Second Review of Bugtown!

Just found this review of Bugtown by someone called S.J. Macdonald from Wales. I do not know this person!!! Looks as if someone bought one of my ebooks!!

5.0 out of 5 stars Starships and Aliens Review, 28 May 2011

By 

S. J. MacDonald (Wales) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bugtown (Kindle Edition)

Concept/World 
This a children's book written for the 11-14 age range. The setting is a mix of medieval town, aliens and dinosaurs, which I loved - one of the great things about children's fiction is when it jumps out of the box and is truly fantastic. 

Story 
There is certainly plenty of action in this story, which rips along at a good pace. I am still at a loss as to why Robert apparently kept being possessed by the spirit of Robert the Bruce, unsure as to who the King really was and why the Baby had to do what he did at the end of the story. Personally I'm fine with unresolved questions but readers who like all ends neatly tied off in clear explanation may find that unsatisfying. 

Characters 
I felt that Robert was more engaging than Rachel. She seems to be the generic "big sister" while Robert is portrayed in more depth with his problems making him a more sympathetic character. The baby was hilariously obnoxious and the King of the Beggars is a villain in the finest tradition of the Sheriff of Nottingham. 

Presentation 
The cover is amusing and a good fit for the content of the book. There are a few minor editing blarts (they're/their, broken paragraph, passed/past) which did not affect my enjoyment of the story. My Whispernet reader was jumping 12-14 locations at each page turn. I estimated it to be between 30-35,000 words (apologies if my maths is out), which makes it a quick read by adult book standards but a good length for young readers not yet ready to embark on epics. 

Overall ***** 
This book made me laugh out loud three times when I was reading, and I was often grinning at the banter and one-liners. I would certainly recommend it to anyone, kid or adult, who likes zany fun in their sci fi. Embrace the "wonderful shambles" and enjoy. 

Help othe

Alma Mater is on Kindle!

          The Imperial 66 my mother bought me to take to uni was still at home when I returned to lick my wounds after four years studying at Edinburgh University. I got a job as a labourer in the steelworks, working three shifts, and decided to teach myself to type, and maybe to write when I got in from backshifts. I was used to staying up late and there wasn't much else to do.

          That was in 1973. So I started writing about my time at university and probably used the diaries I'd kept. By the time I'd finished the first draft of Alma Mater about four years later, I had about half a million words. I was about twenty six when I gave up my job in Edinburgh Public Libraries and ended up living by myself on the dole in a flat near Meadowbank Stadium. I had an old portable then, but my pal Jared moved in with me and gave me a permanent loan of another Imperial 66. Fine machines. Built like tanks.

          So I halved the book by discarding the first two years of my university life and, I think, I got the book down to ... well, a lot less than half a million words! Then I stopped and tried to write other books. It was after I had my first radio play accepted that I started writing it again. By then I'd written, or half written, about three novels, and I didn't want to give up writing prose for dialogue, so I began to re-write Alma Mater when I wasn't writing radio plays.

          I think the draft that's ended up on Kindle was from about 1983. I'm not dead sure. When I finished it then it was two hundred and seventy five pages of double spaced A4. I had a lot on my plate at the time and didn't bother trying to get it published. I thought I'd wait and hold on to it and re-write it again when I was a bit older, but tempis fugit. I think the only publisher I sent it to was Polygon who were then the publisher attached to Edinburgh University and I think I only did that as a joke.

         When I was in sixth year at high school in Motherwell, 1968 happened. What a year! There was even trouble in Edinburgh. The resignation of the Rector made going there extremely appealing though the reality was extremely disappointing. A quote from Malcolm Muggeridge's resignation speech is at the front of the book along with one by Newman.

 NEWMAN: A university is an alma mater, knowing her children one by one, not a foundry, or a mint,  or a treadmill.

Yet how infinitely sad; how, in a macabre sort of way, funny that the form their insubordination takes should be a demand for Pot and Pills, for the most tenth rate sort of escapism and self-indulgence ever known. -MACOLM MUGGERIDGE, ON RESIGNING AS EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY RECTOR, JANUARY 1968.

Alma Mater  is now on Kindle!
       

Remote Control is on Kindle!

         
          It's been at least thirty years since I started to write Remote Control. I saw in the Bookseller a little notice that a new literary agency called International Scripts was being set up and sent them a letter. Then I sent them some of Alma Mater and then I got a contract sent back.  Soon enough I was on the night train to London to see a literary agent. Nothing to do with agents was ever as easy as this again!

          It was Ursula Mackenzie's first job in publishing. God alone knows what she made of me, but after chatting in her none to salubrious office, she took me for lunch during which I probably drank about five pints of Guinness as I recall. Outside on the pavement as I was saying my goodbyes and heading back for the train, I offered her a little piece of cannabis and she politely refused. You've got to laugh! Just tell your kids to say no and you'll  end up being a master of the universe instead of getting the one way ticket to Palooka-ville.

         She told me I should try and write a political thriller and advised me to read Scotch on the Rocks, a book by Douglas Hurd. I thought this book was so bad it was almost inspirational!

          At this point I went to Strathclyde University to do a post-grad in librarianship and ended up doing a bibliography project on the public sources for information that would help you make a remote controlled explosive device. This was actually quite an interesting thing to do in the days before the internet. I got a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook, an interlibrary loan from my local library. Well,  I doubt if the local library would help you with research like that these days!

          I went to the National Library and researched back copies of the newspapers till I found information on the Angry Brigade, complete with diagrams of how to make bombs. So I ended up with my flat strewn with diagrams and what have you about how to make a remote controlled bomb, and I think these days you can go to jail for being in possession of that kind of thing.

           The book I ended up with after that was pretty lousy, but Ursula Mackenzie did try to sell it before she went on to better things.

           I adapted the book for the stage and brought in another character, so I realised I'd have to re-write the book. Scotch on the Rocks was a masterpiece compared to what I'd written at the time!! Once it was re-written, I hardly sent it out to anyone because I went to live in Australia for a year. Most of the stuff I wrote I only sent out three or four times anyway because I hate rejections and usually didn't have much money to waste on the postage.

           I re-wrote the book again in 2009 and changed one of the characters, added a twist to the storyline and that's the version that's been placed on Kindle by the consigliere just yesterday. Remote Control is a steal at £1.82!


         
         

Provisional Cover for Alma Mater

          My wonderful daughter sent me these possible covers this morning. I told her to hurry up with them and not bother spending so much time on them just now since I'm pretty desperate to get all these books uploaded to Kindle, but I've really like the fast covers for Remote Control, Ancient Futures and this one for Alma Mater. The covers she did for In The Land Of The Demon Masters and Bugtown were paintings, I think. I have no idea how she's come up with these.

          I told her the keywords for the book were Edinburgh University, hippies, drugs ... nobody would buy a book called Alma Mater, and most folk might not know what that expression means, but this cover with that title works, I think. Maybe I'm biased, but if there's any of these you particularly fancy, let me know.

          I was at one point thinking of changing the title to Drug Tests, but there's a quote from Newman about Alma Maters at the beginning, and It's been called Alma Mater since about 1973, so ....

           The consigliere has a lot on his plate at the moment and he's still attending to the relaunch of Ancient Futures, but I'll let you know when they get uploaded!

Remote Control!

          My daughter just sent me this provisional cover for Remote Control. I like it so much I think we should just stick with it. So I've just written the product description, or the blurb as it used to be called when books still had them inside the covers and at the back maybe.  I really don't like writing blurbs and I put this one together in five minutes, paraphrasing the review Gregg Ward gave the play in Scotland on Sunday. The book was adapted and produced to some acclaim at the Traverse Theatre about 1989. On stage it was called Bomber.

          I re-wrote the novel for more modern times and finished it about fifteen months ago. Sphere Books didn't want it, but Dan Mallory gave it a brilliant knock back. Serpent's Tail, who published Are You Boys Cyclists for me, didn't get back to me about it, and Luath here in Edinburgh still haven't got back to me about it either though they wanted to see it after reading what Dan Mallory of Sphere said about it. Great not to have to wait for book publishers anymore!!

                 Here's the blurb that'll go with the book on Amazon Kindle.

               Remote Control is a compelling multi-layered thriller which once it's grabbed you never lets you go. Jimmy McGovern,  a petty criminal and drug dealer, learns while in the middle of a three day drink and drug binge that his girlfriend has been killed in a police raid on a terrorist hide-out. Hauled in for questioning, he is released without charge only to find himself stalked by a top ranking counter terrorism officer who eventually gives him no choice but  to construct a remote controlled explosive device. Is he trying to bolster the case against the terrorist cell, or is he really going to assassinate the Prime Minister? Will Jimmy McGovern kill him first?

                 Fast paced and tinged with violence, Remote Control rushes forward at great pace, but what makes the novel so intriguing is the continual emotional switchbacks and wealth of hidden agendas. This is an intricate novel which compels the reader's attention with it's almost classic use of horror movie makers tension and release techniques, but by diving deep in Jimmy McGovern's personal agonies it brings a deeply human element to the story which keeps us from dismissing the action as so much filmic pap. In short, a thoroughly unique and satisfying novel.

                Here is the rejection the consigliere got from Dan Mallory of Sphere.

                Following up on Remote Control. Short version: I’m going to pass. Longer version: I do so fully aware that you’ve got a very talented author on your hands. The writing is crisp and clean, the dialogue distinctively edgy, and the plot very smoothly engineered. That said, I wasn’t especially taken with the protagonist, who seemed to me rather difficult to like, and I worry that some of the book’s more serrated edges would rub a broad readership the wrong way.

While I’m going to pass, I wish you much luck with the project, and I can’t wait to see where John lands. Thanks again very much for letting me take a look.

Yours    

Dan

 

Relaunch of Ancient Futures!

         When the consigliere and I uploaded Ancient Futures onto Amazon Kindle about a year ago, we weren't really taking it seriously. Self publishing, I thought, wasn't going to bring home the bacon. Recently, I've been persuaded otherwise, so we are now going to relaunch it with a cover by Rosalynd McKenzie and a new product description by myself. The product description is just like the blurb you get on books. Here's the product description:

                    This epic adventure is set in a world without any real place in geography or time, but it is a world with many similarities to our own..

                This world was once a barren place where life was hard and the population sparse, but due to the secret elixir, produced by The Factory, the wealth of the planet increased and the population multiplied and multiplied and multiplied until it seemed to some that the planet could no longer support such numbers. The weather began to change. The atmosphere grew thinner and the sun became hotter. Where once it had been warm was now cold. Where it was once still, storms raged. Strange illnesses began to appear in people everywhere.

            The ordinary people saw these changes as signs, as portents, as omens. Among the poor and dispossessed persisted a belief in a Hidden One, a messiah who was silent and waiting till the time was ripe to wage holy war against the evil ones governed by mammon, ego, and lust.

             They prayed for this saviour to come among them, unite the people and drive their enemies into the sea. His coming would right the wrongs of the world and usher in a new age of justice and purity and truth. His coming was foretold for the end of the millenium and the year was 996.

              It was about this time that King Oroc began to wage war ....