7:57:55 PM Image by rolffimages http://www.canstockphoto.com/tear-for-humanity-1850985.html

I’ve modified this image for my twitter account https://twitter.com/Alien_Crucible and I’ve used it for my book covers. It’s a great image and of course others can download it for a price which is fine. Others using the same image for their things is not something that worries me.

I tried wattpad for a couple of months – sucked in by the snazzy adverts but it didn’t deliver as per vid. You have to do a lot to gain an audience – and I mean a lot. There’s the reading of other works and the forums and chats…but I speak another language these days – old. But it’s all fair I guess. What I didn’t find fair was that under their ‘undiscovered’ tab were 600+ authors (probably more because I gave up counting after 600) and most had thousands of views. Anyway, I still think it’s a great platform. I did have one concern and that was the amount of plagiarism of book covers and movie scenes snaps used as book covers. I daresay there’s a small copyright control issue including using images, titles, and then basing stories on known and published stories. I actually enjoy Fan Fiction but some work didn’t even have attributions. Hmmm…maybe I’m just a grump!

My main novel is with beta readers, and my Jamie novella – a part of the Alien Crucible series – is with my new proofreader:

Check it out! mrproofreader will be your book editor and professional proof… for $5 on #Fiverr https://www.fiverr.com/s2/6019a06605

Of course that’s $5 for 1000 words, with some special packages if you have a lot of words, but worth checking out all the same. Grammar isn’t my thing I’m afraid so I have to use a proofreader – but, even if grammar is your thing it’s still very hard to proof your own work.

So, while I wait for stuff to role in I’ve resurrected an old novel, my first, called ‘Kingdoms Away’. I had an ISBN for it, and put it up on Amazon before self-publishing was the rage. I used Booksurge which is now CreateSpace. Actually, I just wanted friends and family to access it to show I could actually complete something! I think I gave away most copies and then when I tried to pull it down, I found a copy for $100. I think it was a spare hard copy Amazon had – whatever, it was weird. No ebooks then, not that I can remember. Talking of wattpad earlier I found a story called – you guessed it, ‘Kingdoms Away’. But, there are many book titles that are similar or the same – so whatever! I’ve divided the book into four parts and reworking them, tightening up the plot. But as far as first works go, it’s not too shabby. But I can spot all the newbie mistakes! Such is a writer’s life, hey.

Anyway, I’m also working away on the http://aliencrucible.com/ gradually building the site to support all the logs. I’m getting ready to edit all the blurbs and get them up too. I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me and time will tell if it pays off and I’m not talking fame and money (laughing here), I’m talking of sharing my work with those who enjoy it.

That’s all for now,

Cheers