Authors Blog – 15 Nov,23

We’re half way through November 2023 an I’m yet to complete Book Three – Atlantis. But I’m so very close – 450 pages and counting… I just need to tie up some loose ends.

For the most part of September and all throughout October I’ve been struggling with motivation and self-doubt. I’ve returned to my old trade: construction and home maintenance, in an effort to make some money, but this business has very few prospects in the small Eastern Cape town I live in. Besides… I do so love writing…

Book One – Lemuria: Scorched Earth, hasn’t been selling on Amazon and Book Two: Lemuria: There be Giants, will only be launched next week. The reason for this delay is simple: I ran out of money. My middle-man (vanity) publisher is deliberately delaying the launch in retaliation for slow payment. The obvious problem being that I couldn’t afford the $1500 still owed to him. Thankfully, my wonderful mother, came to the rescue – so Book Two will finally happen within a week or so.

Once the trilogy is complete, I plan on marketing them as a set, but this will immediately pose two challenges: One, the cost versus results. Two, I originally planned on writing a pentology. And this is another reason why Book Three is taking so long to complete. I need to finish the trilogy as a complete story, whilst still leaving an opening for Books Four and Five… So its this tying up of loose ends which is now posing such a challenge. I can now finally understand why RR Martin struggled to complete Game of Thrones. It isn’t easy bringing the different characters and separate adventures together into a holistic tapestry.

Nonetheless – whoever ends up reading my blend of war, sci-fi and fantasy adventure, will no doubt be captivated… Who knows? My ‘There Be Dragons series’ may even be appropriated by Hollywood one day… (But probably only long after I’m dead and buried.)

If you’ve just laboured through this blog and now imagine me to be a grouchy, negative, dour kind of person… Well, you’d be right… But you wouldn’t think this if you read my epic adventure. My books are all about hope, love, fellowship and bloody minded determination, even in the darkest of times.

Yours Faithfully and Sincerely

Derek Winters

P.S. I am looking for test readers and amateur editors, so please message me. I can’t afford to pay you, but I can personalise and post the books to you.