murder mystery

Interview With Sim Alec Sansford – Welcome To Hollow Wood is Out Now!

~ ChanAtkins ~ 5 Comments

If you are a fan of slasher movies from the 90s and 2000s, such as Scream and I Know What You Did last Summer, if you’re a reader of YA murder/mystery books like One Of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus, then stay tuned! This is for you!

Sim Alec Sansford has a new book out and it’s got all the key ingredients of a classic teen slasher story set in an eerily too-perfect small American town.

Sim tells us all about what inspired this YA thriller, plus what to expect from him next. Link and blurb to the book at the end!

Can you tell us what inspired Hollow Wood?

Growing up I was always hooked on movies I was probably far too sheltered to be watching at the time––like SCREAM, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and a variety of other teen thrillers and suspense films. During my school years you would always find me in the library devouring anything and everything by R. L. Stine, too. I think that’s where my inspiration for not only this story but most of my writing stems … Good characters and irresistible twists, red-herrings, and reveals.

You’ve said this book idea came about a long time ago, but you only recently felt ready to publish it – can you tell us why it took so long?

Yes. This story first begun somewhere around 2012 when one of my university assignments for Creative Writing was to create the first six chapters of a novel. Whilst most of my classmates wrote deep, poetic romances and historical fiction, I was writing about teens and murder. At the time I couldn’t understand why they weren’t … It was so much fun!

Unfortunately, disaster struck when my laptop died and my hard drive failed to restore the file. I was devastated. All that hard work vanished, never to be retrieved. I thought about re-writing it all, but the idea of starting over and not capturing what I had upset me. I decided to put it to bed. However, over the years the characters wouldn’t stop running through my mind and in November 2021 I decided to add Hollow Wood to my list of work to complete by the end of 2024.

Does this book link to any of your others and if so, how?

In some ways this story does connect to others in the Sim Alec Sansford Universe (I really need to come up with a better name for it than that!). Hollow Wood is first mentioned in my debut novel, Welcome to Denver Falls, where it is the neighbouring town. In that book the there is a baseball scene where the Denver Dholes go up against the Hollow Wood Hawks.

Book two, which I’m working on currently, also makes reference to a character featured in my series Fortune’s Well. However, despite links to these series Hollow Wood is not paranormal.

What does your normal writing process look like from original idea to published book?

Blurb first. Possibly a little backwards, but I love creating engaging blurbs and mocking up cover art and teasers for my books. Yes—before I’ve even written them.

I find this helps me grow ideas, moods and themes for my stories. I find blurbs exciting. You get to hint at what readers can expect and ask questions that keep you hooked from the moment you open the first page.

From there I am very much a “pantser”, I let the story and characters take me and rarely force anything. If it doesn’t feel right then something in my gut is telling me to take a step back, evaluate and try again. This approach doesn’t work for everyone and it’s not something I recommend, but for me it works. I think of myself as a director plotting out a movie and I have to call cut a few times before I get it right.

Who is your favourite character in Hollow Wood and why?

That’s easy––Eliot.

I feel bad saying that because of all the characters who’ve stayed with me from the get go, Weaver is the one who’s been more prominent. In fact, he is the only one who still has the same name, home life, and personality traits from the original uni piece.

However, I love Eliot because there’s an edge to her. She is dark brooding, artistic, introverted, and absolutely addicted to music. In many ways I think she is a manifestation of a younger me. She’s also very damaged and spends a lot of her time pleasing others rather than thinking about herself. That’s a quality I definitely relate too, and although it has some draw backs I feel there’s a power in it.

You write in the YA genre – what do you like about this genre?

I feel like teen characters are far more complex. When you’re younger everything is heightened … love, lust, hate … revenge. It’s all so much more daring and exciting.

There is a nostalgia in YA too, it speaks to your inner self as a reader and a writer. It allows you to say the things you wish you had when you were that age. Do the things you were too scared to do. Likewise it allows you to revisit such a special, monumental point in your life. I’m not sure if I’d enjoy writing any other genre as much.

What are your favourite YA books and why?

I love a wide variety of Young Adult books. From paranormal romance such as Alexandra Adornetto’s Halo trilogy, to more contemporary realistic fiction like John Marsden’s Tomorrow series.

I just love reading about teen characters for the same reason I love to write them. Their lives are usually far more complex and the stakes are so much higher.

Halo definitely taught me a lot about romance and how powerful and all consuming love can be for younger people. Likewise, Tomorrow definitely showed me how strong the bonds of friendship can be and how ordinary teenagers (most often overlooked by the adults in their lives) can be the greatest heroes of all.

What do you hope readers will get from Hollow Wood? What kind of experience will they have?

I hope they get a story that they simply cannot put down.

I feel like this book, although short, has a lot of twists and turns which will keep readers on the edge of their seat. There will be answers, but ultimately a lot more questions. Again, this is a short novel for YA, but there is enough there to get readers absorbed into the world of Hollow Wood and fall in love with the characters.

I imagine the Hollow Wood series to be is a television show on the page. Book one is the pilot. It draws in the hype. You fall in love with the cast and fear for their fate in the sequel.

What are you working on now? What will be released next?

Currently I am working on the second book in the Hollow Wood series, currently titled Lie, Lie Again.

I am absolutely loving what I have so far and cannot wait to share it with you––hopefully very soon!

What is your favourite part of the whole writing process, for example is it the excitement of the initial idea, the first draft, or the last draft?

I absolutely love the feeling of having a new idea. That rush you get certainly can’t be beaten. When you get so excited about a story that you want to shout it from the rooftops. Ideas come easy to me, it’s the patience and dedication involved in writing that can be a challenge. I want so badly to spill everything out from my head and onto the page. I get so impatient. But then again, when you type those last few words and can see it all on there in black and white, it feels like such an achievement.

You never really know how a book will be received, but I write with one rule in mind––it’s all for me. I write the stories that I love to read. When other people love them too, it feels really great and affirming.

That’s the power of a great story, it make us feel a little less alone.

Thank you so much to Sim for talking to us today about his latest release!

You can grab it here https://amzn.eu/d/fUpsC43

and here is the blurb:

#WhatHappenedToKelseaGregory

That’s the question on everyone’s lips.

Everyone apart from Weaver Lawrence, Eliot Chase, Noah Castello and Beth Sinclair, the only ones that know the truth. At least that’s what they think. Little do they know someone else was there that night in the woods two years ago, and they’re thirsty for revenge.

On the surface, their town of Hollow Wood seems like the perfect vacation destination. Quaint countryside, large estates, wealthy residents with perfect lives and perfect smiles. But with senior year coming to an end and exams looming;for these four estranged friends, this year’s going to be an absolute KILLER…

Indie Author Of The Month: Val Portelli

~ ChanAtkins ~ 1 Comment

Hi everyone – it’s been a while since I highlighted an indie author on The Glorious Outsiders. I blame that on Netflix and not reading enough lately! I’ve also been attempting two reading challenges so often my reading choices have to try and fit with those. Anyway. I recently had the pleasure of beta reading a murder mystery novel by Val Portelli. Val has contributed two pieces to my blog since I started my lockdown themed features, so I jumped at the chance of being an early reader for her new novel Alderslay. I really enjoyed the book and will definitely read more of Val’s work in the future. I invited Val on to the blog to tell us all about the new novel and she has written this piece detailing the things that can go wrong while preparing a self-published book for launch day. If you would like to know more about Val and her work, her links are all at the end! Enjoy.

https://mybook.to/Alderslay 

‘Alderslay’ and book gremlins.

I had my first book, a romantic novel called ‘Changes’ published several years ago. Shortly afterwards I wrote the first draft for a mystery novel called ‘Murder of Changes’ to tie in with the theme.

Fast forward and ‘M of C’ as it was affectionally known, sat on the back burner while I self-published other books, contributed to anthologies, wrote short stories, learnt about marketing, web sites, blogs, editing, formatting and how to defeat gremlins.

At one stage I was in contact with an editor who read the book and gave me valuable feedback which I incorporated into a revised draft. Entering a competition, I was delighted to win the opportunity to have a cover designed, so M of C was dragged off the back burner, submitted to beta readers, and became new and improved as I incorporated their suggestions.

A year passed and I was assured the cover design was in hand and would be available shortly. Numerous emails later, the MD of the design company eventually admitted the communication between himself and his employee, my designated contact, had proved lacking, and it was the first he had heard of it. My carefully composed details and suggestions had never been seen by the design team.

Was it jinxed? Should I forget it and move onto something else, perhaps a follow up for a series on one of one other books? Stubborn? Moi? Let’s just say a challenge is a challenge. I mentioned it to a friend and fellow author who had been instrumental in my other cover designs, and despite having other priorities she sent her dragons charging to the rescue. With all the to-ing and fro-ing, I’m not sure why she hasn’t blocked me, but the end result was a cover I loved. Thank you P.

I love writing but my marketing skills have to be seen to be believed- e.g. non-existent. Nevertheless, I endeavoured this time to try to do it properly, put the book on pre-order, diarised to set up the paperback to coincide with the eBook release, and bit my nails. Amazon nudged me with reminders of a countdown for when my final Kindle version should be uploaded, but I was happy the latest version was good to go.

A few hours before the cut-off time I received feed-back from a blogger who loved it, but pointed out in Chapter X I mentioned ‘A’ but in Chapter Y it’s ‘B.’ Aaagh. Reading for the umpteenth million time she was right. Dilemma. Should I try to change the minor discrepancy which most readers probably wouldn’t notice, or update a revised version which could result in throwing all the page set-up out of line. Being a perfectionist, I had to put it right, which was the signal for the world and his wife to interrupt with things that had been hanging around for months but needed a response NOW!

There was also the problem of the chicken and egg syndrome. Many readers these days use Kindles, but others only read paperbacks and wanted to know if/when this option would be available. Knowing Amazon suggest paperbacks can often take 72 hours to be approved, and hearing from other authors the virus had affected normal timescales, I set up a formula to include probability ratios, US versus UK time zones, and whether there was an R in the month.

With an eBook release date of the 3rd March, I waited until the early hours of the 1st March, UK time to press go for the paperback, before trying to catch up with some sleep. The following, or rather the same day, I opened my emails to discover the paperback was already live, having taken only 4 hours to approve and had beaten the eBook publication by two days. So much for trying to be a clever-clogs.

Beta readers had been advised of the approximate release date, in the hope they would leave a review. That’s when I realised they would they would be looking for the publication of ‘M of C.’

Just when I thought all was going to plan, a reader advised me there was a slight problem with the layout on one small area of the paperback which had already been released. Should I ignore it or try to correct it before more sales were made. No time like the present and again I burned the midnight oil. The amendment itself took two minutes, but then the long wait watching the wheel go round while Amazon went through the whole routine from scratch before I could access the revised preview.

Thankfully, it was again available within a few hours and I breathed a sigh of relief. A zoom meeting with a friend who lives abroad started with her asking what had happened to the paperback. She had tried to order in exactly that short timescale while it was awaiting the revision. Who said being an author only involved putting words on a page?

Despite all the problems, my first fantastic 5* review had me bouncing, and was quickly followed by others.

Is it worth all the stress and hassle if the actual income works out around a thousandth of the hourly minimum wage? Of course not, but the satisfaction of knowing someone actually read and enjoyed your book drives you on to write the next one. Sincere thanks to buyers, readers, bloggers, reviewers and supporters who have helped to keep me sane. A short break before the characters start calling, then here we go again!

Val’s Links

Amazon author page https://author.to/ValPortelli

YouTube ‘Val’s Tales’ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsmbM57q4SzHbOcx3CPbr1Q/

Facebook ‘Val’s Tales’ http://www.facebook.com/ValsTales

Twitter

@vals_tales https://twitter.com/ValPortelli

Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/wwwgoodreadscomVal_Portelli

Blog http://www.Voinks.wordpress.com

Web site http://www.quirkyunicornbooks.wordpress.com

10 Fun Facts About My New Book

~ ChanAtkins ~ 5 Comments

Wow, time goes fast! Too fast! Although I have been working on YA novel A Song For Bill Robinson for three years, it’s release date is suddenly almost upon me and I do not feel ready! Life has been very busy lately and I feel unprepared for this book release and I’m ever so slightly panicking. I did consider delaying the release until after Christmas but I’m not going to. The good thing is this time around I have paid for a blog tour, so this is really going to help with the promotion and take some of the pressure off me. It’s something I’ve wanted to try for a while and if it has good results I will definitely save up my pennies and arrange another one for one of my older books. Anyway, my new book will be released on 7th December and the next few blog posts will be related to it, so if you are curious about the novel, stay tuned and learn more!

  1. I first wrote this book when I was 16. An early version of this story was written when I was 16. Most of the characters have remained the same in this new version, although a few have been added and some have had their names changed. Some of the storylines are the same and some are new. The character who remains most unchanged from my early teenager version is the protagonist, Bill Robinson.
  2. I forgot about it until I found it in a suitcase. I had totally forgotten about the book I wrote aged 16 but never managed to finish, until I found it in an old suitcase under my bed. The suitcase was full of my old diaries and stories and things I had written for school. Amongst all that was a huge lever arch file with the unnamed manuscript in it. What an exciting find! I sat there on the floor and flicked through it. It was handwritten on shabby A4 paper and I’d kept a separate notebook for character bios and plot developments, much like I do now! There is even a handy map! I was actually very impressed with my 16 year old self and decided I had to rewrite and finish this novel!
  3. I wrote two short stories first. As I was already working on another novel, I couldn’t just start rewriting A Song For Bill Robinson right away. I was also putting a short story collection together so I decided to pen two short stories related to the novel, in a bid to keep the rest of it at bay. Bird People and Night Prowler can be found in my collection; Bird People and Other Stories. Bird People is really a character snapshot of Bill Robinson and I really enjoyed getting to know him again. Night Prowler serves as a prequel to the novel, explaining what happened first.
  4. The original book was inspired by The Commitments. Yes, when I was 16 I watched the film The Commitments and it inspired me to write a story about a grumpy working class boy who wanted to be a singer. The book has very different storylines but the singing part was definitely inspired by that film!
  5. It has evolved into a trilogy. My characters do this to me all the time! One book is just never enough for them. So, while I was already developing The Boy With The Thorn In His Side into a six book series, A Song For Bill Robinson ended on a cliffhanger that just had to be addressed in a follow-up. I wrote that book and will release it next year but the same thing happened at the end of that one! I am now working on the first draft of that third book.
  6. It has an amazing soundtrack. If you’ve read any of my other books, particularly The Boy With The Thorn In His Side books, you will know that I am a huge music fan and will write songs into my books if I can. Of course, with this book being about a singer, I was able to have a lot of fun choosing songs! From The Clash, to Jamie T, to The Four Tops and David Bowie…this book rocks! You can listen to the playlist via this Pinterest storyboard…
  7. The characters gave me an extra storyline. Yes, they are so naughty like this. I already had a plot and some sub-plots. The attack on Bill starts the novel. Who attacked him and why, and is it connected to the unsolved murder of a local boy? These revelations come throughout the book as does the ongoing feud between Bill and local thug Charlie McDonnal, who Bill suspects of the murder. There is also the community centre under threat and the singing contest held to try to save it. Bill, of course, is a contender in the contest, but can he keep Charlie and his own inner, drink-related demons at bay long enough to win it? And in the middle of all this, my characters suggested a love triangle between the three main characters and best friends, Bill, Summer and Adam. This is a storyline that runs on into the next books.
  8. My daughter helped me edit it. My oldest daughter finished her GCSE’s and had a long summer ahead of her. Her main priority was reading lots of books! She offered to read the paperback proof of A Song For Bill Robinson for me and was an invaluable help. It’s aimed at her age group so I was curious about her reaction to it. She sped through it and loved the characters and she also sat with a pen as she read it, correcting typos and reordering words for me. She was brilliant! Of course it has had further edits and revisions before and after that as well as beta reader feedback, but her being the age it’s aimed at, really was a massive help.
  9. I wrote some songs for it. Well, sort of! You see, in the book, Bill ends up joining a band and playing covers with them. They want to write their own music though, so he starts trying to come up with some lyrics, something he does not think he can do to start with. So this meant I had to come up with some lyrics! And that’s mostly what there is in this book, disjointed lyrics for unnamed songs. But in the next two books those songs develop and become actual songs the band start singing at gigs.
  10. It’s set in a fictionalised version of the estate I grew up on. Just like Elliot Pie’s Guide To Human Nature, A Song For Bill Robinson is set on a council estate called Holds End. This is a fictionalised version of where I grew up. The books link slightly as Elliot mentions the Robinson family in his book and Elliot’s mother Laura, appears briefly in the next book in the Holds End trilogy. As for the location, I’ve kept most of it the same, changed a few roads names and added the community centre.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these random facts about my next book. In next week’s blog I should have news about the release date and a pre-order link for you!

Book Launch Plan!

~ ChanAtkins ~ 5 Comments

Launching a book is scary! So scary in fact that I’ve been putting this one off for months, maybe even years. As is the usual with me, I tend to write a first draft in about 3 months and then go into subsequent drafts and rewrites and edits that last for years…I then procrastinate about how ready the book really is, worry endlessly about whether it’s had enough beta readers and generally do everything I can to put off actually releasing it.

Why? I think because in writing a book, you put your heart and soul into it. You immerse yourself in it, become obsessed by it, fall in love with it and in releasing it, you hope to have some kind of recognition of that, in sales and reviews, and as most indie authors will know, this is by no means easy. If you have money to spare, it helps. Money will buy you an editor, a decent front cover and an advertising campaign. High sales and plentiful reviews are still not guaranteed but you’ve got a better chance. For writers who don’t have a single spare penny? It’s a much harder and more frustrating process which at times barely seems worth it.

Anyway, I digress. There are many reasons I delay book releases and fear of failure is the biggest one. I don’t have massively high hopes but I do hope and dream of decent sales and positive reviews. And if I put off the release? Well, I delay the fear and can sleep better for longer.

But! The time has come. I am currently nearing the end of The Boy With The Thorn In His Side Part 6, and when that’s done, I will have five unpublished books waiting for release dates. Five!! That’s insane. I think that says a lot about my relationship with writing! Endless ideas, addictive/compulsive tendencies and then utter fear and denial. It also explains why I’ve written my whole life but only starting publishing in my mid-30’s.

So, with that in mind, one of those five books will be released in December! I decided on December as it’s a good time to release a book, when people are thinking about Christmas presents and it’s dark and miserable outside and people want a book to curl up with. That gives me almost three months to plan the launch. I’m already daunted, although I have done this before. I am tired just thinking about it.

Having already ruled out a physical launch (as an indie author I am too afraid no one will come and very good at self-sabotaging myself) I do need to make a plan and stick to it.

So, this post is my book launch plan for YA novel A Song For Bill Robinson, potential release date Friday 6th December. I will probably add to and revise this plan as time goes on and as always, please feel free to comment! If I have missed anything, let me know! Any good ideas? I’d love to hear them!

  • Decide on release date
  • speak to cover designer again to prompt first sketch of ideas
  • go through book again for final typos etc
  • decide on a good tag line for promo etc
  • make a list of ARC reviewers and ask in Street Team and Facebook page
  • contact possible ARC reviewers
  • send book to agreed ARC reviewers
  • organise a blog tour
  • revisit Pinterest board and add to/revise/work on
  • start making release day and release countdown graphics on Canva
  • organise advertising, free or paid, decide!
  • contact similar genre authors to organise giveaways and/or blog spots/interviews
  • start making quote graphics on Canva and start sharing to Instagram etc
  • contact YA booktubers!
  • contact YA book reviewers!
  • put print copy together to release on same day as ebook
  • organise Amazon or Goodreads giveaway?
  • create a Facebook launch day event and a separate Instagram one?
  • invite other authors to event to share posts/books etc
  • create graphics for online launch events
  • create launch day competitions for Facebook and Instagram
  • Put together a series of blog posts to release up to launch day about the book
  • set ebook at 99p for one week only
  • invite people to Facebook event and hope they come!
  • submit the book to competitions/awards!
  • drink lots of wine and remember that at least I tried!!!