Friday 10 April 2015

The Work in Progress (WIP) Tour

The Work in Progress (WIP) Tour....first of all perhaps I need to explain terminology. A WIP is a writer talking about their Work In Progress....

I was nominated, (declared one of his next victims ), by Aaron David a fellow writer, and HE had been nominated by another author friend Christoph Fischer. We are all members of the same writers guild ASMSG. Aaron has an author page, twiiter, and facebook  I am sure Aaron would love you to visit him.

My WIP at this current time is an ongoing project that is taking far longer than I initially anticipated, so I am hoping to get this published before Summer, well anything this side of this century would be good as I have a proofreader ready to roll, and a number of beta readers chomping on the bit too.

 Do not fear I am on it like stink now and actually organising a work schedule to be sure that it will get published soon. I have a number of other projects waiting in the wings including a sequel to Bound for Passion my debut novel, telling more of the tales about Sarah and the other characters in this anthology of short stories. Then more in the new series that I will give you a morsel or two from, are also beginning to form around the synopsis I have already written, so don't despair.

Bound for Passion is also due to be on promotion from the 23 - 29th of April 2015, selling at 99 p or 99 cents in the UK & US. Maybe, for less than a pound you could check out some of my writing.

I also have to nominate two other victims....... ahem, authors and bloggers to tell everyone about their current WIP.






The title of my WIP is The Prophecy Unfolds (Dragon Queen), and is the first in a series of books that are set on the Steampunk world of Syros.

The story revolves around the main female protagonist Alexandra and her journey to another world where she begins to fulfil her destiny and become the Dragon Queen they have waited over 200 years to arrive. This journey is full of pitfalls, epic fights and where she discovers that she can become more than she ever imagined.

This magical world is inhabited by dragons and their dragon riders, werewolves, and magicians, to name but a few of the mystical people and creatures that live within it's magical realms. We discover creatures from myth and legend within the pages of this first, and subsequent volumes.

You will discover a steamy, romantic fantasy where Alexandra begins to experience what she only ever dreamt of back on Earth.

Where Alex discovers not one, or two, but many alpha males wanting to keep her as their own.

Follow Alex on her journeys across time and space as she learns to wield her newly acquired magical skills and fight to free the golden dragon she will ultimately bond with.



EXCERPT


Finally, my life was getting back on track following a worrisome number of months.

I had had a great deal of trouble sleeping lately as I had been continually disturbed by dreams I could only describe as nightmares! 

These dreams always included the same shadowy characters with obscure faces. The one recurring theme, was that I became intimate with every one of them. To say this wasn't in my usual nature would be an understatement.

 In all my relationships I had always been monogamous.  Basically, I am a one man girl, and wouldn't dream of being unfaithful. Perhaps, because of this, these dreams proved highly disturbing and included sexual acts that I'd heard of, but would never think of participating in.  I little suspected that these dreams would prove to be the precursor to an amazing series of adventures

This story proper, began one day driving through the beautiful Welsh countryside on my way to check out some accommodation that I had secured. This was intended to act as a base to work from Monday to Friday, at my new job 

Previously, I had been working in a general hospital close to my family home, but decided to spread my wings after ending a long term relationship with my childhood sweetheart,  Paul.
I decided that I now needed some space to develop new friendships and to put my love life on the back burner. My career would become my first priority. So, this was part of that plan. I had taken a contract as a Children's Nurse for an Agency in a hospital situated near to Bangor in North Wales. 

On that day I had been driving through the Snowdonia National Park where pine trees crowded either side of the road. I had spotted a little picnic area to one side, flanked by a small car park. It was beautiful sunny day and as I had brought along a packed lunch. I decided to park up and take advantage of the glorious weather. I parked my car and then realised that mine was the only car, but thought no more about it. I had no problem eating here at the edge of the forest.

I retrieved my sandwich, carton of orange and the book I had just started and wandered over to the farthest table. From here I could watch the squirrels and birds as they searched amongst the bins for crumbs.

I'd sat there enjoying my book for about ten minutes when two things happened. Firstly, I became aware that a hush had suddenly descended on the forest, and I could no longer hear the scampering of the squirrels or the birds singing. When I looked up I could no longer see any of them around the area they had occupied only a few minutes earlier.

The second thing was the sound I did hear. I can only compare that to the sound barrier being broken, a whoosh and a slight popping noise. Yet  immediately after this, the birds and squirrels were back, chirping and moving through the grass once again.

I shrugged, went back  to the page in my book and continued  to eat. However, after a while a feeling of uneasiness descended on me. I raised my head to find myself being watched.

The watcher  was a tall, broad -shouldered man with dirty blonde hair tied at the nape and vivid blue eyes. I estimated him to be about 25-30 years old. He was regarding me silently, and with intensity.  His odd clothing caught my eye. Old fashioned garments, dark trousers laced up the front, a long-sleeved suede jacket of a similar material, and leather boots

I turned my head to look for any cars or vans on the car park, and jumped as I spotted two more men- one to my left and one I could see in my peripheral vision to the right. The man on the left was dressed similar to the first, but had sandy hair and sea green eyes. 

In contrast he wasn't quite as broad, although equally tall (all three were over six foot tall) The last had dark hair to his shoulders that hung loose, and the most amazing violet eyes.
The appearance of these men with no noise and staring at me in rapt fascination, not uttering a word, spooked me. My heart was beating so loud and fast I thought that I was having some kind of heart attack.

But the most unnerving thing of all was all three men looked familiar, a deja vu sort of moment. I had dreamt about these three men for so long. I knew immediately these were the shady characters from my dreams.  Dreams that repeatedly haunted my sleep.

I decided that sitting still was stupid, so made a grab for my bag and shot through to the right, I then ran toward one of the many footpaths I had spotted earlier.

My flight or fight response gave me swift feet (or so I thought), but obviously not swift enough. Before I had got ten yards down the path two of the three had already moved and appeared in front of me. They moved so fast I could hardly believe my eyes. I turned to head  back to where I'd come from.  Hoping I could make it back to my car.

Fate once again took charge, I turned and ran straight into the third man, the blonde. It was like running into a brick wall,as he ensnared me in his very muscular arms. My heart stuttered and I thought I felt the zing of an electric current run through my body. I never claimed to be a particularly brave person and I started to hyperventilate, gasping , trying to catch my breath.
One of them began to stroke my hair, saying “Calm down Alex, calm down. Breath slowly we won't hurt you” but, at that point my knees gave way and I collapsed into darkness, terrified. How did that man know my name was Alex?............


And now to nominating my victims....errr other authors with a WIP...

First up is Charming Man who has numerous books published, and is from the UK (like myself). Here is a little information from his bio on his website.....






Charming Man has been writing erotica for over fifteen years.  It all started quite by accident, following the tragic death of his wife in 1998, when he was left with two small children to bring up alone, as well as manage his own software consultancy.

While still in a state of shock and running on auto-pilot, he settled into a daily routine of dropping the kids off at day care, fulfilling his nine to five obligations, collecting the kids in the evening, feeding them, bathing them and putting them to bed with a night time story, before collapsing in front of the television and crying into a large glass of red.

He neither had the opportunity nor desire to meet anyone new, yet he craved companionship.  He began to trawl online chat rooms, striking up conversations with anonymous individuals who may or may not have been who they said they were; it made little difference to him.
Charming Man wears his heart on his sleeve and it soon became apparent he was able to engage openly with people from all walks of life, be they male or female; but mostly female it has to be said.  Many of his early conversations on the net were innocent in content; he would pour his heart out to anyone who would listen and in return he would provide a shoulder to those who were equally going through difficult times.  He found the process very therapeutic and saved him a fortune in counselling!

Before too long, these intimate exchanges left him wanting more, such is the nature of making a new acquaintance.  However, charming by name and charming by nature, he chose never to cross the line until encouraged to do so by others.  This led to many a cat and mouse war of words with many a like-minded soul, which both intrigued and excited him.  It was during this time that Charming Man wrote his first short story, Night Vision, detailing his longing for the next love to enter his life.

The more he chatted, the more he became obsessed with the notion of sexual encounters between strangers.  Still not in a position to embark on a new relationship in the real world, he continued to engage women in cyberspace and together they would contrive a variety of scenarios from the respective comfort of their laptops.  Many of these scenarios were later to become short stories; Beach Encounter, Mid Air Collusion, Ariana, A Greek Tragedy and The Hitcher, to name a few.








Charming Man is also the drummer in, not one, but two bands. Multi-talented as a lot of us writists are. The first band is  called The Synthetix and they recreate the sound of the new wave/punk era of ‘77-‘82… As some of you know, this era of music is dear to his heart and is the backdrop to his novella The Hitcher.

Here is the website for Synthetix, their facebook and twitter.






The other band he plays with is Waiting For Katherine, a fab four of ageing rockers dishing out indie punk! Andy feels that this is so relevant to where he is in his life at the moment… This is one of their anthems, Lying About My Age… "And yes, it’s very personal!" he says. 

Here is the website for Waiting for Katherine  Facebook and Twitter 





You can find him on Twitter, Facebook and also his website. So don't be shy and go and follow and take a look at his books. There is a review of The Hitcher here on my blog.There is also an author page on Amazon for you you to peruse.


My second victim .........is an author and  blogger and  is a pretty prolific author at that,  and a good friend of mine. He is Jonathan Fletcher. 





Jon was born and brought up in Bramhall, near Stockport, England. and grew up with science fiction, right from sitting on his Dad’s knee watching Doctor Who starring Tom Baker in the seventies. He was a huge fan of Star Wars and also loved Blake’s 7, Space 1999, Knight Rider, Star Trek... If it was vaguely sci-fi related, he watched it. He says "I guess it’s the complete fantasy that appealed to me. I would spend hours in my bedroom making Lego models of Airwolf or Daleks and acting out scenes with them."

After studying Art & Design at school, John went on to study a Foundation Course at Stockport College, later opting for a Media Degree.




John has been working on the “Unity” universe on and off since he started his degree (Media Production including Animation BA/Hons) in 1992 at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. He first started working on the story ideas for the Unity story arc when he was in his first year. . 


After leaving the North-East when the degree finished, he found his first full time job working in the animation industry. He was hired by Producer Jackie Cockle and he became an assistant prop maker working at Cosgrove Hall Films in Chorlton-Cum-Hardy, Manchester. The first show that he worked on was “Brambly Hedge” for which he made endless tiny plates, bottles, blackcurrants and all manner of food for the mice to feast on.


After about a year heleft Cosgrove Hall Films with a group of other people who were setting up a brand new animation company called Hot Animation. He was offered the job as head of the props department and given the opportunity to design and build my own model workshop. His first job was working on the second series of “Brambly Hedge” and then the pilot for a brand new show “Bob the Builder”. He built the first cardboard prototype for Scoop the JCB and most of Bob’s tools, traffic cones, piles of dirt and so on. He didn’t know at the time how big a part Bob was going to play in his life. 

He finally opted for the “good life”, became a professional gardener and married Louise, who was the only one that would put up with his nonsense. He's been working as a gardener now for nearly ten years. Recently, he moved from Manchester up to the beautiful Northumberland countryside which is where he now does his rounds. Jon says "Gardening gives me the time to think and a break in the winter to write my books."




There is much more detail on Jon's website about his career in animation. He has produced numerous books in The Josiah Trenchard Series.




Check out Jon on twitter, Amazon, his blog on Goodreads and of course his website






Jon and myself have a lot in common, both from the North West of the England for one, and we both love sci-fi. I remember hiding behind the settee when I was little watching Docotor Who.



My next blog post is going to be reviews for others books. So keep an eye out for it




Love
Scarlett
xXx


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