The Book Bin

How to Get Published by 'Empire of Light' Gregory Earls

How to Get Published is a continuing feature at The Book Bin where we ask authors to tell us their publishing stories.  Was it a rocky road or did it come easy for them?  Did they start with an  agent and get a NY publisher interested in their book or did they self-publish?  What words of wisdom do they have for all of us who would like to be published one day?

 Today’s guest is Gregory Earls, author of the general fiction novel, Empire of Light (Simon and Fig).

My wife was born and raised in Milan, a city based in the north of Italy. The first Christmas we spent together here in the states, I wanted her to feel at home. So one night I took her to see a movie, Gomorrah, a critically acclaimed move that took place in Naples, which is based in the south of Italy. It was about half way through when I asked her if she was digging the film.

She replied, “Ma dai! I don’t understand what these people are saying. I’m going to sleep.”

What I didn’t understand at the time was that even though Italy shared a common language, Italian, the dialect and local colloquialisms between the north and south were just unusual enough to make the inhabitants of these two regions feel like they lived on different planets. My wife needed an interpreter.

After years of hustling in the film industry, and banging out scripts, the literary world seemed just as bizarre to me. For example, after years of being confined to one hundred and twenty pages, I couldn’t wrap my head around the freedom of writing a novel. What the hell was I going to do with sixty-five thousand words? You know those chickens who spent most of their lives trapped in cages, then suddenly an hour before their beheading, they’re released into the a fenced yard so they could be stamped “free range.” Envision a chicken’s brain trying to comprehend the idea of space. 

That chicken was I.

Luckily, my good friend, Stacey became my interpreter in this new world. She was a published author who had volunteered to help me edit my manuscript, and then point me in the right direction when the time came to find an agent and, hopefully, get published. I had just begun sending out inquiries to publishers and agents, when Stacey was blessed with an epiphany, and decided to launch her own small press, Simon & Fig.  She took a chance on my novel, Empire Of Light, and thank God she did because after a scant month of mailing inquiries and I was about two rejection letters away from stuffing my manuscript down some agent’s throat. 

About a week before Stacey offered to publish my book, a major Hollywood agency showed mad interest in the book, a colleague informing me that I had made it pretty far up the pipe before they finally dropped it. Screw them. Simon & Fig had my back and I hope I can reward their faith by giving them an acclaimed book. Some black in their ledger would be nice, too.

So please hit up Amazon.com and support the cause, and enjoy the read!

When Gregory Earls isn’t eating at Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles, he pays the bills by taking up space at 20th Century Fox in the Feature Post Production Department. He’s a proud graduate of Norfolk State University and the American Film Institute, where he studied cinematography. He’s an award-winning director who has amassed a reel of short films, music videos, and (yes) a wedding video or two. Steadfastly butchering the Italian language since 2002, he hopes to someday master the language just enough to inform his in-laws how much he loves their daughter, Stefania, who was born and raised in Milan, Italy. Gregory currently resides in Venice, California where he goes giddy every time he spots that dude who roller skates and plays the electric guitar at the same time. During football season, he can be found at the Stovepiper Lounge, a Cleveland Browns bar in the Valley where he roots for the greatest football team in the history of Cleveland.

Visit his website at www.gregoryearls.com.

 

 

How to Get Published by 'The Manicurist' Phyllis Schieber

How to Get Published is a continuing feature at The Book Bin where we ask authors to tell us their publishing stories.  Was it a rocky road or did it come easy for them?  Did they start with an  agent and get a NY publisher interested in their book or did they self-publish?  What words of wisdom do they have for all of us who would like to be published one day?

 Today’s guest is Phyllis Schieber, author of the literary fiction novel, The Manicurist (Bell Bridge Books), .

The road to publishing is rarely an easy one.  I began to write with intent when I was twenty-six. I took a class with Hayes Jacobs at The New School in Manhattan. Eventually, I applied to his writing seminar and was accepted. He taught me that while writing is a passion, it is also a business. I learned how to prepare a manuscript for submission, how to develop tenacity, and how to recognize the significance of a scrawled handwritten note at the bottom of a form rejection letter. There was someone at the other end. It gave me hope. Hayes reminded his students over and over that the very day we receive a rejection letter, we must submit our work to yet another publication. I learned not to give up—a much-needed asset in this business. I also developed much thicker skin, another essential for every writer.

I wrote voraciously, determined to see my work published.  I also learned the dreaded Catch-22: you can’t get published without an agent, and you can’t get an agent unless you’re published.  After years of submitting short stories to various publications and receiving an equal number of rejections—albeit a handwritten note here and there—I decided to write a novel. Strictly Personal, a young adult novel, was my first success. By sheer determination, I was able to find an agent. It took me five years. She sold Strictly Personal to Fawcett-Juniper. I thought my career was set. I was surprised when a classmate, who was widely published, said, “Congratulations. Now your troubles will begin.” Her words were somewhat prophetic. I learned yet another lesson of a writer’s journey: there are no guarantees.  One success is not a promise that more will follow. It was a hard and disheartening lesson to learn.

I wrote several other young adult novels after that, but selling them was another story. During that period, I left my agent for a new agent, but he was also unable to sell my work. Instead of giving up, I decided to write an adult novel only because it was what compelled me at the time. That was perhaps the most important lesson I learned—write to please yourself, not to meet market demand or to make money. I wrote Willing Spirits, a tribute to women and to the friendships that sustain us. It was a true labor of love, and Willing Spirits continues to be the novel that is closest to my heart. Of course, that meant I had to find a new agent. I struck gold. Harvey Klinger of Harvey Klinger, Inc. agreed to represent Willing Spirits and sold it to William Morrow. Once again, I thought my career was set. And once again, I learned that the business of selling books is not for the faint of heart.  It was several years before I sold another novel. The Sinner’s Guide to Confession was sold to Penguin Books. They also released Willing Spirits in paperback. I was thrilled. I thought that now, finally, I was on my way.

My editor at Penguin passed on The Manicurist for reasons that still seem somewhat incomprehensible, but it was another disappointing lesson. An editor doesn’t have to have a reason—she either likes the manuscript, or she doesn’t. And she didn’t. I confess that it took me a few months to lick my wounds over that rejection. Nevertheless, I rallied.  I took on a new project with great enthusiasm and continue to work on it. In the interim, my agent sold The Manicurist to Bell Bridge Books, a small independent publisher. It has been a wonderful experience. I had the opportunity to work with an amazing editor; my book cover is gorgeous—exactly what I envisioned, and Bell Bridge bought the first chapter of my work-in-progress and is publishing it in an anthology, Firefly.  I think I’m on a roll.

Publication is the goal for every writer. That’s understandable. However, I have two pieces of advice. First, don’t write because you have dreams of becoming wealthy. And, second, as Rainer Maria Rilke wrote in Letters to a Young Poet, write only because you “must.” Everything else will follow.

The first great irony of Phyllis Schieber’s life was that she was born in a Catholic hospital. Her parents, survivors of the Holocaust, had settled in the South Bronx among other new immigrants.  In the mid-fifties, her family moved to Washington Heights, an enclave for German Jews on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, known as “Frankfurt-on-the-Hudson.”

She graduated from high school at sixteen, earned a B.A. in English from Herbert H. Lehman College, an M.A. in Literature from New York University, and later an M.S. as a Developmental Specialist from Yeshiva University.

She lives in Westchester County where she spends her days creating new stories and teaching writing. She is married and the mother of a grown son, an aspiring opera singer.

The Manicurist was a finalist in the 2011 Inaugural Indie Publishing Contest sponsored by the San Francisco Writer’s Conference.

Phyllis Schieber is the author of three other novels, The Sinner’s Guide to Confession, Willing Spirits, and Strictly Personal.

You can visit her website at www.phyllisschieberauthor.com.

 

 

 

How to Get Published by 'Lucas Trent: Guardian in Magic' Richard Blunt

How to Get Published is a continuing feature at The Book Bin where we ask authors to tell us their publishing stories.  Was it a rocky road or did it come easy for them?  Did they start with an  agent and get a NY publisher interested in their book or did they self-publish?  What words of wisdom do they have for all of us who would like to be published one day? 

 Today’s guest is Richard Blunt, author of the fantasy novel, Lucas Trent: Guardian in Magic (Author House).

Greetings Book Bin! Wanne hear another story of a first time author on his way to publishing? Well, then buckle your seat belts, ‘cause it’s going to be a bumpy ride…

It all started more than a year ago when I finally finished Guardian in Magic, which is part one of my fantasy story. I had no clue about publishing, didn’t even plan to publish at all at the beginning, so I walked the internet up and down and read about other people’s experiences in discussion boards and blog posts. What I read there was quite shocking for me. Many posters honestly thought that writing a nice story and sending it to one publisher is all it takes to make millions off a book. Well, luckily I was never that naïve… The ugly truth for a first time author in the fiction world is: it’s hard. And it’s not cheap at all. If you want your book to have any chance on the market you have to spend money on it to get the ball rolling.

So I started at square one: Editing. I am not a native speaker, so for me this was a no-brainer. But still I can tell you from that experience: You need a professional editor, no matter how good your English is. The 1.000 bucks I spent on having my 268 pages proof read was money very well spent. I learned a lot about writing styles and ways to express certain things to make them more readable through that. It’s more than worth it.

Back then I thought those 1.000 bucks would be my major investment for the publishing, damn, I am naïve after all… Yes, there are publishers that will cover all expenses and do everything else for you, but I have to ask you two questions there: 1) How much time and money does it take to find such a publisher and convince him to accept you? 2) Do you really want to give the complete control over your book to someone else? I heard from friends in regard to the first question that they spent weeks and months traveling from one book fare to the next, just to talk some publishers into even taking a look at his work. (None of those have published so far by the way…) I definitely didn’t want to do that, but my real decision for self-publishing only came when I per accident got hold of a publishing contract. Bloody hell… You need a lawyer to understand that… Luckily I do have some experience with this, so at least I figured out some passages in the paperwork that I definitely didn’t want to have in mine. Getting 20% royalty on the list price is cool, but what’s it worth if you can’t control the list price? The publisher is per contract allowed to even give your book away for free if they see fit… I don’t care about that…

OK, so self-publishing it was. After bumping around the internet again for a while, I chose my publisher: AuthorHouse. And there another 2.000 dollars went out the window… Why not start with the smaller package? They start at $599. Well, because if you look at the details it just makes sense. The “booksellers return program” is something that just convinced me, especially as a first time author.

So, 3.000 dollars so far, but that’s it now, right? Well, no… There is one thing I just could not live with: the “Custom full color cover” is nice, but it is always based on a picture that comes off a gallery. It might do, but in the end the cover is the first thing everyone sees on a book. Do you really want to do a half-ass job there? I didn’t… And it cost me another 500 dollars. But again it paid off. The cover illustration took 8 weeks to finish, but when I looked at the final piece for the first time it rendered me speechless. Once again worth every penny…

But now we are done, right? Well, no… The book is out now, after a painstaking process that took another three months to complete, where I had to be more of a project manager than an author, even though I hired specialists to do the job. But what good is a book that’s out there if nobody knows about it? And that my friends is where it gets REALLY expensive… The magic word is called “Marketing”. You can have everything from simple postcards to full blown marketing campaigns and even a specialized rewriting to target Hollywood producers. Beware of your budget is all I can say… You will burn through it fast if you are not extra careful.

How much did it cost me in the end? No comment… Was it worth it? I am quite sure that it was. Will I get rich through publishing? No.

So here is my conclusion about all this: If you expect to make quick money with little effort, seek life elsewhere. If you think you can get rich with your first book, think again. If you rely on the professionalism of the publishers or support companies you are out of luck. But if you still want to be an author even with knowing all this, you will have loads of fun. And you will most likely agree that it’s all worth it in the end.

Being an author is about telling a story, not about making money. Sometimes those two combine, but many times they don’t. That’s how it is…

Richard Blunt is the author of the fantasy novel, Lucas Trent: Guardian in Magic.

He is currently working on his second book in the Lucas Trent series.

You can visit his website at www.lucastrent.com.

Visit him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lucas_trent and Facebook at www.facebook.com/people/richard-blunt.

 

How to Get Published by 'The Pub Across the Pond' Mary Carter

How to Get Published is a continuing feature at The Book Bin where we ask authors to tell us their publishing stories.  Was it a rocky road or did it come easy for them?  Did they start with an  agent and get a NY publisher interested in their book or did they self-publish?  What words of wisdom do they have for all of us who would like to be published one day? 

  Today’s guest is Mary Carter, author of the women’s fiction novel, The Pub Across the Pond (Kensington).

I started writing SHE’LL TAKE IT in January of 2004 as a New Year’s goal. I had always been a voracious reader, and a writer. I’d written poems, short stories, plays, and had even tackled a screenplay. I was reading a novel at the time that I didn’t think was very good and I was surprised it had been published. I thought—“I can do better than this.” I took an online writing course. I liked the course, but the teacher wasn’t supportive of my main character. She was a kleptomaniac and he cautioned readers wouldn’t root for a klepto. I went with my gut—a powerful lesson. After numerous stops, and starts, I had a first draft. A beginning, middle, and end, a strong main character, and tons of obstacles. In the past I left works unfinished, quitting when the work was a mess. (First drafts are always messy things). I started reading novels critically. Taking them apart, analyzing them. I actually sat down and outlined novels to see if they followed the beats I’d been reading about in various writing books. (I read a ton books on writing). I completed a second draft, and made ten copies for ten friends. I weighed their feedback carefully and rewrote the manuscript. Next I bought LITERARY MARKETPLACE and queried agents. I heard from one who wanted to read my first 50 pages. She eventually passed, but talked to me on the phone about what she didn’t like. She encouraged me to move on and write something else. I also ignored this advice. And then, a second agent asked to read my full manuscript. He offered to represent me. Although I am no longer with this agent, I am truly grateful. Four months later he sold the book to Kensington. The day I got the news I was walking down the dock on Lake Union in Seattle where I lived at the time, and saw a double rainbow. It’s been an incredible journey ever since. If you’re looking to get published, get serious about learning the craft, be open to feedback, listen to your gut, and never give up.

 

MARY CARTER is a freelance writer and novelist.  The Pub Across the Pond is her fifth novel with Kensington. Her other works include:  My Sister’s Voice, Sunnyside Blues, She’ll Take It, and Accidentally Engaged.  In addition to her novels she has written two novellas: A Very Maui Christmas in the best selling anthology Holiday Magic, and The Honeymoon House in the best selling anthology Almost Home. She is currently working on a new novel for Kensington.

Readers are welcome to visit her at www.marycarterbooks.com.

Visit her at Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Carter-Books/248226365259.

 

How to Get Published by 'Act of Grace' Karen Simpson

How to Get Published is a continuing feature at The Book Bin where we ask authors to tell us their publishing stories.  Was it a rocky road or did it come easy for them?  Did they start with an  agent and get a NY publisher interested in their book or did they self-publish?  What words of wisdom do they have for all of us who would like to be published one day? 

 Today’s guest is Karen Simpson, author of the contemporary speculative fiction novel Act of Grace .

When I finished my first novel, I promised my character Grace that I would find her a good home. I kept my promise, but it didn’t happen the way I always imagined it would.

After about ten years of writing, critiques groups and workshops, I queried and finally got an agent out of New York. I was hopeful, she was hopeful. She did her best to sell the manuscript, but it seemed that while many of the editors loved my work they turned Act of Grace down because they didn’t think there was a market for a speculative fiction novel that dealt with issues of race.

“I’ll keep trying.” My agent said; however, I could tell she was discouraged.

Now, I knew I was suppose to wait on my agent to do the magic that agents do, but as the rejections from editors continued to piled up I realized I was probably going to have to do something different to pave the way to publishing success. I knew I didn’t want to self-publish my book so I began to consider the option of finding a small or independent publisher.

One November morning my agent sent me a flurry of rejection emails from editors and I got angry. I typed “African American Literary Publishers” into Goggle and up popped the name Plenary Publishing.

Sometimes you have to take a leap off the cliff into the unknown and trust that God and the ancestors will throw you some wings on the way down. I followed Plenary’s detailed submissions directions, pressed the send button and waited and waited and waited. I waited so long I almost forgot that I had submitted to them. Great blessing sometime come to those who wait. On May 13, the day after my birthday, I received a request for the full manuscript of my novel Act of Grace. A month later I had the contract in my hands.

The editing of the novel went smoothly. Of course, there were the general delays that come with any publishing project but I am very happy with my novel and have received excellent reviews.

My advice to new writers is if you are serious about getting published, work at writing as you would a career or job. Learn the craft by become a part of critiques groups, go to as many conferences as you can afford. Read all kinds of novels and writing books, but, in addition, read books and blogs about how to conduct the business side of writing. A good book to start with is The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published by Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry.

 

Karen Simpson is passionate about the craft of writing fiction, the art of quilting, and the discipline of historical research. She received her bachelor’s degree in Animal Husbandry, M.A. in Foreign and International Trade and a M.S. in Historic Preservation. A historic preservationist trained in heritage interpretation and administration, the subjects and themes of her fiction are often taken from the stories she discovers while doing research for museum exhibits. In 2009 Simpson was awarded the Speculative Literature Foundation’s Older Writers Grant.  She is lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Act of Grace is her first novel.

You can visit Karen Simpson’s website at www.karensimpsonwrites, her blog at www.lafreya.blogspot.com or connect with her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lafreya1

How to Get Published by 'Fezariu's Epiphany' by David Brown

How to Get Published is a continuing feature at The Book Bin where we ask authors to tell us their publishing stories.  Was it a rocky road or did it come easy for them?  Did they start with an  agent and get a NY publisher interested in their book or did they self-publish?  What words of wisdom do they have for all of us who would like to be published one day? 

 Today’s guest is David Brown, author of the Fantasy novel, Fezariu’s Epiphany (CreateSpace).

In May 2011 I self-published my first novel, Fezariu’s Epiphany. It had been a long journey, beginning back in 1999 when I was still at college. Back then I first discovered the Final Fantasy series on the Playstation and became inspired. They led me onto Norse mythology and after many months I had conceived the idea of Elenchera – a fictitious world of fantasy, but one where the characters would have far more prominence than the world in which they inhabit.

I spent ten years building the history of Elenchera, including 500+ maps, and by 2006 had written four novels. None of them were really up to the standard I knew I could reach and I became lost in the world history until late 2008 when I met my wife, Donna. She was the first person that really understood Elenchera and wanted to know everything about the world. No one but Donna has read any of the history of Elenchera and by the time we became a couple she had convinced me to start writing a new novel.

Fezariu’s Epiphany took six drafts to complete but with the backdrop to Elenchera in place it was easy to give the novel the historical setting it needed. Donna was my rock throughout the novel’s creation. Some elements of the novel were quite weak after the first draft but after talking over these frailties with Donna the novel was redrafted and by the sixth attempt it was finally ready for publication.

Donna and I made the decision to go down the self-publishing route. There were many reasons behind this. We wanted full control of Fezariu’s Epiphany and knew that with the novel being a different kind of fantasy not all readers would embrace the concept and that may extend to publishers as week. Although I believe Elenchera novels qualify as fantasy I know some of the feedback for Fezariu’s Epiphany has lamented the lack of common fantasy ingredients within the overall recipe.

The self-publishing path has been a challenging one and without Donna it would never have been possible. Overnight she became my agent, editor and publicist for the novel and considering she had no previous experience in this industry she’s done an amazing job. After self-publishing Fezariu’s Epiphany through the likes of Amazon and Smashwords we began the promotion work which started with a book trailer before moving onto blog tours. I’ve been taking part in these for many months and they are highly recommended. I enjoy interviews on the blogs but I also like the guest posts as well, being able to dissect Fezariu’s Epiphany and talk about my thought processes during the novel’s creation. It’s wonderful that people want to know these things.

Today Fezariu’s Epiphany has enjoyed some heartwarmingly good reviews (even some 5 star ones which is amazing) and many readers seem to not only love the novel but they have understood what I’m trying to do with the Elenchera novels. These are intended as a different kind of fantasy, more accessible to a wider range of readers with prominence solely for the characters. The foundations for a great future have been laid for Donna and I but we both know the next novel, A World Apart, will need just as much work, if not more, than Fezariu’s Epiphany. Whatever challenges await, Donna and I are looking forward to them.

David Brown was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, and first conceived the idea of the Elencheran Chronicles at college in 1999. He spent ten years compiling the history of Elenchera, resulting in 47,000+ years of events, 500+ maps, 2000+ pages, several short stories and many much-needed acquaintances with Jack Daniels.

David also has a blog, The World According to Dave (http://blog.elenchera.com), which features reviews, stories and dramatic tales of the horrors of owning cats.

David now lives in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, with his wife, Donna, and their six cats.

Fezariu’s Epiphany is his first novel. David is currently working on his second.

How to Get Published by 'A Death for Beauty' Alberto Rios Arias

How to Get Published is a continuing feature at The Book Bin where we ask authors to tell us their publishing stories.  Was it a rocky road or did it come easy for them?  Did they start with an  agent and get a NY publisher interested in their book or did they self-publish?  What words of wisdom do they have for all of us who would like to be published one day? 

 Today’s guest is Alberto Rios Arias, author of the historical mystery novel, A Death For Beauty or, An Immortal (Freedom River Books).

Getting your book published today is probably harder than ever before because big publishing houses are only interested in high concept projects with huge blockbuster potential and that leaves most authors to fend for themselves and find alternative ways to get their good work in front of the masses.

Fortunately these days, that means going digital and converting your finished manuscript into an epub document, which you can easily upload for sale to many different book vendors, such as Amazon or B&N.

As a freelance graphic designer and copywriter, it was an easy decision for me to give independent publishing a try. I shopped around for an editor that was a good fit for my story and after some time we managed to get everything done. It was a great collaboration. That’s probably the most important step in getting your manuscript in shape because you need an unbiased professional to look over your work.

I worked on my book covers for many weeks and finally came up with a design I thought would appeal to its intended audience of historical fiction readers. Actually, I used a modified version of my original design that a photography website had featured on their homepage. Readers took an instant liking to the image so I knew it would work for the front cover and I’ve gotten a lot of praise for it since. It’s actually a take on a vintage photograph I’d seen somewhere else (and haven’t been able to find again) but this is a modern version of horses running through a dark canyon, a dream mentioned in the story. I believe the original photograph dates back to the early 1900’s.

It’s been a long process to get all the most important elements just right, aside from the writing. So far, it’s been a 5-year journey and counting and the learning curve can be steep at times but I’ve really enjoyed working on this project and have a number of others in development.

A Death for Beauty is now available in paperback and hardcover versions as well, although the eBook is doing very well. I think anyone interested in publishing a novel today is in for quite a challenge either way because a home run is not enough. You need a grand slam and then you have to find effective ways to promote the book in as many venues as possible.

But everything begins and ends with a strong story, there’s no other way around it. If your story is weak in any way, readers won’t make that all-important emotional connection and so nothing else matters. The short of it is simple. Great covers, strong titles, and effective promotions can only get you so far, but an intriguing story, that’s forever.

Born in Jersey City and raised in Hoboken, New Jersey, Alberto Rios Arias filled his leisure time writing and illustrating short stories and took an interest in creative writing after reading J.D. Salinger’s, Catcher in the Rye in high school.

After a three-year stint in the Army, he pursued another obsession and enrolled in the popular School of Visual Arts in Manhattan under the G.I. Bill. Although he majored in Fine Arts, his creative writing class inspired him to continue writing.

His efforts eventually paid off and he found work as an advertising copywriter. His advertorials appeared weekly in The New York Post and The Daily News. Meanwhile he continued to hone his writing skills and upon early retirement, he decided to pursue creative writing in earnest, recently finishing two feature screenplays and his first novel.

Alberto is currently developing another novel, a short story collection, and a memoir.

A Death for Beauty or, An Immortal is his debut novel.

Learn more about the story: http://www.adeathforbeauty.com.

How to Get Published by 'Telegraph Island' John Milton Langdon

How to Get Published is a continuing feature at The Book Bin where we ask authors to tell us their publishing stories.  Was it a rocky road or did it come easy for them?  Did they start with an  agent and get a NY publisher interested in their book or did they self-publish?  What words of wisdom do they have for all of us who would like to be published one day? 

  Today’s guest is John Milton Langdon, author of the historical fiction novel, Telegraph Island (Tate Publishing & Enterprises).

It is true to say that I had no ambition to become an author, even 'though the poet John Milton was an ancestor, but circumstances dictated otherwise.  In 2004 when I was working in Abu Dhabi, my wife and I visited a small Omani town called Khasab which is located close to the Straits of Hormuz.  One of the attractions is an area known as the Fjord because of its similarity to Norwegian scenery.  The transliterated Arabic name for the fjord is Khor as Sham.  We sailed into the fjord on a dhow and moored at an island located about half way along the waterway.

The island is named Telegraph Island and anyone with Google Earth on their PC will be able to locate it quite easily as the co-ordinates are 26° 11' 43.13"N and 56° 20' 34.31"E

I discovered that a small group of British telegraph operators had lived and worked at the repeater station on the island in the middle of the eighteen hundreds and also that it was one of the links in the chain of repeater stations on the electric telegraph between Britain and India.  This was at the very beginning of the age of electronic communication that we take for granted these days.

Standing in burning sunshine on a barren lump of rock, surrounded by a sea edged with equally barren but precipitous mountains, I could only marvel at the fortitude of men who could live and work under such appalling conditions.  Water, food and all the other essentials of life had to be supplied by sea.  They lived in Arab style huts made of barasti and must have suffered enormously in the heat and humidity.  The operators spent long hours listening to incoming messages in Morse code which they then had to retransmit along the next section of the cable.  It was small wonder that many became ill and the phrase ‘gone round the bend’ was coined by sailors recovering mentally sick personnel from the island which is beyond a bend in the inlet.

I felt there was a story to be told about these men, with the development of the telegraph system as a background theme and consequently an unplanned visit to a remote and uninhabited island provided the inspiration for my story, and my retirement from full time employment gave me the time I needed to write it.

When I completed the first chapter I gave my late wife a copy of the text to read and her verdict was, "I like the story but----."

When I had received the same opinion for each of the first four chapters, I realised I needed advice and sent the text to a professional reviewer.  His report was long and detailed but the first line provided the key that solved my problem.  He wrote, "I like the story but you are writing a report not a novel."  He was correct.  After more than 40 years working as an engineer it was not a surprising conclusion; it was the only way I knew how to write.  Initially it was quite difficult to persuade my practical engineer's brain that it was now acceptable to use my imagination and describe my characters more fully and to include conversation and emotion.

I anticipated writing only one book; it would begin in England and end on Telegraph Island.  I didn't have a specific plan to follow and allowed the characters and events to develope logically and essentially the story wrote itself.  I noticed quite often that a particular situation in the story could have several different outcomes depending on the personalities of the characters involved.  I would choose one of the options and continue writing.  If I liked the way the story continued to develope I would keep the text; if I didn't I would try another option.

As I was writing the final chapters of the book I started to search for an agent or publisher.

I don't remember exactly how many letters and samples of text I posted but it must have been about a hundred and the extremely frustrating result of this intense activity was the almost total lack of response.  Those few who were courteous enough to reply, simply informed me that they were not accepting new authors.

I started researching on the internet, discovered Tate Publishing and was very happy to receive a positive response from them.  I was prepared to contribute to the costs of publication because my writing had become my retirement hobby and had never been an attempt to make money.  I reasoned that my hobby could have been model railways and I could have spent money on locomotives and track instead.

My next problem was the length of the book I submitted to Tate Publishing.

It was about twice the length of the maximum work they normally produced and consequently it was unacceptable.  That was an extremely disappointing outcome and initially a reason for abandoning the whole project.  However, and after some thought, I realised the existing book could be modified slightly and divided into two volumes.  This was acceptable to my publisher and as a result Against All Odds was published in 2005 and Telegraph Island in 2006.

I had accumulated a great deal of data whilst researching for the first two books and realised that I had enough information and ideas to write another book.  In actual fact I was able to write two more and Full Circle was published in 2007 and Ring of Gold in 2009 by Tate Publishing.

My writing activities came to a halt when my wife's cancer returned in 2009 and I have written very little since her death in 2010.  Hopefully the desire to finish the two books I started to write in 2008 will return.


John Milton Langdon, Klagenfurt, Austria.

Author John Milton Langdon is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and has a master’s degree in maritime civil engineering.  Langdon retired and became a professional writer after an active and rewarding engineering career.  Initially he worked in Britain but from 1972 until 2008, he dealt with project development in Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Nigeria.  Langdon lives in the Austrian town of Klagenfurt which has a history stretching back to mediaeval times.  Langdon has three children and five grandchildren from his first marriage and two step sons from the second.  Langdon has many interests including travel, the British canals, music and literature but hiking in the mountains surrounding his home is a preferred leisure activity.

His latest book is the historical fiction novel, Telegraph Island.

You can visit John’s  website at www.jmlangdon.com.