My latest Sherlock Holmes short story Miss Violet Dixon (deceased)

My latest Sherlock Holmes short story Miss Violet Dixon (deceased)
The front cover created with Gimp with help from Aubrey Watt on You Tube.

Saturday 24 May 2014

After what seems like an age, I have managed, with the help of my dear wife, to publish Sherlock Holmes and The Severed Finger today on both Amazon and Smashwords! Phew! It was a labour of love to read it together and fine tune the grammar and the period speech. Please feel free to download it and leave me some feedback http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KJEKI1S

If you are not an Amazon fan and don't have a Kindle, have a look at Smashwords  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/441243

It is a good book, I really enjoy the writing process and I enjoy reading the end result! It's fun! Feedback is so important to me, not just in promoting the book but also in understanding what folk want from a story, what they liked, what they didn't like etc. etc. It's part of a learning process for me.

Anyway, see what you think. No new book on the horizon at the moment, I will have to wait for a flash of inspiration, a typical Eureka! moment. They do exist, an idea will come to me out of the blue. Sometimes it's a "Wow!", sometimes it's a slow idea that grows as an organic thing and then i develop it into a story. This one was a bit of both!

Have a good week, the weather here in Brittany is typical 'April' weather with sunshine and showers...just a month late!

Dick xx

Friday 9 May 2014

So much has happened since I last posted. Having been to Barcelona  and enjoyed the sunshine, I've been back to the UK for 10 days and also written a new Sherlock Holmes short story! Phew, a busy time! Barcelona was beautiful, warm and sunny and in fairness, the UK was warm the whole time we were there. Stilton cheese, cheddar cheese, fish and chips... a gastronomic blow-out!

The new short story is a corker, a little over 11k words. Quite exciting and due to be published next week if I can do a final few tweeks to ensure that the 'voice' is truly Victorian. I enjoyed writing it (as I do every time) but there was a patch of about a month where the creative juices just disappeared and I couldn't move forwards. Took until this last seven days for me to be able to link the bits of the plot together and bash out about 5k words. I found a great Public Domain website for royalty free images and I chose one that has some resonance with the story. Using GIMP, the free 'Photoshop' lookalike for Mac I created the book cover yesterday. Yipeee!

I have also, since posting last, have decided to have a go at some jewellery making. Not just threading a few beads to make some earings, I have had a go at making some nice 'floating' necklaces. I think they have come out quite well. I'm going to have a bash at selling a few at the local indoor Christmas Market. By then, I will have sufficient stock and my knowledge of Excel will have improved sufficiently to allow me to sort the stock out properly.

Here's a selection of what i have been busy doing!

Got to get back to the editing, hope you have a great week!

Dick xx