MARCH 8!!
Yep. That's right. A Soul Worth Taking will be released on Tuesday, March 8th.
Make sure you virtually start lining up for your copy now, but no line jumping. They'll be enough for everybody. :-)
Monday, February 7, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
William Meikle--guest post
The Valley
WHY I WROTE THE VALLEY
The origins of the novella "The Valley" are pretty simple to trace. In Fortean circles there have been attempts to find a picture that many claim to have seen, yet no-one has been able to find. This fabled photograph is said to show a group of Civil-War era men standing in a row wearing big grins. Spreadeagled on the ground in front of them is the body of a huge bird, a being that could only come from pre-history. In some accounts this bird is a giant eagle, in others it is even stranger, a leathery, paper thin Pterosaur. Whatever the case, that image was the thing in my mind, and I had a "What if..." moment, wondering what would happen if cowboys came across a Lost World. From that single thought, the initial concept of The Valley was born.
There's a long tradition of Lost World tales, both in movies and fiction. Over the years I've devoured as many as I can find, from Conan Doyle through Haggard, from Tarzan in Pellucidar to Doug McLure in the Land that Time Forgot. Many of these tales involve dinosaurs, but I wanted something different. For a while I didn't know exactly what "creatures" I needed, but that all changed as soon as the setting clicked. Back in 2005 I had the good fortune to holiday in the Rockies. It was while scanning through photographs of that trip that the thought of the high mountain valley came to me, and when Neil Jackson told me about Montana and the Big Hole Valley, I knew I'd found my spot. And the pictures of the ice and snow from my trip also gave me the era from which I would draw my creatures -- the last Ice Age. I now knew that my protagonists would be heading into a Lost Valley where relic animals lived, and that these creatures would be hairy and large. I had an image of a herd of mammoths by a partially-frozen lake, and that was the image that drove me on in the early concepts.
Now I needed some protagonists. I knew in advance I wanted to write a "western" and some research led me to set the story in the 1860s, when something of a mini-goldrush was happening in Montana. The characters grew on me quickly. I wasn't too surprised at that -- my early childhood was steeped in Westerns. I have my Granddad to thank for days watching Wagon Train, Rawhide, Bonanza and Gunsmoke, then later on, The Virginian and The High Chapparal. He also introduced me to Louis L'Amour and others as I devoured his collection of Western paperbacks. As I started the Valley I already knew that I was going to have six men thrown into peril, and that they'd be almost evenly split between white and black hats. Several of them surprised me as the story went on, but from the start they had a "depth" that reassured me that the story would go to all the right places.
I got them to the mining camp, and the start of the aforesaid perils. Then my muse threw a spanner in the works. I've been a Ray Harryhausen fan most of my life, and the creature that now came to mind was a Harryhausen special, one that I could "see" in my mind's eye, scuttling and "snipping". Unfortunately it didn't exist in the Ice Age, but at a time much longer ago. But I wanted it, so in it went. I won't give the plot away here, but suffice to say I managed to fit it in -- I managed to fit a lot of them in. And as a result the rest of the story immediately fell into place, almost as if I was channeling a new Harryhausen movie.
I wrote the while thing in less than ten days, my brain thinking about little else the whole time. It's one of the most fun experiences I've ever had writing, and I hope it shows in the final product. Even now, more than a year after finishing it, I still find myself thinking about the Valley, and the creatures that inhabit it. Somewhere, the story continues, and one day I might go back to find out what happened next.
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William Meikle is a Scottish writer with ten novels published in the genre press and over 200 short story credits in thirteen countries. He is the author of the ongoing Midnight Eye series among others, and his work appears in a number of professional anthologies. His ebook THE INVASION has been as high as #2 in the Kindle SF charts and THE VALLEY has reached #1 in the Kindle Historical Fantasy chart. He lives in a remote corner of Newfoundland with icebergs, whales and bald eagles for company. In the winters he gets warm vicariously through the lives of others in cyberspace, so please check him out at http://www.williammeikle.com
The origins of the novella "The Valley" are pretty simple to trace. In Fortean circles there have been attempts to find a picture that many claim to have seen, yet no-one has been able to find. This fabled photograph is said to show a group of Civil-War era men standing in a row wearing big grins. Spreadeagled on the ground in front of them is the body of a huge bird, a being that could only come from pre-history. In some accounts this bird is a giant eagle, in others it is even stranger, a leathery, paper thin Pterosaur. Whatever the case, that image was the thing in my mind, and I had a "What if..." moment, wondering what would happen if cowboys came across a Lost World. From that single thought, the initial concept of The Valley was born.
There's a long tradition of Lost World tales, both in movies and fiction. Over the years I've devoured as many as I can find, from Conan Doyle through Haggard, from Tarzan in Pellucidar to Doug McLure in the Land that Time Forgot. Many of these tales involve dinosaurs, but I wanted something different. For a while I didn't know exactly what "creatures" I needed, but that all changed as soon as the setting clicked. Back in 2005 I had the good fortune to holiday in the Rockies. It was while scanning through photographs of that trip that the thought of the high mountain valley came to me, and when Neil Jackson told me about Montana and the Big Hole Valley, I knew I'd found my spot. And the pictures of the ice and snow from my trip also gave me the era from which I would draw my creatures -- the last Ice Age. I now knew that my protagonists would be heading into a Lost Valley where relic animals lived, and that these creatures would be hairy and large. I had an image of a herd of mammoths by a partially-frozen lake, and that was the image that drove me on in the early concepts.
Now I needed some protagonists. I knew in advance I wanted to write a "western" and some research led me to set the story in the 1860s, when something of a mini-goldrush was happening in Montana. The characters grew on me quickly. I wasn't too surprised at that -- my early childhood was steeped in Westerns. I have my Granddad to thank for days watching Wagon Train, Rawhide, Bonanza and Gunsmoke, then later on, The Virginian and The High Chapparal. He also introduced me to Louis L'Amour and others as I devoured his collection of Western paperbacks. As I started the Valley I already knew that I was going to have six men thrown into peril, and that they'd be almost evenly split between white and black hats. Several of them surprised me as the story went on, but from the start they had a "depth" that reassured me that the story would go to all the right places.
I got them to the mining camp, and the start of the aforesaid perils. Then my muse threw a spanner in the works. I've been a Ray Harryhausen fan most of my life, and the creature that now came to mind was a Harryhausen special, one that I could "see" in my mind's eye, scuttling and "snipping". Unfortunately it didn't exist in the Ice Age, but at a time much longer ago. But I wanted it, so in it went. I won't give the plot away here, but suffice to say I managed to fit it in -- I managed to fit a lot of them in. And as a result the rest of the story immediately fell into place, almost as if I was channeling a new Harryhausen movie.
I wrote the while thing in less than ten days, my brain thinking about little else the whole time. It's one of the most fun experiences I've ever had writing, and I hope it shows in the final product. Even now, more than a year after finishing it, I still find myself thinking about the Valley, and the creatures that inhabit it. Somewhere, the story continues, and one day I might go back to find out what happened next.
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William Meikle is a Scottish writer with ten novels published in the genre press and over 200 short story credits in thirteen countries. He is the author of the ongoing Midnight Eye series among others, and his work appears in a number of professional anthologies. His ebook THE INVASION has been as high as #2 in the Kindle SF charts and THE VALLEY has reached #1 in the Kindle Historical Fantasy chart. He lives in a remote corner of Newfoundland with icebergs, whales and bald eagles for company. In the winters he gets warm vicariously through the lives of others in cyberspace, so please check him out at http://www.williammeikle.com
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
William Meikle--guest post on Jan. 28
Just wanted to announce I will be hosting William Meikle on Jan. 28th as he is on a blog tour. I always like to help out other writers when possible. For those who aren't familiar with him here's a bio:
William Meikle is a Scottish writer with ten novels published in the genre press and over 200 short story credits in thirteen countries. He is the author of the ongoing Midnight Eye series among others, and his work appears in a number of professional anthologies. His ebook THE INVASION has been as high as #2 in the Kindle SF charts and THE VALLEY has reached #1 in the Kindle Historical Fantasy chart. He lives in a remote corner of Newfoundland with icebergs, whales and bald eagles for company. In the winters he gets warm vicariously through the lives of others in cyberspace, so please check him out at http://www.williammeikle.com
William Meikle is a Scottish writer with ten novels published in the genre press and over 200 short story credits in thirteen countries. He is the author of the ongoing Midnight Eye series among others, and his work appears in a number of professional anthologies. His ebook THE INVASION has been as high as #2 in the Kindle SF charts and THE VALLEY has reached #1 in the Kindle Historical Fantasy chart. He lives in a remote corner of Newfoundland with icebergs, whales and bald eagles for company. In the winters he gets warm vicariously through the lives of others in cyberspace, so please check him out at http://www.williammeikle.com
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Escape
Just wanted to let everyone know who hasn't purchased Escape yet that the price is now just .99 cents on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. There's no timeframe for it so I expect it will remain that price for a while. Sales at $1.99 just aren't strong enough so in an attempt to get more sales I decided to lower it. I have noticed a slight uptick in the few days since the price change so hopefully it'll work.
Monday, January 10, 2011
A Soul Worth Taking---beta feedback
Well I started getting feedback this past weekend for A Soul Worth Taking. So far it's looking really good. Got the reactions that I was hoping I would get. The 1st reader stated that she cried after the first couple of chapters. That's good because it means that I did a good job of making her care about what was going on. She also said some parts "freaked her out a few times". Which is also good cause I was hoping to give the heebie jeebies...LOL. We'll see how the rest of the beta readers feel...should be getting more feedback this week. I will keep you all posted on the results.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
2011 goals
As I promised yesterday, I'm back to talk of my plans for this year. First off, Shattered is officially being renamed A Soul Worth Taking. From the feedback I was getting, that was the title people seemed to prefer. And I like it. So that's what we're going with. This post will only talk generally about my goals for this year so I'll put up a post in the next couple days talking specifically about the book and when it will be released. My goal for this year is to put out 5 new releases. I think I can do it, but at the same time I'm not just gonna write up any old slop and throw it out there. A Soul Worth Taking is a definite and will be out within a couple months. Empire should be finished by the end of January and in the hands of beta readers shortly after that. That should be out no later than May. The 2nd book in The Evil Series, tentatively titled The Woods, is also being worked on now and should be finished by the end of February or March. So it's pretty easy to suggest that it'll be out by the end of the summer. I would also like to get the 3rd & 4th books of The Evil Series out by the end of the year as well. They have not been started yet, except for some outlining, but if I have the other books done by the end of February that would leave a lot of time to get those 2 done. That would give me 5 new releases for this year.
I really want the entire Evil series to be out this year as I think it has a chance to be a real success. I think it's a really interesting premise...but I am biased! The genre of the Evil series is Thriller/Suspense. Empire is Fantasy. As of right now I do not derive most of my income from writing and I really would like that to change come the end of this year. I think this series, along with Empire, has the potential to change that. Of course, you never really know how your books will be perceived so it's possible everyone will think they stink!
Assuming I get those 5 books released this year I also plan to start writing a couple of other Thrillers, along with another Fantasy, that I have in mind. So it's shaping up to be a busy year for me. Hopefully, it'll be a successful one, and I'll be able to take another step forward.
Thanks for your continued support.
I really want the entire Evil series to be out this year as I think it has a chance to be a real success. I think it's a really interesting premise...but I am biased! The genre of the Evil series is Thriller/Suspense. Empire is Fantasy. As of right now I do not derive most of my income from writing and I really would like that to change come the end of this year. I think this series, along with Empire, has the potential to change that. Of course, you never really know how your books will be perceived so it's possible everyone will think they stink!
Assuming I get those 5 books released this year I also plan to start writing a couple of other Thrillers, along with another Fantasy, that I have in mind. So it's shaping up to be a busy year for me. Hopefully, it'll be a successful one, and I'll be able to take another step forward.
Thanks for your continued support.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
2010 Sales
Now that 2010 is over I figured I'd look back at my sales figures and see how I did and the results are a little mixed. I'm still not where I'd like to be (selling thousands a month)...but sales did improve dramatically this past year. They were over 6 times better than 2009 so I am happy about that. I don't have the final Barnes and Noble figures yet as their system is down but most of my sales are from Amazon anyway so it doesn't really skewer anything. Here's how my books rank by sales. These include both paperback and e-books.
1) The Assassin
2) Escape
3) Bounty Hunter
4) Deadlock
5) Day of the Assassin
Here's how I look at it: The Assassin is by far my best seller at more than 2 to 1 over Escape and almost 3 to 1 over the #4 Deadlock. I always assumed Escape, which is a thriller, would eventually take over the sales lead since Westerns aren't as popular but it's never happened and I don't think it's ever going to. I tend to think it's because Assassin isn't a straight Western and has some Mystery elements to it so it may get some people who wouldn't have read it otherwise. Bounty Hunter and Deadlock are more straight Westerns and are pretty much where I expected them to be, though I actually thought Deadlock would be 3rd, but they're still pretty close. Day of the Assassin has sold about what I expected for a short story collection so I'm ok with its sales. E-books continue to be the bulk of my sales. In 2009, 92% of sales were from e-books. In 2010, 96% of sales were from e-books. Of course, I'm totally fine with that. The prices are much more attractive to readers, and I get just as much royalties from it as paperbacks. I'd love for the paperbacks to be less expensive but there's not much I can do to lower them. I've tried.
So all things considered 2010 was a really good year for me. Thank you to everyone who has given even one of my books a chance. It means a lot to me to know there are people out there reading my work (and hopefully enjoying them). I really can't say thank you enough. I am very appreciative of your support. I will be back with another post tomorrow outlining my goals for 2011. I am planning on this being my best year yet. I will definitely have out 3 new releases. Empire and books one and two from The Evil Series. Depending on how fast I write I might have as many as 5 or 6 though. We'll see but I'm hopeful. Hope everyone's doing well, had a good 2010, and an even better 2011. Thanks so much!
1) The Assassin
2) Escape
3) Bounty Hunter
4) Deadlock
5) Day of the Assassin
Here's how I look at it: The Assassin is by far my best seller at more than 2 to 1 over Escape and almost 3 to 1 over the #4 Deadlock. I always assumed Escape, which is a thriller, would eventually take over the sales lead since Westerns aren't as popular but it's never happened and I don't think it's ever going to. I tend to think it's because Assassin isn't a straight Western and has some Mystery elements to it so it may get some people who wouldn't have read it otherwise. Bounty Hunter and Deadlock are more straight Westerns and are pretty much where I expected them to be, though I actually thought Deadlock would be 3rd, but they're still pretty close. Day of the Assassin has sold about what I expected for a short story collection so I'm ok with its sales. E-books continue to be the bulk of my sales. In 2009, 92% of sales were from e-books. In 2010, 96% of sales were from e-books. Of course, I'm totally fine with that. The prices are much more attractive to readers, and I get just as much royalties from it as paperbacks. I'd love for the paperbacks to be less expensive but there's not much I can do to lower them. I've tried.
So all things considered 2010 was a really good year for me. Thank you to everyone who has given even one of my books a chance. It means a lot to me to know there are people out there reading my work (and hopefully enjoying them). I really can't say thank you enough. I am very appreciative of your support. I will be back with another post tomorrow outlining my goals for 2011. I am planning on this being my best year yet. I will definitely have out 3 new releases. Empire and books one and two from The Evil Series. Depending on how fast I write I might have as many as 5 or 6 though. We'll see but I'm hopeful. Hope everyone's doing well, had a good 2010, and an even better 2011. Thanks so much!
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