The 14-year road to publication

 

The Journey Begins

First things first. Lone Wolf World isn't my first novel. 

The first novel I wrote was Borders of Bordavia, a children’s fantasy. It was finished late in 2005. I immediately began looking for a publisher or agent. Thus began the journey. Meanwhile, I kept writing. Over the next seven years I wrote an additional six novels. (all were re-drafted many times over the years).

However, none of my novels, in a variety of genres and age ranges, were ever accepted by a traditional publisher. This despite having had many stories and poetry published in numerous countries. Despite having been nominated for the US Pushcart Prize in 2014. I’ve had short films screened in film festivals. Not major festivals but still something significant for an author. I’ve had short plays produced too. Some I directed. And dozens of artistic short videos from my poetry. And literally hundreds of other videos that I've created.

Hundreds of rejections

I’ve had hundreds of rejections  if not over a thousand. I used to document every place I ever emailed or sent work to. I would also note if they replied or not. As the years went by and email became the preference for publishers and agents, the amount of replies became less and less. Soon, many just closed their doors to submissions, including agents. 

The ones that were open,  you never heard back from. You never knew if they had even looked at it or not. (I eventually doubted that they did).

Writing a novel in 2010. (I handwrite everything, then type it up). 

I stopped documenting after approximately 600 rejections/non answers. I lost track. As we know, the digital age has seen the decline of the traditional publishing model. And the rise of independent authors who can now sell their own books online with sexy looking websites.

I said I would give it a decade to get published. I gave it 14 years. I believe I’m further away now than ever before. I went via Atrilla Press and decided to do it Frank Sinatra style, My Way. 

Rejection Depression

There’s a lot more to it of course. But rest assured, there were countless times when I fell into a dark depression over the amount of rejections I was getting. Especially when I was getting work published and excellent feedback. I just couldn't understand it. I’d even managed to find a small independent press, Ginninderra Press who eventually published four small books. I just couldn’t get anybody else to look at the novels, let alone read them. And let me say, that every single one of those rejections stung. I am not tough. I’m sensitive. I think a good writer has to be. If you're interested in emotions that is. There would be months where I did not send out work, or even write, as I was too down and defeated to go on.

The pen is mightier than the sword. (In more positive days.)

Go your own way

So here I am today, publishing through Atrilla and doing most of the leg work myself. I can't compete with the big boys. I won't get the media and advertising but it’s about getting the work out there. It deserves to be read. And if it doesn’t find many people, so be it. Better to keep putting it out there than have the cover not to my liking or content removed because I don't have the final say. Or be dropped after one book because it didn’t sell enough. 

It’s about making it available now. For you and whomever may come next. I personally believe that they have too much merit to never be read. Now I just want to leave something behind for my daughter to be proud of when she grows up. I know I’m proud of those books. I also want to honour that teenage boy in the country who used to stay in his room and pound away on an old second hand typewriter. He had big dreams. It’s for him.

Lone Wolf World is out now through my website, Atrilla Books, or Amazon US. or UK

Gleebooks and Better Read than Dead in Sydney also have it. You are the outlet to the World. Without you, this book will go nowhere. Please share. 

When she met him he already had cancer.

Caught... between Love and Loss

The actual location. The view from the back of 'Richard's' property.

Page One

        When she met him he already had cancer. He refused to call it by its medical name, a not so rare, but still less common form of lymphoma. It was instead, the little slippery bastard that had been sent to test his will, just as he had begun building the house. She knew all about his dream project, but not his illness. This was due to his dogged character. His certainty that he could beat it on his own, would do, and that it would not interfere in his life. He also didn’t want to scare her off, given that they’d only just begun dating. At twenty seven, she was alluring, audacious and intelligent and with an appreciation for country life, rare qualities in a city raised career girl. She seemed to share his exuberance for the mini homestead, the planned two bedroom wooden cottage which was to be made from recycled and natural materials. There would be an extensive garden out back to draw the eyes up to the mountain, as the town locals called it, though it was more a rocky outcrop atop a large, steep hill, nevertheless, covered with native trees and preserved by council despite many capacious offers to acquire the land for private development.

Richard had been fortunate to purchase the land, as a deceased estate in mid ’94 for an equitable price. The existing building was way beyond repair, it needed demolishing and the land clearing and this he had done on his own, slowly over twelve months as he simultaneously gathered the components required for the enterprise ahead. He discovered that some of the beams could be put to good use, as well as two bedroom doors, a kitchen cupboard, a gramophone box, sans the gramophone and the bath.

By the time had met Rachel at a friend’s Christmas function in ’96, a party he had almost missed as it was on a Saturday night and would severely disrupt his two hour weekend sojourns to the property, he was thirty six, turning thirty seven in February and had already settled the foundations. Yes he could have done a day’s work and returned to the city for the function, but knew that once he was in his haven, in the zone, he would not bother to leave. As much as it made him edgy, like a sock full of ants, he was soon delighted in his choice. He was immediately interested in her.

The actual house that inspired the story

Caught between Love and Loss  is the first novella in the book, A Refugee's Rage. It's a love story based around an actual house in New South Wales, Australia.

You can purchase the book directly through me or via Amazon etc. Both stories are very different in content and style, but there are similiar themes. 

You can read a 3rd party review here.

A New Book - Rage of the Refugee

Hot News!

This July, my new novella, A Refugee's Rage, will be released through Ginninderra Press.

A homeless teenage boy lives in a park in Central Rome. He’s not the only one. There are other foreigners on the streets and many of them are young. Yet an encounter with an Afghani girl will have a powerful impact and alter both of their destinies forever.

It also comes with a second novella, (or long story), in the same book.

Caught... between love and loss. 

A man plans to build a house by his own hands in the country, but fate has other plans in store.

Both are different in terms of story and how they're written, yet there are common themes. The journey of the self. The notion of destiny. The impact of romantic love. The reality of unknown events affecting our lives.
They are both short but powerful stories and I'm proud of them both. As with much of my writing, certain real events are contained within the fiction.

The image above is part of the original artwork I purchased to be on the front cover. I'm excited for the artist, I'm excited for the book and I'm excited for you!

More info to come soon...