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Fallen Warriors is now available in paperback format!

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Three boxes arrived today, delivered by a friendly UPS guy. Each containing bundles of carefully wrapped paperback copies of Fallen Warriors!

I’ve been checking online daily, sometimes several times a day, waiting for them to arrive.

It’s been a long road, first getting the ebook version released and then going through another round of formatting and proofing copies – almost four months since the ebook was published till the physical copies arrived.

I’m going to be primarily promoting the paperback edition to bookshops, but if you want to buy a copy directly from me, you can use the contact form to get in touch.

The retail price is £9.99. If you want to order from your bookshop, quote them this ISBN: 978-0-9929883-8-8

Fallen Warriors – What is it all about?

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As best as I can remember, I had the idea for Fallen Warriors during a church service, where something said triggered off a series of thoughts about a story where Christians were like superheroes, using miraculous powers. Originally I thought this would make a great movie or TV series with lots of action and the miracles taking centre stage.

I started writing and the characters kind of took over. While the story certainly starts with a miracle, I found the real story lies in how the characters each react to what has happened.

The central character in the story is Emma Hunter, a young woman with her whole life ahead of her, who enjoyes clubbing and partying, whose life is cut short when she dies at the start of the book… She is brought back to life and this then started to intrigue me. What would that feel like?

The story of Lazarus being raised from the dead is familiar to many Christians, but the story gives so little detail and no insight into what it felt like for Lazarus to hear Jesus commanding him to come out of the tomb, to be wrapped in grave clothes and finding out he’d been dead for several days. I wanted to explore this through Emma’s experiences and the direction of Fallen Warriors started to take a different turn as the story became more about the consequences of miracles, especially for people who had no previous experience of them.

If you would like to try Fallen Warriors out, here’s a free sample:

The final proof!

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My final proof copy of Fallen Warriors arrived! Well actually, two copies (not sure what went wrong there…)

The blurriness on the font on the matt version has been fixed and the corrections have been made to the interior. The paperback version is ready to go! I’ve ordered 100 copies from the printer (five of which will have to be sent to the British Libraries), leaving 95 copies available for sale.

I’ve had four pre-orders already from friends and need to figure out how to take orders through this site. For now – if you would like to buy a copy, use the contact form on this website. The price will be £9.99 per copy including postage for anyone in the UK. If you live outside the UK then contact me giving your address and I’ll send you a quote.

Fallen Warriors has 35 ratings and 21 reviews on Goodreads with an average rating of 4.7.

Character Led Scripts

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Following on from yesterday’s post, David Robinson used Gustav Freytag’s pyramid to discuss the expected story arc in most scripts and novels. Some useful explanations of this are here and here.

David performed a couple of sections from scripts he has written to allow us to examine the script and the characters being portrayed. We, as the audience, shared our different conclusions about the characters which was useful to understand how important it is to take time with scripts and novels to create real characters, who have layers to them which can drive the story forward.

Ultimately, the audience, whether sitting in a theatre or reading a book or watching a movie will take more pleasure from the experience when we have thought through our characters.

  • Who are they? Honest, uncaring, cruel, devious, kind, passionate, boring… However we reveal our characters they can add nuance and depth to the story.
  • What is the setting? The names we give our characters can place them at a particular point in time.
  • What is the location? What is our character doing there? Do they belong? Are they out of place? Are they remembering other events in different locations, if so – are these likely locations for our characters to have been?

If at all possible, write out a backstory for your characters and their description. This can be added to at any time during the process as thoughts come to you or as you research and may provide a rich source for you to draw on as you write.

I found the day to be useful in thinking about how I am tackling the sequel to Fallen Warriors. The first novel was very much a character driven story, each person dealing with their own inner demons, the character journeys often driving the story forward in ways I hadn’t expected.

It was also really encouraging to be able to meet with so many writers who are each going through similar experiences and to be able to encourage each other. If you would like to find out more about the Association of Christian Writers and find out about membership and events you can do so here: http://www.christianwriters.org.uk/

Finally, David told us about The Watermill Theatre in Newbury that runs the Raising Voices critique service, reviewing scripts for a nominal £33 fee. Details can be found here: https://www.watermill.org.uk/raising_voices_2017

Also, if you are in a good mood, or perhaps even a funny mood, you might be interested in entering the ACW Comedy Writing Competition, to be judged by David Robinson. The theme is Bringing a Little Sunshine and they are looking for comedic sketches (maximum 1000 words) or comedic poems (maximum 24 lines.)

Details are here: http://www.christianwriters.org.uk/competitions

The difference between scripts for theatre, film and novels

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Continuing on from yesterday’s write up of the Association of Christian Writers day where David Robinson was speaking on performance writing for the stage, film, television and radio…

David led the day very much as an interactive workshop, involving us as he discussed script writing, getting us to act out short parts, and ultimately asking us to write parts for specific characters to combine into a play.

He asked us to think about what is different between scripts for theatre, scripts for film and novels.

Dialogue. We need to understand that directors and actors will both put their own spin on our dialogue. A script may go through several transformations as it passes into other hands. Scripts of course, are mostly about dialogue, but this can tell us something useful about our writing. If you prefer to write dialogue and your stories have almost no description, perhaps you are missing out on a calling to be a script writer… If a play lasts two hours, that is two hours of mostly dialogue. Consider pauses and beats when writing a script. Those words that you felt would take only a few minutes to say might lengthen in the performance of a good actor, or even shorten as urgency is used.

Balance. How much should the script direct what happens on stage? Should the actor walk on from stage left carrying a bowler hat, or just walk on stage… Lighting, set… All can be directed from the script or left for another to decide or perhaps both…

Set and Cast. While a novellist can change scenes all the time and make the cast as diverse as desired, the script writer has far more limitations. Scripts for stage that require too many set changes, or that require props, backdrops that cannot be carried may never be taken on due to cost restrictions and impracticalities. The same goes for cast. If it will cost too much or be impractical to use the number of actors the script requires, it may never be performed. Scripts for Film or TV also have to consider the same limitations, though perhaps at a different level.

Exposition. The audience need to know quickly who is who and any relevant backstory. The novelist can explore backstory in depth, can cut and change or use flashbacks at any stage. A stage play has much tighter limitations. Shakespeare was an expert at using soliloquy to overcome this and give important detail quickly to the audience. Think of the length of a typical scene, maybe 20 minutes, think of the length of the whole show and when intervals need to occur…

The final section will be posted tomorrow…

A Christian Writers look at Script Writing

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I’ve been a member of the Association of Christian Writers twice, first back in the nineties until I left the UK to work abroad, then for the last couple of years, but have never attended any of their events… until this weekend.

I had the opportunity to travel down to Newcastle for their writers day with David Robinson
who was speaking on performance writing for the stage, film, television and radio. David has extensive experience as an actor and was Artistic Director of the Saltmine Theatre Company. He is co-founder of Searchlight Theatre Company and has written many stage plays including Mr Laurel and Mr Hardy, Woodbine Willie and An Angel’s Delight.

His theme for the day was developing character led scripts, something I found really useful as I’m still working on the plot for my Fallen Warriors sequels.

I’m going to split my write up of the day into several posts. To start with, David gave us a friendly ice-breaker – what books, plays or films would we, as writers, take to a desert island…

I found myself jotting down titles suggested as people explained how the selections had impacted them and as I’ve never read most of them!

The Frogs by Aristophanes – Struck by how relevant this was to modern society.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte – A strong female character who took control of her life.

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller – Such a powerful story.

The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster – Despite being published initially in 1909, this short story/novella could almost have been written yesterday, so prescient about the impact technology has on our lives today, the way people have changed communication with each other.

Goodbye Mr Chips by James Hilton – Describing the process of change.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

And in case you’re wondering, I decided on Robinson Crusoe as a book and The Martian as movie… For me it would be all about survival and getting off that island!

More tomorrow!