The Ninth of January

Today, in my humble opinion, is the worst day of the year.

The ninth of January signifies the end of anything worth waiting for until Easter, which isn't quite the big occasion it used to be either.

Christmas, the highlight of winter, is now yesterday's wrapping paper. New Year has passed in a bleary-eyed haze of forgotten resolutions and hangover cures, (in fact it didn’t this year as I wasn’t drinking!) And my birthday, that last bastion of winter time happiness is now, but for the Amazon orders, all but over.

Officially a year older and thus closer to the grave, I now stand on the verge of the most depressing quarter of the year, January, February, March.

And oh, how I despise it.

The weather, which is almost always unforgiving around this time, is magnified in its misery by the post-Yuletide downer.

Work, the necessary evil that perniciously bores into your soul and thus takes over 90% of your thought processes, is made so much harder by the weather. Any chance of good will is crushed as miserable co-workers sullenly growl their greetings, polluting the atmosphere with their despondency; and who can blame them? One can’t help but be down when the start of the day involves a journey that could mirror a movie scene about Scott of the Antarctic or Noah’s Ark?

Then the ruinous January bills from the year before arrive to plunder your bank account, and in among this melancholy and wretchedness is you, struggling to master the usual day to day runnings of life.

Depressing isn’t it?

Well, this year I’ve decided to take the bull by the horns and lose my midwinter blues in a frenzy of writing. Three unfinished manuscripts sit before me, panting to be petted by my keyboard dancing fingers, and I'm not going to disappoint them. The goal for 2015 is to finish all three and hopefully have them out in 2016.

So, I can categorically state that there’ll be no fresh novels from myself this year, but 2016 will see three being put out, either with a publisher or on my own.

There, I’ve said it and I can’t take it back!

Bring 2015 on!!

Is it summer yet…?

All the best for 2015.

Reg.

As you were.

A Yuletide news round up.

 With Christmas stalking us like a hungry goodwill monster, I thought I’d write a quick catch up on what’s been happening recently.

Firstly, my short for the “Drakon Castle” anthology is in, and the book should be out next week!! Just in time for Chrimbo, I hear you cry joyfully…

Whatever, I’m not sure if it’s going to be in paperback yet, but the ebook version will be out soon. Obviously I’ll be ramming it down your collective Facebook throats when it is released.

The idea behind it is to use the very loose constraint of a place called Castle Drakon as the foundations for a story. For example, my effort is set around a place in north Wales called Gwrych castle, which I’ve cleverly renamed to Drakon castle, in the 1920s. A young reporter from Chester is invited to witness the first attempt at filming Satan being summoned from hell, and obviously it all goes horribly wrong. 

Another author, Bev Allen, has set her story in the kitchen. It deals with a cook, trying to catch his master’s eye and failing dismally, until he buys some addictive mushrooms from a travelling merchant. Bev’s contribution is an EXCELLENT read, by the way. I know it sounds like some seriously thin propaganda, but I’m genuinely looking forward to reading the other stories.

My other news is not so good. My publishers have published the release plan for next year, and I won’t be on it. Actually, I have nothing finished to offer anyway, so it’s not a big surprise. If and when I finish my manuscript, Elaina said I should send it in, but their ISBNs are all used up and it won’t go into paperback until 2016, if at all… which is kinda the sticking point.

Well, we’ll see what happens. It’s not like my sales have been doing much recently, and I do like Thorstruck, so I might just see if they want it, and if they do, just go ebook. Then again, I might not? It’s not like they’re waiting for me to write something so they can survive, is it? Thorstruck will survive with or without me, it’s just that it’s so nice and cozy there.

As for the paperbacks of my books, I can’t see them being out for Christmas, somehow. Thorstruck have other priorities, the antho being the biggy right now. However, my army of loyal readers, put away those nooses, sharp knives and other implements of attention-seeking self harm, they will be out at some time, just not yet.

Right, that’s it for now.

As you were. 

Reggie.

Trailer Sir?

Poppet at Thorstruck has created a very nice trailer for House, far better than anything I could manage. So, seeing as this is a blog about my literary progress, I'd be completely remiss if I didn't slap it up on here.

And so, for the discerning viewer of literary trailers, and with all due gratitude to the artist known as Poppet for its creation, I give you, "The House in Wales" by Richard Rhys Jones...

Post by The Literary Trials of Richard Rhys Jones.

Put it on full screen, it kicks ASS !!

As you were.

Reggie.

Finally! Amazon pull their finger out...

Post by The Literary Trials of Richard Rhys Jones.

So there you have it, all three of my books are now out on Kindle with Thorstruck Press.

Of course, as ever, this final release did not go by the numbers. Amazon decided that despite the fact Thorstruck sent them:

1.) A letter from Taylor Street to say The House in Wales no longer belongs to them.

2.) A letter from me to say Thorstruck Press have the rights to The House in Wales.

3.) A letter from them to say they are going to re-release it.

 That they didn't have enough clarity on who owns what and took the book back down.

I've always said Amazon are brilliant if you're a customer. However, try selling anything on their platform and they make you jump hoops, swallow fire and sign your soul over before they agree to anything. They had all the information already, they just couldn't be bothered looking for it and so demanded we send it all again.

Anyway, drama over, and it's now up. Time for me to get back to writing my WIP...

It's just occurred to me that I don't have a trailer for House.

I think I'll do that today!

Why not, it's the weekend, let's go crazy!

Okay, as you were.

Reggie.

Audio book sample!

Well, it's on the verge of popping up on Amazon, (ooer, sounds a bit rude!), and I don't mind telling you that I'm so excited about it, I'm fit to explode. (OO-ER!!!)

The audio book for The Division of the Damned is now being finished off, (ooer) and packaged into a tight little pressy that'll have your whole family squirming in fear and delight when you give it to them at Christmas. (I hope you noted the omission of any "innuendo-exclamation" there. Even I have some morals, as hard as they may be to discern).

Have a listen here, then mentally make a note to buy it for everyone; because nobody should be starved of the joy of Nazi vampires just because they can't read. 

Right kids?

Right Reg. Now they can listen in to the gore :)

Post by The Literary Trials of Richard Rhys Jones.

Right, as you were.

Reggie.