Tollesbury Time Forever

Guest blog from Vic Watson!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 20:44:00 +0000

VIc Watson is a lovely author who works tirelessly to help support others trying to make it in the writing game. Time she had some of the spotlight for herself - so here is a guest post from her in which she discusses the issue of developing characters...

Recently, I released ‘Letting Go’, an anthology featuring eight short stories written by me.

One thing that every potential writer should learn is how to develop depth in a character.

How do I develop depth in a character?

Listen and observe.

In order to create a believable character, you need to consider what people sound like in real life. People can remind you how multi-faceted your character should be. It’s easy to forget, when you’re in the writing zone, and portray the character too simply.

Back Story.

My main way of developing a character is by getting to know them – and their back story – inside out. You may not need to include all of this information in your story but you need to know it. If you only concentrate on the things you want your character to say and do in your story, the character doesn’t come alive. What makes your character tick? What’s important to them? What has influenced your character? Think about your own life – how do you describe yourself when introducing yourself to people? You might mention your job or your education, what you might not mention (but know yourself is about the social class you grew up in and your family background). You may tell someone about your political inclination, but you wouldn’t necessarily say why you supported a certain party. You might have been the victim of a crime and you support a certain political party because of their criminal justice policy but it’s not inevitable that you’d tell someone that.

When I’m writing, I sometimes think about forms I have to fill in. I fill in forms for insurance, medical purposes, questionnaires, job applications and so on. This reminds me of the information I know about myself but don’t necessarily give out on a frequent basis. You should know your character as well as you know yourself. That will show in your writing.

Appearance and outfits.

The way someone looks can hint towards their character or some part of their story but looks can be deceptive. For example, if one person’s hair is messy, it might mean that they left the house in a rush or that they’ve been caught in a storm. Likewise, they could be a frazzled mother or they could just not care about their appearance. A man – or woman – in a white coat could be a doctor but they could also be a dentist or on their way to a fancy dress party. Appearance can help but requires more detail in order to tell a story.

Speech.

Think about how people in real life talk. Spend some time listening to people talk. There are fillers – “er” and “um” – as well as pauses. People lose their train of thought sometimes too. Is it realistic to have your character in Queen’s English? Would they say would not or wouldn’t? Do they use slang?

Idiosyncrasies.

Does your character have any traits or habits that stand out? For example, does the character talk with their hands? Do they blink a lot? Do they have any twitches or speech impediments? Think about how your character walks – some people drag their legs, other people speed walk everywhere, and others have big strides.

Empathy.

Put yourself in your character’s position. How would you react when placed in a similar situation? If you encountered a comparable challenge, how would you deal with it? How does the experiences your character has previously had influence how they feel about something? This is why you need to know their back story.

Remember the grey.

Remember the ‘grey’ aspects of life. It’s rare that life is ever clear cut. Most people have conflicting opinions on certain matters and can often contradict themselves. I’m not saying you should constantly use this tool – the more sparing the better, in fact – as using it too much can make your writing (and your character) seem confused. It is tempting to avoid confusion but remember, sometimes real life is confusing.

Detail.

The devil, as they say, is in the detail. Someone’s hair is rarely “brown” for example.

Victoria Watson

So, fine people, if you could pop over to Amazon and check out Vic's novel here...

Buy 'Letting Go' here on Amazon UK

And visit her blog here...

Elementary Watson

That would be WONDERFUL!!

Cheers!

Stu

A Review of Our Kind of Traitor by John Le Carre

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:27:00 +0000

Our Kind of Traitor is John Le Carre's latest novel. I am a huge fan of his writing and rate some of his novels - The Honourable Schoolboy and The Little Drummer Girl in particular - as some of the finest I have read. To my mind his last few - Mission Song and A Most Wanted Man have been a little less effective as they have lacked the broader scope of the majority of his other novels concentrating instead on the minute details of very particular operations. Of course the prose has always been magnificent and that typically english mixture of cynicism and patriotism spot on. Our Kind of Traitor is very much in the mould of A Most Wanted Man but I found it both more enjoyable and exciting.

The novel follows a pair of fairly hapless British tourists, Perry and Gail, who make the acquaintence of a potential Russian defector, Dima, whilst on holiday. They think nothing of it until Dima informs Perry that he has information that would be prized by the British Secret Service and he wishes to barter that information in exchange for the resettlement of himself and his family in England.

The first half of the novel sets up the characters and the agendas at work and the second half deals with the attempts to bring Dima and his family to Britain - no easy task considering the implications on both high ranking British government and city officials who stand to lose greatly were the extraction to be successful.

Gail and Perry are drawn into the plans at Dima's insistence and they bring a very human side to what is essentially a study in the machinations of government, intercontinental commerce and the criminal underworld in Russia. John Le Carre does a wonderful job in fusing the innocence and the experience here and shows himself as always to be so much more than a thriller/espionage writer. And the ending? Fantastic!

I regard this as definitely John Le Carre's best novel since The Constant Gardener and highly recommend it.

A Review of A Pauper's Shroud by Leon Steelgrave

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:24:00 +0000

A Pauper's Shroud follows a police investigation into the murder of an eight year old girl in Inverness, Scotland, focusing primarily on the three officers involved in the case: a newly promoted female Detective Inspector, an 'old school' Detective Sergeant and a new recruit to CID prone to panic attacks.

I must begin by saying that I am not used to reading detective/murder novels so this was quite a first for me. I saw an interview with the author on a blog and thought he came across as such an interesting chap I would check out his work!

The author has gone to great lengths in providing the details of how the police force in Inverness conduct murder investigations. There is almost a documentary feel to some of the scenes which is a testament to the depth of knowledge the author has on the subject which adds greatly to the sense of realism of the novel. The main characters, and indeed the more minor ones, are very well drawn and certainly reveal very human flaws regardless of their profession, rank or background.

With regard to the writing itself, the descriptions of various locations is very impressive, whether it be Loch Ness, the local dives, the grounds of an abandoned hospital or the various rooms and offices of the Police Station. These detailed descriptions along with the three-dimensional characters certainly draw the reader into the novel and go a long way to explaining its appeal.

In terms of the plot, I won't be giving anything away in this review. Suffice to say the strands are cleverly woven together to produce an ending that, in keeping with the raw realism of the rest of the novel, is satisfying.

So any negatives? These are of course purely my personal opinion and must be understood in the context of my not having been drawn to reading detective/police novels before. I found the pace very good to begin with in terms of getting to know the characters, the background story, the area etc but this pace did not really change throughout the whole novel. There was no quickening towards the final denouement hence when the killer is revealed it is done in quite a matter of fact way. I have mentioned several times how realistic the novel appears to be so perhaps the ending is very much part of that realism and should not be seen in a less than positive light. Detective work, by all accounts, is not as exciting as it appears in films or on the telly, and this fact is mentioned at times by some of the characters. My only other minor criticism would be that at times the reader is told how characters feel about society, each other, their jobs etc rather than shown by way of a scene or a piece of dialogue - when these scenes/dialogues do occur they are sometimes backed up by clarification in the narrative that does sometimes feel a little clunky and didactic.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I was very much impressed by both its structure and the care the author has taken in presenting a thoroughly realistic world in which to set his story. The characters are believable and do not at any time fall into caricature.

I highly recommend this novel to readers of this genre.

You can download the novel from Amazon here:

UK Amazon - A Pauper's Shroud

US Amazon - A Pauper's Shroud

A Cleansing of Souls - the story behind it!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:52:00 +0000

I want to use this post to give you some background behind A Cleansing of Souls, the novel I have brought out on Kindle today. In so doing, I will necessarily have to dip into parts of my real life in order to give it some context. Those parts I can remember, anyway!

So, in early 1990, when I was twenty, I moved in with a twenty-five year old girl with whom I worked at Commercial Union Insurance Company. The house was a repossessed house just around the corner from Romford Dog Track and just up the road from The Sun pub. Those two factors alone should have set alarm bells ringing - combined with the fact that my girlfriend was ostensibly, well, mad. But then I was something of a fool at twenty. More or less as soon as we moved into this house, I got it into my head that the band I was playing in would be the making of me - thus I walked into work one day and declared to my manager that I wanted to go down to four days a week. He rather burst my balloon by saying they were considering sacking me due to excessive lunch-time drinking and inappropriate use of humour. So I entered into a three day a week three month probationary period following which I resigned to concentrate on the band stuff (jumped before I was pushed!)

And what of Sparkling Rain, my little band?! Well we had a gig at a place in Collier Row on the first night of the 1990 World Cup. We watched the Argentinians lose 1-0 to Cameroon and all was rosy in my world. Three hours later though, I was in hospital having suffered a serious electric shock at the hands of a dodgy microphone stand. And the song we were playing at the time? Ain't That A Shame by Fats Domino. So two days in hospital and a newly acquired phobia of electricity followed - nice one Fats!

So there I was - unemployed, no band, mad girlfriend and no money. So what was this poor boy to do? Look for a job? Go acoustic? Move back to mum and dad's? Of course not! I did what any Bob Dylan, Jack Kerouac, Kris Kristofferson influenced fool what have done - I started writing a book!

I handwrote the first twenty thousand words in a hardbacked notebook I had 'borrowed' from Commercial Union and then got hold of an electric typewriter. I think it took me about a year to finish what would become the first sixteen chapters. I typed up the whole thing about three times just to get a perfect version (no wordprocessor and computer for me back then!) and then I just left it. A year later, I was working as a roadsweeper in Romford and a year after that I was engaged to someone else (mad as well) and a year after that, married to someone else. It was only when I started my nurse training in 1994 that, given some of the subjects in A Cleansing of Souls, I revisted the book and added the last five chapters.

So then nothing until 2007 when I decided to send it off, rather half-heartedly, it must be said, to various publishers. No joy but then I didn't expect any. Then the most bizarre thing happened. Somebody who worked for a publisher in America read it and loved it and said she would make sure it got published. Being entirely naive, I thought 'brilliant!' Little did I know she was probably madder than most of the women whose lives I've ruined. It was only a year after it was published by iUniverse that I realised she had paid to have it published! iUniverse are a print-on-demand publishers in the states - hence the version that came out in paperback and hardback, although very well received, hadn't been properly edited or tidied up. Oh well, I thought. Not to worry.

When I brought out Tollesbury Time Forever on Kindle, it just made sense that I would do the same with A Cleansing of Souls. Apparently it will take a month or so for the paperback/hardback versions to disappear but I really didn't want to wait for that. So I've deleted about 2,000 words, rewritten some sections, including the final paragraph, and ultimately really like it now. Oh and Rebecca has painted a wonderful cover for it too!

Well I hope all that gives some context to A Cleansing of Souls - just click on the link and you can give it a whirl if you like!

A Cleansing of Souls

Cheers!

Stu

A Review of Tales From The Longcroft Estate by Darren Sant

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:12:00 +0000

A Review of Darren Sant's Tales From The Longcroft Estate:

Tales From The Longcroft Estate consists of three tales: A Good Day, Community Spirit and Rowan's Folly.

A Good Day is the first of these tales and starts wonderfully with a description of a seagull swooping down into the estate - a very clever device, almost like a camera being lowered down from above. The story is about man on the estate who is heavily into his drugs and thinks only of the next high and how he is going to get the money to attain it. And his favourite song is The Car Alarm Blues - brilliant! He is not a bad man, just likes his 'skag.' And when he stumbles across a situation he has to make a choice with wide-ranging consequences. A great short story about a complex character that really sets up the other two tales.

Community Spirit tells of a week in the life of a single mother who recently moved to the estate. The use of language is harsh and smart - the word 'slammed' being used twice in the same paragraph to describe a woman being thrown against a wall and a door shut moments later by the offender. People and objects are not so dissimilar it seems. The main protagonist is being pursued by a loan shark and she feels entirely alone in her plight despite there being posters around for a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme and 'curtain-twitchers' everywhere. This tale has a lovely uplifting twist at the end.

Rowan's Folly is the longest of the tales and goes deeper into the characters of the wider estate. There are several interweaving threads to this tale and there is some beautiful writing here. This is a really cleverly written story that is extremely visual. The writing is tight and the characters eminently believable. And the final line is fantastic.

In summary, Tales From The Longcroft Estate is a collection that gives an insightful snapshot into the lives of people who struggle each day to get through. It is inventive and witty and has a wonderful combination of original description, great dialogue and an overwhelming feeling of empathy for the characters. I can't recommend this collection highly enough.

Tales From The Longcroft Estate is published by Byker Books and is available on Kindle here - TALES FROM THE LONGCROFT ESTATE

Tollesbury Time Forever update!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:59:00 +0000

Hi all!

Just thought I'd update you with a summary of how Tollesbury Time Forever is doing over its first six weeks of Kindle life:

Paid downloads - 421

Amazon UK Reviews - 48 (42 five-star reviews)

Literary Fiction Average Review Ranking - - 4th out of 14, 917 books

Fiction Average Review Ranking - 60th out 419, 133 books

Price - £0.77p

Hurrah!

So just click on the link to the right to download it!

Remember - if you don't have a Kindle then you can download Kindle for PC FREE from Amazon by clicking on the link to the right that says 'Kindle for PC' (takes seconds)

- then download Tollesbury Time Forever!!

Cheers!

Stu

Bob Dylan and me...

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:18:00 +0000

If there was ever a hub for my entire literary and musical sensibilities then there is no doubt that it is Bob Dylan. I believe that our passions, our likes and our ideals are all connected, are all part of an ever evolving web that is spun in our youth - and I have come to believe that we spend the rest of our lives seeking out cultural works that reinforce our developing beliefs and taste and in that way they become an integral part of us. So, for me, it began with Bob Dylan and, of all his albums, Slow Train Coming.

Slow Train Coming was released in August 1979 and was Bob Dylan's 19th studio album. I had no idea it had alienated millions of his fans due to its religiousity, nor that one of the songs on it (Gotta Serve Somebody) would be his first hit in three years and would go on to win him a Grammy Award the following year for Best Male Vocal Performance. Yes, all you doubters - BEST MALE VOCAL PERFORMANCE!

All I knew was that, at eleven years old, listening to the album on my parents record player, something clicked, something made sense. And when you're eleven, something that makes sense is indeed something to cling on to. At that age I started to work down Romford Market and was taking home £6 a week for putting up a couple of stalls on a Tuesday, taking them down on a Wednesday, putting them back up on a Thursday and taking them down again on a Saturday. With there being no Sunday opening in those days, I would wait until Monday after school and spend my wages at Parrot Records in Romford, buying every Bob Dylan album I could find.

And I would take them home and listen to them on the record player. But I didn't just listen to them - I would lie on the front room floor with a pen and a notebook and write down all the words to all the songs - that was when I wasn't studying the album sleeves, back and front! Then I would lie in bed reading the words.

So it was that I heard names of people who I otherwise would never have heard of - Johnny Cash, Thomas Paine, Rick Danko, TS Elliot, Ezra Pound, Robert Johnson, Blind Lemmon Jefferson, Woody Guthrie...

I read the biography, No Direction Home, when I was seventeen and further names were writ large across my cultural horizon - John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Kris Kristofferson and Jack London. And from each of these were added more silken threads in the ensuing years, lending a wonderful verisimilitude to my wayward life.

Thus was my web formed between the ages of eleven and seventeen - formative years during which, if we are lucky, we are subjected to influences that give us a wonder for life. So yes, it was a Slow Train Coming, but when it arrived, well, this boy did fly!!!

I'd just like to finish this piece with my favourite verse of any Bob Dylan song - One Too Many Mornings. It is off his third album, The Times They Are A-Changing, which was released in 1964 when he was just 23 years old -

"It’s a restless hungry feeling
That don’t mean no one no good
When ev’rything I’m a-sayin’
You can say it just as good.
You’re right from your side
I’m right from mine
We’re both just one too many mornings
An’ a thousand miles behind"
- Bob Dylan

Jack Kerouac and me...

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:17:00 +0000

Now we all have our heroes and we all have our demons - Jack Kerouac is both of those to me.

I have often considered how I became aware of him for it certainly wasn't at school and his books weren't around me at home whilst I was growing up. I can only think it was a photo that I saw of Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg at Jack Kerouac's grave - I believe it was taken during the Rolling Thunder Review tour that Bob Dylan did in the mid-seventies. And then I read a Bob Dylan biography by Robert Shelton which gave a little more information - getting into Tom Waits when I worked at Downtown Records in Romford again steered me towards Jack and so in time I, like so many other confused, misused, strung-out-ones and worse, bought a copy of On The Road. I would have been about nineteen at the time and I was Holden Caulfield in all but accent - phoneys everywhere and no insight into the fact that I may have been the phoneyist of them all!

So what did I think of On The Road? If I'm being honest, I didn't really care for it. I remember struggling through it almost like I was panning for gold, looking for answers that would lead me to higher ground, to a finer place to be. No, it wasn't On The Road that lit the flame in me, but Big Sur - that visceral, wonderful, desperately sad account of Jack Kerouac's attempts to cope with his sudden fame and his burgeoning alcohol problem. Now I wasn't famous but, when I read it I did like a drink. But never had I read anything so powerful and beautiful. It was like I was in his head and he was in my mind. And then it was just one short step to the book that has been, and potentially will be, the ruin of me - Memory Babe by Gerald Nicosia - the biography of Jack Kerouac.

My wife, Rebecca, says that she worries whenever I read it; something happens to me - I certainly start drinking more and with that comes an exacerbation of my insomnia, inherent recklessness, tiredness and introspection. Not good ingrediants for a happy marriage, I'm sure you'll agree. Yet I have this deep belief that I write better when I have alcohol in me. And I can see why the life story of Jack Kerouac affects me so. It's because I regret so much that I wasn't able to save him. It is a tragic story of a wonderful man who had a gift that is give once every thousand years. Yet he made the conscious decision to drink himself to death.

In terms of Jack Kerouac's influence on me as a writer, well that has developed as I have grown in confidence. Here is a selection of his advice on writing:

1. Submissive to everything, open, listening
2. Be in love with yr life
3. Something that you feel will find its own form
4. Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind
5. Blow as deep as you want to blow
6. Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind
7. The unspeakable visions of the individual
8. Visionary tics shivering in the chest
9. Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition
10. The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye
11. Write in recollection and amazement for yourself
12. Believe in the holy contour of life
13. Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind
14. Dont think of words when you stop but to see picture better
15. No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge
16. Write for the world to read and see yr exact pictures of it
17. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better
18. You're a Genius all the time

And the older I get, the more I understand how he was truly ahead of his time. People saw him as a drunk yet, to my mind, he was a genius - all the time.

I guess I should finish by recommending my favourite Jack Kerouac book, now that I've got round to reading them all - and that is The Dharma Bums (there is a link to the right if you want to get it.) It is a book of beauty and hope and, of course, some of the most magnificent prose in the English language.

I shall let Jack have the final word...

“Happy. Just in my swim shorts, barefooted, wild-haired, in the red fire dark, singing, swigging wine, spitting, jumping, running—that's the way to live. All alone and free in the soft sands of the beach by the sigh of the sea out there, with the Ma-Wink fallopian virgin warm stars reflecting on the outer channel fluid belly waters. And if your cans are redhot and you can't hold them in your hands, just use good old railroad gloves, that's all.”

― Jack Kerouac (The Dharma Bums)

January has been and gone...

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:56:00 +0000

So, Tollesbury Time Forever came out on 3rd January 2012. I had few hopes for it other than a handful of people buying it, four fingers of which may read it, two fingers like it and maybe the thumb would put a nice review on Amazon for all to see. But here are the results for the January jury....

Amazon.co.uk - 268 sales
Amazon.com   -   31 sales (including 5 Smashwords)
Amazon.de      -     1 sale
Amazon.fe         -     1 sale

Total for January - 301 sales

Reviews              - 37 (33 five stars, 3 four stars and 1 three stars)

Tollesbury Time Forever was also voted as the UK Kindle User Forum Book to Read for February with, apparently, an unprecedented winning margin.

I am obviously lost for words, considering my initial expectations, but I will try and make some sort of sense of all this madness, draw some conclusion of a sort.

Kindles and ebooks are more popular than I thought
Tollesbury Time Forever is more accessible than I thought
People are more wonderful than I thought

So where from here?

Well I fully expect sales to tail off - there are only so many people who will come to hear of the book and perhaps they have all been reached. But it's been a fine start. Maybe one or two more reviews will come in as people get through their backlog of Kindle books - and that will be nice. The Tollesbury Parish Magazine will be running an article in their March edition and I've been told that NHS Trust for whom I work may be running something in one of their magazines in February. And I am still waiting to hear from Sarah at Saint FM - now that's a sentence I never thought I'd write...

I am halfway through revising A Cleansing of Souls and am very much liking the way it is turning out. Just to remind you I wrote it twenty years ago and it has needed a little honing - but much less than I thought. I will be bringing it out in March as an ebook. Rebecca has already painted the cover and it is beautiful.

And I am right back into my next novel - The Bird That Nobody Sees. I love it and can't wait to get it done. I go through phases of writing and phases of surviving. I have just begun, in the last couple of hours, to enter the next writing phase so hello insomnia, hello Miss Red Wine and hello lost days!!!

So again, thanks to you fine people. Darren, David, Liam, Rosie, Cheryl, Lily, Nick and all you other wondabulous beings in this writing, reading life of ours. Keep on Keeping on! And keep on being great!!!!!!

Come on the people!!!

Thoughts and Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:39:00 +0000

Now this publishing onto Kindle is something of a baptism of fire. For a start, I thought it would be much more difficult and take much longer for a book to actually be available on Amazon. But with the right help (thank you Lily Childs!) it can take a couple of hours to format the manuscript and then just three or four more hours for the book to go 'live' - and open to the scrutiny of all! When I look back to the unending months when I was trawling through the Writer's and Artist's Yearbook for agents and publishers that may be suitable, then printing out page after page to send them, agonising over query letters and trying to work out what the hell to put in a synopsis - all to get absolutely nowhere; well was the Kindle option just a bit of an easy get out for me?

I guess the answer is - "YES - AND SO WHAT?"

And for that, I have to thank the teenage communist recalcitrant who still occupies a large proportion of my forty-two year old mind. He has always been helpful to me - even got me thrown out of economics at school after calling the teacher a Thatcherite Bastard after said teacher had begun ridiculing the miners during the strike of 1984/5. So no more pleading with faceless agents and publishers boy - just get it out there and let it fall where it may!

I guess the most time consuming part was choosing the cover. Rebecca (my wife) painted several options but we ended up taking a photo of a painting she had done a year or so ago of the salt-marshes, which are about ten minutes away from where we live. I stretched the photo a little, gave it a sepia tinge put it through the G.I.M.P software (I know, I chuckle every time I see it on my desktop) - and there it was, all ready to send.

In one sense, publishing this way is straightforward - in another, the work never stops as all the responsibility is yours in terms of the pricing, the promotion and the networking. Here are my experiences, over the first three weeks of each of those elements:

1. Pricing - basically, using the Amazon self-publish option you can set the price, between certain parameters, and change it as and when you want. You get 70% royalties if you charge £1.49 or more and 35% royalties if you charge £0.75 to £1.48. The royalty received is about £1.00 per sale at £1.49 and £0.26 a sale at £0.75. I have, as some may have noticed, tinkered quite a bit with the price - and I apologise for that. I have come to the conclusion, after three weeks, that (as I fully expected - thanks to my teenage recalcitrant communist me again!) the more people that read Tollesbury Time Forever, the more fulfilled I would be. As any of you have read it will know, there are some thoughts in the book that I hope will resonate - and that can only be a good thing. So, for a while at least, the price will be set at its lowest. It looks like the wire strung across the bedroom wall full of coathangers will have to serve as a wardrobe for a little while longer!

2. Promotion and Networking - now initially I thought this would be the hardest thing but the people I have met have made it feel like the simplest thing. I have to thank the lovely people who I have come to know on Facebook, Goodreads Kindle Forum and the UK Kindle Forum for their wonderfulness and their support. It seems Tollesbury Time Forever is indeed 'falling where it may' and, fortunately for me, that is at the feet of fine people.

So what of the next few weeks? Well, the following things are in the pipeline:

My friend, Luisa (who is lovely!) has offered to do a Press Release for me. I'm still not entirely sure what this means but it sounds positive. We are going to work on it over the weekend so will keep you all posted.
Sarah at Saint FM (local Essex Station) has contacted me asking if I would go on her show in the next couple of weeks. Again I will keep you posted.
Tollesbury Time Forever has been nominated by the UK Kindle User Forum as one of ten books to be voted for as the Bookclub Book to Read for February. Obviously this will be a huge boost, and ineed achievement. I'll let you know how it goes.
In terms of writing, I have given notice to the publishers of my first novel, A Cleansing of Souls, so in thirty days time I will have sole rights to it. I am in the process (along with a lovely Goodreads person!) of revising it and will be releasing it as an Amazon ebook in March, with a new cover painted by Rebecca. So I guess if you're thinking of getting A Cleansing of Souls now, don't worry really - wait until March! Once I've finished the revisions I will then be free to get going again on The Bird That Nobody Sees which I hope to have completed and released by the end of August this year. And following that I will be working on four short stories for young teenagers about a girl called Tremble - the first one is called Tremble, Peanut and the Boy and may well be released under Rebecca's name as it was her idea and she is contributing the storylines.

So there you go! Thank you again everybody - any questions or comments, just fire away - and if I can be of any help to anyone, please let me know - "We're all in this together!" - It is time we reclaimed that line from Cameron because he is, according to the teenage recalcitrant communist me (and indeed the rest of me!) a complete cock. Whereas we, good people, are bloody WONDERFUL!

Week 3 Update!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:02:00 +0000

Well what an adventure this is turning out to be. It is now three weeks since Tollesbury Time Forever became available on Kindle for download. I also made the decision this week to pull out of Smashwords. Just seemed like too much hassle and too much tax! My hopes, to be honest, were modest - particularly given the less than optimistic views of several agents and publishers (those that bothered to express a view anyway!). I hoped for maybe a hundred copies to be sold in the first year with maybe one or two good reviews.

This past week has been a real blur thanks to all the kind words people have said about the book and also the continuing "Three Bottles of Cheap Plonk" deal at the corner shop.

Anyway, on to the figures!

Week 1 (@10pm on 11th January 2012

Amazon.co.uk - 54 sales
Amazon.com    - 5 sales

Total sales    - 59 (average per day - 8.4)

Week 2 (@10pm on 18th January 2012

Amazon.co.uk - 44 sales
Amazon.com    - 6 sales
Smashwords - 5 sales

Total sales    - 55 (average per day - 7.86)

Week 3 (@10pm on 25th January 2012

Amazon.co.uk - 120 sales
Amazon.com    - 11 sales
Amazon.de       - 1 sale
Amazon.fr        - 1 sale

Total sales    - 133 (average per day - 19)

Total sales after first three weeks:

Amazon.co.uk - 218 sales
Amazon.com    - 27 sales (including 5 Smashwords)
Amazon.de       - 1 sale
Amazon.fe       - 1 sale

Total sales        - 247 (average per day - 11.8)

Madness I tell thee!! Beyond my wildest dreams!

And if you add into that a total now of 26 reviews (22 of which are 5 stars!) this is beginning to make me think that Tollesbury Time Forever may just have something!

So thank you to all you wonderful people who have bought the book and even more thanks to you who have read it and even greater thanks to you people who have put a review on Amazon!!

Well take care you kind people and keep frugaling up the frugals!!!

The proposed new cover for Tollesbury Time Forever!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:24:00 +0000

Although I love the current cover, I think it would be more effective as a paperback cover as it does not really grab you in the Kindle format. So here is the proposed new cover - please let me know what you think!

The latest lovely review!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:32:00 +0000

Please see Darren Sant's blog for his review of Tollesbury Time Forever!

click here to go to Darren's review!

Week 2 Sales figures!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:19:00 +0000

Sales for week 2:

Amazon.co.uk - 44 sales and 7 reviews
Amazon.com    - 6 sales and 1 reviews
Smashwords - 5 sales

Total sales    - 55 (average per day - 7.86)

Total after two weeks:

Amazon.co.uk - 99 sales and 10 reviews
Amazon.com    - 11 sales and 2 reviews
Smashwords - 5 sales

Total sales    - 115 (average per day - 8.2)

Now, on Tuesday 17th January, I did that thing where you can make your book free for a day with the hope of generating interest, getting it in the hands of more people etc. Here are the results:

Downloaded in UK:           260
Downloaded in US:            230
Downloaded in Germany: 1

Total free downloads:         491

I was a little concerned as to what the effects of the promotion would be, but was pleasantly suprised!

The results from today, the day after the promotion were:

Copies sold: 13 (equal best for a single day)
Reviews: 3 (best for a single day)

So as we stand, Tollesbury Time Forever is currently (after its first two weeks on sale):

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,399 Paid in Kindle Store
- #52 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Literary Fiction

And to top it all, my first novel, A Cleansing of Souls, seems to be selling off the back of it! This more than makes up for the fact that I missed the deadline to have an interview submitted to the February edition of the Tollesbury Parish Magazine. As it turned out, they wouldn't have been able to print my article anyway due to a major feature on the village bus service...

The latest review of Tollesbury Time Forever...

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:08:00 +0000

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully Written, Heart-warming Story and Food For Thought,

18 Jan 2012

AshraeThis review is from: Tollesbury Time Forever (Kindle Edition)

Two of the most important things in my life are Cricket and Mental Health, so no wonder I was drawn to this book.
The book is beautifully written. I read it pretty much in one sitting (only pausing cos life got in the way). I laughed, I cried, I got angry, I empathised so much with Simon through his journey. Suffering from mental health issues myself, it is always a concern to me how a book like this is going to affect me personally and, although I did go on a bit of a rollercoaster ride emotionally, I believe that Mr Ayris has got the balance between the dark bits and the lighter moments absolutely perfect so I felt totally safe the entire journey.
It is hard to believe this is a new author, his use of language and description is, at times, simply stunning, and the movement between the use of prose, poetry and lyrics in telling the story is a new one on me and works so well. The story as well as being heart-warming and emotional is also original and believable. His characterisation is also spot on. Never have I related so much to a character as I did with Simon. There were a fair few "I do that" moments, most of which made me smile (especially the posting incident).
I can take so much from this book to add to the tools I have already at my disposal in my own journey of recovery. Sometimes a book lands at your feet at the right time. I believe that this was one of those books for me and will be one I will carry with me always and refer back to often.

Brought tears to my manly eyes when I read that!

Sales Figures!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:24:00 +0000

I have been checking the internet alot to see what kind of average sales figures you can expect from publishing your ebook on Kindle. And you know what? Other than those people who have made millions, I could hardly find a thing! So I thought I would post mine here, update them weekly, and see what happens. Hope it helps you future ebookers!!

Tollesbury Time Forever - Published ay 10pm on 4th January 2012

Week 1 (@10pm on 11th January 2012

Amazon.co.uk - 54 sales and 3 reviews
Amazon.com - 5 sales and 1 review

Total sales - 59 (average per day - 8.4)

There you go!

I published Tollesbury Time Forever on Smashwords on Friday 13th January so will include those figures in the next update - although I have been told their reporting system is not as good as Amazon's

You can get Tollesbury Time Forever on Kindle and Kindle for PC at Amazon UK, Amazon US or at Smashwords for any other device (iPad, iPhone etc) or if you're from Canada, you can get the Kindle version at Smashwords too!

Cheers!

Stu

Another interview!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:19:00 +0000

Fiona Mcvie

A couple of interviews!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 08:56:00 +0000

Please find below the links to a couple of interviews I've done for two fine people!

Rosie Nazilli

Paul D Brazil

Thank you again to both of you for giving me the time!!

Third Review is in!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:33:00 +0000

5.0 out of 5 stars Flawless perfection, 11 Jan 2012

Rosie -This book has taken me completely by surprise. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this.

I kept having to remind myself that Stuart Ayris is a fairly new writer, yet he has produced something that many of greater experience would be extremely proud of.

It is beautifully written, the language, pace and storyline are completely gripping from the offset.

The descriptive element of this book is first class and I found myself going back to re-read passages that really struck me. I have no doubt I shall be reading it again.

He brings Tollesbury and it's characters alive for you and you are right there alongside his poor troubled character, Simon Gregory, as he battles his demons and comes to some realisations. Stuart portrays what goes on in this man's head with such clarity, and I think I am right in saying that his past work in the mentally challenged sector has given him this insight. He is indeed a clever man and writer to have understood it so well and bring it to life for us all.

There is absolutely nothing in this book to be negative about. There is no fault to find whatsoever. It needs to be in hardback and on library shelves very soon.

Get Tollesbury Time Forever here for just £0.93 for just a limited period!

A link to an enhanced review of Tollesbury Time Forever!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:33:00 +0000

That fine fellow, Sean P Reardon, has written further about what he thought of Tollesbury Time Forever on his fine blog.

Please click the link to take a look!

Tollesbury Time Forever - thoughts of a fine fellow!

The second review is in!!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:48:00 +0000

5.0 out of 5 stars Tollesbury Time Forever, 10 Jan 2012

Mr. G. G. Steward -"When I was younger, so much younger than today, I never needed anybody's help in anyway. But now these days are gone, I'm not so self assured, Now I find I've changed my mind, I've opened up the doors."

Tollesbury Time Forever - what a cracking read!

A roller-coaster journey into the mind(s) of a troubled soul, which terrifies you one minute, mystifies you the next and then has a tug at your heart strings for good measure.

Wonderfully written, well paced with a strong, original and emotional story line. The detailed description of characters, places, feelings and thoughts really bring this book to life from the outset - if you like books that you find difficult to put down, you'll absolutely love this one!

Great job!

Get Tollesbury Time Forever for just £0.93p for a limited time!

First review is up and it's a stonker!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:45:00 +0000

5.0 out of 5 stars A work of Art, 9 Jan 2012

Sean Patrick Reardon (Boston, Massachusetts, USA) -I have been entertained by many a good read, but what I truly enjoy, the reason why I read, is to be emotionally moved. A truly good piece of writing stays with you after the last page has been read and makes an impact on the way you view not only the world around you, but yourself. TOLLESBURY TIME FOREVER is such a story. The product description caught my attention and after reading the sample chapters, I could not buy it fast enough. There are sentences, paragraphs, and passages within, that are better than entire novels I have read. During the course of the read, I had to make the decision to keep moving on rather than re-reading the beautiful prose, because the story was so good, I wanted to finsh it. A catch-22 for sure, but I knew I would be revisting the story again.

Along with the excellent writing and story, there are plenty of twists and turns you will never figure out, and it all builds up to a tremendous ending.

From the first page to the last, I was engaged, entertained, and most of all emotionally invested. As a reader, I could not ask for any more!

Get Tollesbury Time Forever here for just £0.93p for a limited time!

Sales and Thankings!!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:07:00 +0000

Well what a fun few days!

Tollesbury Time Forever became available on Kindle and Kindle for PC at about 10pm on Wednesday 4th January 2012. At last - three and a half years of writing, revising, editing, typing - it is there now for others to read. All that there is to do now is to wait and see what people think!

I am really encouraged by the initial sales! I know the Amazon Ranking thing isn't based on actual sales, but more on some kind of comparison sales algorithm but it is a barometer of sorts I guess. So it's lovely to see that Tollesbury Time Forever has been in the top 10,000 since it came out and even spent a day and a half in the top 100 Literary Fiction Rankings!

I have been told that promotion is the key now and have started to do a little of that. I have been in the local paper and am due to have an article about Tollesbury Time Forever in the work magazine. I have put up a little poster in my window at home and have ordered 200 cards with details of the book to stick through peoples doors in the village. I'm also going to try and work out how to put the novel onto Smashwords - although I am still recovering with the headache of uploading it to Kindle!

So I want to thank all of you who have bought the book, all those that have helped to spread the word and a special thanks to Sean Reardon for being the first I know of to have finished the book and definitely the first to let me know what he thought of it. I could not have dreamed for a better response, Sean - thanks so much mate!

One final thing - if any of you have bought Tollesbury Time Forever, if you could stick a review up on Amazon that would be amazing!!

Thank you so much.

Keep on keeping on good people.

Stu
Buy Tollesbury Time Forever here!

Get Kindle for PC here (free download!)

Tollesbury Time Forever!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:43:00 +0000

You can buy the book using the link to the left.

Come on! You know you want to!!

Cheers you lovely people!

He's only gone and bloody done it!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Stu Ayris) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:08:00 +0000

Tollesbury Time Forever all uploaded onto Kindle!!!

Available from Friday 6th Jan!!!

Come on!

Get in there!

And all that stuff!