Start now...

Sunday, at last, a plethora of literary gems waiting to to be snatched up - OK - downloaded.
Read an eBook week is here.

Ready, press start

Check out The Grange series at Smashwords, enter the code RAE50 at the checkout.

Check my author page at Smashwords

 Browse the Smashwords read an eBook week page

Go find yourself a gem

Be alert...

Your country needs lerts!

Yeah, I know, it's an old one, goes way back as far as I can remember, but joking aside yesterday's email flagged up advance notice of something bang up to date.

The Ninth annual Read an eBook week starts next Sunday. The 5th to the 11th of March; seven days of discounts, freebies and hidden treasures revealed. There's more information about the event on the smashwords,blog

Maybe the kick up the back end I'm looking for to stop me feeling grounded, bogged down, or whatever; get my finger out, pull my socks up. Slot in whatever vernacular descriptive you feel is appropriate.

Give myself the Gibbs head slap and get back on track.

So what are you waiting for?

Sunday, of course.

Keep an eye on this space, check out Smashwords and follow the links from wherever you are, to where you want to be. The Grange stories will be discounted.

Grab an eBook for a discount or a freebie and enjoy yourself.

If Sunday is too far away,  nip along to Indies Unlimited and check out Thrifty Thursday.

Don't forget to pop back on Sunday!

Reaching the line

"Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to hang in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully," was Dr  Samuel Johnson's take on a deadline. Not something we are likely to face, even if we consider writing in the same vein as Bill Shankly, the legendary manager of Liverpool Football Club, who considered the game to be more important than life and death.

Chris Baty, founder and chief instigator of NaNoWriMo considers the dead line to be the writer's secret weapon. Douglas Adams  always enjoyed the sound of them whooshing along as they sped past.

Deadlines, not facing the hangman, or speeding by, but a limit. Self set, and policed, by the independent. There's the rub, self control makes them potentially flexible. Ideally they should give enough time for the job to be completed with a smidgeon of leeway, and not come up like you're running at a brick wall, even if it can move ahead of you.

The next deadline comes up tonight as Read an eBook week closes its doors and the discount code (RAE25)  at smashwords expires. The alternative codes remain valid,  on this blog and  at cheekyseagull.co.uk for the individual Grange Thrillers.

Which brings me to the plan, it's a bit formal calling it a plan at this stage, more a what am I going to do next arrangement.

Two projects,  both of them Grange Thrillers, Gone to Earth and  ClearWater, both unfinished and frankly, Gone to Earth needs a kick start, so, in need of a dead line, I've given myself a prompt. April, twenty five thousand words and hopefully a first draft put to rest by the end of the month. The protagonists are mustering for the final denouement and the scene will shortly be set, once Josie Burke has figured out the necessary deployment.

The plan is to unpublish Gone to Earth, to pull it offline until the work is finished. Once that's dealt with Clear Water takes the head and will be the focus.

When the time comes I'll keep you posted as to how things are progressing.

Read an eBook Week starts here....

Read an eBook Week kicks off for 2016, seven days of discounted and free ebooks at Smashwords. The Grange thrillers are involved, with a 25% discount code - especially for this week.

Check the links with the books at their Smashwords pages;

Iceline -free as usual.
Control Escape - enter RAE25 at the checkout
What You Ask For - enter RAE25
The Obedience of Fools - enter RAE25

Flag them for your e-readers, give your friends a nudge towards new writers and books at the summer promotions page.

How it works.

Generally speaking a work in progress  available at Smashwords and ineligible for the premium catalogue will be free to download. Once the text is complete and proofed it will be submitted and a price attached.

What You Ask For passed the  premium catalogue selection and is now in the ebook retailers supplied by smashwords (until 2 March 2015 What You Ask For has a 50% discount code at smashwords enter AY63P at the checkout - the code isn't case sensitive).

Feedback on any story is welcome.  Drop me a line through the contact page.

Currently The Obedience of Fools and Gone to Earth are listed as works in progress, free to download at smashwords. Drop in and help yourself.

Iceline the first Grange novel is available at smashwords and through all the distribution channels as a permanent free download.

Chase your ebook down through the links from cheekyseagull.co.uk/iceline.

What are you looking for?

New covers for Control Escape

   and What You Ask For 

Both stories went out with a rush cover job. Neither of them giving any insight into the action taking place behind the image. So over the summer I got my head behind it and worked on a new design. Both are now out there and should have reached the retailers with the new cover image.

Control Escape is a replacement for the the original. I believe it works much better. It certainly does for, me, I shall soon see if it does for the book

What You Ask For is new in the distribution channels outside Smashwords. So it may be the first glimpse some readers have had of the book, we'll see what happens here shall we. It has made the jump from being a free WIP to paid, $2.99. Until January 2 it has a 50% discount at Smashwords.
Enter AY63P at the the checkout.

Smashing!

The World Cup is well on its and Wimbledon is close to finding this  year's champion and to prove that great things come in threes.  Smashword summer/ winter promotion has just kicked off. From now until the end of July Control Escape is half price with the code SSW50.

Check out the other titles on offer this month at www.smashwords.com

Get your discounts here.

Iceline and Control Escape have discount codes at Smashwords. Check in KG94R for Control Escape and SG33N for Iceline. Less than a dollar apiece with the codes.

The Big One - World Book Night

One week to go, seven nights from tonight World Book Night will be with us! 

Have you anything lined up yet?

To celebrate;  Iceline, the first Grange novel is free to anyone who wants to offer it a good home here with NL36S for a 100% discount. Bag Control Escape for half price with VK56T here and take both home. Two thrillers for a dollar and a half, Have a good read.

Something for the week-end, Sir?

The old style Barbers with the traditional red and white pole outside the door, dark wood panelling stained with age and Brylcreem, and the smell of oil, shampoo and the other unctions and ointments, the alchemy of hair dressing There was a padded plank that rested on the chair arms to lift you to  the right level, because you were small and the seats were made for grown men,  where you went with your Dad or Grandad, and the question was an overheard fragment of a conversation from another customer, in a language you didn't quite understand.

Something for the weekend Sir? What's on offer? Tickets to the match on Saturday, the winning numbers for the lottery (don't you wish), or that something with a bit of a nudge nudge wink wink say no  more, by the way how is your good lady? Most of it floats straight over your head. You're thoughts of the week end are about plunging through the comics and magazines at WHSmith while trying to ignore the itchy bits of hair that sneaked past your collar, or maybe even a book, something for the weekend and into the week beyond.

Something for the weekend, Sir, or Madam, What's on offer, a discount code for Iceline (SG33N) and Control Escape (VK56T), 50℅ off using the codes, until the end of May, pick them up now and hang on to them for Summer reading.

Keep it rolling

There are still Smashwords discount codes available for Iceline and Control Escape, 100% off until the 31st March.

The code for Iceline is TA34B and for Control Escape is BU95A, get hold of one, or bag the brace, spread the word, be part of the action. 

Area 51?

Area 51 - that got your attention; no, not the place that officially unofficially exists or doesn't somewhere in Nevada, although Google Earth seems convinced it knows where it is, but the 51st area for Apple's iBookstore - Japan. Now open for business

I admit there are certain oriental mysteries about the culture and people of the Japanese islands that have always intrigued me, and a favourite James Bond novel, You Only Live Twice, is set there. The book has a much more exotic element regarding poisons and volcanic vents than the film, but it catches something of the strangeness of the culture.

The news yesterday morning carried a link to the press release announcing the opening and tucked away inside it was a fascinating factoid, a conversational elephant stopper, 130 million iBook apps have been downloaded to iPads, iPhones etc.; now wind it back and run it again. That is a staggering figure, and imagine all that space waiting to be filled with books, 130 million iBook apps, we're already half way through Read an Ebook Week and time to go bobbing in Apple's barrel.

If you haven't had your fill yet, help yourself, my two books Iceline and Control Escape are part of the action this week and the notification emails have never been busier. The discount code until Saturday is RW100, don't keep it to yourself.
A week is said to be a long time in politics, not so when your working through the pages of a book, a week may put ten or fifteen thousand words on the story, more if you're working at it full time - a delightful luxury I'm not in a position to enjoy at the moment, but hey, I can dream.

Be part of it, spread the word.

130 million opportunities for an Indie Author like myself to connect with the reading public: you,  to entertain you, to share the adventures of my characters and hang in there with them through thrills, mystery and danger until  way off in the distance there is a hint of a large lady singing.

Whatever and wherever you're reading, enjoy.

Control: Escape - take a look inside

Control: Escape is the follow up to Iceline, with more about life at the Grange, Bill Jardine, Don Steel, Josie Burke and introducing a few more characters.

Steve Arkwright is the guy who fooled around nipping over firewalls to see what was on the other side, until the men in suits made him and offer. A well paid job with security is just another form of prison, with ever shifting bars, until a way out becomes available.  Try this for starters, and read on...

Chapter One


Malcolm Baker touched a finger to his lips and slid it across his throat as he sat down and lobbed his cap on the desk. Bill Jardine reached under the desk and flicked a switch. “Sound is off.”
“Thanks.” He unclipped his tie and unbuttoned the collar of his shirt.
Jardine leaned forward and pressed call on the intercom. “Josie, coffee for two, large Thermos, and if anyone asks I'm not”
“OK Boss.” The speaker crackled and he released the button.
“I’m imagining all this?”
“Very lucid dream,” Baker grinned and sat in the buttoned leather chair. Jardine closed the file on his desk and creased the spine with his thumb before he put it away in a drawer. “Out with it then, what’s the problem?
“Not certain you can help. That’s why I'm doing this quietly.”
“Seven thirty and in uniform, wouldn't call that quietly.”
“Uniform makes me invisible, so who cares about the time.”
Josie came in with the coffee on a tray. Two heavy mugs and a two litre pump action Thermos flask; milk and sugar. Jardine pumped the coffee into the mugs, spooned two heavy teaspoons of sugar into one and handed it to Baker who stirred it well.
“Go on,” Jardine waited until Josie had left the room, “what’s happening.”
“I have a problem with your old firm, Hoplite; I’m working with special branch on their latest project because we think it may have policing possibilities.”
“Why not take it up with Michael Spear?”
Baker scratched the side of his head. “That is the problem; he may be implicated. There’s a security breach somewhere in the company and I can’t find it yet, I have my suspicions but nothing more at the moment.”
“And you want me to spy on my best mate?” For a moment Jardine’s voice carried the accent of his childhood in the north east. “That’s asking a lot.”
Baker drank a mouthful of coffee and gave himself time to think. “No, I don’t want you to spy on him, look, I want to help. I can’t really believe that he is tangled up in whatever is going off, but I have to be sure, and for that I need to know more than I do at the present.”
“Alright, but how can I help?”
“It may not amount to anything, but if Michael Spear drops in can you talk to him, see what you can prise out of him and persuade him to talk to me at least?”

Find out more on my author page at Smashwords.com and www.cheekyseagull.co.uk for links to major ebook suppliers, available through Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony Readerstore and Diesel ebookstore. Discount coupns are available at Smashwords, via cheeky seagull until the 6th of January.