I just wanted to quickly say thank you to everyone on Reddit who downloaded my book, The Head Vampire, for free on Wednesday and wrote a review of it.
Reviews are difficult to get, but they're so important when it comes to convincing people to buy your book. I hate asking friends to write reviews, because I can never be assured of an honest opinion. It's a great feeling when I get a complete stranger, with no reason to be kind to me, giving me a good review. It makes me feel like I'm not wasting my time by writing.
So thank you again to everyone who took part, and to those of you who downloaded without reviewing: soon.
Friday, 25 January 2013
To Do List...
My list of things to do:
1. Redraft Licking Walls in the Dark
2. Redraft The Werechicken
3. Publish the above
4. Publish 'collections' of work to date
5. ?????????
6. Make millions
7. Go into work in a kangaroo suit until they ask me to leave
8. Smoke cigars and drink whisky
1. Redraft Licking Walls in the Dark
2. Redraft The Werechicken
3. Publish the above
4. Publish 'collections' of work to date
5. ?????????
6. Make millions
7. Go into work in a kangaroo suit until they ask me to leave
8. Smoke cigars and drink whisky
Monday, 21 January 2013
Interview with myself, Part Two
Evil Steve: All right everyone we're back with everyone's favourite author that no-one has ever heard of, S.J. Magill.
S.J. Magill: I didn't even want to come back...
ES: Hush now, I have more questions. So you currently have three short stories, and two novellas. Is there something wrong with writing a full-length novel?
SJ: Not at all, I have one ready to go, but I thought I should work up some hype before releasing my full-length work.
ES: Well, considering you're interviewing yourself, I think we can all tell how that's going.
SJ: Fair enough. Next question, please.
ES: Which is your favourite colour of Skittle?
SJ: Yellow.
ES: ... I don't think you fully understood the question.
SJ: ... Orange?
ES: Well done. So, your first novella was Love and Lycanthrope. Wouldn't you say that alliterative titles are a bit 1800's?
SJ: Not at all.
ES: What was your inspiration to write a romance novel? Is it because you're a bit girly?
SJ: I wouldn't call it a 'romance novel'
ES: I would.
SJ: Well you're wrong. It's a romantic comedy with werewolves. The setting is a village high in the mountains. It was inspired by the game Skyrim, which I was playing at the time.
ES: Werewolves and a snowy-setting? Sounds like you were asking to be sued.
SJ: Those are about the only similarities.
ES: That's probably true. Skyrim wasn't a sissy romcom.
SJ: It's not 'sissy'.
ES: If you say so. So what about this latest one: The Battlemage. It's a bit different for you.
SJ: What do you mean?
ES: Well, the other ones had jokes, and funny bits. This one is downright creepy.
SJ: Well that was the idea.
ES: Oh thank god, I thought you had taken a blow to the head or something and you thought you were being funny, but just weren't.
SJ: No no, this one was meant to be a horror.
ES: So what are you working on now?
SJ: I've finished the first draft of my third novella, Licking Walls in the Dark. It's about a dwarf who was born and raised in a mine. He uses his sense of taste to seek out deposits of valuable metals in the mines. That's where the title came from.
ES: Gosh, that sounds thrilling, and I'd love to hear more about it, but we're all out of time. Thanks for stopping by. And to my audience: next week we'll see if we can get someone whose work you might have actually read. Goodbye for now.
S.J. Magill: I didn't even want to come back...
ES: Hush now, I have more questions. So you currently have three short stories, and two novellas. Is there something wrong with writing a full-length novel?
SJ: Not at all, I have one ready to go, but I thought I should work up some hype before releasing my full-length work.
ES: Well, considering you're interviewing yourself, I think we can all tell how that's going.
SJ: Fair enough. Next question, please.
ES: Which is your favourite colour of Skittle?
SJ: Yellow.
ES: ... I don't think you fully understood the question.
SJ: ... Orange?
ES: Well done. So, your first novella was Love and Lycanthrope. Wouldn't you say that alliterative titles are a bit 1800's?
SJ: Not at all.
ES: What was your inspiration to write a romance novel? Is it because you're a bit girly?
SJ: I wouldn't call it a 'romance novel'
ES: I would.
SJ: Well you're wrong. It's a romantic comedy with werewolves. The setting is a village high in the mountains. It was inspired by the game Skyrim, which I was playing at the time.
ES: Werewolves and a snowy-setting? Sounds like you were asking to be sued.
SJ: Those are about the only similarities.
ES: That's probably true. Skyrim wasn't a sissy romcom.
SJ: It's not 'sissy'.
ES: If you say so. So what about this latest one: The Battlemage. It's a bit different for you.
SJ: What do you mean?
ES: Well, the other ones had jokes, and funny bits. This one is downright creepy.
SJ: Well that was the idea.
ES: Oh thank god, I thought you had taken a blow to the head or something and you thought you were being funny, but just weren't.
SJ: No no, this one was meant to be a horror.
ES: So what are you working on now?
SJ: I've finished the first draft of my third novella, Licking Walls in the Dark. It's about a dwarf who was born and raised in a mine. He uses his sense of taste to seek out deposits of valuable metals in the mines. That's where the title came from.
ES: Gosh, that sounds thrilling, and I'd love to hear more about it, but we're all out of time. Thanks for stopping by. And to my audience: next week we'll see if we can get someone whose work you might have actually read. Goodbye for now.
Interview with... myself
Ok, since no-one knows who I am, I decided to conduct an interview between myself, and my 'other self', Evil Steve. Here's how it went.
Evil Steve: All right ladies and gentleman, today we have a very special guest, up and coming young 'author', S.J. Magill.
S.J. Magill: Who are you talking to?
ES: My audience.
SJ: There's no audience.
ES: Do you want an interview or not?
SJ: Yes please.
ES: Then shut up!
SJ: sigh
ES: All right, here's our first question: do you like dinosaurs?
SJ: What does that have to do with my work?
ES: Oh, so you only want to talk about your work, do you? Jesus, it's like Woody Harrelson all over again...
SJ: Sorry. Yes, I like dinosaurs.
ES: Uh huh. And what did you think of the movie 'Rampart'?
SJ: I never saw it.
ES: Good man. So tell me about your book 'The Head Vampire'. For those of you in the audience who don't know: a 'vampire' is essentially a human who drinks the blood of other humans to survive. It's really commendable of you, S.J., to write about such a unique subject. I don't think I've ever read a book about vampires before.
SJ: I like vampires, and I wanted to write about them in the context of the world where all my stories take place, Terra.
ES: You know, someone else tried to do their own take on vampires. Her name is Stephanie Meyer. What can you tell me about her.
SJ: I've never met her, but I understand she's done very well for herself.
ES: And do the vampires in your book sparkle?
SJ: No, they do not.
ES: So tell me about 'Terra'
SJ: It's the world where all of my stories take place. It's a bit like Earth, but one of the major sources of energy is magical energy. It's a somewhat unpredictable energy source. The beings on Terra have evolved over a long time in the presence of magical energy, and a natural evolution process has caused some of the races to evolve with supernatural powers. There also exists the phenomenon of 'randomly occurring supernaturalism', where a person whose parents were just normal folk, will be born with special powers.
ES: Sounds thrilling. Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck, or 100 duck-sized horses.
SJ: I'm leaving.
Part 2 Coming soon...
Evil Steve: All right ladies and gentleman, today we have a very special guest, up and coming young 'author', S.J. Magill.
S.J. Magill: Who are you talking to?
ES: My audience.
SJ: There's no audience.
ES: Do you want an interview or not?
SJ: Yes please.
ES: Then shut up!
SJ: sigh
ES: All right, here's our first question: do you like dinosaurs?
SJ: What does that have to do with my work?
ES: Oh, so you only want to talk about your work, do you? Jesus, it's like Woody Harrelson all over again...
SJ: Sorry. Yes, I like dinosaurs.
ES: Uh huh. And what did you think of the movie 'Rampart'?
SJ: I never saw it.
ES: Good man. So tell me about your book 'The Head Vampire'. For those of you in the audience who don't know: a 'vampire' is essentially a human who drinks the blood of other humans to survive. It's really commendable of you, S.J., to write about such a unique subject. I don't think I've ever read a book about vampires before.
SJ: I like vampires, and I wanted to write about them in the context of the world where all my stories take place, Terra.
ES: You know, someone else tried to do their own take on vampires. Her name is Stephanie Meyer. What can you tell me about her.
SJ: I've never met her, but I understand she's done very well for herself.
ES: And do the vampires in your book sparkle?
SJ: No, they do not.
ES: So tell me about 'Terra'
SJ: It's the world where all of my stories take place. It's a bit like Earth, but one of the major sources of energy is magical energy. It's a somewhat unpredictable energy source. The beings on Terra have evolved over a long time in the presence of magical energy, and a natural evolution process has caused some of the races to evolve with supernatural powers. There also exists the phenomenon of 'randomly occurring supernaturalism', where a person whose parents were just normal folk, will be born with special powers.
ES: Sounds thrilling. Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck, or 100 duck-sized horses.
SJ: I'm leaving.
Part 2 Coming soon...
Sorry It's Been A While
Ok, so I've been busy doing some actual writing, as a result, the blog has suffered. And when I say 'suffered', I mean has become completely outdated, so if anyone wants to know anything about me, they can see what life was like about one year ago, which isn't really the purpose of a blog.
ANYWAY.
I've now got five stories published, a first draft of a sixth, a seventh completed (my novel, which I wanted to be the seventh released) and a start on an eighth. Plus there are plans to release collections of the short stories and novellas to increase the numbers of products available. I'm told that's good for business. Not that I'm really bothered. Writing isn't a 'business' for me. Business is what I do behind a desk all day. I don't even think I would want to be a professional writer. That would suck the joy out of it for me. What I WOULD like is for everyone to be like 'hey, this guy is amazing, lets all buy 100 copies of all of his books each,' and then I can retire my lazy ass.
On the assumption that that's not going to happen anytime soon, I'm gonna go ahead and turn up for work tomorrow anyway. Just to be on the safe side.
Anyway, here are some links to my books in case you want to buy them.
For my fellow tea-drinkers:
The Head Vampire
Love and Lycanthrope
The Battlemage
Manic Snake Venom
The Alchemist and the Wizard
And for the Americans/Canadians/Mexicans/Anyone else over that side of the pool:
The Head Vampire
Love and Lycanthrope
The Battlemage
Manic Snake Venom
The Alchemist and the Wizard
Until next time, which hopefully shouldn't be too long...
ANYWAY.
I've now got five stories published, a first draft of a sixth, a seventh completed (my novel, which I wanted to be the seventh released) and a start on an eighth. Plus there are plans to release collections of the short stories and novellas to increase the numbers of products available. I'm told that's good for business. Not that I'm really bothered. Writing isn't a 'business' for me. Business is what I do behind a desk all day. I don't even think I would want to be a professional writer. That would suck the joy out of it for me. What I WOULD like is for everyone to be like 'hey, this guy is amazing, lets all buy 100 copies of all of his books each,' and then I can retire my lazy ass.
On the assumption that that's not going to happen anytime soon, I'm gonna go ahead and turn up for work tomorrow anyway. Just to be on the safe side.
Anyway, here are some links to my books in case you want to buy them.
For my fellow tea-drinkers:
The Head Vampire
Love and Lycanthrope
The Battlemage
Manic Snake Venom
The Alchemist and the Wizard
And for the Americans/Canadians/Mexicans/Anyone else over that side of the pool:
The Head Vampire
Love and Lycanthrope
The Battlemage
Manic Snake Venom
The Alchemist and the Wizard
Until next time, which hopefully shouldn't be too long...
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