Promotion – Page 9

Anyone who reads my work will be acquainted with my continual need to see justice done. It’s usually summary in style. After all, who needs a judge and jury when you know who the bad guys are? I know that there are those who might disagree, but we’re talking fiction here.

The immediacy of that type of justice is more akin to retribution, a demand for an individual or group to pay the price for the wrongdoing.

What other justice is there?

Apart from that which we associate directly with crime, we can also, ‘do justice’ to someone or something. In other words, to represent fairness or appreciation where applicable.

Having completed another edit of my latest crime thriller, Codename: Foxglove, I feel that I’ve encompassed both meanings of justice. Within the story, there are few grey areas for the characters. They are either bad guys doing bad things, or good guys doing bad things to bad guys. In that second category, in mitigation, and using artistic licence, I absolve the good guys.

How have I used the second meaning of justice?

I feel that I’ve done justice to my original idea for Beyond The Law and the creation of the trilogy. From a passing thought (as we creatives tend to have), Phil McKenzie’s plight became a poem. By the end of the poem, I knew there had to be more. It became a thirty-plus poem series; The Hawk.

I followed up on the supportive comments of my fellow poets on the Starlite Cafe website, and prepared notes with a view to using the poetry series as the basis for my first novel. In further preparation, I enrolled for the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November 2010. I completed the challenge and ended with a rough 65,000 word story. I was in full-time work at that time so it took two years of dedication and multiple drafts before Beyond The Law was published.

I increased my output (work permitting), and apart from other stories over the next few years, I completed my first crime thriller. I later amended the title to Beyond The Law: Formation, because it became the first in a trilogy. Like many of my readers, Rachel was a favourite character of mine, and so she was developed in a spinoff; Codename: Nightshade.

Once again as the story closed I had a nagging doubt about leaving things as they were. Dominique had been introduced in Rachel’s story and at that point I recognised what had to be done. The series needed not only another spinoff, but one which would provide closure.

Codename: Foxglove is now a few weeks away from publication, having been through two full edits already, and more are on the way. I aim to have the manuscript ready for beta readers by November.

If you’d like to be one of my beta readers for this final tale in the series, I’ll be ready to send out the manuscript on Monday 29th November. The deadline I’m setting for returns/critique points is Sunday 5th December. This will afford me two weeks to work through the feedback and amend as necessary.

When I publish in mid-December, Justice will be done … regarding the Beyond The Law series.

Comments and suggestions are welcome as always, and thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

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“It’s a Work in Progress,” a person says, but what do they mean?

For the handyman, it might be the new light fitting, which is presently hanging, disconnected from a wall.

For the gardener, it might be the new vegetable patch which is presently an oblong of overturned earth in a corner.

It is many things to different people, but none, in my opinion can utilise that phrase quite like an author. Of course, I’m biased—I’m an author, so the manipulation of words and the reader’s thought process are my craft. Let’s look at my ‘Work in Progress’.

Codename: Foxglove. This is presently in excess of 60k words and going well. It is a crime thriller which will see the conclusion of the Beyond The Law trilogy and spinoffs.

Crusader. Another crime thriller, introducing a new protagonist who starts the story as a police detective. The first chapter is written and the second is a group of passages which are not yet joined.

Constance. This is where artistic licence comes in. Unusually, this will be a sequel to a story not yet written. It is to be the follow-up to Crusader. In this case I have passages ready to create the first chapter.

Selena: Sea Nymph. My first attempt at sci-if/paranormal/fantasy, and therefore, I’m pleased that the first chapter is presently in three passages. They’re not yet set in the best sequence and that can prove challenging.

Enough? Not by a long way. I may have ceased producing erotica in my name, but I’ll continue with the genre using a pen name. There are six titles in the wings. A novel, an anthology and four novellas.

Why have so much on the go?

Two words—stress reduction.

When an idea comes to mind, I’m sure many authors continue with their latest story, (the primary Work in Progress), but at the back of their mind they might have the occasional distracting thought about another idea.

It was when this first happened to me several years ago that I sat with a coffee staring at my machine contemplating how to conquer the irritation. “Start them as they come to mind,” I told myself aloud. I never have ‘writer’s block’, and knowing that I have a wide range of projects ready to be addressed isn’t frustrating—I relax in the knowledge that I can go from one ‘world’ to the next on a day to day basis if I wish.

And now, dear reader, you know why I believe that authors can stretch that phrase better than most … after all, whatever the project, it is still a Work in Progress.

Thank you for taking the time to check out my thought. Comments are welcome.

Tom