This is where I will be posting news, updates and any thoughts I have on my writing that I may think worth sharing. Please feel free to e-mail me at mail@sjaish.com with any comments or complaints and perhaps even compliments if you wish!

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06/12/24

What have I been up to? I've finished the re-read of Ancient Evils, and corrected quite a few typos and grammatical errors - amazing they still crop up after all those re-reads! I have in mind a couple of balance issues I want to revisit, but that's on the back burner for the present. Having corrected the style guide changes, I've commenced the re-read of The Problem Child, perhaps 10% in. I'm also reviewing Possessing Demons for style guide changes. I will update the draft manuscripts for Perpetual Motion 1 and 2 with the style guide changes, before getting back to work on Perpetual Motion 1. I'll try to put some more artwork up in the meantime.

SJA

04/11/24

I'm still working on the Ancient Evils 2025 review, about 75% of the way through. One of the things I picked up from the Burnham-on-Sea Book Festival was that my supporting artwork needs filling out to be more reflective of the world of the books. I've finished a couple of pieces: a depiction of Alpha Company arriving at Sweetwater Creek, and a depiction of Torny and Sophie in the cell under the Bastion, which I hope to put up shortly.

SJA

26/09/24

I have been experimenting with the MS Word 365 text-to-read-aloud function, which has given me some fascinating insights into my writing. I'm currently working on the Ancient Evils 2025 review. I'm off on holiday shortly, and won't have the facility available; however, I will have my laptop, and so back to Perpetual Motion 1 again.

SJA

04/09/24

I am still working on Perpetual Motion 1. Fourteen chapters have been completed so far. I have taken a pause to produce some more representative artwork; I will get back to PM1 shortly.

SJA

17/08/24

I am still working on Perpetual Motion 1. Twelve chapters have been completed so far. Preparing a novel to enter competitions is quite an involved process, including an analysis of each chapter, a body of work in its own right. I've started analysing Ancient Evils in this way. Once the job is done, the synopsis will be available for future competitions.

SJA

15/07/24

Following a vacation, I have returned to Perpetual Motion 1. I've completed six chapters now. While on vacation I've had several new ideas I want to incorporate in this and future novels, particularly exploring ideas around the role of the Tribunes and fleshing out Cain. I'm thinking of doing some more promotional work, perhaps entering Ancient Evils into writing competitions, I will see how that goes.

SJA

26/05/24

Burnham-on-Sea Book Festival went very well. I learned a great deal from the experience, both from studying other writers' approaches, and comments received from visitors to my table. I also attended a useful course on Marketing Your Book run by Justin Newland, (I have since bought a copy of his first novel, The Genes of Isis, which I am looking forward to reading).

Regarding progress with Perpetual Motion 1, I've decided to focus on the completed draft in the first instance and work on the new material when I am satisfied that I have enough of that up to a publishable standard to form the basis of a discrete novel. Possibly to be published in 2025 if all goes well.

SJA

13/05/24

During a recent caravan trip to Wales, I started pulling together material for Perpetual Motion - Part 1. I have a lot of scratch work to do, particularly Mikkel Martinsson's story, but I'm keen to get on with that. I'm back home now, and preparing for Burnham-on-Sea Book Festival next weekend.

SJA

26/03/24

My plans for 2024 are to focus on the promotion of my novels:

I've now published second editions of Ancient Evils, The Problem Child, and Possessing Demons; paperback and Kindle versions. I've also finally managed to link both formats of Ancient Evils on the Amazon platform. I've also linked all three novels as a series, using a modified version of the original Ancient Evils back matter.

On 18th May 2024, I will be appearing at my first literary festival - the Burnham-on-Sea Book Festival, at Princess Hall, PrincessStreet, Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, TA81EH. I will have a table in the main hall, where paperback copies of my books will be on sale.

SJA

26/02/24

I found a couple of typos in both Ancient Evils and The Conflict Within: The Problem Child proofing copies. New proofing copies are expected on 1st March. However, The Conflict Within: Possessing Demons is good to go.

SJA

26/01/24

I've uploaded the new manuscripts for Ancient Evils, Kindle, and KDP versions. I've also tweaked the cover art to make it clearer to read the back matter. I'm waiting until 29th January to make sure the files are embedded before ordering a proofing copy. If all goes well, going live will be ten days after receiving that. I will work on The Conflict Within: The Problem Child in the meantime, including a tweaked cover graphic to make the back matter easier to read. There are a couple of typos I want to correct in The Conflict Within: Possessing Demons as well.

SJA

26/12/23

I've finished the revised manuscript for Ancient Evils, including the Kindle version. The Next Project will be the uploads and updates of owned Kindle versions, probably in early January now, when things get quieter. The next writing project will be the update of The Conflict Within: The Problem Child, paperback, and Kindle versions, starting January 2024.

SJA

26/11/23

I've pretty much finished my edit of the manuscript for Ancient Evils. I hope to upload it in the next few days. After that, I will update the Kindle version, including updates for all current owners.

SJA

26/10/23

The Conflict Within: Possessing Demons is now finally published! I'm going to spend some time now completing my new edit of Ancient Evils, and then a new edit of The Problem Child, correcting typos and minor changes, before having a publicity push for the first trilogy. 

SJA

26/09/23

Back from Flintshire! The 1st proof of Possessing Demons arrived before we went away, and I was able to correct the flaws on my laptop. I intend to upload the new manuscript and order the 2nd proof this week. While I'm waiting I will revise the Kindle edition. While I was away, I started work on the manuscript for Ancient Evils 2nd Edition, with more maps, and a pronunciation guide, (and a few typos corrected, and a few vague plot points clarified!), which will follow the go-live of Possessing Demons. 

26/08/23

The cover for Possessing Demons is finished and uploaded. I uploaded the text body in June, but during the review, I noticed some formatting issues, so some more tweaks will be necessary. Hopefully, I'll be uploading the final text body again later today. Will be away again for most of September, so the pressure is on to go live before we depart!

SJA

26/07/23

Still working on the cover tweaks for Possessing Demons. Should have a clear space to launch in the next couple of weeks now.

SJA

12/07/23

A few real-life holdups at present. The final readback is finished and the paperback text body for Possessing Demons is complete. The cover artwork is also complete, though it needs some tweaking. I'm hoping for a July or early August launch now.

SJA

26/05/23

I'm still not there. The final readback is at 95%, a couple of areas I want to revise as they don't chime as well as I wanted. The launch of Possessing Demons won't be until June at the earliest, now.

SJA

29/04/23

I'm still progressing through the final readback, currently at 57%. Gutted to have to put the launch back to May, however, it's taken much longer than planned. Especially disappointing as The Problem Child was published in April last year.

SJA

26/03/23

I've completed the formatting of the test for Possessing Demons, and it looks good so far. I've decided to give it one, last readback in the completed format, just to pick up any last issues, and I'm about 5% in. Apart from that, still looking forward to an April launch.

SJA

27/02/23

I'm just over halfway through the final readback of Possessing Demons and things are looking good so far, just a few punctuation tweaks. I'm still optimistic about an April 2023 publication. The published version of Ancient Evils is now six years old, and I'm considering a second edition as my next project, eliminating a few irritating grammatical errors that have come to light, and adding some extra maps, and a pronunciation guide. I'll produce a Standard English version of the second edition, for worldwide publication, as well as a new US English version.

SJA

27/01/23

I've completed the three maps for Possessing Demons, the cover art is also practically complete. I've also completed the cover text. Just the taster for the first book of the second trilogy, which will eventually emerge from Perpetual Motion: Part 1 to come up with. I'm hoping to commence the final read back in February.

SJA

28/12/22

I've finished the final structural edit The Conflict Within: Possessing Demons, and completed the cover artwork. A fair portion of the story takes place in Akureyri and its environs, so I'm currently making two new maps to cover the city's hinterland and the city centre. There'll be a final readback in the new year, and then I'm hoping to move forward with the publication.

SJA

27/10/22

Updated some of my artwork here, and also on my Facebook page. Going to get back to the final edit of The Conflict Within: Possessing Demons now. I don't really have a timetable for publication, but I am hoping for early next year.

SJA

08/08/22

Books take many months, if not years to get out; so I've decided to try to do more with the promotional art to keep things ticking over in between. I've revisited The Deputation, placing the figures in an appropriate forest setting. I've also given Jaydee the hairstyle he is sporting on the cover of The Conflict Within: The Problem Child, and I've given Eydí the black riding cloak presented to her by Aurélie at the start of the journey, along with her horse, Lune. I've also given her shorter hair, as it is only a few months since she last had a Trooper's buzz cut.

SJA

26/03/22

The Conflict Within: The Problem Child is published at last! It is available in the Amazon Store, in paperback and Kindle formats.

SJA

15/01/22

I've had to accept that The Conflict Within, at nearly 4k words, is an unmanageably large book. I've finally relented and split it into two volumes, The Conflict Within: The Problem Child, and The Conflict Within: Possessing Demons. The manuscript for The Conflict Within: The Problem Child is complete, as is the artwork, and I anticipate it should be published before the end of February. The Conflict Within: Possessing Demons still requires more reading through and formatting checks, as well as its own artwork, but I'm still hoping to publish during 2022.

SJA

12/06/18

The British Library requested a copy of Ancient Evils.

SJA

10/04/18

The Legal Deposit Libraries requested five copies of Ancient Evils. That means that Ancient Evils is now held in The Bodleian Library at Oxford University, The Cambridge University Library, the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales, and Trinity College Dublin.

SJA

21/11/17

Finally got around to setting up my Facebook page. Feel free to stop by!

SJA

26/09/17

Well, that took longer than anticipated! However, at long last Ancient Evils is now published! Initially, it is available as a paperback on Amazon, and also as a Kindle e-book.

     Back to The Conflict Within, equipped with my 'Style Statement', which is about three times the size it was in June.

SJA

06/06/17

Well, I did manage to upload the first draft on 31st May, plus the revised cover design. I see my proof copy may take a little while to arrive. I'm working on my sales description and keywords at the moment, which shouldn't take very long. Providing the proof copy is fine when it arrives, I'm anticipating Ancient Evils being on sale in July.

     Next week I'm looking to start prepping The Conflict Within for publishing. I'm hoping for a faster turnaround, now I know what's involved!

SJA

16/05/17

I completed reformatting Ancient Evils into the CreateSpace template. Just want to do some final tweaks now, and then upload the first draft.

     I completed the new cover to match the page size settled on. I took the opportunity to make some changes to the artwork while I was at it. Now all I have to do is obtain the estimated spine width so that I can do the spine artwork, and then complete the rear cover artwork.

     All in all, looking good for the 31st May publication.

     Also, the SJAish Twitter feed is now up and running!

SJA

09/05/17

I completed the ‘final’ re-read of Ancient Evils yesterday. It’s the first time I’ve read it back in its entirety in many months - still a couple of things I wanted to tweak, even now.

     I signed up for Create Space this morning. I intend to release Ancient Evils as a Kindle and Kindle Direct Print simultaneously, so a little more formatting to do there. My summary used in the website is unsuitable for a number of reasons, and I’ve had to devote some time to creating another. The advice is to write it as a publisher - not an author - and get it under 150 words. It’s a bit like pulling out your own teeth!

     I’ve set my provisional target for publication as 31st May, I don’t think that is too ambitious at the moment.

SJA

28/01/2017

Today is the inaugural day of the official S J Aish website! It has taken a little while to put together, but not as long as it took to write the novels!

     Imperator is underway; it may run away, as Perpetual Motion did. I intend to simply keep writing now until the story is finished. If it becomes excessively large, (it has already inherited several chapters from Perpetual Motion), I will simply split it into volumes 1 and 2 - I see why so many authors do that now!

SJA