General – Page 62

Yes, it’s finally here. The sequel to Beyond The Law has been available on Amazon since 7th November. The original story was a joy to write, apart from being hard work at times, so it’s great to see it is still my best selling tale.

In Beyond The Law: Retribution, it was great fun bringing Phil and his team back to life to create more crime-busting scenes, and the inevitable summary justice. As there were in the first book you will find good deeds, bad deeds, crime and punishment.

Apart from Phil, and the BTL team there are a couple of new faces, but to maintain balance, there are some old and new faces on the other side of the equation. Bad guys are easy to come by, but they have to be different. The BTL team now have a name and a new operations HQ.

Allies and enemies come in many forms, and in this story you will find they don’t come any more different than a motorbike gang. The aroma of whatever they’re smoking, the feel of leather jackets, and the sight of long unruly hair and beards, combined with the power and noise of motorbikes.

Are they violent?

Well, of course they’re violent – they’re outlaw bikers.

Okay, so I opened by saying it was fun bringing back the original characters, but this is my first sequel and I found it hard work. Threading in enough, but not too much of the original story was difficult, so I look forward (with trepidation) to find out if I’ve created the right feel.

Map of Scotland, plan of BTL Enterprises HQ, and map of Glasgow. — Maps of Scotland and Glasgow. Plan of BTL headquarters.

The titles above are linked to the pages of this blog which are dedicated to these two books, so if you haven’t read the blurbs, you can see them there. There are live Amazon links available there.

I’ll leave the links here to take you directly to Amazon, and then dear reader it’s up to you.

Beyond The Law

Amazon UK Amazon US

Beyond The Law: Retribution

Amazon UK Amazon US

Sales are always appreciated, as they are by any author, but I would also appreciate feedback. If you have the time, and hopefully enjoyed the story, please consider leaving a review.

That’s it for now. I’m off to work on my sci-fi anthology, and maybe read …

What’s the hardest thing to do when you’ve received praise?

I believe the hardest thing for many of us is to consider that we could have done better.

Yes, you’ve done something that received acclaim, but does that really mean you’ve done your best?

No, it means you’ve done enough.

In July 2015, while I was working hard simultaneously on Give & Take: A Tale of Erotica, and Beyond The Law: Retribution, I wrote a blog titled A Review of Reviews.

I stated in the post that I intended to get my main projects published by December 2015, and then I would tackle each of my titles, one after another to perform a full critical analysis and rewrite.

Well, guess what … it’s November and those two main projects are now published.

What are my projects for the months ahead?

My agenda is flexible, but fairly well set up for the foreseeable future:

1. Continue working on my next anthologies
– The Welcome: and other Sci-Fi stories
– A Time for Courage: and other military stories

2. Dust off and get back to work on my fact-based fiction / coming of age story A Life of Choice, which I will now be producing in a series of books.

3. Continue to work behind the scenes to support and build on the success of the Indie Author Support and Discussion Facebook group, especially with the restructuring of the group website.

4. Read and review titles from the IASD group website.

5. In December 2015 I will begin what I said I would do – commence a detailed revision and rewrite of all of my titles.

– Make a copy of the main manuscript.

– Read and make notes from every review, whether positive or negative issues.

– Locate and amend the negative issues as a priority.

– Read the story as a reader, and look out for the telltale signs of the novice. I will have a list of key words and phrases in front of me to locate and zap / replace.

– Subject each chapter individually to Grammarly to double-check punctuation, grammar, and so on.

– Amend the cover and inside information to have a subtle ‘Revised Edition’ with the appropriate date.

– Ask for beta readers in advance of completion.

– When all bugs are ironed out, republish and set up a Kindle Countdown Deal to kick-start interest in the title, and my brand.

– Move on to the next title.

How long will it take?

Time is not my major concern, because if I’m aiming to achieve a higher standard, it takes as long as it takes.

I’d like to think if I don’t touch the poetry series, I might be capable of dealing with the novels and short stories by next summer. It will be interesting. I’ve no doubt there will be many things which are fine, but there will be issues and it will be a test of my mettle to deal with them properly.

I will of course report back on a regular basis. Once underway, I will not give up.
Thank you once again for joining me on my journey. All comments are welcome.

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