Archive
New Winner, another prize & a Treat Yourself for Pennies Sale!
The winner in the next week will receive a signed paperback first edition copy of The Jerusalem Puzzle posted free to wherever you are in the world!
If you want to treat yourself to The Jerusalem Puzzle ebook for pennies, click here. YOU DESERVE IT! January is not easy!
The prize winner will be among the first to receive the physical copy of The Jerusalem Puzzle.
The winner of the New Year competition was Ben Brierley – comment #41 from last week as selected by Random.org. A copy of The Jerusalem Puzzle, signed, and The Istanbul Puzzle advance reader copy signed will be on its way to you soon. If you are reading this please email us your address Ben (lob@yourasms.com)!
And now we have a new competition for anyone who didn’t win!
All you have to do to enter is to share this page on Twitter or Facebook (both if you can!) and comment below to tell me what you have done.
On next Friday morning 1 person will be chosen using a random number generator from the list of comments. I will also run the same competition the following week so keep coming back if you don’t win this week! I expect to give away 20 books in the end, so you do have a good chance.
And thank you all for sharing and for all your support. The Jerusalem Puzzle is still doing well in the Kindle charts, a great result for a new author this year.
I hope you win!
And if you want to treat yourself to The Jerusalem Puzzle ebook for pennies, click here. YOU DESERVE IT! January is not easy!
Christmas winners and a new prize!
For this week there will be one new winner!
The winner in the next week will receive a signed paperback first edition copy of The Jerusalem Puzzle and a signed advance copy of The Istanbul Puzzle, 2 books, posted free to wherever you are in the world!
The winner will be among the first to receive the physical copy of The Jerusalem Puzzle.
The winners of the Christmas 3 day competition were Lorely, Suzan Lacey & Reeca. A copy of The Jerusalem Puzzle & The Istanbul Puzzle, all signed, will be on its way to you all soon. If you are reading this please email us your address Suzan and Reeca (lob@yourasms.com)!
And now we have a new competition for anyone who didn’t win!
All you have to do to enter is to share this page on Twitter or Facebook (both if you can!) and comment below to tell me what you have done.
On next Friday morning 1 person will be chosen using a random number generator from the list of comments. I don’t expect more than about 30 to do this so you will have a reasonable chance. I will also run the same competition the following week so keep coming back if you don’t win this week! I expect to give away 20 books in the end, so you do have a good chance.
And thank you all for sharing and for all your support. The Jerusalem Puzzle is still doing well in the Kindle charts, a great result for a new author this year.
And if you have read The Jerusalem Puzzle please go to Amazon and review it on the US site here or on the UK site here.
I hope you win!
New for Christmas! 3 Day’s of Double Prizes!
For today, Christmas Day, tomorrow and Thursday there will be three winners!
Each will receive a signed paperback first edition copy of The Jerusalem Puzzle and a signed advance copy of The Istanbul Puzzle, 2 books, posted free to wherever you are in the world.
They will be among the first to receive the physical copy of The Jerusalem Puzzle.
The winner of last week’s competition was Hellena Middleton. A copy of The Jerusalem Puzzle will be on its way to her soon. If you are reading this please email us your address Hellena (lob@yourasms.com)!
And for all who enter check back on Friday for the winners and follow this blog to be notified too in my next post.
All you have to do to enter is to share this page on Twitter or Facebook (both if you can!) and comment below to tell me what you have done.
On Friday morning 3 people will be chosen using a random number generator from the list of comments. I don’t expect more than about 60 to do this so you will have a reasonable chance. I will also run the same competition next week so keep coming back if you don’t win this week!
Thank you all for sharing and for all your support. The Jerusalem Puzzle is at 122 in the overall UK Kindle chart, a great result.
And if you have read The Jerusalem Puzzle please go to Amazon and review it on the US site here or on the UK site here.
I hope you win and will do my best to give away as many copies as I can between now and the end of January.
Foreshadowing. What makes you read on? #4
This is the final post in this series, created as a lead in the launch of The Jerusalem Puzzle ebook on Monday Dec 3rd. We have had:
A sense of adventure. What makes you read on? #1
Action opening alternatives. What makes you read on? #2
A sense of mystery. What makes you read on? #3
and now this final post in the series.
Foreshadowing, for me, comes in two forms. The first is the simple, “something different was about to happen” phrase inserted in the text, which makes the reader wonder what is about to happen. I recommend doing this only very occasionally.
I think I use this explicit form of foreshadowing only twice in The Jerusalem Puzzle. The reason you can’t use it very often is that readers get tired of such things very easily. Explicit foreshadowing loses its appeal very quickly.
The second type of foreshadowing is a general foreshadowing brought about by the plot. For instance, if the main character is going to Jerusalem to investigate the disappearance of someone he knows, then the reader will naturally anticipate what will happen next. This subtle foreshadowing is useful because it uses the reader’s imagination. It’s not just plot driven novels that use subtle foreshadowing, literary novels use it too. When any change or event is anticipated in the text you are using foreshadowing.
Inspiring anticipation is a critical aspect of writing compelling fiction in my opinion. Anticipation is, for me, one of the greatest pleasures of being alive. Looking forward to Christmas, a holiday, a big game, a night out, a family event, an election, are what keeps many of us going through the hum drum nature of everyday life. If you can inspire anticipation in your writing, by hinting at what is to come, you will have cracked a powerful technique to make people read on. And I use make deliberately.
I hope you have enjoyed this series. If you would like to order The Jerusalem Puzzle please click one of the links to the right. Next week I will post about the secrets revealed in The Jerusalem Puzzle. Thanks for coming here.
The Jerusalem Puzzle takes a big step forward
Last Friday I finished draft one and two of The Jerusalem Puzzle. I call it one and two because I go back every day and edit what I wrote the previous day.
The Jerusalem Puzzle is written!
On Monday I started on the next edit. I plan to have it finished by mid May, when I will send it to Harper Collins.
I was pleased that both yesterday and the day before I was able to do my target of editing ten pages a day. This means, for me, that it’s fairly smooth already. That doesn’t mean to say that there won’t be changes and suggestions from Harper Collin’s editors, but it’s a lot smoother than The Istanbul Puzzle was at this stage.
I guess writing day after day, year after year is finally paying off.
As for the novel, I like it, if I’m allowed to say that. The main mysteries that were held over from The Istanbul Puzzle, what’s in that book they found, for instance, are solved in The Jerusalem Puzzle. Someone at the heart of the story dies too, but I can’t tell you any more about that.
It’s set mainly in Jerusalem, with some chapters in Cairo and the Judaean Hills. It’s about contemporary Israel too, with the very real threat of war hanging over the country, a threat that comes alive during the novel.
The Jerusalem Puzzle is due for release January 17, 2013. There may be an early chapter released at Christmas by Harper Collins.
I hope you enjoy it when it comes out. Next month, May, I will be sending an outline to the next in the series to Harper Collins. Once that is agreed I will tell you the title. We might also have the cover of The Jerusalem Puzzle to show you around then.
Thanks for all your feedback and support. I truly appreciate it.
