Bronze - The Detectorist Detective

 

This post is really overdue.  I published Bronze in September 2023 and actually thought I'd blogged about it.  Clearly I was wrong, so this post is a belated attempt to put that situation right.

Most books have a genesis backstory, an event or a conversation that gets the thought processes churning.  My first two books, Parallel Lives and The Journeymen were both originally short stories written working away from home in my last few months of Royal Air Force service that kept tapping away at me.  Skin, for all it's near future politics mixed with the largely unresolved WMD issue that we went to war for was in many ways a parallel story of the manufacturing company I was working for at the time.

The Last Simple was inspired by the ludicrously short chapters in the Dan Brown (and other writers') books, and Project: Evil was simply inspired by catching the end of a Roger Moore Bond movie and thinking 'how the hell do you go about project managing a secret lair for a megalomaniac?

Digital Life Form was sparked by a conversation about where tech will go in the future - we'd just bought one of those new-fangled Tom Tom Sat Navs.  That was written in 2011 and most of the tech was pure Sci Fi - what we would now call AI and self driving cars was only vaguely talked about. 

Hotel California was, obviously, inspired by the song but quickly took on a new meaning.  I still refer to famous folk leaving too soon as new residents.  Bronze, on the other hand, was someone else's idea.

I'm retired now, but two years ago I finalised my fifty-one circuits of the sun as a wage slave, working as a lecturer in a Welsh technical college, teaching maths and science in the aeronautical engineering department.  I worked in a small office, with just five of us in a room that was technically overcrowded.  My desk was in a corner facing the only door, so the other guys (it was an all-male environment until I left, my replacement has moved the diversity dial and is doing a great job).  You've probably assumed I was probably the oldest in the office and you'd be correct with the other four ranging from just under forty at the time to mid fifties.  Not only was I the only one who taught the tough academic stuff at that time, I was the only one who wrote stuff - books, satire, occasionally blogs.  That sentence will be relevant in a paragraph or so.

Given the age of the other guys it shouldn't come as a surprise that three of them seemed to go through a mid-life crisis simultaneously.  They'll deny it, but one by one in early 2023 they all bought soft top sports cars.  I'm not being a critic - I'm jealous, I missed my mid-life crisis, probably because I had a major life change leaving the RAF and buying my first and so far only house while learning to survive in civvy street in my mid forties.  Anyway, first one, Steve, bought a Mazda MX5, a second, Jason, bought a BMW - don't ask what model, it had a soft top and probably didn't have working indicators - and the third, Simon, bought an Alfa Romeo Spyder.  It's on the cover of the book, if you're into these sort of things.  Simon is a keen detectorist and extremely knowledgeable about British history.

Anyway, the three amigos started meeting up at the weekend, parking up three soft-tops abreast at a café on the Horseshoe Pass or somewhere in the Llyn Peninsula to have a coffee or two and put the world to rights.  Then one Monday, after one of these meetings, Jason entered the office and said he'd had a great idea for a TV show.  He was telling the room, but looking directly at me as I shuffled maths worksheets for my first lesson.  Apparently he'd been following Simon in the Alfa and it came to him - Bronze the Detectorist Detective.  A TV show each week with Bronze solving a crime.  I pushed for more, but that was it really.  I went off and taught my lesson and pretty much forgot about it.  Until break time when he brought it up.  And lunch.  And afternoon break.  Remember the sentence about how I was the only person with a writing background?

Obviously the brief was a little thin, so quietly I gave the idea some thought.  Although I'm no detectorist - I have literally bought and used one for the first time in my life this year for messing around with the grandsons on the beach - I have a long term friend from my Airforce days, Dougie,  who was and is an armourer and who drifted into Explosive Ordnance Disposal, or bomb squad as his calling is often called. He trained in EOD and was involved in clearing war graves in the Balkans as the Serbians often booby-trapped them.  I recalled Dougie recounting some of his experience on a fleeting visit to me after we both had left the RAF and it had stuck with me.  Doug kept in the industry, has worked near the DMZ in South Korea, was part of the team that cleared the Falklands of land mines and works clearing brownfield sites in the UK these days. So I created an amalgam character, only known as Bronze, who had a military career in the Special Forces and in EOD and who was now consulting as a civilian, just as Dougie does today. Dougie wasn't in the Special Forces, BTW, that was the usual artistic exaggeration.

I created a synopsis that covered chapter by chapter what would roughly happen in the book and set it mainly in Mold, north Wales, a very nice town not that far from my home but with a diversion to Pristina as part of a murder mystery.  For the benefit of North American readers, the grungy stuff that forms on your windowsill and in the shower is spelled mould over here - the town isn't musty! Bronze, as well as being a consulting EOD specialist is also used by police investigating serious crimes by using his skills to look for buried evidence and is roped in by north Wales Constabulary to assist with the investigation of a man found in a field just outside of Mold with his head almost cleaved in two.  Scattered around the man are what look like bronze artefacts but turn out to be from the Copper Age and originating in the Balkan region.

By the way, if you've never heard of the Copper Age it's because we didn't really have one in what we now call the UK - we went from Stone to Bronze pretty much in one leap, but in continental Europe Copper was the metal of choice for a long time and, despite not bothering with it as a pure metal much, north Wales was home to one of the largest copper mines in Europe.  The other large one was in the Balkans - the book is fun, fast, violent, scary and yet educational.  Dougie provided lots of background information on how bomb disposal operates and I've tried to incorporate that in the story in an authentic way.

The book weaves a seemingly unrelated crime and a serial terrorist bomber from Bronze's past with the investigation of the crime literally in his own backyard.  For a bit of fun I incorporated the office people into the characters, not always in a flattering way.  To be fair I did something a little scary as a writer - I set up a shared folder in the public part of my cloud and gave them all access as the book developed.  Being a little mean I stopped sharing the story after a very dramatic cliff hanging moment, so they had to wait for the book to come out to find out who survived and who didn't.

I'll post the first couple of chapters on the blog in a day or so, for you to sample it.

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In the US Bronze is on a countdown promotion starting Sunday 14th September at $0.99 for the eBook, rising to $1.99 on the 17th September before reverting to the full price of $2.99 on the 20th September.  All promotions commence at 8:00 am PDT on the stated days.

The book is available in eBook, paperback and hardback formats, there are links to all my books below

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Follow me on Twitter: @RayASullivan

email me at raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com

Check out my comedic ramblings as Throngsman on www.newsbiscuit.com

   

   

 

Project: Evil – The Coronavirus Meeting

‘Why are we all sat two metres apart?’ asked O’Feld, fiddling impatiently with his revolver.  Daw sighed.

‘It’s the Government directive.  To slow down the spread of Coronavirus everybody has to keep a social distance between themselves and everyone else.  It’s playing havoc with the Thugs, grade three on kill missions,’ he said.

‘Sod the Government directive, I want a group hug,’ said O’Feld, holding his arms up, not securing any enthusiasm.  Everybody remembered the last time he’d offered a group hug and it turned out to be a body double wearing a suicide vest.

‘I’ll pass,’ said Daw, tapping his notepad with his pen.  Silence hung in the air as everyone watched O’Feld’s reaction, relaxing when he merely shot a henchman delivering sandwiches to the boardroom.

‘He looked like he hadn’t washed his hands properly,’ explained O’Feld, tucking into the beef and horseradish.  ‘Brown bread, my favourite,’ he added.  ‘So, why the emergency?’ he asked.  Brian sat up as he’d been detailed by Daw to present the technical briefing, which consisted of five minutes on Wikipedia and ten on the BBC website.

‘It’s a pandemic, sweeping across the world, killing people left, right and centre,’ said Brian.  O’Feld looked interested, then a cloud crossed his face.  ‘It is one of ours, isn’t it?’ he asked in his Irish brogue, levelling the revolver at Brian.  Brian flushed, then washed his hands.  As he always did whenever he shit himself.

‘Well, yes, I’m working on a biological weapon, but you always said you wanted it deployed from space and since we lost our rocket capability it’s been on hold.  I’ve been concentrating on a simpler pocket-sized thermo-nuclear weapon system recently, tapping his breast pocket.  ‘Oops,’ he said, pulling the device out and stopping the countdown timer.  O’Feld sneered.

‘So, which one is responsible?’ he asked.  ‘Brass Digit?’

‘Gold Digit,’ sighed Daw scribbling on his pad.

‘Or that nippleless bastard Scaramouche?’ asked O’Feld, reeling off his direct competitors, not that anyone in the room would suggest any of them was competition for O’Feld.  Not waiting for Brian to answer he added, ‘Or is it Doktor Negativ up to his old tricks again?’   Brian shook his head.  

‘It started in China,’ he explained.

‘Who did it?’ asked O’Feld, only to be interrupted by the Diversity Officer.

‘Mr O’Feld, that’s a terrible racial stereotype,’ she said.  ‘You’re capable of much better racial stereotypes.’  O’Feld shrugged his shoulders and looked back at Brian, who continued his explanation.

‘It appears it is just a random mutation of an existing coronavirus existing in the animal kingdom that has crossed the species line and is infecting humans,’ he said, breathing in for the big spiel.

‘Enough of the science talk already,’ said O’Feld, ‘how does this affect our business?’  The catering manager looked up eagerly.

‘Half of the staff are self isolating, so my budget is going to look pretty good next month,’ he said.  The finance manager looked at Brian.


‘How is this affecting our staff levels?’ he asked.

‘Well, here in Basildon there is a lot of absenteeism at the moment,’ he confirmed, adding, ‘and the hookers and the thugs have agreed to work from home for the foreseeable.  There’s no reports that it has reached our uninhabited island in the South Seas yet, but I’m concerned that if it does it’ll sweep through the uninhabitants like a dose of salts,’ said Brian.  The meeting fell silent as the members considered the slave labour uninhabitant population for approximately three seconds.

‘Can they be replaced?’ asked O’Feld. Daw nodded.

‘That’s why you pay me the big bucks to be your HR director,’ he said.  O’Feld glowered.

‘I pay you?’ he asked.  The finance director leaned across the table.

‘Don’t worry, his salary is tax deductable.’

‘I pay tax?’ asked O’Feld, panic rising in everyone downwind of his revolver barrel.

‘Not so much pay as claim State benefits,’ explained the finance director, defusing the situation and, critically, the C4 bomb O’Feld had brought out of his bag.  He put the detonator to one side while O’Feld turned his attention back to Brian.

‘So, what’s the impact on the business?’ he asked Brian.

‘Well, it’s pretty much business as usual.  The protection racket’s going well, especially as we take PayPal now.  We’ve just issued social distancing guidance for thugs smashing up premises behind on their payments,’ he explained, ‘although the hookers are struggling to comply.  

‘And everyone is washing their hands,’ he added.

‘To eradicate the virus?’ asked O’Feld.

‘Oh, er, yes, that as well.  But mainly for corporate plausible deniability,’ he explained.

‘What about the people who work here?’ O’Feld asked.  The finance director was all over this.

‘We can claim 80% of our employees’ salaries from the Government if we furlough them,’ he said.

‘We pay employees? This gets worse by the minute,’ said O’Feld, his head in his hands while he contemplated whose head he’d prefer to be holding.  The finance director’s head looked favourite for leaving his shoulders.

‘Of course not, we feed them, clothe them, kill them when we’ve had enough of them.  But we’ve got a wonderful forgery department that can produce any amount of documents pretending to pay them,’ said the finance director, feeling his head was a little more secure.  Brian pitched in, if only to ensure his head didn’t replace the finance director’s.

‘But, the best bit is, we now know how much they’re prepared to pay.’  O’Feld looked up, questioningly.  Brian continued.  ‘Up until now, when we’ve decided to hold the planet to ransom getting the amount to ask for has always been the hardest.  Pitch too low and you’re the laughing stock of the megalomaniac underworld, too high and you’ve got a brace of nukes on your hands,’ he said, popping the pocket-sized thermo-nuclear device back in his pocket.

‘But now we know the UK are prepared to pay £350 billion, the Yanks up to $2 trillion and the Italians 25 pizzas.  It’s easier to make our demands,’ he said.  The finance director pulled a sheet of paper from under his notepad that had ‘pay us £2.3 trillion in used notes or the planet gets it, signed B L O’Feld’ using letters cut out from daily newspapers.

‘I’ve had this awhile, I only had to insert the amount,’ he crowed.  O’Feld was impressed.

‘I hope that typeface isn’t from the Daily Mail,’ he said, standing, indicating that the meeting was over.  ‘Hateful newspaper’, he said.

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I hope you enjoyed this topical extra Project: Evil instalment.  If you have and you missed Project: Evil first time around then catch up on Brian, Daw and, of course, Barry Liam O'Feld, the famous Irish Megalomaniac in the original book.

You can catch up on any or all of my books in ebook and paperback format on the links provided on this page.  If you are a Kindle Unlimited member then these books can be downloaded for free.

Working from home

Writers, even part time writers such as myself, are used to working from home.  I've a sneaking suspicion that even the most successful of authors are unlikely to have an office away from their home for the purpose of writing.  Sure, a few will have dedicated rooms in their homes that they use, possibly, exclusively for the purpose of producing prose, but I reckon most of us don't.

I'm very fortunate in that I actually do have a dedicated home office room complete with a custom built oak desk and bureau - we had them built by an artisan woodworker twenty years ago or more when I was studying with the Open University and, partly because it is a timeless design and the builder was such a good craftsman, it's still as good as new.  Perhaps the odd bit of distressing here and there, but that's the beauty of this type of furniture.  The room's not used exclusively for writing - far from it - we have a wall mounted TV and a leather recliner sofa in the room as well, and during the late autumn to early spring we both use it as our TV room in the evenings.  Most of my work, all year round, is actually crafted on my knee regardless of which room I'm spending time in.

In fact my second novel, The Journeymen, was written in large part on a Palm PDA - remember them? -with a folding keyboard.  It was very portable and until it let me down on a transatlantic flight in 2003 it had become my go-to resource.  I guess that failure was my personal wake up call - I'd written a large part of the battle scene in the Journeymen on board the facility on the comet between the J-Men and the Sons of Arlgon and the battery failed, taking several thousand words with it.  I dragged a foolscap pad out of my bag and scribbled down what I'd just spent a large part of the flight typing.

However, like a lot of you guys, I've been working from home - mainly by email - as a result of the Coronavirus crisis.  The desk has really come into its own.  I've resisted the temptation to sit on the sofa and put my feet up for the slightly irrational feeling that it wouldn't feel like work if I did that, even though the end result would be the same.  And maybe that's one of things about writing, why I can choose to write on my knee, on an aircraft, on a bus or wherever.  Because writing doesn't feel like a job.

And because we can access all our work resources via VPN and can chat using WhatsApp it feels like I'm still in the office.  I just don't have to face students four or five times a day, and I'm not complaining about that.  I'm sure the lockdown is going to result in a lot of issues for many people, most need some form of physical social interaction and at the time of writing this lockdown looks like a long haul but I've been practising (anti) social distancing most of my life, so I should be OK.  I may even find time to complete my tenth novel.  Even if I don't, I reckon my Kindle will take a hammering this summer - when I'm not working from home, naturally.

If you're looking to stock up on reading matter to weather the lockdown - it looks like practically everywhere on the planet is going through lockdown at the moment, then at the time of writing - 24 March - Digital Life Form is free to download.  It looks like that offer is good until about 8 a.m. Friday morning, UK time.  Be my guest.

If you're entitled through subscription to download Kindle Unlimited books for free then you can choose any of my titles, to keep you occupied when working from home loses its appeal.  Otherwise I like to think they're reasonably priced.  Links to them all below are to the Amazon US site - I'm sure you'll be redirected to your regional website if you are outside the US.

Hotel California
Assassin
The Journeymen
Journeymen II: Day of Reckoning
Project : Evil
Digital Life Form
The Last Simple
Skin
Parallel Lives

Free copies of Project: Evil stop at midnight Pacific Daylight Time

That's 8 AM on Sunday 22 in the UK - I think.  After that the book reverts to its normal retail price of £1.99 in the UK, should be $2.99 in the US and 2.99 Euros in Europe.  It will still be free to subscribers of Kindle Unlimited - that is Kindle lending library and Amazon Prime customers going forward.  the promotion has been quite popular - I hope there hasn't been any panic buying going on!

If you've just been locked down or are self isolating then this bizarre but funny book might just be what you need to keep a smile on your face.

Hotel California is on a Countdown deal in the UK (and as far as I know only the UK, but check your location just in case).  Also free to Kindle Unlimited customers

All of my books are available for free on Amazon Unlimited

After posting my last blog I made a rash, and heavy hearted, decision.  For the time being I've gone exclusive on Amazon instead of the halfway house I'd considered.  I can revert to non-exclusive listing sometime in the future, but I'm going to give this a good go first.

One of the opportunities of being in KDP Select is that I can run promotions and have a raft of these scheduled for the next few months.  In fact two are running as of right now.  

Project: Evil is currently free to anyone through Amazon (link is to UK store, but should let you redirect to your registered location).  This book is almost certainly the only comedic book on Project Management, a subject close to my heart.  I always felt project teams took their role over-seriously and secretly found much of the environment funny.  In this book I've tried to capture the funny side of PM, albeit from an unusual viewpoint - just how would you go about project managing the building of a super secret evel lair in the South Seas complete with planet destroying missile capability?  Act before 21 March and find out for free.  Otherwise it is free to all Kindle Unlimited customers - those of you self isolating with your Amazon Prime subscription could take advantage at any time.

In addition Hotel California is on a Countdown offer where the price is reduced to £0.99 for a period, before rising to a price a little higher for a few days longer.  Follow the trail of Ricky Maggott and find out what really happened to Elvis.  Offer ends 24 March, but again the book is free to Kindle Unlimited customers.

Please feel free to take advantage of these offers, and don't forget to spread the word to your self isolating and free friends.  My other seven books are also on Kindle Unlimited so are eligible for free download for those with the right subscriptions, plus they will all feature in promotions sometime soon - watch this space.

Accessing my books

Sometime last year I relinquished the domains to my websites - selling ebooks is far from lucrative and for the last few years my online presence was costing more than it was raising.  Consequently if you have been trying to use the links in any of the 500+ blog entries I've made you'll have found the websites don't exist anymore.

While it is clear some of you are still finding your way to my books, I fully understand the issues with searching the bookstores.  Consequently I'm going to list links to the books in this blog post and hopefully over time will embed it in the posts that still attract traffic.

Feel free to browse these books at your favourite store.  I'm focussing on US, UK, Australian and Canadian bookstores initially as these make up 99% of my sales, but if you'd like links to bookshops (and I'm thinking Amazon really) then email me and I'll update.

Smashwords (international - covers all regions)

Parallel Lives

The Journeymen

The Journeymen: Journeymen II - Day of Reckoning

Skin

Digital Life Form

The Last Simple

Project: Evil

Assassin

Amazon US

Parallel Lives

The Journeymen

The Journeymen: Journeymen II - Day of Reckoning

Skin

Digital Life Form

Project: Evil

Assassin

Amazon UK

Parallel Lives

The Journeymen

The Journeymen: Journeymen II - Day of Reckoning

Skin

Digital Life Form

The Last Simple

Project: Evil

Assassin

Amazon Australia

Parallel Lives

The Journeymen

The Journeymen: Journeymen II - Day of Reckoning

Skin

Digital Life Form

The Last Simple

Project: Evil

Assassin

Amazon Canada

Parallel Lives

The Journeymen

The Journeymen: Journeymen II - Day of Reckoning

Skin

Digital Life Form

The Last Simple

Project: Evil

Assassin

Barnes & Noble US

Parallel Lives

The Journeymen

The Journeymen: Journeymen II - Day of Reckoning

Skin

Digital Life Form

The Last Simple

Project: Evil

Assassin

Project: Evil - The Industrial Tribunal Meeting

No, you haven't walked into a time warp - this is a missing Project: Evil episode I found while rummaging in my hard drive and never actually made the book.  It's been a quiet day in the eBook/technology world if you discount the multiple announcements from Apple, Samsung, Amazon and Google.  But apart from all that, nothing, really.  Oh yeah, the governments are still reading our emails, something B L O'Feld would applaud.

So, a new episode that doesn't appear in the book - yet.  If you want to read more Project:Evil why not visit the book page or the dedicated Project: Evil website using the links below?

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'What the hell does this mean?' thundered O'Feld across the boardroom table.  Daw looked up resignedly.

'It's a summons to an industrial tribunal,' he said, leaning over and circling the heading in blood.  Brian wondered who's blood it was, but after a quick body check determined it wasn't anyone's he cared about.

'We get a lot of these, from employees we've let go,' added Daw.

'Really?' asked O'Feld.  He knew Daw often let employees go, but believed that the drop wasn't generally survivable.  Daw smiled, creating a chill throughout the room.  Miss Blowjob fiddled with the thermostat nervously, with good reason as most controls in O'Feld Industries were booby trapped.  And every male in the room were keen to see her boobies trapped.

'No, not really,' replied Daw.  'This is the first time an employee has made a complaint and survived.  Apparently it's also the first time the Department of Employment has decided to use the Witness Protection Programme,' he added.

'Don't we run a Protection Programme?' asked Brian.

'Not like this one,' answered Daw, before returning to O'Feld.  We'll have to defend this one in court, apparently.'  O'Feld shuddered.  The last time he'd been in court he'd been awarded three consecutive life sentences.

'What's the charge?' he asked.  Daw scrutinised the summons.

'Exposing a henchperson to unacceptable risk,' he read out.  O'Feld looked like he was going to explode.  Brian started to regret filling the sandwiches with C4.

'How the hell did we manage to do that?  I thought we classified all risk as acceptable,' he thundered.  'What did he do for us?' he added.

'He worked with Lurch, in the interrogation department. He was a technical assistant,' said Daw, reading from the henchperson's personnel file.

'What did he do?' asked Brian.  He saw Lurch as essentially a one man interrogation specialist.

'He stubbed cigarettes out on Lurch's customers,' answered Daw.

'Lurch doesn't smoke,' nodded Brian - it was starting to make sense.

'Neither did the henchperson who's taking us to court,' answered Daw, checking the summons again, adding, 'that's why he wants to sue us.  Apparently he got some awful chest disease from lighting cigarettes and keeping them going for Lurch.  He'd still be doing it now if it wasn't for the Lean process mapping we've been through recently.'  O'Feld looked interested, which was reassuring as O'Feld not looking interested usually resulted in an arbitrary death.

'So, we lost the assistant and Lurch lights his own cigarettes now?' asked O'Feld.  Daw shook his head.

'No, that would be unreasonable.  We've mapped out the whole interrogation process and realised that the customers weren't pulling their own weight.  Well, OK, they were if you count the ball and chain we routinely make them wear, but apart from that and spilling information and internal organs they tended to just sit around waiting to be tortured.  Lurch is a busy man and might have to leave them for some time, which isn't efficient,' he added.

'So?' asked O'Feld.  Daw looked at Brian, who rapidly opened the Lean Manufacturing handbook to the correct page.

'So we get them to keep the cigarettes going while Lurch is busy,' he said, adding,  'It cuts down on personnel, increases victim satisfaction and, generally, reduced costs as they used their own cigarettes.'  O'Feld looked pleased.

'So we've identified the problem and taken steps to change things?' he asked rhetorically, shooting the first person who failed to notice the subtlety and tried to answer the question.  Brian and Daw both nodded as the manager was dragged out of the boardroom.  'Bribe the henchperson and the judge, naturally. Or blackmail them if that's cheaper.  Rig the jury, that should sort the problem out,' O'Feld said, standing.

'Or we could just re-employ the henchperson.  Give him his job back, supply the cigarettes and let the lung disease take its toll,' suggested Brian, feeling pleased that he'd identified a solution that was virtually cost free.  O'Feld gave him a withering look.

'So, you're a HR specialist as well now, are you?' he asked, turning, slamming the door on the way out.

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                                                          Visit my Book Website here

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The Numbers Game

When I finished my first couple of novels I tried to get published through what was then the only available route, excepting vanity publishing.  I bought the Writers and Artists Yearbook, followed all the considered wisdom of the day and started to pitch my books.  Not to publishers, it was pretty well clear that unsolicited manuscripts from unknown authors to the publishing houses would hit the reject pile unopened.  Only those unknown authors who had achieved fame and popularity by other means such as playing sports successfully or being a TV celebrity, in all of its variable meanings, could go straight to the publisher.

No, I tried the accepted route and pitched at various literary agents and quickly realised a couple of home truths.  First, those literary agents who had access to the publishing houses, had pretty much enough work to not want to break a sweat on a unknown author.  Second, they didn't worry overmuch about reading the submitted material before rejecting it, based on some of the reject letters I received.  I realised that pitching like this is a long slog - Stephen King famously had a nail above his writing desk overflowing with reject slips - and consequently I got on with the day job while continuing to write in my spare time.

And then came the self publishing revolution and here we are.  All grown up and published.  Now it might seem a little strange that someone trying to eke out a marginal second income from words should admit to being more interested in numbers, but apart from having a degree in mathematics I've worked in manufacturing industry monitoring production figures for a remarkably more rewarding income in my recent past, so for me monitoring the numbers is more interesting than many other parts of this industry.

It can be a little frustrating, because following the numbers can often yield way more insight than a hundred thousand words of inspirational text, in my opinion.  Take Amazon, for example.  Many self published authors do so through Amazon, some exclusively.  In fact I suspect there are few who don't, and would question anyone who chose to not do so, despite my recent call to arms to stage a boycott on the company - which although it didn't get a lot of vocal support proved  to be a very popular posting which suggests a few of you were thinking of joining in.  Anyway, if and when you sell a book through Amazon you find out which region it is sold in - North America, which until recently used to include Canada but now includes India instead.  Even if the sales data reveals where your  books are selling best - my Amazon data indicates that North America is my best market followed by the UK, not sure if I would know if any of the US sales were actually India sales at present - I don't have any information about where I'm nearly selling books to Amazon.  To make that a little clearer, I have no visibility of where my books are being looked at, no idea if people are cruising past my books on Amazon.  If I did I might be able to target promotions in different regions.

Smashwords does let me know about drive-bys, but only by book.  I don't know how many of the page views and book sample downloads took place in the US, how many in the UK or Germany or France, although I do often get some idea of where books were bought when the likes of Barnes & Noble return sales data to Smashwords.  In some cases I can even narrow the sales down to sub regions - I watched Digital Life Form sell in one Canadian state then start moving around Canada state by state over a period of a couple of weeks for a short period last year.  I could almost feel the emails flying between friends and family who had found an eBook that worked for them.

It's a similar story with this blog - I'm sure those of you who write a blog will track your daily pageviews and Blogger, Google's blogging tool, provides data that is tantalisingly helpful while not helping at all.  For example I know that the US is the main landing location for my blog, with the UK in second place.  In fact, in recent weeks, the UK hasn't featured greatly, the US has increased its readership followed by a slew of European locations.  But I can't tell you if the main US readership is East or West coast, or whether it is the mid-West, perhaps?  I can make some assumptions by the timings of hits but it's not scientific.  Maybe I wouldn't do anything with the information even if I had it, but it would be nice to have the choice.

One of the things the data could help with would be the impact on pricing on different price points.  We can all make assumptions about who can afford books and what they are likely to pay.  Well, although it's not all the data I would like to play with, Smashwords' CEO Mark Coker has provided an update to last year's survey on eBook selling trends.  Smashwords have an advantage in that they see a lot of books sold directly through them and through the likes of Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony etc and they can crunch the data to see if there are any trends.  There are and they've shared them in their latest blog entry which you can read using the link above. Please note that Smashwords' blog is an incremental blog, so if you've stumbled across this entry some time after I've posted it you'll need to scroll down a bit to reach the May 8th entry.

I'm not going to regurgitate all of the data that the posting provides - Mark does his usual ultra detailed analysis in a fine way that I would only mangle - but I can reveal that some things haven't changed over the year and one of those is that books offered for free are the most downloaded - now who would have thought?

One final point on numbers, for this posting anyway.  When I started self publishing I read up on all the considered wisdom on the subject and top of the list was to start a personal website to promote the books and the other was to start blogging.  I didn't know what a blog was back then so have had to develop my own style over the last couple of years.  I've just looked up and this is published blog entry number 500.  I don't know if that's a milestone in blog terms, but I reckon that between my book serialisations and general musings I've posted somewhere near 400,000 words in those 500 postings.  So, to celebrate, I'm adding a little extra to this posting.  My first book, Parallel Lives is currently listed for free at all good booksellers except Amazon, for reasons I've adequately explained in earlier postings a week or so ago.  For a very limited period I'm making the other five books free for a day or so, but only through Smashwords, using the codes provided below.  Feel free to download a copy of any of these books you may be missing and do pass the codes to friends and family - just remember that they will expire fairly soon.  If you pass them the blog URL instead of just the codes, then I may be able to derive some more data about you guys.

The Journeymen - MW35J
Skin - HP59D
Digital Life Form - ND94T
The Last Simple - AK96K
Project: Evil - MQ28M

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                                                          Visit my Book Website here

        Visit Project: Evil Website here                                        Visit DLF Website here

        Follow me on Twitter  - @RayASullivan

        Join me on Facebook -  use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

Dancing With Amazon

When I launched Project:Evil at the end of July I set the price at free as an introductory price. I've done this before, notably with The Last Simple which had been set to free for months with relatively little interest.  I like the idea of giving a few books away: it lets the early adopters a chance to try, perhaps to recommend.  It's also a painless way to check if your product is working OK without asking consumers to pay for the privilege.

However, the only problem with this approach is that it seems impossible to get Amazon to play ball.  I know, I'm probably a tad too small to persuade them to do anything, but I can see shed loads of free books listed, they even have a top 100 list for free books.  They just don't let authors decide to list for free.

Unless, that is, they've taken the Amazon shilling and signed up for KDP Select.  Regular readers will know that I'm a tad underwhelmed by Amazon's blunt attempt to bribe authors to give them monopolistic control over their books by pumping a fund to reward KDP Select members whose books get borrowed from the Amazon library.  I'm not a fan of monopolies in general and really don't agree with bribery so I've chosen to refrain from joining.  However, one of the benefits of being a KDP select member is that you can list for free four days a month.

Anyway, I got over the disparity, listed Project:Evil on KDP for $0.99 and on Smashwords (and therefore Apple, B&N,Kobo, WHSith, Sony etc) at $0.00.  And it seems to have been quite a popular price point with literally hundreds of copies downloaded on Amazon and B&N that I know of - the eBook return figures are incredibly slow sometimes from some eBook sellers.  There was an interesting side effect of the launch - The Last Simple was discovered and twice as many copies have been downloaded of that compared to Project:Evil over the same period.

With the launch of the BLOMI website I decided to lift the promotion - it had run for over a month and I'm pleased that there are a lot of you guys and gals out there who have had the chance to read a couple of my books for free, but it's time to move onwards.  So on Saturday I instructed Smashwords to raise the price to the same level as Amazon, but realised that it does take time to take effect with the main eBook sellers - if you hurry you may find both books still listed for free for the next few hours.

So this morning I was a little surprised to open my Amazon sales account to see that four copies of Project:Evil had been purchased overnight, which is nice, and that they had been price matched to $0.00, which was unexpected.  Now what I don't know is if Amazon stumbled across this, whether someone contacted them and if they did if it was sparked by me putting a price on Smashwords or not.  Whatever the trigger, it is still being pulled as I'm heading for a hundred such price-match downloads today already.  Obviously there's a word circulating somewhere in the US!

Anyway, I'm expecting the price match situation to continue for a few days until the other stores catch up with the price change, so if you've been thinking about downloading Project:Evil or The Last Simple and need it to be free then I'd suggest you take a look right now - I don't know how long this can last.

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Take a look at my books, read up on my Biog here

Want to see what B L O'Feld is up to?  Take a look at his website here

Why not investigate the secret world of DLFs? here

Project:Evil Has a Website

B L O'Feld Megalomaniac Industries (BLOMI), a notoriously secretive organisation, has launched a Corporate website.  The website contains information on the company values (a particularly short piece of data there), information on various projects, biographies of the key company personnel and, for those with scant regard for their own survival, recruitment information.

As a frequent visitor to their headquarters in Basildon, somewhere in the South Seas, to research my in-depth report on Project:Evil (their recent attempt to hold the planet to ransom) I was invited to write up an interview with Barry Liam O'Feld, CEO of BLOMI for Megalomaniac Monthly. You can read the interview on the BLOMI website.

If you've read Project:Evil or just want to know more about this villainous organisation, a company that strives to be less likeable than a party of corporate bankers on a bonus spending spree, then be sure to visit the BLOMI website.  You can even email some of the key players, even Friend them on Facebook, but please don't email them your bank details, no matter how insistent they are. And if you do, don't include your PIN. I know, it sounds unlikely but these are very persistent people and they do pride themselves on being, well, evil.

And if you do email them your PIN please don't mention the identity of your firstborn.

But apart from some slightly dodgy practices around misusing other people's bank accounts and children - heck, they'd happily enslave anyone regardless of age, gender or profession (they claim to be an equal opportunity organisation)  they seem like really nice guys.

 So why not pay them a visit? Mr O'Feld insists on it, and you don't want to upset him!

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If you're not too busy reading up on BLOMI, sending them your bank details or squandering your first born on them then you can visit my website to take a look at my books

Project: Evil is Available for Download

In the US Bronze is on a countdown promotion starting Sunday 14th September at $0.99 for the eBook, rising to $1.99 on the 17th September before reverting to the full price of $2.99 on the 20th September.  All promotions commence at 8:00 am PDT on the stated days.

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Following the posting of the final episodes of Project: Evil - apologies to anyone who was suitably confused by me accidentally posting the final post before the penultimate one, one of the limitations of using a smart phone to post from - I've hunkered down and sorted out the details for publication.

Right, if you're up for playing with Smashwords then mosey over there using this link to download a free copy of Project:: Evil.  They can download it to you in multiple formats including mobi for your Kindle as long  as you're prepared to transfer it manually to the device - I know, that Whispersync business makes loading manually such a chore.  From experience, for iPad users, the process is great - the file just loads straight onto your bookshelf.  I can't vouch for any other devices.

I'm struggling a bit with Smashwords' stringent formatting requirements to gain access to the Apple book store, Barnes & Noble, WH Smith, Kobo, Sony etc.  I have this with every book and it usually ends up with one or two rogue indented paragraphs holding up the process.  Right now I'm sure the book is formatted worse than before I started the process so if you are one of the people who has downloaded a free copy already (it's been very successful in its first 24 hours) then when I tell you it's accepted for the premium catalogue nip back to Smashwords and download the latest version.  This is one of the strengths of Smashwords, by the way, as they let you buy once, download many times in many formats if needed.  Yeah,  yeah, it's a free download - for now, at least - but the principle's the same.

If you must download straight to your Kindle via Amazon, then you can.  However please note that it will cost you $0.99 or the UK (or Euro) equivalent.  Actually, from what I've seen, it isn't quite as simple as that. I told Amazon to set the UK price to the £ equivalent of $0.99 and they've seen fit to list it at £1.02, which is a bizarre price.  I can't list my books for free on Amazon, I'm afraid.  I'm not saying I wouldn't appreciate a donation to the pension fund, but I'm also happy to gift the book for the time being.  US readers can access the book here and UK here.

Finally, if you really would like a hard copy - or at least hardish - then I've published on Createspace as well.  At 50,000 words it isn't a mega book and that has kept the unit costs down, but tree books have a residual cost I can't do much about.  US readers can check it out here, UK here.

For those who have already downloaded a free copy - thanks, I hope you enjoyed the serialisation and please note that there are a few extra gags slipped in the final manuscript that never saw the blog - I couldn't help adding the odd one as I did the final edit.  For those about to download it - also thanks, in advance.  I hope you all enjoy the book, please let your friends know about it.

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In the US Bronze is on a countdown promotion starting Sunday 14th September at $0.99 for the eBook, rising to $1.99 on the 17th September before reverting to the full price of $2.99 on the 20th September.  All promotions commence at 8:00 am PDT on the stated days.

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Follow me on Twitter: @RayASullivan

email me at raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com

Check out my comedic ramblings as Throngsman on www.newsbiscuit.com

     

   

 

Project: Evil – The Project Close Out Meeting part 1

Project: Evil – The Project Close Out Meeting part 1

‘So, what the hell’s a plus/delta meeting when it’s at home?’ asked O’Feld.  Brian flicked through the PRINCE2 manual for assistance in answering the question.

‘It’s where we review the project and identify what went well – that is, what we would repeat on the next project – and what we would change next time around,’ he paraphrased.  Brian was a little hesitant as he’d only found the last chapter in the manual because he’d ended up with a bit more reading time lately.  He held the book up in his left hand while holding onto his cell bars with the other as he read the pertinent explanation out.

‘Well, I’d avoid being thrown into gaol next time,’ suggested Daw from his cell.

‘He’s just sore because we don’t need a HR manager inside,’ goaded O’Feld.  ‘It’s not like he can run a recruitment campaign in here,’ he added.

‘Au contraire,’ replied Daw, ‘this is the perfect location for recruitment.  It’s applying the various policies that are proving difficult.  I can hardly fire someone for timekeeping when they’re in a cell, can I?’ he asked.

‘You can’t fire anyone, seeing as they removed all our side arms,’ pointed out O’Feld. ‘So, Brian, what is it you need from this meeting?’

‘Well, let’s start with what went well,’ he suggested, looking up and down the corridor as far as the cell bars would allow.  He thought he saw tumbleweed at one point, so he decided to move the meeting on. ‘OK, let’s park that thought for now, what could we have done better?’ he asked, pushed back to the far wall by the pressure of sound that greeted his question.  ‘OK, OK, I get you’re not altogether happy with the result, but without a rational evaluation of how we performed, we’re doomed to end up here again,’ he said, surprised that the noise had subsided.

‘We could have more warning klaxons,’ suggested one voice from down the corridor.  Brian scraped a matrix on his cell wall to make notes on.  Using a nail he’d removed from his chair he scratched that suggestion down.

‘Anything else?’ he asked public sector man.  Froshdu coughed to get Brian’s notice.

‘How about more food?’ he asked.  Brian thought that was a given, but he scratched it up anyway.  Froshdu wasn’t finished.  ‘I meant in here,’ he said.  O’Feld jumped in.

‘Stop moaning, we all have to put up with being in gaol,’ he grumbled.

‘But at least you get conjugal rights,’ replied Froshdu.

‘Only because Mrs O’Feld is so useful as a mouse catcher,’ responded O’Feld defensively.

‘How about we don’t build in a self destruct function that can be triggered easily?’ asked one of the engineers.  Brian hovered over the matrix to see if there was general support for the idea, but lowered his hand when it was clear nobody took it seriously.

‘Well, at least let’s get the colour schemes sorted from the start of the project in future,’ suggested another engineer.  Brian found himself scratching that suggestion down immediately.

‘For God’s sake Brian,’ shouted O’Feld, ‘I’m sure this is all very correct, but couldn’t we carry it out once we get out of here?’ he asked. ‘I’d like to propose we start a new project right now, to escape from this hell hole,’ he vented.  Brian bristled.

‘If that’s what you want, then fine, but I must warn you we’re likely to end up making the same mistakes all over again if we don’t carry out this activity,’ he warned.  It sounded like improbable bullshit, but then again everything else in the PRINCE2 manual had as well.  Daw interrupted.

‘So you’re saying that if we don’t analyse what we did on the last project, then our project to escape from gaol will most likely end up with us in gaol,’ he said, trying to follow the logic.  ‘But if we don’t start the “get out of gaol” project then we end up staying in gaol anyway,’ he added.  ‘Sounds like we need to start the project now.’

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The characters, companies and places referred to in Project: Evil are fictitious and any resemblance to people, companies, businesses or places is entirely coincidental.

If you know someone who has a warped sense of humour please pass them the link to my blog so that they can enjoy 'Project: Evil'.

I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan
or on Facebook - use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

To find out more about my ancestors visit my sister’s website http://sullivanfamilyhistory.angelfire.com/

Visit my books on Amazon (for Kindle owners) and Smashwords (for access to all other formats and access to Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Sony, WH Smith, Kobo and many other good ebookstores.


Digital Life Form is available on Amazon.com in paperback for $7.99 and Amazon.co.uk for £5.99

The Last Simple is available on Amazon.com in paperback for $5.99 and Amazon.co.uk for £4.99

The Journeymen is available for $8.99 or £6.99 in the UK

Skin is available for $9.99 or £6.99 in the UK

For quick access to the various Kindle, Kobo, WH Smith and Smashword links please use the table below to view my books.

To View My books In....

Kindle US Store

Kindle UK Store

Kindle DE Store

Kindle FR Store

Kindle IT Store

Kindle ES Store

Smashwords

WH Smith

Kobo