‘Alma’ collecting money on the Esplanade, Sidmouth
Fresh Air followed by Cakes!
Join me at 2.30 pm today, 15th of November for a short walk round the locations in Sidmouth that inspired ‘Revenge Ritual’ – followed at 3 pm by tea and cakes at the library and a talk about my novel.
Part of Devon Libraries Active Life, Active Minds programme. Tickets are available from Sidmouth Library, which is where we will start.
For the whole programme see http://www.devon.gov.uk/print/alam16-brochure.pdf
REVENGE RITUAL is on FREE PROMOTION
On Amazon Kindle until Saturday 30th of July
It’s a great holiday read :
‘I took this book in my Kindle as a holiday read . . .’
‘Do not expect to be able to put this down.’
‘Set along the beautiful Jurassic Coast in Devon with modern day twists and turns.’
‘Good plot, bringing in 21st Century themes and written with an excellent local West Country feel about it.’
‘I really enjoyed the plot and the unexpected twist at the end. Kept me reading with one eye open.
I read Cross and Burn during my three hour wait at Heathrow airport and the onward journey to Hong Kong. The sense of increasing menace and suspense kept me absorbed and made my long journey much better than expected.
I’m a fan of Val McDermid’s Tony Hill and Carol Jordan’s series of crime novels, but read this one out of sequence as I had somehow managed to miss numbers 7 & 8. Cross and Burn is number 8. The novel starts with an estranged Tony and Carol and it is obvious from the first chapter that something really bad happened in book 7. Something which has left all the main characters with psychological and sometimes physical damage.
The way that Val McDermid shows the fallout from the events of the previous book without describing what took place is subtle and effective. Something I found enlightening as I write my own sequel to Revenge Ritual and need to show how the shocking events at the end of my recent novel have affected the remaining characters.
In true McDermid style, the antagonist’s point of view is interspersed with the other characters to provide foreshadowing of the violence and danger to come. Although the victim’s viewpoints are only represented in a few short chapters, as a reader you care about their fate, especially for the mother whose fourteen year old son reports her missing at the start of the book. There is still plenty about Carol and Tony’s on-off relationship, although they don’t spend much time together on the page until near the end. It is probably due to this that newly promoted DS Paula McIntyre carries most of the main narrative and provides the catalyst to pull the old MIT team back together.
Although it is a brilliant and compelling psychological thriller, what I really enjoyed were the insights of the lead characters to the situations they encountered, revealing a satisfying blend of despair and strength and going deeper into their characterization than in previous books in the series. A brilliant read – especially for long journeys.
Sometimes an author comes across a brilliant book about the writing process. Debbie Young’s lovely guide to promoting your book is one such find. I have dipped into it almost daily after Revenge Ritual was published in August last year. It’s been so very useful as I work my way through the all the necessary post publishing processes leading up to my book launch and beyond.
I can’t praise this self-help manual highly enough. It contains all the information that you need to promote your book. If you don’t have an agent or mainstream publisher, or even if you do, Sell your books! takes you through everything needed to make readers aware of your book and increase its sales. It has chapters on all the ‘action stations’ authors will have to tackle from planning a marketing campaign, identifying their target readership, attracting visitors to the essential-to-have website, using social media, approaching libraries and bookshops and attracting media interest.
Debbie Young’s style is encouraging and comprehensive. I learnt a lot from this book but probably the best advice was around identifying my market. I knew internet promotion and sales would be important, hence the website. But reading ‘Sell your books!’ helped me appreciate that for a local author with a novel set in Devon where I live, my primary market was the one on my doorstep where readers knew the area and wanted to know more about me. Not only has this local approach paid off in book sales but it has been brilliant meeting people who have read my book.
‘Sell your books!’ will do what it says.
A big thank you to all of you who turned out on a wet and windy morning just before Christmas for the launch of the paperback version of REVENGE RITUAL at The Clock Tower Café in Sidmouth.
All set up but will anyone come?
They came – and even stayed to listen to the opening.
But the ramble round the settings from the book was rained off!
Join local author CJ Browne for the launch of
REVENGE RITUAL
a crime thriller set around Sidmouth.
At The Clock Tower Cafe, Connaught Gardens, Peak Hill Road, Sidmouth EX10 8RZ.
On Thursday, 17th of December, from 10 to 11 a.m.
And afterwards for a short ‘Revenge Ritual Ramble’ – a guided tour of the settings where the action happens.
Come and find out about the scary side of Sidmouth . . .
Copies of the paperback will be available to buy and have signed. REVENGE RITUAL is published by Endeavour Press and also available as an eBook on the Amazon Kindle Site.
For more information email: cj.browne@live.co.uk
Result of Revenge Ritual Free promotion
The eBook of Revenge Ritual has been on free promotion on Amazon this week and it’s so exciting to watch the rankings change. Of course, these are the ‘Free book rankings’ but I never thought I’d see Revenge Ritual No 22 in the top 100 free best sellers in Kindle store, and No 2 in psychological suspense. It started the day ranked as 4,363 and by the evening had risen to No 21. It was a day to cherish. I’m very new to Twitter but it seems my family and friends and Endeavour Press have a lot of followers between them – and I kept getting messages about Revenge Ritual being tweeted all day long, plus some lovely responses back from people I’d emailed.
Thank you everyone who participated. Revenge Ritual will be available as a free download until Saturday, the end of the month. If you haven’t got your yet, click on the link below:
Endeavour Press have just published the eBook version on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. It came as a surprise as I wasn’t expected it to be released until next week. But I’m delighted – and I hope it’s going to make brilliant and intriguing Bank Holiday reading.
A print version will be available soon, which I’d love to sign for anyone who can find me.
C J Browne 