How long does it take to go from an idea for a story to finally turning that story into a novel?
Try 25 years.
I had the idea for what has become My First Novel back in 1995. Which is twenty-five years ago this year. So since this is the idea’s silver anniversary, I thought it was about time to finally get it out there and let it try and find an audience. So I have.
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always loved time travel as a concept and time travel stories were always my favourite sort of fantasy fiction. Which probably explains why I got into shows like Doctor Who, Timeslip, Catweazle, The Tomorrow People and The Time Tunnel when I was a kid.
So some sort of time travel fantasy was always going to be the sort of thing I ended up writing as a novel.
The idea that has become My First Novel sprang from the usual What If? question which, in this case, was “What could I write that’s like Doctor Who, inspired by my love for Doctor Who but, obviously, not Doctor Who?”
I’ve finally answered that question. They’re a girl called Valentine and a boy named Milo. They meet, fall in love, become reluctant time travellers and have adventures that tell the sorts of stories I want to read.
And the best sort of stories to write are stories you want to read.
For me that’s time travel fantasy romance, so that’s what I’ve written.
Time travel in fiction only works one of three ways:
1] You use a time machine, 2] you zip through a portal or 3] a fabulous object transports you. Sometimes the fabulous object is the hero themselves, thanks to the conveniently innate ability to teleport or think themselves into the past or the future.
Since a Time Machine is utter yawnsville, allied with the fact that nothing can beat the TARDIS for a time machine, that left me with the idea of a portal or a time door.
A door in time or a portal that simply opens when the author needs it to for the sake of the story runs the risk of being simply a contrivance rather than a story generator. But then I thought, what if this time door is like any other door and needs a key to either open or close it…
The book is called THE VALENTINE TRAP and it’s the first book in a whole series of novels that I’ve outlined under the umbrella title of THE PARADOX CLUB.
Now, this is where you come in…
The book is available on Amazon, US and UK, for just 99p/99c.
Since I’m a Zero Budget Indie Author who’s just starting out on his author journey I’m Starting From Zero with no audience. And since The Writing Sages tell you that marketing your book before you’ve built your audience is the writing equivalent of Cold Calling [I’ve done my share of that in the past, and it’s horrible for both sides] the sage advice is to build your audience and get some positive reviews before you promote your book.
So… any chance you can you help me do that?
This blog, such as it is, currently has a grand total of 33 Followers:
aramblingcollective, Glass Wright, Sir George Githunguri, DPAPA’s Living A Flip Flop Life!, New Affiliate News, hassanabbakaza, lancecarr, arun ard, educater34 MSc, ThomasMunk, Mounzer, Annie Suarez, Divya Srivastava, Dr.Perry, penelopeburns, joshua24223, sangita2020, ebookvaultbiz, Tetiana Aleksina, Darius Marley, aloysius5, TheEbookWay, Rich, Mark Gannon, passive64, Donald Wilson, paperhelpservice, beele07yahoocom, Journey2Motive, JoeTheriault, quotesinstaviralpw, wpvideostraining, Hannes van Eeden,
You guys are all “early adopters” of Bryan Mack Books and I thank you all for getting in on the ground floor just as I’ve been getting started. If you’d like to help me on my author journey, here’s how you can do that today…
go to Amazon, buy the book for a measly 99p/99c and, if you like it, please consider leaving a short, positive review saying why. That would be a big help if you can do it and want to do it.
If you don’t want to do it, not a problem. Amazon don’t like “rigged” reviews and there’s always the danger they will de-list your book if they think you’re trying to game the system. Which is why I’ve priced the book as low as possible. I only want people who are genuinely interested enough in me and my work to buy it to review it. Basic psychology tells us that people don’t value free stuff as much as something they’re willing to pay for. Even if that’s only 99p/99c.
So if that’s you, you can buy the book by clicking the links below:
If just 5 of you out of the 33 were to leave a short positive review, that’s enough, so The Self Publishing Sages say, to give you a credible start in properly promoting your book so you can stop being poor, or at least be less poor than you are now.
Which, let’s face it, would be nice.
There are also 15 readers of the blog who have liked at least one of my posts but don’t follow the blog:
Igould171784, Duri Rolvsson, Bogdan (DM), yazzeus, Jan Paul, Wandering Ambivert, Alex Sanfilippo, Alicia Sanfilippo, goofproofplan, DirtySciFiBuddha, antonia_, Carissa, Lluis Busse, Happiness Classroom, Louis.
If any of you guys are reading this [hello again!] and are interested enough in the book to want to buy it and leave short, positive review that would be a great help and very much appreciated.
So here are those links again:
CLICK HERE to get THE VALENTINE TRAP for 99c on Amazon US
CLICK HERE to get THE VALENTINE TRAP for 99p on Amazon UK
If you can help, THANK YOU!
And I really hope you like the book!
BRYANMACKBOOKS.COM 