You may have worked out by reading this blog that I have been trying to get a novel published for some time and you’ll see from my previous blogs that it’s finally happened for me. Bloodhound Books have agreed to publish my Locked series starring Charlie Bell, ex-cop, convicted murderer, absent father – and he’s the good guy. The final edit has now been returned, so it’ll all going through. Book 2 – Locked In – is next under my eye for editing. And book 3 – Locked Down – is finally plotted but I’m struggling to find time to write that (more on that next blog). Book 4 – Locked Out – isn’t even under contract and that’s virtually writing itself in my head at least, I just hope I can remember it all when I get to that point.
Just to spice things up a bit, I have also been offered another contract – this time for a short story – an erotic short story! It’s not my regular genre, but it was fun to write, and it got picked for publication, so I can’t complain. Oddly it has also sparked a bit of a flame. A friend of mine pointed out last weekend that another erotica publisher has put out an open call for submissions, closing date was yesterday, so I had 3 days to come up with something. In the end I wrote three shorts until I go the one I wanted. And yes I got it in. (As did the characters!)
The sweetener at the moment is that I have also been really, really lucky with another book. I sent out my Steampunk novel, Shades of Aether, to one publisher – yes just one – and they picked it up!
In all honesty, I really should add that I have had stuff published by this company (Xchyler Publishing) before (Steel & Bone), and had a tentative discussion about the book some months ago, so it wasn’t exactly going in cold. Still it was fabulous to get a really enthusiastic response within three days of submitting the full manuscript. This is also the first of a series, so as I write those, hopefully they too will sell. I’m really loving Shades, it is, basically, another crime novel, but unlike my contemporary crime, which tends towards the dark and gritty) this one has more elements of high adventure and higher society and it is a lot lighter hearted, there are some actual funnies going in. Of course, I’ve still got work to do, editing of the manuscript etc, nothing is polished first go, but it puts a big old smile on my face to know that someone liked it enough to accept. If you’re on Twitter you can find me at @ShadesOfAether, I put the steampunk stuff there.
May held a ton of other things I want to share, but they will have to be in the next blog, because this is the point I want to get to in this post:
Publishing contracts are apparently like busses; nothing happens for ages, then you get three in close succession.
Anyway, this happy bunny has to hop off now. Speak soon.
The Write Route 
Pingback: Bus Contracts | gailbwilliams.co.uk