self publishing

Would It Be Okay To Watch The Last Sunset Alone? – poem

~ ChanAtkins ~ Leave a comment

Hi folks! I have got so much content now on Medium – a lovely mix of essays, articles, poems and stories, so I thought for this week on the blog I would share a poem that recently did quite well for me there. I still can’t get my head around getting paid to write my poems!!

Image by Giani Pralea from Pixabay

Would it be okay
to not do anything
to leave today
and maybe tomorrow too
whatever, however long it takes
for the feeling to pass
of the world ending
of disaster
and death
and my decay
and the transition into bones
and dust
would it be okay
if I said not today?
I can’t do it today
my mind is a trap
a battlefield I can’t escape from
and your silence was too loud
when I tried to talk
if the world lets me
I’ll cancel today
bury myself in bed
find comfort in words instead
get lost and sad inside my own head
feel myself dissipate in the dark
embrace my bones
knowing it’s okay
to watch the last sunset alone

Thank you for reading! I am in the process of compiling all my Medium poems and pieces of fiction into a new book I’ll publish at some point. I’ll keep you posted on that but I already know it will be called Dirty Little Feet and Other Tales and Poems.

See you next week!

Interview With Chantelle Atkins On Her Latest Release: At Night We Played In The Road

~ ChanAtkins ~ 2 Comments

Last week I was interviewed by author Sim Alec Sansford for the author news blog on the Chasing Driftwood Books website. Chasing Driftwood Books is an indie collective some like-minded indie authors have set up to help support and promote each other and I’m thrilled to be a part of it!

Here is the interview:

“When Tom Lane was born, he accidentally killed his mother and in the process, his father’s love.

Determined to protect Tom from their father’s criminal business, older brother Alfie must become Tom’s father, mother and protector. It’s the two of them against the world until the day Tom chooses a life of crime over Alfie’s dream of a normal life.
Ten years later the estranged brothers are reunited when a violent gang bring Tom to Alfie’s door with a gun to his head.

Tom’s partners in crime have turned on him and he needs his brother to save him one more time…

A darkly brooding story of brotherly love, belonging and the beginnings that shape who we become.“

Buy here: https://books2read.com/u/mBy7DZ

Your latest release is connected to your five-book series, The Boy With The Thorn In His Side. Can you tell us more about that?

Yes! The Boy With The Thorn In His Side Part 5 introduced two characters, Tom and Alfie Lane. They become unwittingly involved in Danny’s (the main character in The Boy…series) struggle to escape his crime ridden past. He helps them and they help him. As I wrote these scenes, I fell so in love with the characters I knew they had to have a story of their own. I was curious about their past, specifically their childhood and wondered what had happened to them to lead them to this point. For example, when Danny first meets Tom Lane, he is tied to a chair, about to be tortured by a violent thug Danny has tangled with before. But what led Tom to that chair? I saw a very troubled and co-dependent sibling relationship between Tom and Alfie and really wanted to explore that.

What is it about Tom and Alfie in particular that made you want to write their story, opposed to other side characters?

Good question! I have to be careful because I think all my side characters would like their own book one day! But these two did really catch my imagination. I think I was interested in the brotherly relationship and how Alfie had to be a father and brother to Tom. I was interested in that very specific dynamic too, one of co-dependency and how damaging that can be to both individuals. I wanted to examine it from both of their points of view, so I did. They love each other deeply and fiercely, which is incredibly beautiful, but they also hurt each other a lot over the years. Their family background was really interesting to me too. How sometimes you cannot escape your family, even if you don’t want to be like them. How some children hero worship abusive parents, while others see them for what they are and try to break free. Tom also has Tourette’s Syndrome which was something I was researching a lot at the time as my youngest child displays many of the symptoms. Tom is based on him, just a tiny bit. His energy, his optimism, his intelligence!

This book explores many dark themes as do your other stories. What is it about the genre that you particularly enjoy?

I think I am just drawn to the dark side of life and everything that means and entails. There are so many layers to humanity and being alive and it’s fun to pick them apart and see what flows out. I like gritty stories, topics you can get your teeth into. I like writing about outsiders and rebels, people who don’t fit in and don’t want to. I think there is so much to be explored there! I suppose it comes back to writing what I want to read. I want to read books with relatable flawed characters and dark themes, so that’s what I enjoy writing too.

You’re well known for your passion and dedication to writing, but what keeps you so inspired?

I suppose life itself and all it’s mysteries, all it’s ugliness and beauty, everything! I love the quote that reading is breathing in, and writing is breathing out. It feels like that for me. Writing is me exhaling everything I have learnt, felt, seen, observed and wondered about life and people and society and families… Writing to me is pure magic. It feels incredibly exciting, like a natural high. People inspire me, families inspire me, the endless possibilities for stories inspire me! I don’t know how to live and not write.

Are there more books coming for The Boy With The Thorn In His Side universe? What can we expect?

It certainly is a universe, full of inter-connected books. Characters pop up in each-others stories and the locations used are familiar. I have two more books to release in this universe and then that will be it. Those two books should tie up everyone’s stories. I am releasing the sequel to my debut novel, The Mess Of Me in January 2025. The Mess Of Us is set two years after the dramatic events of the first book and see the characters Lou and Joe trying to come to terms with what Joe’s criminal brother Leon did to them, as well as dealing with an unexpected pregnancy, among other things. In The Mess Of Us we get to explore Leon a bit more. He was very much the mysterious boogey man in The Mess Of Me, and the main character and narrator, Lou, absolutely despised him, and quite rightly. But she sees another side to him in the sequel, and then he reappears as a main character with his own storyline in the final book in this universe, The Dark Finds You. I aim to release this summer 2025. This will unite many of my characters from other books! Lots of them already know each other so it was not hard at all to draw them all together for one storyline, which also helps conclude their own personal ones. It involves Leon from The Mess Of Me and The Mess Of Us, as already mentioned, Joe also appears from those books. Elliot from Elliot Pie’s Guide To Human Nature, plus his mother Laura and friend Leah are also main characters in The Dark Finds You. Danny from The Boy With The Thorn In His Side is now in his 40s, so fans of that series might like to see how he’s doing now! And Bill Robinson from The Holds End trilogy is another main character. I wrote the first draft in six weeks – it was that addictive and exciting and I can’t wait to share it!

You tease a lot of your work on your social media. What can you tell us about Black Hare Valley?

Well, mainly that it’s another universe that has totally sucked me in and is currently holding me captive! I am seriously addicted to this at the moment! Black Hare Valley was first created during lockdown, 2020. I had just re-read my favourite Stephen King book, ‘IT’ and wanted to write something similar as a sort of homage, I guess. I envisioned a close-knit town with a dark secret and a band of misfit kids drawn together to solve a mystery. That was all I had. However, me and my son, who was 12 at the time, designed a huge map of the town just for fun. We created a valley town set between two Iron Age Hill Forts, with farmland, forests and rolling hills, rivers and streams. We added everything they would need from schools and theatres, to pet shops and garages! I also created some character bios. It was a lot of fun. I left it alone for a few years while I was working on other books. Two years ago we had a prolonged power cut and no WiFi so I ended up writing Black Hare Valley in long-hand into five notebooks. I didn’t really know what I was doing. It just happened. I just let it flow. As I wrote it, I had to ask myself more and more questions and the story slowly unraveled. I then typed it up and left it alone again. When I’d finished The Boy… universe books, I could finally turn my attention back to Black Hare Valley and it sucked me in and wouldn’t let go. Essentially it’s going to be a three book series with the first book set in 1996, the second in 1966 and the third in 2026. It’s a very dark folk horror story about this very strange town tightly controlled by a well-meaning Neighbourhood Watch Committee. They are not what they seem however, and children, in particular, have a habit of going missing, never to be seen again… That’s all I want to say but if you love folk horror, creepy towns, misfit kids, and quirky traditions such as May Day celebrations, fairy rings, leylines, hill forts and more, you might just want to visit!

Who are some writers that influence you and what books do you enjoy reading?

I’m a huge fan of Stephen King, Charles Bukowski and Chris Whittaker, to name a few quickly. But generally I love reading anything dark and gritty with wonderful memorable characters. It’s all about the characters for me. As a teenager I was very influenced by Stephen King, and SE Hinton.

What made you decide to create Chasing Driftwood Books?

I’ve been writing and independently publishing since 2013. I’ve published with indie collectives three times before, but each one eventually folded. They were all different, but essentially they were all allowing authors to self-publish for free and keep their royalties, but belong to a bigger community of authors who can support each other and help promote each other. I wanted to take all I had learnt from those platforms and create our own. We are very small at the moment but will open for submissions in due course! What I have realised since I started publishing was that it’s very, very difficult to land an agent and get a traditional deal these days, and also that the traditional deals are not always what they are cracked up to be. I’ve learnt that indie authors who do well are in the most enviable position of all. They have full creative control, retain full royalties and can very often earn enough to give up their day jobs. But to achieve that, they often have to pump a lot of money into their books. Paying for editing, proofreading and professional covers, goes without saying, but to really succeed they also need to be paying for advertising. Low income authors, disabled authors and other under-represented groups, are simply not in a position to do this. I’ve been an avid reader of indie books for some time and have read some truly extraordinary books by incredibly talented authors who should be selling far more and getting far more success and visibility. Money is so often the problem. What we are hoping to do here is draw quality authors together into a community that can help support and promote each other. That is just the start but the long-term aim is increased visibility for all our authors!

You have a prominent cast of male protagonists throughout your books. What is it about writing through their eyes that inspires you to do so?

I think I once sat down and worked out that by the time I have written and released all my works-in-progress plus all my vague ideas for books, I will have an equal amount of male and female protagonists! But I get what you are saying. With my published books at the moment, there are more male protagonists than female. I think partly this is pure accident, in as much as the characters just come to me and I can’t often control their gender. But also I think in the past at least I have been more curious about the male view and experience, simply because I am not one! So, that made it just a bit more interesting to explore.

Finally, what more can we expect from the world of Chantelle Atkins?

Two more books in the interconnected The Boy With The Thorn In His Side universe, as already mentioned, followed I expect a year later by the full Black Hare Valley trilogy. I have also started a fifth book in The Day The Earth Turned series, though that is taking a back seat at the moment! Works-in-progress involve a half-finished YA zombie apocalypse story told in a diary format, a family mystery called The 7th Child, and a story about two dysfunctional young adults who get bored of waiting for the apocalypse so decide to try and start one themselves… I am also planning to write a crime book with my oldest child, Daisy! She is about to start her Masters in creative writing and we have come up with an excellent serial killer plot set on a university campus! I have another YA post-apocalyptic story that has been planned with character bios done…. I think that’s it!

If you’d like to follow me and keep up to date with my books news, here are the links:

Website/blog: https://chantelleatkins.com/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/chantelleatkinswriter

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chantelleatkinswriter/

Medium: https://medium.com/@chantelleatkins_17828

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…

My Next Book Is Out Next Month!

~ ChanAtkins ~ 8 Comments

It’s Friday – usually my blog-posting day, so what better news to share than new book news!

This will be my twenty-second release but honestly, it never gets old. It is still just as much of a thrill!

First, what do you think of the cover? I used my son again – he did the amazing book covers for The Day The Earth Turned series and he also recently updated The Mess Of Me and The Tree Of Rebels for me. This one was so hard to get right though! We went through three other designs before we settled on this one and even then we kept changing our minds about colour schemes. In the end, I think we got it right. It is dark and moody but also quite beautiful and I hope that is what readers will think of the book itself.

At Night We Played In The Road is a spin-off book from The Boy With The Thorn In His Side series and I got the idea about four years ago. At the time I was revamping and adding to that series and in part five I had introduced two brothers called Tom and Alfie Lane. They have small but significant parts in that story and it was obvious that they had an interesting back story to tell. They are drawn into a life of crime, but how and why? I wanted to go back to the beginning and find out what led them to that place.

Here is the blurb:

When Tom Lane was born, he accidentally killed his mother and in the process, his father’s love.

Determined to protect Tom from their father’s criminal business, older brother Alfie must become Tom’s father, mother and protector. It’s the two of them against the world until the day Tom chooses a life of crime over Alfie’s dream of a normal life.

Ten years later the estranged brothers are reunited when a violent gang bring Tom to Alfie’s door with a gun to his head.

Tom’s partners in crime have turned on him and he needs his brother to save him one more time…

A darkly brooding story of brotherly love, belongings and the beginnings that shape who we become.

And here is the opening paragraph:

The first time Alfie Lane had to think fast to save his brother’s life, he was five years old. That moment haunted his childhood, yet, in the years that followed, Alfie somehow found a way to bury the terrible memory. In fact, he has not thought of it since he was a kid, and, as it comes to him now, this fact alone seems somehow more strange, frightening, and catastrophic than the gun being held to his brother’s head. How could he have forgotten?

The preorder link: https://amzn.eu/d/0czWhf1a

Stay tuned because next week I will be sharing the inspiration and ideas behind this book and its characters!