Progress!

So, it's been a very productive time of late. I've been doing a lot of writing on 'Lay Me Restless' and I think I'm probably about a third of the way through the first draft now. Maybe a little more. This is great news as there was no progress on it for such along time. It's flowing really well and I know exactly where the story's going.

Both 'Endless Tides' and 'In the Footsteps of the Behemoth' are selling pretty well too. I have business cards for them both now, to leave around in the name of 'awareness'. So, that might help a little more too.

I'm doing a talk at my old college next Monday. Collyer's in Horsham. It should be a good session. I'm talking to the Creative Writing class so I should have a very interested audience, and it should be a nice experience to go back there. I really enjoyed College and I'm looking forward to seeing how it's changed and being part of it from a different perspective.

So yeah, in short, it's all good at the moment.

New Year

Okay, so I'm a little late with this, but oh well.

I'll be honest, New Year is never a big deal for me. It's just kind of an arbitrary line where we start the cycle again. But, while that line's there, I may as well make some use of it. This year I need to get book 3 finished and published while doing some more promotion. My local promotion went really well last year, so I'm going to start off with a little more of that and then step up on the internet side. It's always a hard call how much time is enough and how much is too much, but I'm sure I'll get there with it eventually.

I got my sales for the last quarter today. Weirdly, 'In the Footsteps of the Behemoth' is selling quite well in America. I haven't done any special American promotion, so something I'm doing is working well, I'm just not sure what that is.

I'll write an update on book three soon.

Sam

Once More Into the Breach!

Where to begin?

Firstly, apologies for not doing a blog post for so many months. I've had a real time at work recently and, unfortunately, I had to put all of my author bits on hold for a while. The company I was working for was making me work fifty hours every week, sometimes more (ah, Zero Hour Contracts, where would we be without you?), which didn't leave me a huge amount of time for writing. I brought this up with them and they made no effort to help me, so I told them to shove their job. I'm now working in a lovely cafe for twenty four hours a week and I get paid more per hour. This is perfect; I've already gotten so much writing done, it's unbelievable.

So, what am I working on? Well, I'm still writing my third fantasy novel 'Lay Me Restless'. It's set in the same nameless world as 'Endless Tides' and 'In the Footsteps of the Behemoth'. It's going really well. I'm really happy with the story and characters so far and I feel like my prose has improved too. It's a really exciting time for me. I've also resolved to write a short story every week too! This could be interesting, I haven't done many before, but it's something I definitely want to get in to more solidly.

I'm also editing a musical for a friend of mine. I'm not really sure how to attack it just yet as it's so different from what I usually do, but we'll see what I manage to come up with.

At the moment I'm reading 'Fury of the Sword' the third book in the 'Chronicles of Arkadia' series by the brilliant Jeff Jones. I highly recommend this entire series of books. The scale of them is breath-taking. 'Epic' Fantasy doesn't begin to describe them. I'm particularly impressed by how well Jones manages to infuse really personal human stories into his books too. It's not all the numbers of war, these are genuinely well-drawn characters and easy to get invested in. I'm really looking forward to finishing it. I wouldn't put it down if I didn't have my own writing to do!

So that's about it really. I'm going to try and start doing a blog once a week, if I can, so keep your eyes peeled.

Sam

Update

So, I've been super busy which is why I haven't been able to do a blog post for a while. But what have I been busy with? Well, for starters, let's just say don't get a job in catering. Other than that, I've been promoting 'In the Footsteps of the Behemoth' and it's selling pretty well, too! I've received some really good feedback about it and people have gone from that back to 'Endless Tides'. Readers really seem to like my descriptions, which is very promising.

On the line of promoting, I was in the local paper this week. A very talented young journalist by the name of Jonny Hart wrote the article. Definitely one of the easiest interviews I've had. You can read the article here, if you're interested; http://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/local/author-s-new-book-is-out-of-this-world-1-5363606

I've reached page 100 of 'Lay Me Restless' so it;s progressing. It's progressing slowly, but it's progressing. I think my prose has really improved and this should be my best work when it's done.

In other news, I met another author who lives in the same town as me. She's called Vivian Hartley and she's lovely. She write's paranormal romance, which I wouldn't normally read, but it's a well crafted story, with some great dialogue and quirk. Vivian understands plot and she writes interesting characters. Her first book's called Teale Moon and if you're looking for something a little different, you might want to give it a go.

So, that's it for now. Hopefully, my next post will be little sooner than this one was.

Sam

In the Footsteps of the Behemoth

'In the Footsteps of the Behemoth' has been released! It's not really a sequel to 'Endless Tides' but it is set in the same world, one thousand years later. Here's the blurb:

'In a world blighted by feuding clans and constant conflict, there is a name spoken in even further hushed tones than the most fearsome of warlords; the Behemoth. A creature that towers above all in sight, with matted fur covering its rocky form. It has waged war with mankind for a millennium and stunted the progression of the species, leading to one question - why? One night, whilst on his way to a mysterious rendezvous, a shadus named Lament Strife is ambushed by famed warrior Vaiske Parlet who appears to suffer a mortal wound mere seconds before Lament passes out. When Lament awakes, Vaiske is nowhere to be found and the shadus is left with a peculiar illness afflicting him. In the days that follow, he resolves to find Vaiske Parlet and discover the reason for this strangest of occurrences. Meanwhile, Arvan Deit, a boy on the verge of manhood, sets out on his first adventure - to find his missing teacher, Master Lawliet Snow. Bored of his uneventful life as an orphan in a small town, Arvan vows to embark on a great quest and make his master proud. These characters are forced together by necessity but torn apart from one another by differing, and often conflicting, interests. Only one thing is certain; their journey leads in one direction - in the footsteps of the Behemoth.'

You can find it on Paperback here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Footsteps-Behemoth-Sam-Leeves/dp/1909224405/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374862359&sr=1-2

Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Footsteps-Behemoth-ebook/dp/B00E3VMBYU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374862520&sr=1-1&keywords=in+the+footsteps+of+the+behemoth

Enjoy!

A Quick Update

So, I haven't been blogging much recently because I've been doing proper writing (sound the horns, Jameson! I want the mountains to know!), however I have, just for a moment, misplaced my quill (Jameson! Tell the search party to keep looking!) so I'll give you a quick update.

The first copies of 'In the Footsteps of the Behemoth' have been printed, I found out today, and I should have my copies in the next few weeks! The cover, by the amazingly talented Diego Gonzalez, is fantastic and I couldn't be happier with it. I don't have a release date yet, but soon, hopefully.

I'm making steady progress with 'Lay Me Restless'. It's just a matter of finding time to write it at the moment; between having a full time job and making sure Jameson is doing his (no, Jameson, serve from the left you oaf!) I don't have as much writing time as I would like. But progress is progress and it's being made.

I'm reading the first part of Dead Stars by the wonderful Ben Galley at the moment. I was lucky enough to be a beta reader but have held off on doing a review until I read the definitive version because you can't get all the magic with a PDF file that you do with a physical book.

Anyway, Jameson has found my quill (finally) unfortunately he's lost my ink pot now (DAMMIT, JAMESON!) and books don't write themselves, so I must away.

See you on the other side,
Sam

Once More Into the Breach!

I'm writing again! Time to get on with it, I decided. 'Lay Me Restless' is progressing and 'In the Footsteps of the Behemoth' should be published in the next couple of months. It's an exciting time.

That's it for now. Expect a possible short story in the next few days.