Saturday 27 August 2016

Neon Driver cover competition

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Art / Graphic design competition - Neon Driver
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I would love to be able to afford to hire an artist to create some amazing, cool, cyberpunk-style artwork for this, but alas, I am poor. Maybe the promise of credit and 5 free hard copies of Neon Driver would be enough?

I'm opening up a competition which won't close until the final book proof has been made: design me a book cover that you think would match well with this story, or even just artwork in general that I could use to adorn a website, and I will post you 5 hard copies of the finished book. Email me submissions or questions to ajsproof@yahoo.co.uk.

Artwork and covers I love (ha-ha, I'm dreaming)

Neon Driver chapter one draft: Kingdom City

Readers, friends, comrades; behold: Neon Driver's opening chapter has passed its first draft. Since this is my opening foray into cyberpunk and sci-fi, and because it's generally a good idea to get off on the right foot, I have made it available to download in PDF form. I would massively appreciate it if any of you could take the time to read it and complete the questionnaire (all links below). Anyone who does so will receive a free review copy of the finished book. Comments also welcome here!

'Til the darkness takes over...

Download link: http://bit.ly/2bujqbZ
Survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/72FD5LH


Wednesday 10 August 2016

Having fun with covers and new novel update

Walking around bookstores and looking at horror and thriller covers, I came to the conclusion that I didn't like mine much! So I changed it up and 'rebranded' my image slightly, setting a template that I could use for future books. Here are the results. Check out the blurbs for Spirits of Eden and Neon Driver to see if they whet your appetite!




Wednesday 3 August 2016

The journey of a novel

My journey for The Risen was a pretty pragmatic one. I've procrastinated for years (in part because I didn't feel ready though) but last Nanowrimo I told myself to complete a project, and so I wrote it in a month, doing around 2,000 words or more a day. I began with a theme and a couple characters, and an idea of the world, and that was it. Previously I had planned too much and what I was coming up with didn't feel very natural. With Nanowrimo, the goal was to let the characters lead the way, and to write an adventure-style narrative; and overall, to go for quantity over quality. It was a lot easier afterwards to edit, as the hard work had already been done. When you're so involved in your story every day, you live with it, and ideas come easy. I didn't know the ending until half-way through, but when it came, it was very natural.