Catch up

Where does the time go?

After leaving Phuket, finally, at the end of July, it was back to Italy, high summer and a ton of work to do in a garden intent on returning to nature. Needless to say, more creative pursuits were put on the back burner for a while.

However, as the virus spirals every which way and as of last weekend, our part of Italy is in the red zone — maximum lockdown — we are hunkering down for a fast-approaching winter. Loads of wood cut and split, wine a-plenty and the olive harvest done and dusted, it’s time to get back to the keyboard and hit creative mode.

Progress on The Whistling Man is that the tale has been largely rewritten, although far from finished yet, and since there’s no longer any whistling, I’m looking for a new title. As yet nothing has materialised from the ether, but it’s out there somewhere, waiting to be recognised.

Meanwhile, there’s another project in hand, something I’ve been thinking about for a while — audiobooks. There’s an ever-increasing market out there for audiobooks and now seems like a good time to join in. However, if you go down the route of engaging a professional narrator, it all gets rather expensive, so I’m trying the alternative approach of doing it myself.

I’ve now bought a fancy mike, fancy headphones, a pop filter and downloaded free recording software — Audacity. Most importantly of all, I’ve created a sound studio. But before you start thinking of a Radio One state-of-the-art set-up, think instead of a Bedouin tent! Following the guidelines of a course I subscribed to  — Audiobooks Made Easy by Derek Doepker — I commandeered a pile of old duvets and bedspreads and built a sort of Wendy House that the average six-year-old would sell his or her younger sibling for. The aim is to minimise external sound, which up here in the woods is not a huge problem anyway. It works well enough, so over the next few weeks and months. I’ll be working my way through my seven titles with a view to getting some onto Audible, and one at least as part of a giveaway deal.

As it turns out, the timing is good since literally today, 21 November, Book Funnel have announced an expansion of their services into Audiobooks that will roll out in the new year. All very exciting.

The first book I’m recording is An Imperfect Revenge and I may well be releasing it chapter by chapter before long. I’ll keep you posted.

It’s the rainy season in Phuket — time to watch YouTube!

Twenty-twenty. A year no one will ever forget. The year that the world changed forever and many of its so-called leaders have been found sadly wanting. Not the least of these are the pitiful crowd in Westminster and across the ocean in Washington, both of whom seem hell-bent on killing as many people as possible with their incompetence.

Enough about them. While they dream up their latest measures to confound and confuse, we are spending our time in Phuket experiencing the rainy season for the first time in the twelve years we have been coming here. It’s June, and normally we would be in Tuscany. But this is 2020.

Phuket is actually an extremely safe place to be, among the safest in the world, as is Thailand in general since the virus outbreak in the country has been kept to a minimum thanks to prompt and sensible action by the government. Simply put, the government put the health and well-being of the people ahead of the economy. And they still are.

One of the measures taken was to extend all foreigners’ visas unconditionally until 31 July, which along with closing all the airports is why we are still here. These measures are under constant review and in a few weeks’ time when the results of other parts of the world relaxing restrictions will be more apparent,  we’ll know if we are staying or going.

Until then, we are enjoying the tropical rain with intermittent spells of sunshine. The rain is wonderful, inspirational, especially now I have moved my desk to be by the balcony doors with the rainforest just beyond. While I write, there is a constant background chatter of birds and insects that from time to time develops into a cacophony, and rain, sometimes steady, sometimes huge.

The Whistling Man

Progress on the latest book has been up and down. Having thought I’d finished it, I left it, came back to it, reviewed it and discovered I was anything but satisfied with it. But now, in the last day or so, after considering a number of alternative plot developments, I have hit on a modification to the story that I think really works. Quite a lot of rewriting is required, and I’m relying on the patter of rain, the jungle noises and the magical forest to keep me focussed.

YouTube

Another recent exciting development in the world of ClarkeFiction has been the creation of Gail’s YouTube channel, which happened towards the end of April. To date it has 151 subscribers and over 2900 views of the various videos.

The videos — there are now twelve — are presentations similar to those Gail gives in schools around the world — an introduction to the animals in the book and a few fascinating facts, then the book itself. Tens of thousands of schoolchildren have enjoyed these stories over the past ten years; now even more can enjoy them through the magic of YouTube.

The channel now has its own URL: www.youtube.com/c/gailclarkeauthor  But you don’t need to remember that; all you need to do is click on this link: GailClarkeAuthor

 

An Imperfect Revenge

In 1895, Marchese Salvatore Brocanti abruptly abandoned the villa in the forests of Tuscany that had been his family home for generations. Today, it lies hidden, crumbling and forgotten. But why did the tyrannical artist flee the palatial villa? Was it cursed as he insisted? Did his wife and children really desert him as he claimed? Or were his stories simply smoke and mirrors to hide a more sinister purpose?

In 2018, after seeing extraordinary old prints of the villa, photographer Joe Oliver is determined to explore it. While on assignment with travel writer Evie Lorrigan to review the Brocanti estate, he breaks into the villa, only to find a maze of deception beyond his imagination.

When Evie mysteriously disappears, Joe is convinced she has become a victim of the villa’s secrets. But in attempting to rescue her, will Joe become a victim himself?

‘An Imperfect Revenge’ is a psychological thriller that explores one man’s crazed mission for retribution and its tragic consequences decades later for anyone who ventures too close.

Ebook and paperback versions are available now from Amazon. If you shy away from Amazon for whatever reason, the paperback should also be available by ordering through bookshops in many places. Paperback versions are available at very competitive prices through the excellent hive.co.uk (with free UK delivery), through wordery.com (with free worldwide delivery).

And when you’ve finished it — which will be tomorrow since once you’ve started it you won’t be able to put it down — remember to post a review on either Amazon or Goodreads, or both! Enjoy!

Rare Traits Trilogy Box Set … and More!

Hi there,

I thought it was time to bring you up to date with the latest news about my books.

Firstly, for the three people left in the world who haven’t yet read any or all of the Rare Traits Trilogy (OK, I accept there might be one or two more than that), I have recently used the wonderful Vellum software to create an ebook box set. Yes, all three books in the trilogy are now available as one ebook download. You can find it exclusively on Amazon by typing ‘The Rare Traits Trilogy’ into the search bar on your Amazon site. Moreover, since it’s also on Kindle Unlimited, if you happen to be a subscriber, then you can download it for free. Otherwise, the price is hardly bank-breaking: £4.99; $6.55 or about €5.99 – it depends on exchange rates — bargain of the year!

The second big piece of news is that my new book, ‘An Imperfect Revenge’, is almost ready and I am planning to publish it by the end of this month. There’s quite a bit of work still to do yet, but I’m confident I’ll get there.

I now have a draft design for the cover, but I’m not going to release it yet, largely because the draft is covered in Shutterstock watermarks. That will all change very soon, so I’m hoping that in a week or two, I’ll be able to give you a preview of the cover and the back blurb synopsis.

However, I know you’d like some idea of what it’s all about, so, as a preview to the preview, here we go. The book is set entirely in Tuscany with the time frame split almost exactly between the 1890s and the present day. The ‘Imperfect Revenge’ of the title refers to an overbearing aristocratic Italian artist, Salvatore Brocanti, who swears revenge on his unfaithful wife Isabella, the nature of the revenge on both wife and her lover being pretty horrific and centring around the massive villa and estate that is the family home. However, it all goes rather wrong and, owing to the nature of what the artist sets up, there are huge consequences in the present day for several people who break into the long-abandoned villa …

Watch this space!

 

Book Release

Just a reminder that my latest novel, Remorseless, will be published as an ebook on Amazon and most other ebook sites tomorrow, 19 August. The Amazon release will be discounted to just £1.99 or equivalent for a limited period. To ensure you get your copy as soon as possible, you can click on the pre-order button at your preferred ebook site now and the book will be delivered to your ebook reader tomorrow. And remember, the ebook version of Irrefutable Evidence will be free on Amazon for five days starting 19 August to coincide with with the release of Remorseless.

The paperback version of Remorseless is also available from Amazon and, as for all my books, if you would rather support your local bookstore, you will soon be able to order it from there. More information on that when it’s set up.

CrimeFest 2017

I am pleased to tell you that I have been invited to sit on an Indie Author panel at this year’s CrimeFest meeting in Bristol, UK, in May. The panel is moderated by best-selling crime author Zoë Sharp and my three fellow panelists are AA Abbott, Barbara Fagan Speake and Ian Sutherland, all of whom are great crime writers – check them out on Amazon!

This is CrimeFest’s ninth annual meeting, and it gets bigger and more popular every year. What’s it all about? Here’s an extract from the CrimeFest website explaining the concept:

CRIMEFEST is a convention for people who like to read an occasional crime novel as well as for die-hard fanatics. Drawing top crime novelists, readers, editors, publishers and reviewers from around the world, it gives all delegates the opportunity to celebrate the genre in a friendly, informal and inclusive atmosphere.

The CRIMEFEST programme consists of interviews with its featured and highlighted guest authors; over forty panels with more than a hundred participating authors; a gala awards dinner; and one or two surprises.

CRIMEFEST was created following the hugely successful one-off visit to Bristol in 2006 of the American Left Coast Crime convention. The British hosts were encouraged to continue with a similar annual event and, as a result, the first CRIMEFEST was organised in June 2008. The convention has grown to become not only one of the biggest crime fiction events in Europe, but also one of the most popular dates in the international crime fiction calendar.

Included in the programme is a Flash Fiction competition in which authors have been invited to submit a crime novel comprising ≤150 words! I’ve written two (flash-fiction novels, not words) in the last couple of days — what else are morning beach walks for except contriving extremely concise murder and mayhem — and I’m still deciding which to submit. I’ll post the one I’m not submitting here in a few days’ time.

From the programme, the meeting should be a packed four days with great opportunities to meet with like-minded authors along with many others in the industry. I shall be featuring ‘Irrefutable Evidence’ as my book, with of course mention of ‘Remorseless’ which, fingers crossed, should have been released by then.

More details and updated news on CrimeFest as and when they are available.

 

 

Privacy Policy Cookie Policy