The previous mail was a mistake.
Sorry about that.
I’m sure some of you must have thought who is this guy? Not surprisingly since I’ve been quiet for a few years.
What happened?
A few years ago I had a severe case of pneumonia. I don’t want to dwell on it, but let’s just say it’s no laughing matter. I eventually recovered, but even now, after all this time, I still feel the effects in the form of a lack of energy. Although, that too is getting better. Slowly, very slowly.
I have been writing, on and off, but as I have said to several of you who have emailed me, nothing is fit for human consumption yet.
One of the things that needed attention, after years of neglect, was my website. A lot of technical issues needed to be resolved. E.g., some plugins stopped working after an upgrade of WordPress and I needed to find an alternative. That’s just one example, but there were dozens of little things that needed updating or mending. I’ve been quietly working on my website behind the scenes for some weeks now.
What’s next?
I’m also thinking about the content. And here is where it went wrong. I’m planning a section for readers who want to help my books gain more visibility. From a handful of tips it grew into something far more complicated, so I’ll have to split the material over several pages.
WordPress makes a distinction between posts and pages. This is a post, pages are more permanent fixtures of a website. When you’re subscribed to my website you receive an email whenever I post something. Not when I add pages. That’s how it should be.
My WordPress skills are a bit rusty it seems, because, accidentally, I put some text meant for this page into a post.
And that’s why you got a somewhat strange email.
Maybe this is a good time to reevaluate if you still want to receive these mails. Interests change. A million things have happened. Things are different now. I understand. No hard feelings. If you want to unsubscribe, the link is at the bottom of each mail.
If, on the other hand, you still want to receive these mails, be warned that the next one won’t take years.
It’s good to hear from you again – funny, I’ve been thinking about you since the last FB reminder of your birthday and wondered if you were writing anymore, I’m glad to hear you are, although sorry you are still dealing with the after effects of your illness!
I hope you continue to get better, and we’ll get to see new books from you in the not too distant future, but most importantly, take care of yourself.
Thanks, Diane
I’ve been writing for some time now. The only piece that is finished is a longish short story called The Man by the Lake. I still have to figure out where it fits and what I’m going to do with it. Maybe I’ll use it as a free downloadable come-back present.
I’ve been writing some more side stories in the Dark Tales universe too.
I’ll write a blog about all those projects soon.
Dear Andrew
Once upon a time I had a library with over ten thousand books which I suppose had cost me over a hundred thousand pounds, including most of the fantasy books published towards the end of the last century. Then came Amazon ……
I aquired each of your Ximerion books as they were published and sympathized with you during your illness. As a storyteller I would put you in the top five percent of all the writers I have come across. Your problem is probably that your market is relatively small. You could probably rewrite the books to appeal to a wider audience, if you need the money, but that would be a shame.
All best wishes for the future
Nigel
Do you mean re-release Nigel? Why would he have to re-write the books? They are perfect in the sense of a writer having his or her unique writing style. I’m sure you will agree that sometimes a writer has to bypass the ‘template’ and create his / her own.
Just my 1.5 cents
Hi Nigel,
Thank you for your generous praise.
What you suggest is what they usually advise writers, that is “write to market.” However, that is not what I want to do. I want to write the stories that I would have liked to read. I know, it’s a cliche, but for me it happens to be true. Besides, although Dark Epic Fantasy with gay main characters is undoubtedly a niche, it should be sufficiently large to be also financially rewarding.
That it isn’t in my case is because I’m lousy at promoting my books. So, next to writing I’m also trying to wrap my mind around ebook marketing.
What a wonderful surprise to find your email again in my inbox!
I am really happy you are on the mend and getting stronger every day. I am also overjoyed that you are ready to share more of your amazing stories with us in the hopefully not so distant future. That said, even if you don’t publish another word, you will forever be one of my favorite authors. Your Ximerion books especially are among the very few I can re-read and never tire of
Please, take care of yourself and get much much better soon!
Tamara
Thank you, Tamara, for your well-wishes.
I appreciate it.
As for my writing projects and plans, see my next blog.
Wonderful!!!
Mistake or not, I’m just glad you wrote something that popped up in my inbox in 2019. I’m super happy to know you’re up and about Andrew.
Of course best wishes to you.
. . . and you’re right too. I’m one who often check out Amz then sometimes buy from Kobo. But then there is the Kindle App and that makes a difference now of course.
Surely we can do a little thing like clicking a button for the books we’ve enjoyed so much. You are a great storyteller Andrew. I am very glad to have met Anaxantis and cannot get enough of his world and the people there.
Best,
Thanks again, Missy.
Reader support is really important. Over the months I’ll be adding tips to that section and I hope a lot of readers will use (some of) them.