1. The Darkness Beneath - my book - for free!
2. Prometheus Promo - minimalist film review
3. Back Of The Book- Blurb Is The Word
4. It's All About You - get yourself featured
Sex, Death and Trains: All Yours For Nothing (still!)*
*Terms and Conditions apply: you can get a free copy of my first novel, The Darkness Beneath, by following this link - but hurry! Only the first 100 people to sign up can claim a free copy.
Another birthday comes and goes and I have to say I was cheered by the great response from my lovely friends around the globe: thank you all for all the love I received. The photo is of a beautiful painting my dear friend Rebecca Venn, of Kenosha, created for my birthday. She emailed it to another friend, Paola Bakx, of Oosterhout, who printed it out and then surprised me with it on the eve of my birthday. I have some lovely friends; I just can't trust some of them.
Prometheus Promo
On Tuesday I went to see Prometheus (in 3D) which I enjoyed, although I was more captivated by the visuals than the story. The latter was rather thin and the cast, though excellent, didn't really pop out of the screen as they should have, despite the 3D. A triumph of style over content in my opinion, but still worth watching.
Back Of The Book - Blurb Is The Word
Another slight disappointment was the great 'Blurb Novel Publishing Experiment'. Although the process of converting from Word to Blurb is pretty simple (providing your Word doc is prepared properly), the cost of buying one is prohibitive. For example, my 114,000 word novel The Darkness Beneath, is available for more or less €40 - and who's going to pay that much for a paperback? No one of course. Although I think what they're offering, especially the ability to convert to ebook for only $1.99, is very good, the cost is prohibitive in my case. Still, if you've money to burn, let me know and I'll send you the link.
It's All About You
I've been thinking of inviting other writers or creative people to feature their work on my blog for a while, but until now was stuck for an idea that didn't copy what pretty much everyone else does, which is guest blogs and/or interviews.
And then over breakfast this morning it came to me: invite people to talk about a piece of work they like by someone else, and then do the same for a piece of their own work. The reasult is a new section which I'll be calling: What I Read, What I Wrote.
The idea is to describe why you like the work, but it could also be how it inspires you or what you learnt about being creative from it. Anything, as long as it's positive, i.e., this
isn't going to be a slanging pit.
If you want to take part in this, all you have to do is:
- Step One: write about 250 words on a passage from a favourite book. This can be any genre, fact or fiction. This should include the passage itself or a brief outline of it, but the passage itself does not contribute to your 250 word total. If you're a visual artist, you can do the same for a painting or sculpture etc. Please note this is not an opportunity to promote an unpublished mate's work.
- Step Two: the same thing again, but this time it has to be about a piece that you've written or created. This has to include the extract itself, but again this does not contribute to your 250 word total.
I'd also like to include your twitter name or other contact details, a photo of you (optional, though I may add a pic that I think represents you...) and a link to anything you want to promote, such as your website/blog/Amazon etc.
If you want to take part, please contact me via Twitter: @mickdavidson. I'd also be very happy for you to promote this idea to your friends. This offer is open to anyone and everyone, known to me or yet to be introduced.
Cheers,