Newsletter: UESI Activates
Available to read and ponder NOW!
UESI Is Here
My latest book has started to hit online vendors in ebook form. Paperbacks will come later. Find links here.
I’m proud of the work because I pushed myself hard in terms of the restrictions I placed on the story. It’s told mostly through dialogue, with some of the story hiding between the lines in a way that makes sense if you read it and pay attention. :-)
Paid subscribers: I’ll sort out a link to your free ebook copy over the next week. (And it’s not too late to become a paid subscriber and get a copy as well!)
I’ve also launched a Kickstarter for exclusive luxury hardback editions shown in the image above. With Kickstarter you back a project, and if enough people back it to make it successful, the money goes to the creator and the backers receive the rewards they chose. If there isn’t enough support, then it costs the backers nothing (and the creator gets nothing!). I always appreciate it hugely when people support my ideas in this way and bring new things into the world. All you have to do is create a Kickstarter account (which is easy), or use an existing one.
Here’s a link to the Kickstarter. Please have a look and see if any of the rewards or add-ons appeal to you! It’s a wonderful opportunity to get my books, and there’s even a bundle of every ebook I have released.
Lastly, I still have a few signed paperbacks of other books left, mentioned last time.
Personal
I recently found this autobiography I wrote as part of a 2016 application for some funding. It was fun to reread it, so I thought I’d share it here:
“I grew up in Manchester, a place I love and hate. My father died when I was a child and we moved around a lot. New schools, new houses. I found it hard to keep making new friends so retreated into books and fell in love with story-telling. There were other worlds I could visit as I read at the top of the weeping willow, or underneath my bed by torchlight. Then I discovered that I could make my own worlds too and began writing stories and poems, often quite dark juvenilia. They were published in school magazines and that made me happy.
With the exception of English, where I always got top marks, I was a rebellious and problematic child, unhappy and worried about my family. I experienced my first bouts of depression, a mental state that has been my occasional companion in life. Then I went to a further education college and it turned my life around. I learned to love studying – not because I was told to, and punished if I didn’t, but because I wanted to learn. I studied extra subjects and went to night school too, despite it meaning I was sometimes in college for 12 hours. I became the first person in my family to go to university and eventually got first class honours in English and Classics (specialising in Ancient Greek language).
I moved to Wales, achieved an MSc in Information Studies, and became a university librarian. All this time I kept writing. And every year I would look back on my older work and see its flaws, learn from them, and continue writing new stories. In 2015 I decided to dedicate myself to writing full time and left my library job after 25 years of helping staff and students. I accepted shaky income prospects in exchange for being able to immerse myself in what I love – writing.”
Ah, seems so long ago now.
I also love cooking. Here’s my recipe for chick pea and sweetcorn chowder.
Review Corner
Here’s a 5* review of my book Cold Fusion 2000 (review written by author Audrey Driscoll):
“There's a lot packed into this short book--belated coming of age, family dynamics, life choices, a lost (and found) love, and physics. I appreciated the immersion into a world I have never experienced and probably never will. The arrival of Lucy amps up the romance aspect of the story, and her departure adds an element of mystery.”
Thank you Audrey!
I’ve been thinking about what I put in newsletters. What would you like to see? Short videos, where I speak directly? Q&A stuff about writing, or me and my work?
Stay warm,
Karl