, is now out on Kindle. You can check it out here.

The A6 booklet version is at the printers and should be available for my next event.

Here’s the blurb.

After a gruelling training exercise in the Scottish mountains, Agent Carrie Harris is called to a place hidden from all civilisation. Ill-prepared and under-equipped, she discovers a secret world filled with gruesome evidence of events she can’t comprehend.

As the time for creeping around comes to an end, can she look past the horror and bring her skills to bear to put an end to the unimaginable nightmare?

At the front of the book I’ve written the following author note.

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How we got here, and a question – A note from the author

It all started with my first novel, Fate’s Ambition, a speculative work about an average guy who could make people believe anything he wanted with just a touch.

Whilst using his ability to track down a friend who disappeared, he soon drew the attention of a powerful but secretive group seeking to keep the world’s powers in balance. In walks Agent Carrie Harris, and I soon fell in love with the borderline sociopath crowned with strawberry blonde hair. She’s an intelligent and ruthless killer, with a complete inability to know who not to fall for.

Then the undead arrived in a page-turning series as our heroes rushed to get away from the stinking hoards ready to eat your flesh. A fun romp to write and devoured by the fans.

It was a fan who first planted the seed. Rosanne is her name. What would happen if the two worlds collide? How would Carrie deal with everything turned on its head? If you read on, you’re going to find out.

Stopping Power is a bit of fun and helps sate my need to write and keep her alive somewhere other than in my head, but it’s also a question.

Do you want more?

If you do, then seek me out. Tell me in emails, reviews or on the socials. Tell me you like these worlds together, and in return, I’ll let the words flow again.

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EVENTS

Last week I was at Thame in Oxfordshire selling books at a craft fair. The hall was much smaller than that of Salisbury and the stalls were crammed together with everyone working almost elbow to elbow. I was at the far end of the aisle and facing away from the arriving shoppers. The narrow walkway between the stalls and the lack of a face on approach meant my printed tablecloth had little effect, but it did mean everyone had to pass close to me to get past and no one got away without being offered a bookmark!

The final result was still above average sales with OPERATION DAWN WOLF being the star of the show again. Having only sold four copies of IN THE END, back in the days when that was all I had on the table, I would have been very disappointed.

Part way through I realised there was another author at the event, which probably hurt my sales a little but some people bought from us both, even though the other guy just had a load of books on top of his tablecloth, as opposed to my fairly elaborate offering and free giveaways!

The next event is Wokingham Town Hall on Saturday 19th April and as always, I’m very much looking forward to it!

WORK IN PROGRESS

Scarlet Rain – Weather Apocalypse Series – Book 1 – With 89,000 words behind me in the edit, I’m spending a lot of time on the last 3,000. It needs quite a rework, but it’s getting there and should be done by the end of next week, after which I will start right back at the beginning again.

SALES AND MARKETING

A couple of weeks ago I released OUT OF THE BLUE, an Agent Carrie Harris short story, and experimented with releasing it only as an A6 booklet (which arrived this week) and on Ko-fi. Well it’s plain to see the Ko-fi experiment fell flat on its face with zero subscriptions. In a couple of weeks I will release the book on Kindle and perhaps give it away. At least I know that channel doesn’t work for me, certainly at this point in my author career. I have sold a handful of the A6 copies but mostly I will be using these for giveaways and events.

Other sales are pretty dire with no active promotion happening at the moment, however I plan to run a price drop promotion on IN THE END and OPERATION DAWN WOLF when I do the official launch of STOPPING POWER to my mailing list at the weekend.

I can’t give you any more of an update on what is happening in the background with the film & TV agent I mentioned last week, other than to say the area that she is pitching the book to is getting wider every time I speak with her.

That’s it for this week. Comments and suggestions welcomed as always.