Happy new year to all! If you celebrated the whole xmas period I hope it was merry and full of whatever things you like doing. New books, new word experiences and plenty of mouth pleasure, (that's all food is at xmas, right?!) Mine was family filled and new years eve was Srabble-icious, with some back to back comedies. Knocking out QUEUED for 105 points in the Scrabble game was probably my highlight, ha! (Lots of double letters and double words involved.)
January has started positively on the book front, with a few additions to the roster.
Neon City Book 3, Purge of Deceit, is now out and available to purchase, or read in Kindle Unlimited.
With this one, I really wanted the characters of Elissa, Annora, Deke and Calix to be the driving force of the story, delving deep into their motivations while asking questions of the city. I also wanted to try and break down a lot of the narrative limitations that the city itself posed upon ME, the writer, so that I could go into the final trilogy (Neon Driver, see previous entries) with a little more freedom. I hope you enjoy it, readers. I had a lot of fun writing it.
If you're new to my writing, or at least new to the Neon City trilogy aspect of the Neon series, then the
boxset is also now available, enabling you to purchase all 3 books at a reduced rate.
Paperbacks (and signed)
I've also caught up with the paperback situation. All 6 books in the series are now available as paperbacks (if anyone wants the Neon Zero prequel book in paperback, let me know.) Neon Sands is now selling in my local store, so I have plenty of copies of this, should anyone like a signed copy. If you contact me via email or through social media, I would be happy to send you a signed copy for £10 (plus P&P if you're outside the UK).
The Risen Part II
I'm not sure if that should be part 2 or part II. I prefer part II, but what does that do to the algorithms, if anything? Something for me to research! Anyway, as a bit of a break from Neon, my next book is going to return to The Risen world. Looking back at the story and the reader comments, there's potential there for me to tap into, and I've wanted to do a first-person narrative for a while; and the way part 1 ends offers me a perfect opportunity to explore this. The world is your typical post-apocalyptic one, set in the UK, with a monster variety. However, there is a twist -
you'll need to read the first one to find out.
New year
This year will be different. There will be a revamp, both in the focus of my writing, but also in my online presence. My Instagram and website will no longer be Stranger Writings, but Adam J Smith Author - Sci-fi, Dystopian, and Horror. This will also be exemplified on my Twitter and Facebook pages. Find me, and you will know what I write. For many writers, writing the book is the easy part, it's maintaining an online profile and building up support where the struggle begins. I think it requires a discipline and certain extravagance that many, like me, don't have. We wish we could just churn out something and put it out there and by magic, people will find it. We have to advertise it, and us too, and I often forget that.
So this blog will play a role; a weekly update whenever possible. Connecting with other authors, and sharing more about myself , while also updating on book offers. I have a 2k mailing list, but that needs to grow, so I'll rejoin bookfunnel and storyorigin, and rebrand the newsletter. And I'll grow the Facebook page, sharing more posts both related to my work, but also to hashtags like #cyberpunk #scifi and #coolshit. Or something. It'll get something done to it.
About me
My stories percolate
in the shadow of the Malvern Hills in Central England; just a few long strides
from a glorious view, though one not so grand or as high as the sand mountain,
no doubt. Rain dapples this quaint English town (of course it does) but on clear
days you can see for miles as the land ebbs and flows, green and pale fields
sliced apart by hedgerow and road. The occasional farmhouse unchanged for
decades. Perhaps a boxy Grand Design or two.
This is nothing like
Neon, and neither is the town plagued by an overzealous hierarchy. (At least to
my knowledge, though fools and kings are so often interchangeable.) So Neon is
my escape; while I dream of places like Tokyo and Google the dunes of the
Sahara, hoping one day to visit. Who lives here? And what do they do? Why do they do it? These questions I try
to answer, pointing the character towards a goal and letting them make their
own decisions on the way. I’m often surprised by the result – I hope you are
too.
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never very long to wait until the next title – be sure to follow me wherever
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