You don’t believe me? You should read my earlier works (I
cringe at the thought,) and the improvement is quite incredible.
Self-publishing is a very difficult business simply because
we don’t have the resources that the big publishing companies offer. We write a
story, proof, edit, rinse and repeat the process many many times before we even
pass it on to another’s set of eyes in the hope they pick up on something we
missed. We have to hire proof readers and hope they are competent and reliable,
keeping our fingers crossed they felt fresh and focussed when they worked on
the piece. We pay for artists and graphic designers to get our images and
covers looking remotely attractive and all of this we do for you, the reader,
in the hope we can capture your imagination for a week of your life while you
digest our years worth of hard, sweat pouring imagination squeezing.
And why is this so difficult? Simply because readers enjoy
good writing. It’s as simple and as complicated as that. It matters not that
the E-book probably costs less than a cup of coffee or that the paperback copy
costs less than the price to get your nails done. You, the reader, doesn’t just
want value, you want a smooth and uncomplicated delivery.
That part I found difficult in the beginning.
In 2013 when I first released “Chronicles of Astoria Part 1,
Delta” I was very naive and unprepared for the Indy-market place. I genuinely thought
that when someone purchased a book for a quid, they weren’t wholly concerned
with the quality of writing. I mean, we had 50 shades of nonsense that was
selling like hot cakes and the writing was borderline terrible in there. I knew
my content wasn’t as bad as that but I came to the conclusion that, as long as
I had a good story, the reader would overlook the delivery.
Boy was I wrong.
It wasn’t until I received my first bad review that I really
took stock of my situation and headed back to the drawing board with my crayons
to start again. It was disheartening I’ll admit. It’s the classic “if only they
looked deeper.”
But the reader shouldn’t have to. They should be captured
from the moment they set eyes on the piece, enthralled even. The whole point of
my series was to make the reader DESIRE to keep pressing onwards, unlocking the
depth to each character and the mysteries behind them. My goal for the “Chronicles of Astoria”
series was to have a deep set of lore for each and every character in the
story. I wanted a reader from all walks of life to be able to connect and love
at least one of the “Angels” whatever their personality. I wanted the focus
from each book to shift slightly away from the main protagonists along a web of
intertwined story lines revealing a depth to each supporting character, the
deeper the lore the more real it would seem and thus the more connected the
reader may feel.
But none of that is any good if the reader rage quits and
launches their copy/kindle across the room for repeated punctuation errors or
terrible grammar (I’m sure I’ve made a few corkers in this blog piece already.)
So what is so special about my latest piece you may ask? Well
put simply, my “cringe tracker” was barely spiking throughout this piece. As I
have said before, I read back through old writing and am overcome with waves of
embarrassment that I ever allowed something so amateur to go public. I guess my
hope had been that, one day, it would get picked up by a publisher and they
would fix it for me. Writing is, after all, a retirement project for me so I
have a good thirty years to perfect my craft. At the rate I was going though, I’d
have spent the best years of my life in hiding or at best, wearing heavy
disguises in public. Some of it was awful.
Now, however, that has all changed. When I read through sections I feel it flows. There are even rare occasions where I think “actually that’s
pretty good.”
I won’t get carried away here but it’s a huge step in the
right direction.
For those that play RPG’s I have levelled up my writing
character to “A good amateur.”
The constant quote throughout my short writing career has
always been “the story is good,” and this installment is no different. “Chronicles
of Astoria Part 3 ‘Alpha’” is the prequel to it all and follows the beginnings of
both the main protagonists and antagonists. Part 2 dealt with the theme of “the
hero that falls,” revealing and explaining some of the cliff hangers left from Part
1 particularly regarding hidden gifts and plot lines that ran far deeper than
the surface of the first story. Throughout
Part 2 the reader learns just how complex and pre-meditated the entire attack
by the Sarfan Lord was and my hope has always been to encourage the reader to
finish the book and read it all over again with the newfound knowledge gained
from the ending. I, personally, enjoy a clever story and love nothing more than
to pick up on slithers of clues only to piece them together to reveal something
far grander.
The Chronicles of Astoria series is meant to be just that.
The series is 5 books in total and so the purpose of Part 3
is to pave the way for the final two installments. The story explores the origins
of Vega (the Sarfan Lord, before he is turned to an agent of darkness,) and
follows his route through the history of Astoria. This includes the original
failed exodus and his part in shaping the world as we know it.
Naturally this leads us to the origins of our main
protagonist in Raphael and how he comes to the city of Astoria, his friendship
with Chance, Crystal and how he fits in with the other Anglings in the city.
Characters mentioned in the previous books, such as Lucas
for example, are explored more in depth here especially since we know (from reading
Part 2) that he returns to the city eventually. By exploring the past I was
able to introduce these characters to the reader and start building that “connection”
which will be vital for the last two installments. (out 2016 and 2017 respectfully.)
I have tried to include a bit of a puzzle solving mystery/reveal
within this episode when the Anglings go in search of the “Nexus.” Perhaps I
was watching a little too much Sherlock Holmes at the time and wanted a clever gimmick
although to be honest I’m not sure how well I’ve delivered on that part. Perhaps
I should stick to what I’m good at, writing something where “the story was good.”
(I winked there, sorry poor joke.)
All in all, this story sets up the series for the final two
installments and if you want to order your copy you can do here.
Chronicles of Astoria part 3 is out now!!!
Many thanks
M R Shields
