Another interview with CM Gray

Today I'll be interviewing 'a regular' to my corner of the internet: CM Gray. He has a new book called The Flight of the Griffin and is earmarked for release in early 2013.

Hi Stephen, great to be here, thanks so much for having me!

Since the last time I interviewed you, how has life being a writer changed for you?

Well, I think I’m getting the hang of book promoting a little better. I’ve tried a few things and given up on several others but along the way I’ve discovered some good ways to bring traffic to my books on Amazon in particular. I’ve been spending too much time trying to draw attention to my books this year and not enough time writing, which is crazy, so I’m on a slightly different path for 2013.

One of the main changes since I was last here are the number of great reviews I’ve been getting for my first book Shadowland as a result of my marketing efforts. On Amazon US I now have 41 reviews and still an average of over 4 stars. I’m now on to The Flight of the Griffin, which is also getting some good reviews and I have nearly finished the sequel, Chaos Storm.

Give me an elevator pitch of your new book: "The Flight of the Griffin"

Okay ... bunch of kids, living on a boat, stumble on a magic book and its rather cool female guardian. The book sets them a task of seeking out three crystal skulls, lost in different locations, which must be united to complete an ancient spell. Once the skulls are brought together the spell will stop the world being thrown into chaos. However, there just happens to be some evil people and a whole bunch of demons that are trying to stop them!

I love the premise; your book appears to hearken back to my childhood loves of Enid Blyton, CS Lewis and Piers Anthony. Who or what inspired your story?

Oh I’m sure a whole lot of those kinds of books influence me in some form. I’ve been reading from an early age and have always loved the myth, legend and wild fantasy. I wanted to tell a fantasy questing adventure a little along the lines of a writer like C.S.Lewis but then with a few modern twists that are more David Gemmel. What I did try to do, despite having read so many books from all those great authors, was to be original. I don’t want to write like someone else and I hope you will see that I only write like me!

Is the Griffin (the Ship) as much a character as the children of this story?

Oh, it most certainly is. I won’t give one of the major twists away but there is a whole lot of magic in this book. The boat is very much a character in its own right and one that most readers love!

What inspired you to use Crystal Skulls as the pieces leading to 'the great spell'?

I wanted something mysterious yet something that people may be able to relate to living in our ‘real’ world. There is an ancient Mayan Legend that magical crystal skulls were placed by the ‘old people’ from a time before our records began. If you Google crystal skulls you can see pictures and read stories of skulls that have been supposedly found in different parts of the world. Many believe they are magical. I liked the idea that my characters would have something like this to focus on.

Your book seems so refreshingly unpretentious: clear goals, no love triangles and no angsty teenage ruminations. What was your goal when writing this story?

Well, don’t laugh... but the reason I started writing this was after reading J.K.Rowling’s Harry Potter books. I thought, ‘I can write like that!’ Well, I couldn't and realised that I wouldn't actually want to just write like her. She did the wizard school thing so well there was no point trying to go down that path, so I went for a pure fantasy quest. What I took from Rowling was the idea of writing a story that could be enjoyed by older kids, teens and adults alike, just like she did. So no, there is no sex, no swearing and no gratuitous violence... although there are a few gruesome moments and some rather unsavoury characters to keep everyone entertained!  

I'll do a little word association. Choose one and give me a reason:

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader or Firefly (TV)
Has to be The Voyage of the Dawn Treader because I have no idea what Firefly is [hang your head in shame :)] ... am I showing my age or some huge gap in my reading list? Anyhow, loved C.S.Lewis when I was younger. I watch the films with my kids now and will be encouraging them to read them as well.


Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls or Uncharted (PS3)
Indiana Jones, not because of the Crystal Skulls... just love an Indiana Jones story... another questing adventure, love em!


The Far Away Tree (Enid Blyton) or Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien)
Lord of the Rings. I’ve read it three times. Tolkien is the father of fantasy. He took all the great legends and wrapped them into one of the best stories ever written. To be a fantasy writer these days we all have to realise we owe a debt to Tolkien... or perhaps we should be upset that he took all the best bits and left us all scrambling around to find the rest!

Do you have any parting words for your fans?

If you have read my books and enjoyed them, I thank you for sharing my dreams. If you haven’t yet read my books, then come dream with me! The sequel to The Flight of the Griffin will be out early 2013, my beta readers are saying wonderful things about it so get ready for another ride!

Thanks Stephen I appreciate the time we have spent together today, good luck with your own writing and have a great Christmas!

Always a pleasure ... and hope you have a great Christmas too :)

Love triangles: so hot right now

I lazily gaze across the YA genre and I cannot help noticing a pattern emerging. The story is usually about a heroine who secretly pines for an aloof stranger and has a best friend (that she ignores) who is also, coincidentally, hot. Turmoil ensues and both her friend and the stranger admit their love for her whereupon she finally chooses her suitor. What drama.

When I was a young lad, my choices were a little more varied. Authors wrote what they wanted to write, rather than who their target demographic was or whether vampires were, like, sooo hot right now.

It amuses me to see authors explicitly stating the age of their hero/heroine (sixteen or seventeen). I shouldn't need to know their age to be able to relate to the story. If it was well-written, you would be drawn in irrespective of whether you secretly pine to be the protagonist or happen to be the same age. I think if JK Rowling were to write Harry Potter now, her agent would ask her to focus on Hermione (who would coincidentally be seventeen) and revolve around the dilemma of choosing between the affections of a mysterious older man with piercing blue eyes (whose name we shall not speak) or her best friend Harry.

I can see it now. The public would love it and we would all get a blow-by-blow account that transpires across seven books until the magical moment that she finally decides. And she would be seventeen throughout the story, even though many years of angst and drama would pass (they live in a magical land where time stands still) ... because adults are gross.

Doesn't that make your skin crawl? Anyway, this is more of an impetus towards the authors out there. Ignore your agents, ignore the trends, write what you are passionate about and the result will be spell-binding. The readers will love you for it and I will too.

Publishing like a champ

In preparation for the 'imminent release' of my first novel, I thought I'd investigate what I can do to get the most exposure when I publish my book into the ether. I think, outside of writing something which people actually want to read (very important), the rest relies on your target audience being aware your latest 'masterpiece'. There is no point writing a book like Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, if the only people that read it are pot smokers who think it's something to do while high.

The main thing for getting the word out is, apparently, blogging (ahem), enabling the prospective customer a chance to read a portion of it, distributing to as many eBook publications as possible and getting influential book sites to review your novel.

Blogs

The blog is a good medium - you can discuss your characters, you can paste excerpts to whet their appetite. You can do a lot to promote your book, but only as long as you have a large-ish reader base.

eBook Publications

I think, outside of the well-known ones, like kindle, nook, iTunes, there is another which seems to be pretty good.

Smash Words

The first thing, which is pretty compelling, is that 85% of the revenue goes straight to you - and that ain't shabby. The second is that it supports all the major eBook readers, as well as PDF's and even plain text. The third is that you can allow your reader to read a good portion of the novel before they even purchase it - that makes things a lot easier so you know what you're getting when you plonk down your hard-earned cash. Coincidently, the majority of the story was written over the course of November, which happens to be the month of NaNoWriMo.

Book review sites

Rather than listing each one, I'll give you a link to a list of book review sites:

100 best blogs for book reviews

For popular blogs by authors, I think this is pretty compelling:

Top 50 blogs by authors

References and further reading:

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

Amanda Hocking: How to do what I do

Bare bones guide: How to launch a new ebook for sale

The one major thing that I missed was to send out ARC's (Advanced Review Copies) and to drum up some excitement leading up to the release of my novel (shame on me). Well, lesson learned. So don't forget that no one will care if you've written the next Harry Potter if there is no lead up. Start early and drum up interest before the book is released.