Book Reviews mean everything to authors, they help us grow and provide some all-important feedback that may even possibly shape our future works.
While being published may be a hobby for me, I still take it seriously and have aspirations of one day making it more. I appreciate every review I receive from my wonderful readers who have paved this author path for me.
Here is some recent praise for 3 of my works!
You can find out more about all of my books here.
And so with the final days of a difficult year comes the opportunity for reflection. For everything that has happened this year, 2022 – the year of good, bad and indifferent, it certainly has kept me jumping through hoops but it also represents an enduring journey of ultimately decent outcomes.
This journey as an online creative in the social media age has been rewarding as well as frustrating on occasion but much like life, these things eventually balance themselves out. The constant has been me, a person who has never given up and has taken every opportunity to learn while keeping everything going. On that path I might have found you, wonderful reader and maybe a fellow creative, our type should stick by one another, creativity is better for it.
Let me be proof to anyone out there who is struggling to be seen or get read or even find sales because good things like that are possible for anyone. I’ve found them but it has taken me years to get to where I am today and those years have been well-spent laying the ground for what is to come. Sometimes you’ve just got trust the process and believe in yourself. Through the dark and the light, be the constant, the variables will come and go but you are what matters the most.
As for me, I’m doing fine. 2022 has taught me a lot of things and above all, never giving up matters the most.
The social media grind can be just that, a grind. Any type of momentum and sales conversion pretty much disappears the minute you stop. Whilst it was great to recharge and take a step back in the past few weeks, my sales and Twitter engagement has suffered. Getting it back to pre-break numbers has proven to be quite a challenge and has also reminded me how hard it can be no matter the follow count.
Those who know me will know I do not give up and I will do anything within reason to succeed on this path, that’s what has gotten me here and that is why I will always improve from where I stand because I just don’t give in.
Good, bad, indifferent – they are the variables but the constant is me and my resilience.
Passing on my knowledge is starting to bring in results and just yesterday a Patron from my Twitter coaching celebrated a big win driven by something they learned from my resources. My next step is to find more who can vouch for these resources because just advertising them on Twitter is killing my numbers. The algorithms can be difficult sometimes.
Those who do want to get better at social media can check out my resources section.
What an incredible year 2021 has been. Although challenging at times the past twelve months could be described by many words but for me as an author, I’m going to use potential.
Potential because the results I have seen for my efforts has convinced me this journey is worthwhile and has potential to go a lot further than I am right now. Of course the support I have received by you on here or across the platforms has fuelled me to reach higher and further than ever. I’ve achieved so many wonderful things this year and that tells me I can go on and get even better things. From having my book downloaded 10,000 times in a single day to tripling my Twitter following from 5k to nearly 18k, damn, things have really gone from strength to strength, I have even made money from selling books.
I’ve never been one to boast and while my statistics are awesome let them be the greatest advert for what you can achieve because I know there are so many creatives who follow me and who are just like me. If I can get these awesome things then you certainly can, for me, the next chapter is around the corner and so is yours. All I have ever done is never given up and kept going. From figuring out what my following enjoys seeing to the wider aspects of selling books and myself as a brand. The truth is, I want others to achieve what I have done, you’ll see from the plethora of guides I have churned out this year because helping others helps me, helping others builds trust and friendships, helping others is also incredibly rewarding. If you can find just one aspect of a journey to be rewarding then it makes the whole thing way more worthwhile. I’ve left my mark this year and potential is what drives me every day to keep leaving it.
As a social media creative who regularly gets views and sales from various endeavours, I have concluded in order to get them consistently over time you need to stand out. Most marketing advice online is either out of date or easier said than done and standing out to me is to simply go against the grain of what everyone else is doing and hope it gets noticed. While that may seem easier said than done, and it is, only you can figure out what works for your brand or persona online but passion above all, resonates with near enough everyone.
Social media seems to contain this giant echo of everyone copying one another to the point where most folks just blend into the bandwidth. The passion in all of this is distinctly lacking. Understandably, it can be easy to get caught up or even daunted by this vacuum of repetition but where is the creativity? Buy this or subscribe to that. Everyone seems to be mining for numbers and sales with no real end game when really all you need to seek on social media is enrichment through conversation. That alone will drive visibility, engagement and eventually trust. Trust that you are more than a miner trying to score more points in an endless game that you can’t take anywhere useful. Gain the trust of someone and they’ll invest in you. And this is something that cannot be fabricated. Top that off with a little human passion and things will start to move.
This revelation came to me after I spent way more time than I probably should have on social media, scrolling, watching and talking – maybe it wasn’t in vain after all because for that time I gained the rewards from a high following to regular sales and now a belief this may some day be a career. That is without mentioning the true value of friendships through those things because I found others who share my vision. All I did was spend time conversing and less time trying to sell things and now people have become my power.
It would appear many creatives loathe the thought of marketing, but me, I actually quite enjoy the challenge and results which are always an opportunity to learn and pass information on. All driven by the desire to go against the grain and try something new fuelled by people who believe in me. Those days of reverting to zero are few and far between for me now, long may it continue.
Tomorrow everything culminates. It has been a journey and an experience like nothing else I have faced in writing. My belief has been galvanised by good people who have continually supported me through so much. Right now we are facing the concept of a perfect pre-order run with at least one order every day since launch – a truly incredible feat that not only inspires me but tells me that I must be doing the right things to get them. I need just one more pre-order for this run to be perfect – something I’d never imagine happening but also proof I have the tools for it.
Those who have been around a while will know this journey has not been easy. The reverting to zero – something that still happens now to even seemingly shouting into an empty void. There are so many reasons for a creative to just give up and walk away but now I can give you hundreds of reasons to keep going, to keep creating and keep chasing because that is all I have ever done. Not once in the past few years have I given up or stopped. This journey has become part of me and I am the journey in some senses. I’m invested now, in helping others, shining a light through the dark of the unknown for others and not just to look like some hero. There’s no cape or crown in my story, just a pair of sleeves rolled up and an attitude that is ready to work hard. Anything worthwhile takes time and hard work.
Anything worthwhile in writing or blogging takes Consistent Creative Content. How do I know that? Because I have lived it and that’s the title of the book I have written on it. That book arrives tomorrow. Just one more pre-order would be amazing but we have already achieved with this book has been exceptional. Thank you for the support always.
Over here in the UK – or specifically England, we’re about to face a second lockdown. Having been there before and because so many of this blog’s followers are facing similar circumstances in other countries I can wholeheartedly say that with a lockdown comes opportunity. Now I’m not talking about the business shark antics that take advantage of someone else’s misfortunate – what do you think this is the 80’s? But when the first lockdown hit back in March I eventually realised people need content for a distraction. Because I had the time to focus more on producing content, the numbers, follows, book sales and pretty much everything went up. This blog has faced more success this year than ever before!
If you have something to offer in this world that will serve other people, offer it, especially now…
Those who can produce content, right now this is your opportunity, not only does it express the importance of you personally carrying on, but someone somewhere will appreciate your efforts. It’s a circle of well-being because for me expression through words makes me feel good and my hope is that those good feels are passed on to readers. The world is in a state of flux right now but those who can remain doing what they did before without endangering themselves are serving to preserve what will be left after this era has gone. We as humans have always looked to escapism to survive the crap that is happening out the window, be that escape for someone. You’ll find purpose in creativity and content trust me.
Carry on, write that blog post, produce that video, put out that tweet, review that book because you’ve probably got the time now, seize it because lockdown equals opportunity!
The venture of discovery continues and so does the celebration of unique voices with another Hall of Information Interview.
Paul Jameson has generously taken the time away from penning his immersive, sometimes dark and truly unique tales to answer 10 questions. This has been an honor and a journey to learn the story behind the story teller whose works I urge all of you to consider next in your reading endeavors. Some may remember earlier this year I read and reviewed his fantasy folklore-horror book and so that is where we shall begin…
“This is a really good question, one I’ve had to think about;
I think the voice found me…”
“I’d experimented with a number of pieces, short stories and historical pieces over the years, never quite finding my voice. Then I wrote a short story called ‘Magpie’. I think I discovered how to show rather than tell in that piece. Anyway, I was really pleased with it. I liked the voice, and it was a world I could expand on. I fully intended to work on and edit ’76 and the Odd 93’, but started on a new short story instead just to test the voice…”
“And so Nightjar was born.”
“Everything was in place around where I live. On the Greensand Ridge, a Roman Road runs as a footpath between Everton and Sandy, there is an Iron Age hillfort, and a glacial landscape that had once been shallow sea. I looked back in time to define a feudal future, had a physical and geographic anchor in the landscape, and saw two boys run down a hill.”
“Then I heard Nightjar play his flute.
I simply followed.
It really was a case of the characters wrote the story. And it turned into a novel.”
*Weird Fact*
“I chose Nightjar as a character as the bird is at once a strange and ugly thing, fascinating to look at. Anyway, upon publishing the novel – two months later – a pair of nightjars nested on the Greensand Ridge locally after a fifty-year absence. That made me shiver.”
“All my stories – short and long – tend to have a dark and sinister side to them. This, I think, stems from a physically and emotionally abusive childhood, so I tend never to trust the good in things; being ever wary of the dark and nasty that hides behind a veneer of nice. But also, I’ve learned as an adult that nothing is quite so simple as ‘good’ and ‘bad’, so I enjoy creating characters with a foot in both camps.”
“Conflicted – so to speak.”
“Even my other novel – ‘76 and the Odd 93’ – a contemporary, modern psychological piece I’m nervous of because it is so dark. A cathartic exercise I needed to write to exorcise childhood demons. It took me 25 years to write and publish, features a split timeline, strawberry ice cream, a glass eye and the making of a serial killer. It’s something I hope puts the reader in a conflicted place, seeing evil grow out of innocence.”
“My other available pieces are all short stories. All dark, bordering on horror and the weird. Early experiments before writing Nightjar.”
![Magpie by [Paul Jameson]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510YzCCbLyL.jpg)
![Dark Tales by [Paul Jameson]](https://www.amazon.com/images/I/51geTfydGbL.jpg)
“I live in social housing with my wife, two adult children, three dogs, five cats and a hedgehog, so the shed is my safe space. My wife and her mum’s idea, and I love it. Bilbo (black cat) and I retreat to it, and it’s the only place I write.”
“It’s bijous.”
“Blue.”
“With pictures on the walls, a decoupaged roof of the twentieth century – up until the ‘60s – a clock that doesn’t work and lots of weird knick-knacks. Books on shelves, Zippo lighters – I love Zippo lighters – my computers, music, a telly, electric fire for winter and fan for summer, hourglasses, lots of candles and a telescope. Hourglasses are always handy, and you never know when you might need a telescope. My daughter thinks it’s weird, so I reckon I’m doing the ‘dad-thing’ right.”
“As a child I loved his work. I think it connected with me because of the type of childhood I enjoyed – or endured – as many of his characters faced similar adversity and challenges. And yet even with all the horrible stuff going on, Roald Dahl understood a child never lets go of a belief in magic and hope.”
“There is always magic.
And there is always hope.”
“My family and other animals are very important to me. I love folklore and history, telly and films, books – though I struggle with reading since my brain went weird – and I love exploring woodland and ancient places; although I rarely do that these days, being a recluse and all. An old habit I need to reignite.”
“Tea in the morning, coffee in the eve;
And Guinness if I can get it.”
“Although – to be honest – I rarely drink alcohol these days;
Not for a lack of wanting, more that being a recluse I prefer to stay in and write.”
“Tales of the Unexpected
Twilight Zone
Westworld (film)”
“They’re if I’m looking at what inspired the weird in the child that became the adult. Lots of other films too, like the Wickerman, and television programmes like the Magic Roundabout, Pipkins and Roobarb. But I think reading inspired me the most. Authors like Du Maurier and Iain Banks, Tolkien, Martin Amis, classics mixed in with historical fiction and SFF.”
“So many inputs.”
“I also love television shows coming out of HBO, like Game of Thrones and the Sopranos, my favourite being the Westworld series, and I often have them on in the background whilst writing.”
“I never really had a ‘strategy’ other than to follow and follow back other writers and artists, and to help them if I can, or if they ask. I also don’t entertain anyone with RW, bigoted, or racist beliefs. I didn’t understand Twitter as a platform at first. Then I discovered it was a great place to share my main interests:”
“Folklore and History
Faerie Tales and Magic
Writing
Current affairs”
“And connect with like-minded people.”
“Marketing falls below all of that, but I recognise it is something I have to do. I don’t like doing it – I’m not sure anyone does – but Twitter is the only place I market, and then I try to keep it low-key. It does have to go hand in hand with being a self-published author with no budget, but I see it as a marathon, not a sprint, and personally value good reviews far more than high sales. One day the sales will come.”
“I am.
And I’m struggling.”
“I have this huge WIP (140,000 words) – set in the same world as Nightjar – but I’m worried I’ve strayed too far out of this world and into the Otherworld. I like the concept, but I think it may have become too complex and too much like fantasy. That said, there are also characters and story arcs in it that I love – as would anyone who enjoyed Nightjar; characters really on the edge of things.”
“I also have two historical novels I wrote when I was very ill a few years ago (2014) – first drafts – and I’ve never read them back. Or edited them. Maybe I should. At the end of the day though, it’s the Muse and characters as decide when something’s right. Me, I’m just a helpless scribe…”
“Start;
And then finish.”
*And that shows, like all authors, that I need to listen to my own advice *
![Magpie by [Paul Jameson]](https://www.amazon.com/images/I/510YzCCbLyL.jpg)
My 5th book is going to be released next month. I’ve deliberately kept my cards close to my chest for this one. My last release ‘Cemetery House’ burned me big time. I set too high of an expectation and the funny thing is about this year’s release is that I don’t have an expectation other than to publish it without a hitch.
There are still a few spaces for BETA readers if your interested in looking at something different and short so it won’t take up too much time. I’m proud of it and what it represents. You’ll see the blurb soon and then the cover by the end of the month. I think as bloggers, story tellers and content creators its pretty damn important to be proud of what we do. If there weren’t creatives in this world it would be one hell of a dull place.
I know I cannot live without having an outlet for my art. I hope that lasts my whole life because I got a lot of stories that need telling and there are a lot of stories that I need to read.
Lee's Hall of information 
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