Two More Titles Gone Large!

We are pleased to announce two more of our books are now available on Nook, Kobo and Apple. they are:


SHADOWCHASER by Stephen R Hulse
Occult thriller which follows Martin Thorn as he battles the supernatural to keep humanity safe.

Nook

Kobo

Apple












AND the eco-thriller from Kristen Stone EDGE OF EXTINCTION

The story of people fitting for the right to live.


Nook

Kobo

Apple











Watch out for more releases coming soon!

Which Symbol Should You Use?

This debate has been raging for a long time, how long I’m not sure, but I’m here to keep it going.
    What sign do you use to indicate speech? “ or ‘ ?
    Many new writers, myself included, tend to use “. We were taught in school that that was the sign to indicate dialogue. The other sign is an apostrophe and could be used to quote something within dialogue and little else.
    When I was learning to type and throughout my typing career I was taught to use “ for quotes and dialogue. “ was over the 2 and ‘ was over the 8 and both were simple straight quotes, none of this facing the letter it was attached to.
    Ah, but you be old and went to school a long time ago.
    Both facts are very true. BUT I asked my granddaughter (16) what sort of quote marks she was told to use in her English lessons in this day and age. After looking at me somewhat blankly she said “. So it’s not just the people who were taught in the days of board rubbers and ink monitors who think like me.
    It has become the Established Publishing standard these days to use a single quote (or an apostrophe) to denote dialogue. (By “Established Publishing” I mean the big boys.)  But when did this happen and why?
    I have trawled through old books I have and some use “ while others use ‘. I recently read an ebook version of The Hobbit, which, according to the notes had been taken from an early version. That had “ in yet, yet a printed copy I have of The Lord of the Rings has ‘.  So was this down to the publisher? And yet… I have The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins and Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy both Guild Publishing editions, printed by the same printers and yet one uses “ and the other ‘. And one of the very first books I bought as an adult, “Islands In The Stream”  by Ernest Hemingway and published in 1970 uses ‘.
    Another weird thing I have noticed… I have a tablet with a touchscreen keyboard. Very clever. It automatically shows capital letters after you put in a full stop followed by a space. And with those capital letters it gives you an option of “. Once you have started your sentence it goes to an ‘. Sadly it doesn’t go back to “ until after you have put a space after the full stop. As “ is only used for speech and nothing else, this begs the question, why Microsoft think it is important but publishers don’t?
    Is this important? Does anyone care? Well, you do get the odd nose turned up when some people find the ‘wrong’ sort of quotes being used. As if punctuation marks are more important than the words. And yet many of the smaller publishing houses still use it.
    I think using double quotes makes the dialogue more noticeable. I’ve recently gone through a book with my editor’s hat on and found the story brilliant, the typing perfect (and that takes a lot of hard work, even with spell checkers) but sadly lots of speech marks missing. Now this particular author was using the ‘industry standard’ single ‘. I wondered if he would have missed so many when proof reading his work if he had used “ which stand out a little better.
    Me? I will stick to using old fashioned “ until I’m forced kicking and screaming into using the apostrophe for speech.
    Oh, and as an afterthought. I have a copy of “Eats, Shoots and Leaves” by Lynne Truss. Wonderful book on punctuation. It was published in 2003. And all the way through it the good lady uses “ both for speech and quotes. Maybe I should ask for her opinion?  

The Blue Hour is now available

We are pleased to announce The Blue Hour has joined Shattered Dreams on Nook, Kobo and Apple

See the links below or use your usual shop.

Nook

Kobo

Apple

Expanding Our Reach

Blue Hour Publishing is pleased to announce that over the next few weeks/months all our books will be available on Nook, Kobo and in the iBookstore.
The first to be available is the ever popular book by Kristen Stone - Shattered Dreams.
Get your copies through your regular supplier for your reader or click on the following links.

Nook

KOBO

Apple

Happy reading

When Should You Publish

You have finally written The End. Should you have the book up and available the next day? The answer is a big resounding NO.
    If you were writing for a major publisher you would understand this. You finish the book, they look at it, it could be months before the public can buy it. Just because indie authors CAN put their books out whenever they wish it doesn't mean they SHOULD.
    Why not? I hear you cry.
    The answer is simple - quality. Even the finest authors check and maybe re-write several times before being published. For indie authors this is even more important. If you cannot afford an editor it is essential you close the file and not look at it again for at least a week. You will surprised at how many typing mistakes have slipped into your work. Word shows lots of squiggly red lines for spelling mistakes and even squiggly blue ones for words out of context (I never look for the green ones for grammar, I turn that off. Word and I have a different concept of grammar!). But even with these aids there are still the odd typos that slip through, errors in punctuation, speech marks that are the wrong way around because a space has slipped into the text.
    Then after that week of rest when re-reading your work you might suddenly think of something to add, something that will improve the story, develop the characters a little more. You might spot a major flaw you had missed because you were so tied up with putting the story into your computer, forgetting that you know things in your head that you haven't told the reader.
    When editing for other people I have come across characters that have had their names changed halfway through  a story.  References to people or events that haven't appeared/happened yet. These are all things that jump out at you after a break.
    When should you announce your new book? I firmly believe - not until you are completely satisfied and have put it up for sale. You can talk about it if you wish. Some say advanced publicity is good, builds up anticipation in your audience. My personal opinion is that too much talk before the action is available has the opposite effect to what is desired. I'm probably wrong but where indie authors are concerned, if a book is not available immediately I hear about it, I soon forget it because there are so many others from which to choose. I have heard authors promoting  books they haven't even written yet and others who have set a launch date before they have finished writing!
    It makes very little difference to anyone, apart maybe the author, what date a book is launched. Picking an anniversary might be meaningful to the author but no one else will care. Launching a book on a certain date without due attention to what you have done could well result in a book that seems rushed and unpolished. 
    So take your time and make indie authors a force to be reckoned with in quality.

NOW AVAILABLE

Out today, the new edition of LICENCE:REVIEWED 50 years of Bond Movies now including Patrick Mulready's review of SKYFALL. If this is what you have been waiting for, wait no longer.

Get it HERE for .com

and HERE for the UK  

Research - Essential or Just Showing Off?

   I have just finished reading the first book from a non-indie author that I have read in a long time. I enjoyed it, but wouldn’t say it was any better than most of the of the indie books I have read in the last year or so. 

   While I was reading it a thought crossed my mind. How important is research and technical knowledge in a book that is meant to be complete fiction? I’m not talking about a story that is based on real events. I’m talking about complete and utter fiction verging on fantasy, bearing in mind that all fiction is fantasy of one form or another.

   This book was an action packed horror/thriller. It was full of interesting story lines, twists you didn’t expect and many varied characters. It was set in a facility which was a cross between medical facility and sanctuary. But in parts I felt that the author had swallowed a pharmaceutical directory before he sat down to write each day.
   Why? Because he kept naming specific drugs that were being used. Instead of simply saying a  patient had been tranquilised he gave the name of the tranquiliser. The same with half a dozen other drugs for different treatments.
   Does this show the writer had done his research or did it just slow the action? For me it was the latter. I can’t remember the names of the pills I have to take (don’t worry, nothing serious) let alone what any of the drugs mentioned in the story were called, or their purpose. In this particular story it made absolutely no  difference to the reader whether the names of the drugs were real or made up. If the author invented them he must have spent hours trying to think up weird and wonderful names. I have enough trouble thinking up names for the characters in my books let alone a dozen or so drugs.
   If they were real medicines, and only qualified clinicians will know that, then was the author simply showing off? Was he trying to impress his readers with his knowledge?
   If a novel is going to be based on true facts or events, then good research and knowledge is required (although many fiction books have been published with flawed information).  But something that is complete fiction can surely get away with less detailed information which keeps the story moving and doesn’t slow the reader down trying to work out how to say the name of something. Or am I the only person who does that? And if the readers are going to skim over words like ‘tamazipan’ (heaven alone knows whether I’ve spelt that correctly) then what is the point of putting them in?   
   So my question for today is : does using technical research make for a better book or can an author rely on a fertile imagination?