New release!!! Under A Blood Moon and a little bit of Flash!

Hi everyone

 

so my biggie news is that my latest book, "Under A Blood Moon" is now out there for you to have a look at on both Kindle and paperback, through Amazon.  I have already had a couple of nice reviews for it and it is my latest project exploring the paranormal world of vampires, witches and warlocks.

 

Here's the cover, which I have to thank Lucy for designing and of course, my wonderful proof reader Debbie for her work on finding all my errors.

 

 

Under A Blood Moon

 

When Detective Harry Shepherd stops a young teenager throwing himself from the end of Blackpool pier, he has little idea that the world around him would change forever. As the boy scampers away, he vows to discover why the lad was so willing to die.

However, Alex Hayden is no ordinary teenager, but one with an insight into the multiple murders that are occurring within the town. Sensing a loss within the soul of Detective Shepherd, he becomes embroiled in the search to stop the killer at the risk of exposing his own secret.

As the worlds of mortals and the paranormal collide, Alex and Harry battle to stop the vampire pack from achieving their goal of forming an army that would rip apart the fragile balance between the two worlds.

Under A Blood Moon is the first book in the Alex Hayden Chronicles.

 

 

So it has been an exciting couple of weeks for me with the release of my book, and I have been doing the social network thing, with an interview on Rosie's blog to come soon.

Of course I have been looking at other things as well, and one thing that I have found is some of the groups on Goodreads do flash fiction threads.  Having seen one of the pictures, I looked at it long and hard and despite it supposed to being a romantic thread, I wrote this little piece of flash fiction.

 

I hope you like it as much as my friends on Facebook.

 

 

Missing You by Michael Andrews

 

I’m sat here with my besties less one, not quite believing, not quite understanding that you are gone.  You were the best of us, the smartest, the cutest, the most loving.  Is that why they turned on you, on us?  Is that why they made your life, our life, hell?

We tried to stop it, the sneers, the names, the punches and kicks, but in the end it must have been too much for you to bear.

Now you’re gone and the world has lost a beautiful person, and we are left here, sitting, wishing you were still with us.

Other than my own stuff, I've been reading other books as well and here is my review of the latest one that I have read.  I thoroughly recommend this if you like a different genre to the norm.  I had never heard of Clockpunk but boy, this has me into a whole new genre of fiction.

 

 

Forever Boy

 

More please! May 23, 2014

By Michael Andrews

Format:Kindle Edition

I received a free copy of Forever Boy in exchange for an honest, non-reciprocal review and boy, was I pleased that I did.

I’ll admit that I had never heard of Clockpunk, or Steampunk, before reading this story but now that I have, it has opened up a whole new genre of reading for me to look forward to.

The story in itself was well written and constructed with likeable characters and a fast flowing plot, but for me it finished just as it really should have gotten going. I am hoping that this is the first book in an ongoing series as I could see this one as the ‘pilot’ episode introducing you to the characters where episodes two onwards gets to the meat of adventures.

Overall an enjoyable read and I will be keeping my eye out for a hopefully second release in the series.

 

 

Well, other than the news that Nigel Pearson has signed a new three year contract at the mighty Premiership Foxes, I am gonna sign off!!

 

Peace!

 

Oh wow....I didn't realise I'd left it thing long!

Sorry everyone...I knew that it had been a while but November???  Jeez...sorry peeps.

 

So what's been happening?  Well, I have been a busy bunny on Goodreads, finding new authors to read and review their books.  I have found a couple of absolute crackers.

 

 

The Proposition by Vardan Paramyan - 5 stars out of 5

 

This is an enthralling, sardonically funny tale of man versus the Devil as a down and out, long term liar is given the chance to be granted a wish by the Devil. All he has to do is race him to the habour, some five miles or so away and he wins. If he loses, the Devil gets his eternal soul. As Louis ventures through his nine levels of personal hell, the constant monologue of description of his feelings and thoughts are at times laugh out loud material. In fact, I was attracting some very strange looks on the bus as I sat reading my kindle.

At 47 pages of Kindle viewing, it is a story that you will find yourself unable to put down and easily readable in one sitting, which is what I did.

Thoroughly recommendable to all readers who like the supernatural with a twist that caught me unawares, I will definitely be looking into other books that this author has written.

After that, I moved on to a longer length novel...and boy did I???  At over a quarter of a million words, Deneb by Pearson Moore which was a challenging read, but one that I gave four stars out of five.

 

 

 

I always worry when an author proclaims his own work as an epic and so approached Deneb with cautious anticipation. However, my fears were allayed within the first few chapters as I discovered the wealth of interesting and differing characters mixed into a complex plot that certainly pushes itself into that category.

From the moment that flight Pacific 159 is hit by a blinding flash of light, you are thrown into a story of how the passengers try to survive not only the weird new environment that they find themselves in, but also the mysterious appearance of an 18th Century French navy ship as well as the native inhabitants who believe in an ancient prophecy that the passengers seem to be fulfilling.

The story does involve some violence and sex but the fact that it is over a quarter of a million words long will probably take it out of the range of any younger readers who may be offended. However, I feel that this is important to the story and it would certainly be less without it. I would liken my reading of this book to that of The Lord of the Rings, in that it is now a book that I can say that I am pleased to have read it.

There are two versions of the book, the “normal” version which includes maps and sketches in a style similar to Matthew Reilly’s Scarecrow and Jack West series of books, as well as an “illustrated” version which includes the author’s impressions of the characters and places.

 

So after completing some reading, I got back to writing and in my next blog, which I promise not to be too long, I'll tell you about my new release as well as a little piece of flash fiction that I have written.

 

As for other things, the World Cup is upon us, but for my lot, it's already over.  England have to do something against Costa Rica tomorrow otherwise this team will have our worst ever results in Finals history.  I've just heard the team and it is basically giving everybody who hasn't played yet a taste of the action.  Hopefully they will be hungry to prove themselves and not leave us with the dreaded NIL points!

 

So, with a promise to you that I will be back to regular posts, I'll sign off and wish you all a goodnight!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Empty Chair now released on Kindle

It's been a busy few weeks for me, so firstly apologies for not blogging!

The big news from the World of Michael Andrews is that my anti bullying poetry book "The Empty Chair" is now up and running and available on Kindle (and other smart devices via the free Kindle app).  It contains seventeen poems, all based on bullying and the effects that it has, not just on the victims themselves, but friends and family as well.  There are also weblinks to my chosen charity Beatbullying.org and some concerning statistics from various studies into bullying in the UK.

Did you know that on average TWENTY schoolage children in the UK kill themselves each year because of the effects of bullying.

However, there is help out there and in the UK, anyone concerned can go to www.beatbullying.org and find a lot of advice, adult counsellors and even mentors of schoolage children who have had training to help other children their age.

If you think it's a worthwhile cause, and want to help in a roundabout fashion, for each copy of "The Empty Chair" that is sold, I am donating royalties towards the charity.  So if you want to grab a copy, please click on https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00G4TA2SG for your copy in the UK, or http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G4TA2SG in the US.

Talking of the USA, I need to give a big shout out to Alisha, who has invited me to guest on her internet radio show, Bully Survival Radio.  It's very short notice but it is TODAY at 6pm GMT and I will be reading some of the poems from my book, as well as talking about it, the inspiration behind it and bullying in general.  You can find the link to it on my facebook page which is here...Michael Andrews Facebook

And as I am in a generous mood, as a teaser and a sign of goodwill to all and sundry, here is one of my poems from the book.  So if you do like it, please help me support the charity by grabbing a copy and leaving a nice review if you do enjoy it.

Thanks!

Stand Up To The Bullies

 

Sometimes you don’t know what to do.

The so called cool kids pick on him,

And you think you should step in

Not knowing if they’ll start on you.

Do you stand up and see it through?

 

Up to now he’s been alone.

Plant a foot forward, be like stone.

 

To support the kid who gets so hurt ,

Over how the thugs treat him like dirt.

 

The things they do and things they say,

He barely makes it through the day,

Even though he says he’s okay.

 

But you know he not and so you’ll stand

Under pressure but you’ll take his hand.

Like all bullies, they won’t like it

Like all bullies, they’ll hide from you

If you show the needed grit.

Each one of us must take a vow to

Stand up to the bullies.

Beating Bullies Under A Blood Moon

Well it's been a couple of weeks since my last musing, so I thought I would take the time to catch up with the world of Michael Andrews.

In the last couple of weeks I have been trying to hit the marketing trail, learning more and more how to make an impact on twitter (which you can follow me @forthelostsoul ) and in 5 days I have over trebled my followers, and am gaining new ones daily.

For me, this most important event in the last two weeks was the contact that I had with the UK anti bullying charity, BeatBullying.org.   I am in the process of finalising my poetry collection for release on Kindle, called "The Empty Chair", which aims to highlight the effects that bullying can have.  I wanted to have a section of the book dedicated to the help that victims of bullying can receive and BeatBullying is the largest charity in the UK dedicated to this.  I had found a superbly powerful poster that they produced some time ago and I want to use it within the book, but of course, the big thing is permission.  Hence the desperate need to make contact and on Thursday this week, that was achieved.  I am still thinking about price, but as I will be donating a big part of my royalties to the charity, I am hoping that people will look to this as a way to donate while still enjoying my poetry so I will be looking at around the £3.99 mark.

The next project is also underway.  I have been throwing ideas around for what I want to write next in terms of my fictional writing and having taken some advice from the author forum that I am on, I have decided that rather than a full length novel, I am going down the line of shorter, novella style books, but in a series.  Sort of like a TV series where each book is a separate story, but there will be a series plot running across all of them.  As well as the main two characters, there will be reoccurring minor characters, both good and bad!  The first book has the working title of "Under A Blood Moon" and the series currently is called "The Alex Hayden Chronicles" although that is still in the air.

I have also got a publicity meeting arranged on Monday with a local publication that has a readership  of around 10,000 people so this should also help promote the poetry.  It will also be interesting as Gail, the lady I'm meeting, has bought and read "For The Lost Soul" so will be nice to get some face to face feedback!

That's it for now!  Peace, love and chocolate marshmallows!

A comedown after the excitment!

Hi everyone,

I did say I was going to update weekly but to be honest, not a lot has happened in the last week that I thought you guys would be interested in.

I managed to pull my left thigh muscle on Sunday and then topped it off with getting an infected finger after biting off one of those annoying bits of skin down the side of my nail.  Ended up at the walkin clinic yesterday for the Doc to cut it open to relieve some of the pressure and give me a prescription for anti biotics.

All of this has curtailed into my writing so I only managed around 5000 words last week on another experimental piece of short fiction, just to sharpen up my skills.

Other than that, in terms of writing, I've spent some more time looking into the marketing aspects and picked up a couple of hints which I will be trying out in the near future.

The rugby season got off to a good start with Leicester Tigers beating Worcester with a bonus point win, but that has now been overshadowed by the long term injury to Tom Croft, who is now out for the season!  Unlucky mate!

Still loving Wentworth and Under The Dome and beginning to get excited now for the forthcoming release of Ender's Game at the cinema.  It's going to be an exciting November for sci fi fans with that, and the 50th Anniversary special of Doctor Who..which features the return of David Tennant and Billie Piper.

Well, I really ought to try to get on and write a little more so laterz........

Most exciting week for me!

Well, the most amazing things happened to me this week.  Good and bad, but that’s life isn’t it!

Firstly, I soared past the three hundred AND four hundred downloads mark on my kindle books, the links of which I will add at the bottom of today’s post in case anyone fancies giving them a try.

Then, I actually received my first bad review!  I know, I probably shouldn’t share that with you, but I look on it as constructive as it was on an experimental story so I’m not too down hearted.  It certainly doesn’t counter the six excellent reviews that I have received.

But then, the biggie that happened is that I have received official recognition that my anti bullying poetry might actually be pretty good.  I have been submitting a few of them to various magazines and on Wednesday ‘The Cannon’s Mouth’, a 30 year old publication, accepted and published my poem ‘My New Phone’ in their September Quarterly edition!  Look at this!!

 

Not only is it great that someone in the industry actually liked my poem enough to include it, but it does now start my ‘publishing c.v.’ which a lot of agents and publishing houses look for.  One of my novels is a 90,000 word self proclaimed epic, ha ha, but seriously I would love to get it accepted and published in physical form rather than just be available on Kindle.  I am also nearly finished writing my collection of anti bullying poetry and hope to publish it to help raise awareness and funds for the charity, beatbully.org.  I have also started my second full length novel, so who knows.  Today I am still in my small, little village on the outskirts of Birmingham, next step, Hollywood!

Other than that…I’m loving the series ‘Under the Dome’ at the moment.  A combination of Stephen Spielberg and Stephen King..surely it can’t go wrong?  Also started the new series called ‘Wentworth’, which is a remake of the old Aussie soap ‘Prisoner Cell Block H’.

The rugby union season starts as well, so a big shout out to Toby Flood, who was stretchered off against Ulster in the final warm up game for Leicester Tigers.  Get well soon Floody!

Thanks for reading my ramblings and have a great week.  Here are the links

Feature Length Novel

For The Lost Soul - UK

For The Lost Soul - USA

 

Up & Running

Hi everyone,

As a lot of authors have them, I've decided to give it a go and see if I can create a blog that will keep you interested and up to date with the imaginative world of the mind of Michael Andrews!!

Who am I?

I'm an international selling author on three continents, just about anyway, wannabe poet and general all round guy who is looking to try to make writing a successful career, or at least one that will buy me a couple of beers every now and then.

So what am I going to include on my blog?  What shouldn't I include on my blog?

I will post the usual updates about how my debut full length novel, For The Lost Soul, is doing, along with my short stories, all of which are available through Amazon to read on your Kindle (or your free Kindle app).

I'll keep you informed of my curent work in progress and forthcoming projects.

I'll even tell you what is keeping me smiling in the world, or looking for the nearest pint to drown my sorrows in!

Hopefully you will like the blog and I'd appreciate any helpful comments that you may have!

Thanks for reading

Michael
xx