Writing. I have had the intention of attempting to write for a long time. I have taken this long for the same reason I don’t often play chess. It takes a great deal of mental effort and I have been too lazy to try. Also,I have no illusions as to how hard it is to get work published, and I have always hated the idea of my efforts, however poor, being wasted. But with the advent and growth of e books it is easy and cheap to self publish so it is possible to get my work out there and let it be judged by the only judges who count, namely the reader. That is if I am lucky enough to attract any! To date the book has had four reviews on Amazon and I have been amazed by the rating it has been given. I will admit to knowing only one of the reviewers on a personal basis, all in all I am happy thus far, and agree with the comments about my lack of or missing punctuation. I have revised the punctuation in the first few chapters and apologise to anyone who read it initially, please put it down to my impatience. I did get into trouble with my wife for not giving her time for another read through to check and correct the work before I threw it out there.
I would like to say a little about the book itself. ”The Way In” is not the book I set out to write when I finally plucked up the courage to start. After giving the problem a lot of thought I decided that it wasn't possible for me to launch straight in with the story I wanted to tell without explanation of the who, the where and the how. I realised that getting my two of my main characters into the place I wanted them was worthy of telling correctly and could possibly make a good story in itself. Hence “The Way In” which introduces James and Fey tells the story of their meeting and the difficulties they encountered before crossing the gate into the place or world I intend to use as a setting for the stories I want to tell. By the time I had finished writing I had no idea as to the worth of the story or my writing style hence I rushed the publication at the end. I metaphorically flung the book out in defiance of the world in general with a “there it is now rip it to pieces” attitude. Even with this attitude I had great apprehension about pressing the publish button on kindle. The book is now out there to sink or swim amongst the many thousands of other books out there in the big wild world.
I have now started the sequel and another story which is not really related to the theme of “Witches Wood Gate” I am going to try to have both ready to publish at the beginning of 2015 if I can.
The sequel to “The Way In” will follow the life of James and Fey on the other side of the gate and will include a dragon of sorts. This story should be pure fantasy.
The second book will be set in the here and now and should be mostly about the life and development of the main character. This work should appeal to others besides the readers of fantasy.
If I am able to progress with writing I intend to introduce characters for the future in each book. In “The Way In” I have introduced Elizabeth Brown who will appear again.
Anyway I think that will do for now, I’d better stop this and start some real work.
Smashwords Edition
Kindle Edition
Kindle Edition
Cover Image for The Way In
I realised that I haven’t explained the cover image. From the start I had both this willow tree and this pond in mind when I imagined the scene of Witches Wood, all the remainder of the setting is imagination.
The Willow exists in a village called Gilberdyke in East Yorkshire. My mother and her sisters played in it as children. I have no idea of its age, it was old when when my Mother and her sisters were young and I’m sure they would all own to that being a long time ago. The tree seems to posses all the attributes I have given it in the story including a space created by a split in its great branches near the base creating a comfortable seating area. It seems to exude a feeling of timeless serenity and peace as if it has faced and come to terms with the mysteries of life and death and by accepting both is able exist at peace with its own existence.
The pond is strange, it exists in the parish of Holme on Spalding Moor in East Yorkshire, I have known of it for most of my life. it is almost circular and has neither inlet or outlet and its depth is great enough to keep it weed free. It is man made, but I can think of no reason for its creation. When I went to photograph it I hadn't seen it for many years and was a little surprised to find its margins overgrown, slightly changing the image in my memory The growth was such that it was difficult to get the picture I wanted but I was fairly happy with the results. The pond will be approximately four miles distant from the tree in a straight line.
The final image is an amalgamation of three photographs, first the pond, then the tree and finally a cut out of the pond again overlaying the first photo as exactly as I could. My daughter pointed out that there was a house visible through the branches of the tree when I showed her what I hoped was a finished image. I had to remove all traces of its brick work visible through the branches and replace them with portions of sky. As a final touch I added the dark lens effect. The work took me most of one Sunday to complete. I would have liked the pond to look a little larger in relation to the tree but I am relatively pleased with the final result. I wasn't intending to use a cover image as I was hoping to avoid the work it involved but I was left with no choice if I wanted the book included in the Smashwords premium listing and since I had made the effort I also used the image for the kindle version. All in all I am happy with my efforts. At this point I must also thank my wife, Rosemary, who accompanied me and took some of the many photos that I chose from to produce the cover.
One last thought, I have an image in mind for the cover of the sequel and I don’t intend it being so complicated.
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