I'm sat here with a copy of my book in front of me, strangely it doesn't smell  - I'm sure people say new books smell, and the more I think about it the stranger it seems to me.

There's a box of them just behind me as well.  I know there's a proof copy downstairs by where my wife is, currently, watching TV as well.




It's strange because George and the Dragon is my creation, my work, every word in what amounts to just over 240 pages or 35 chapters is the result of an outpouring of my imagination.

Sure there are people that have helped me to get to this point and I am truly grateful to each of them for the input they have had on the book.

I signed one of my books the other day as well.  Sure it was for a work colleague, who'd bought it via Amazon I might add, but it's still a strange thing to do for the first time.

I guess it's just because it's still all very new to me.  When it comes to my next novel I'll be more flippant about the whole process but for now I shall try and nurture that feeling of pride and wonder that nestles inside of me.

The next step for me has been to create an e-commerce page on www.GeorgeAndTheDragon.co.uk so that people in the UK can buy a signed copy of the book should the wish.

If you're interested in a signed copy but over seas let me know and I am sure we can sort it out.

Of course I haven't forgotten about the artwork competition either and I've a couple more prizes that I'll be revealing over the next few days so keep your eyes open.

If you're really interesting it would be a good idea to follow my facebook page as well:

https://www.facebook.com/philtolhurst

That's all from me for now.

Phil

Good morning all,

This is a real quick post just to say I've just revealed the first of many prizes in the adult prize pool for the George and the Dragon artwork competition on my Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/philtolhurst

More prizes will be revealed across my social media accounts as we get closer to the launch date.

Phil

I've just looked and it's been a month since I last managed to update my blog.

What have I been up-to in the world of crafting novels?  Not a lot recently.

Real life, the Fifa World Cup and work have all been aspiring against me.

I've decided I really need a laptop to use for writing on the train.  I spend two hours a day as a guest of Southeastern (that's a railway company the provides train services in the SE of England)  so that would give me loads of time to write.

Indeed it's how I wrote George and the Dragon.

Today, I wasn't feeling so good.  I've got a kidney infection I think but I'll say no more than that. However, it did give me a chance to do two things.

Firstly I obtained my EIN number.  For those that are not aware what this is it's a tax number people outside of the United States have to obtain so that they can claim exemption from the 30% US witholding tax.

Secondly I finished  the edit and format of the Createspace copy of George and the Dragon and sent off a request for the full size cover to be created.

So I expect by the end of next week to be in possession of a proof copy of the book.  For the first time ever I'll be able to hold a real copy of my book.  I think that'll be strange, exciting but strange all the same.

One other thing I've been doing today is speculating what I would spend my money on should I become a roaring financial success - I know there's not a lot of chance of this especially given recent reports in the press about author incomes.  But, it doesn't hurt to dream.

So if I made enough to be able to spend money on myself and buy myself a frivolous new toy what would I get?

Lego Mindstorms is the first thing that always springs to mind.

How do you measure success?

I've asked this before I believe as part of this blog.

There's the usual way with sales number, turnover or profit figures.  But then there's other measures, those that are less tangible but none the less make you realise that the work you have produced is having the desired effect on people.

For me one of those measure is fan art.  Look at the fan art you can find for something like How To Train Your Dragon or Harry Potter.  It's everywhere.  Well now George and the Dragon has elicited it's first piece of fan art and I am 'over the moon' about it.

Step forward Ben Nijssen @nijssen1804 who first of all shared this with me on Twitter.

It's been a bit of a lazy week on my part really.

I've written very little this week at all which is very bad of me and generally I've been procrastinating to the nth degree.

Here's a list of things I should really have done by now:

1. Finalised the version of George and the Dragon that will be used for the printed version.
   
2. Paid for and ordered the cover for the printed version of George and the Dragon.
   
3. Update my website; PhilipTolhurst.co.uk to include details of Lupus Animus as I submitted a short story for inclusion within it's pages.
   
4. Updated this blog as per the above.  There's some changes I want to make to the blog layout so it shows the books I have published or had work published in down the right-hand side.
   
5. Created a new on-line advertising posted for George and the Dragon.
   
6. Researched Blog Tours for the release of the printed version - the intention is to offer signed copies of the book as a prizes for the book tour - I have to say I'm pretty sure I now know which blog tour I'm going to go with and then I'll just see what happens.

I should also have written more of Nicholas North - which is changing as I write and so I suspect it will have a change of title before it's released to reflect this.  It's becoming more a Middle Grade Horror book which if I continue down that route should be fun to write and differentiate it more from George.

On a different note George and the Dragon continues to tick over with sales on the post sale price point.  Of course I'm always going to be pushing for more sales but it's really pleasing that they haven't just died a death.

My Twitter account continues to go from strength to strength and this weekend I expect it to top 9000 followers.  Which is not too shabby when you consider I only started using twitter at end of January.

The aim is to get to 10k and then onwards to 15k and to keep going.  The more the merrier.  I will not stop until I have more followers than JK Rowling :)

So that's this weeks round up. Have a good weekend and I hope you write more than I have so far this week :)

Phil

I always thought I was in control, but maybe it was an illusion.

I always thought that somewhere in my mind was that spark of creativity that fed my imagination and what it produced was based on the ideas I fed it.

When I put pen to paper, the words that came to my mind, I believed those words to be mine.  I believed that the story I crafted on the page was conducted by my thoughts and constructed from my life experiences.  Even when I wrote of the fantastical the words that formed on the page did so in such vivid detail and yet I still believed this to be of my own doing.

I was wrong.

The realisation that I am not in control, that some other being has influence on my artistry is a sobering thought and not one that is quieted by the bottom of a bottle.

In those far too rare moments of sanity when I read that which I write, when I realise it is not the writing of man of sanity, then in those moments I want to scream but I cannot and so instead I retreat back to the pen and the page, and back into the madness.

I write about cannibalistic monsters lurking in graveyards or emerging from the sea.  I write about infernal devices that suck the free-will from the minds of men.  I write of gods, old gods of unfathomable power toying with the lives of men.

I write of the Egyptian artisan,  I write his wizardry and technology and of his influence over those that see him perform.  

The words that I write are not my own but the blood they are written in springs forth from my veins like shower of crimson ink.  I carve words into the page with my pen that are written in no language spoken on earth.  The letters crawl across the page screaming at me to be read, to be understood and yet I am not the one that must read them.

I know this now.  I write so that others will learn of the madness and fall under his thrall like I have and yet I can not stop myself.  I must write, I must tell the stories that remain untold, however macabre or ghoulish they are, I have no control over my writing and yet my writing is all I have.

Even now I in this one moment of lucid thought I wonder will the words consume my mind and then my soul or have both already been lost?