Why I write or why I haven't written anything before...

When I was fourteen, I wanted to write. I wanted to write badly. I loved english at school and revelled in any assignments that were to do with creative writing (or any English assignments really!) It gave me great pleasure to 'world build'; to create characters and stories that were so far removed from everyday life...what a feeling. But you know what, I didn't continue. i didn't go on with it and here's why.

When I was fourteen, Mum, Dad and I were driving out of the town were Dad was staying for his work; a little mining town called Clermont in central Queensland. I only ever saw Dad every school holidays which was OK but I hated travelling by bus out there every school holidays when my friends in the city were doing fun things like going out and meeting girls. I didn't get to do any of that so all I had were books and comics. I read and that was my world. Anyway my Dad asked me on this day, as we drove in the F100 ute back to the mining compound, what i wanted to be when I grew up. The answer came to me in a flash. I didn't even have to think about it. And I was pleased with the answer. Why? Because I knew Dad wouldn't like it. I said to him:
"I'm going to be a writer."
I turned my head over to him to see his reaction. He said nothing. He only shook his head in, not so much disgust, but disappointment. I got the reaction I wanted and i felt terrible. My passion started to wain.

Over the years I tried to take it up again. I wrote a screenplay, whilst a good little story, was badly written and I didn't have the maturity to deal with the themes I wanted to portray. There were many drunken nights alone on the type writer, were I pinched out little essays on life in the style of Hunter S Thompson. I wish i had of kept these (there were all in a folder for many years but probably got purged in one of our cross country moves) as they would have been a good window into my thinking at the time. One thing i never lost over the years was my imagination. I treasure that more than anything in the world. And here we are now, I've written a book and planning the continuing series and thinking of projects beyond that. I don't want to write exclusively for children but have some more books for adults in mind.

Will I be successful at writing? I don't know. The odds are stacked against anyone going into the arts, especially in the digital age. But at least now I can say I'm a writer and I'm having a blast. The fourteen year old boy would be pleased...

Talking about books from long ago....

In a previous post, I spoke about Doctor Who and how much of an influence it had on my reading and writing. But what about the books I read as a child that I still remember fondly? As I sit here now and look back, the most prominent books can be summed quite easily:

• First and foremost it should come as no surprise that Doctor Who gets a mention again. Back in the seventies and early eighties, the BBC commissioned Target books (no relation to the shop!) to do novelisations of Doctor Who episodes. How excited I was to see books about my favourite show, often written by the television writers themselves. The covers stood out with the various Doctors and monsters from the story in dramatic poses. They weren't long books, roughly coming in a 150 pages but they were perfect reading for a 8 year old kid. I think that's why SPIRIT OF THE MOON is about the same size; it's a great introduction to reading for any child, not too taxing and you get a complete satisfying story, the same as I did with those old Doctor Who books. I don't know what happened to these old books, but I'm scouring second hand book stores now to complete the collection. If you see any, let me know!

• The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe: What can I say that hasn't already been said? Probably one of the most recognisable fantasy novels after Lord of the Rings and a childhood favourite. Forget the movie, give this as a gift to your children and watch them be transported away to Narnia, through a magic wardrobe, to another world. Just a magical book and a series I need to catch up on. 

• The BFG by Roald Dahl: When I was in grade five, Ms. Tucker our teacher, used to read to us everyday from whatever book was chosen at the moment. There is only one book I remember and that is the BFG. Why? Mostly for the whole class laughing at the chapter where the Giant does 'Whizzpoppers' but for the real imagination behind the story. A friendly giant, from a land of unfriendly giants, accidentally befriends a young girl named Sophie. Through her eyes we get to see his strange and wonderful world of Snozzcumbers and Bloodbottlers. Just a real treat to read and a must have for all kids. I read my sons copy not long ago and it's still a timeless piece of children's fiction. (There's also a section in the first chapter of SPIRIT that ,now I think about it, was unconsciously influenced by BFG. Try and spot it when you read the book)

I'm still waiting patiently for the post to deliver the proof copy of my book. Hopefully it will arrive this week and we'll get to see some movement for the publication!

Have a great week and keep on reading!

Something to read...

* Well, it was interesting doing a first release of SPIRIT OF THE MOON on Smashwords. Friday afternoon I was a complete mess and absolutely worried about putting my work out there. It's a weird feeling, like letting one of your children go out by themselves for the first time with no supervision and no mobile phone to ring up on if they get into trouble. A very, very, weird experience let me tell you. Smashwords are handling the account of the e-book and are advancing to releases on Itunes within the week, followed by Barnes and Noble, Sony, Kobo and Amazon. When the paperback copy is reading to go, hopefully the marketing (and sales!) will ramp up a bit. Honestly I can't wait for all this to be over so I can concentrate on the next book in the series that brings back a few of the characters and some interesting new ones. That book will be titled THE MONSTER IN MY BASEMENT and it will be expanded, not only in page count, but in scope of what the series will end up being. Well that's the plan anyway, unless I go crazy first!

* I just started interviewing my cover artist Juha Veltti about his art processes and the creation of the cover, so it should be interesting to see what we come up with. I will probably publish that close to the paperback release.

*  The 'proof' of the paperback shipped two days ago from the good old US of A so we should have it in a week or so. Can't wait! As much as e-books are taking off, having a physical book with my name on it will be an absolute delight.

*Depending on time, I might start doing some reviews of books I'm reading or have finished. What I am reading at the moment is:





and this giant bugger:

Hope you all have a big week! I'm off to read....


John

The SPIRIT OF THE MOON E-Book has arrived!

Hello everybody!

I am proud to announce that my children's book THE SPIRIT OF THE MOON has been published as an E-book from super e-book store SMASHWORDS . Smashwords is an industry leader in E-book sales (especially for first time writers!) so I am very excited. The book is available to download in a number of formats from Kindle, HTML, PDF and many, many more, straight onto your e-reader device or PC. If you are interested in purchasing the book go to the following link:

The Spirit of the Moon

open an account, choose your format to download the book in and click away! It's that simple. Or go to the site directly, type in the book name or my name into the search engine and hey presto, there she is. And don't be shy about leaving a review.

The E-book will soon be also available from a number of other sites such as Amazon, ITunes, Borders Online, Barnes and Noble online, just to name a few.

The print version is still a few weeks away, but if you can't wait this is a convenient way to sample the book.

Thanks to everyone for all the support I've received. I hope you enjoy the story because there is more to come from that little world!

I will do another blog over the weekend, discussing some thoughts on the process of writing the book and do a bit of house keeping amongst other things.

Cheers everyone!