Archive
Win a FREE ARC copy of The Istanbul Puzzle!
The Jerusalem Puzzle ebook will be released on the 3rd of December. You can pre-order it through one of the links to the right.
Every week, for 10 weeks from 26th November, a free paperback copy of The Istanbul Puzzle, signed by this author, will be sent to one of the people who share one of these blog posts to their followers on Facebook. Simply share with a button below and tell me you have done so by commenting below or emailing me at lpobryan@gmail.com
I will allocate a number to each share each week and pick a winner at random and then message you to get your address. I pay for postage, you get a signed copy to go with your ebook (out Dec 3rd 2012) or printed copy of The Jerusalem Puzzle, when it comes out on Jan 31st.
The picture below is of the Chapel of Golgotha, where Christ died, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, taken earlier this year.
Not the winner, but a big thank you!
I attended the Irish Book Awards last night. Tana won in my category, and I had an amazing night.
The senior people from Harper Collins were so encouraging all the way through. And I met one of my idols, the venerable Edna O’Brien. Here is a pic from my view point at the Harper Collins table. The winner of the children’s book award, Oliver Jeffers, is on the far side of the table to me.
I would like to sincerely thank everyone who voted for me and everyone who has bought my books, and all my publishers around the world and all my readers everywhere for helping me get this far.
With your help I am doing what I have always wanted to do, tell stories. That is what is important to me.
The next big thing on this site is the launch of the ebook for The Jerusalem Puzzle on December the 3rd. I will also be creating some new blog posts. I hope you will find them interesting.
I am just so happy to be read all over the world now in so many languages. Thank you all for your help and support.
News on book awards & The Jerusalem Puzzle
The excitement is mounting in the run up to the Irish Book Awards on Thursday night. I will post the result as soon as I can.
Serbian cover for The Istanbul Puzzle with my name translated!
I don’t expect to win the Crime category for The Istanbul Puzzle. But we will enjoy the gala dinner with dinner suits, black tie and long dresses and authors glaring at each other and others getting drunk!
In other news The Jerusalem Puzzle has broken though the 1,000 rank barrier on Amazon.co.uk, which means preorders are going well.
If you haven’t ordered your ebook for Dec 3 yet here are the links. ,amazon.co.uk first then amazon.com then iTunes.
I am sure it will be out at the same time on Nook, Kobo and other ebook service:
and
and
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/the-jerusalem-puzzle/id567149681?mt=11
wish me luck for Thurs night and thank you to all who voted for The Istanbul Puzzle!
A sense of mystery. What makes you read on? #3
++++
Before I start. I have been shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards, Ireland AM Crime Fiction Award 2012 for The Istanbul Puzzle. You can vote from anywhere in the world here. The Istanbul Puzzle is half way down. Please vote for whatever novels you liked or just the crime novel you liked. Vote however you wish. Voting closes midnight GMT on the 18th November. I promise not to ask again.
++++
* I will tell you a little-known secret about why people read on. The secret concerns the way our brains operate. It will help you pull your readers forward through your story. As a writer, it is vitally important that you know this.
* The second secret is . . . wait, there’s someone at the door. I hope it’s not that guy who was waving a gun at me when I cut in front of him a few minutes ago. He looked like one mean mother. Wait . . . what the!
* The third secret of creating a sense of mystery is . . . hold on, I could finish this, but I think there are three people outside now. And one of them is around the back. And there’s another one upstairs! What the hell is that buzzing noise? Is that a chainsaw? Maybe two!
* The fourth secret of mystery is easy to guess. It goes back a long way. You know, I was always afraid of one thing. When I was a child it wasn’t men in masks that worried me. It was something more ancient, more hard wired inside me, more evil. Something I couldn’t escape. Do you know what it is?
* If you want to know the fifth mystery you will have to wait until the next time we get back to this subject.
To summarise, the five techniques for creating a sense of mystery in your writing, as used above, are:
* Foreshadowing and keeping people waiting for an answer.
* Putting your character in danger.
* Increasing the danger.
* Shifting the fear to something different, something older or more personal
* The cliff hanger.
These techniques must not be over-used, but if you use them well, in a new and unique way, you will drive your readers to read on. And that’s what we want, isn’t it, for readers to read our stories?
I wonder would you mind telling us, through a comment below, which other mystery techniques writers use, as this list isn’t intended to be complete, just a good starting point for a conversation?
And please sign up for updates above right, as I will be giving away Advanced Reader Copies of The Jerusalem Puzzle in December. And I will be able to tell you what to do to win one, if you sign up. And thank you for reading this. If you want to order The Jerusalem Puzzle or The Istanbul Puzzle there are links to the right.
This is the third in a series of four posts in the run up to the launch of The Jerusalem Puzzle on ebook December 3rd and in paperback in many countries January 3rd.
Get Your Writing Noticed: Advanced social media for writers – what works and what doesn’t?
.
This is the last in a series of seven posts. The previous post on using emotion in your writing is here.
The question of what works and what doesn’t in terms of social media for writers is complicated by two key factors; each of us will have a unique social media experience based on our own situation and personal preferences, and each of us brings our own baggage to the social media table.
Luddites will deny that social media has any relevance to writing. Social media lovers will say it will change everything for writers and writing.
I fall in the middle somewhere. Here is what I can tell you that has worked for me, and what disappoints me:
* Social media helped me win a global publishing contract with Harper Collins and my first novel is being translated into 9 other languages, partly because I had a presence on social media, (Twitter, a blog, YouTube). I also had a good novel, but the publisher was interested in the fact that I had a following too. This may be unfair, but for me it wasn’t. I’ve been on the other end of unfairness too often in my life to complain about it when I get a break.
* Social media has helped me get through the day. I work at a desk in a small house in a bleak suburb. My social media friends make me smile, make me look at the world outside my little corner, and make me feel connected. Rubbish this if you want. But don’t try and take my social media away. I need it.
* My sales are good for my first novel, The Istanbul Puzzle, the novel has continued to sell nine months after publication and the presales of my new novel, The Jerusalem Puzzle, are surprisingly good too (order it on the right). Yes, you have to have a good novel to sell, but social media allows me to get the word out, to tell people it’s been edited within an inch of it’s life and it’s available .
* Not everything I have done on social media has been a success. I am on Pinterest, Foursquare, Empire Avenue, Sulia, Tumblr, Instagram and a lot of other sites. Their impact has been limited. Much of my time spent exploring the outer reaches of the social media universe has been wasted. The truly most important things I do are my two blogs, this one and www.socialmediaisdynamite.com, my Twitter profile and my Facebook page, because they generate a lot of interaction with readers all around the world. I got 400 hits on my two blogs yesterday. It’s not James Bond, but for me, someone who got only a hundred hits in his first month with a blog, it’s good.
So if you are a writer these are the things I recommend, stick to the main sites, develop a blog and follow people on Twitter and talk to people on each service.
If you want to know more about my views on social media come to one of the courses I will be teaching in Dublin from early next year, or sign up for my blog updates at www.socialmediaisdynamite.com.
Here is a link to my last post in this series on using emotion to keep readers involved.
Please leave feedback, make suggestions and engage. This series of posts needs you to get involved to make them fly.
And please sign-up using the secure sign-up button above right to receive notifications in your inbox when new post’s are released.
If you would like to discuss this post or for me to review your writing and give brief feedback without charge (page 1 of your MS only please) contact me via the comments below or by email: lpobryan@gmail.com
Here are some links to useful information for writers:
socialmediaisdynamite.com for my blog on using social media to get noticed.
The reality of being published – 2 months after my first book came out all over the UK I wrote this post
The Accessible Author – how the author’s role is changing
Frantic Editing – a post on the editing process my first novel went through in the summer of 2011
Finally, a big thank you to all my readers, everyone who comments and everyone who visits. I hope you find this information useful on your journey to getting your writing noticed.
Please reblog, link to, Tweet, post or mention this post. There are links to do that above and mainly below.
Vote for the author. Now is your chance!
I have been shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards, Ireland AM Crime Fiction Award 2012 for The Istanbul Puzzle.
You can vote from anywhere in the world here. The Istanbul Puzzle is half way down, if you scroll down to it. You must leave your email address and you can only vote once.
Please vote for whatever novels you liked or just the crime novel you liked. I will have no way of knowing who you voted for.
It’s a bit strange a public vote for books, but I am sure that voting takes place behind closed doors for all other book awards, so who am I to argue against the choice of the public?
The voting closes November the 18th, so you only have a few days. Do please vote now here.
Thank you, if you do vote for me, and thank you if you vote for some other novel instead. Your opinion is important and no one should tell you what way to vote.
It’s in your hands.
