Christine's Weblog

It's been a long time since I posted... (health issues)

But the good news is, Book 1 of my Fantasy series is out in print! Yes, I know it was out six months ago - but then there were problems, and it wasn't available. Copies didn't even arrive in time for Oxonmoot :( But now it is finally available on Amazon, just in time for Christmas!

Amazon UK is another can of worms - my publisher is currently trying to get it on there. Meanwhile, anyone in the UK who can't wait for another Tolkien Society event can order from www.9realms.co.uk

Fictionwise has a massive anniversary sale on at the moment - 25% off all books.

So you can pick up any of mine at a really silly price!

Occasionally, I amuse myself looking through the Fantasy Best Sellers list at Fictionwise, to see how my books are doing. Today, I was quite flabbergasted to discover:

Book 2 - #400 out of 2313
Book 1 - #175 out of 2313
Book 3 - #150 out of 2313!!

I have no idea how this translates into sales (since Fictionwise pays only a pittance of a royalty and doesn't give numbers of individual sales) - but it can't be bad. I'm also ahead of other authors in my publisher's stable, who are considered good sellers.

Go me!

"The Trial of Cyrhision" is available in Amazon's Kindle!

More precisely, Book 3 "The Song of Avallon" is available. (This is because new books are going up on the site before old.)

But it doesn't matter - Book 3 is a separate story, with new characters, so can be read without reference to the previous two.

Of course, if you like it, you might want to read the forerunners... if you can't wait, you can download them from Readers' Eden in whatever format (aside from Kindle) that you wish.

Today, the third book in my 'Trial of Cyrhision' series was released!

I'm so happy to have the whole series out at last. It's been something of a struggle to write and edit over the past six months, as my health has not been so good, but now I feel a sense of achievement: the project I began so many years ago is complete, the story I just had to tell is out there for whoever wants to read it.

More about the book, 'The Song of Avallon' is here.
It's for sale at Readers' Eden, price $4.95.

And the next series is coming on apace. I'll post about that soon!

The reason for my long delay in posting is that I have been ill. This is something that comes with age, unfortunately.

The good news is that my condition is now stable, and I have been getting on as fast as I can with writing my next book. I will soon have three out of the four books of the next series completed, which is something of a relief; not good to have only half a series!

My first book - 'The Darkling and the Lady' - is coming out in print soon. Watch this space!

I've just finished reading 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. Well. I had read some reviews, which were mainly favourable; 'does not disappoint' seemed to be the general feeling. I disagree - but not because I was disappointed. No; 'tour de force' is the term I would use.

This final book was always going to be make or break. If the conclusion had been weak, or even simply OK, then the whole series would have been the same - indeed, it could have been less than the sum of its parts. In fact, this book raises the series to a level beyond the sum of its parts.

I had previously agreed with some critics on certain weaknesses (though not the writing itself, which has always seemed fine to me). But J K Rowling is a very clever lady. The climax of her story goes far beyond 'tying up ends' - the way she laid her groundwork and placed her clues throughout was masterly. It's wonderfully satisfying to read a story this complex; I try to do the same in my own work, but I freely admit J K does it better than me, and I thoroughly admire her for that.

I did actually guess, more or less correctly, at part of her conclusion - but I am pretty good at working out where plots are going these days, and I'll hand it to her: about halfway through the book she gave me considerable doubts that I was on the right track!

One criticism of the series so far, that I had agreed with, was that Voldemort had no particular reason for his evil deeds. It was made clear in this book that domination over Muggles, and hence the world, was his aim. I also read an article that castigated this book for having no moral message - what piffle. There are many, and dare I say it, not dissimilar to those in 'Lord of the Rings'. The ethics, and the relationships between characters, are handled far better than in Pullman's 'Dark Materials' trilogy, which is heavy-handed by comparison.

Altogether, an outstanding achievement.

Today I uploaded my restyled website, with lots of new features, including links to the OED, Word of the Day, Quote of the Day, and my blog. My thanks to alitalf for helping me produce much better code - the site is now fully accessible. I've kept most of my original design though - I like purple ;)

I must confess that not quite all the site is new yet. I just haven't had time to recode all the pages, and my actual writing is getting far too much behind. The 'Writers' Guide' I shall probably add to my blog from time to time, which will make things easier. The Tolkien essays are pretty complex, and will have to wait a while. They are still there, if anyone wants to read them.

Please bear with me if there are a few glitches with the new site. I shall be checking everything over the next week, but if you find something that's not working, please let me know!

At the weekend, I was at the Tolkien Society seminar. The subject was 'Women in Tolkien' and the various papers had many interesting insights. More than half those attending were female, which refutes the general view that Tolkien buffs are mostly male.

I had a very pleasant surprise when a couple of the attendees made a special point of telling me how much they liked 'Trial of Cyrhision' - they had read the shortened version published by the TS Writers' Group. I couldn't help thinking, that virtually everyone who reads my books does really like them; the problem is persuading people to give them a try! There does seem to be a perception among readers that unless a book is published (in print) by one of the 'big name' publishers, it must be somehow inferior. This is not the case - major publishers are very conservative, and for a good but unknown author to get published by one of them is like winning the lottery. Still, an ebook like mine can stay around for a long time - indeed, for ever - so I live in hopes that word of mouth will eventually have its effect!

Having been in hospital (only minor - having a cyst removed) I went online only to discover that my 2nd book 'The Quest' had been released! Sandy at Writers' Exchange certainly got her skates on with that one.

I'd hoped that the new, much improved website would be ready when 'The Quest' was. Unfortunately not, but at least I now have even more motivation to get on with it!