The Worlds of Michael J. Parry

Category: Information

  • My Writing

    So it’s been a while since The Spiral Tattoo and The Oaks Grove were published.  I haven’t been particularly active writing which is a combination of numerous things.  I am hoping that I can and will get back to writing.

    What I can say is that my contracts with the publishers for the two works have come to the end of their life cycle and the copyright has reverted back to me. This means they will no longer be available as ebooks, but solely as Podiobooks.

    I’m going to spend the next few months seriously reflecting on my writing and how I approach it. I want to have something new written this year and I would like to see if I can get the Fursk and Gurt stories back out there as well.

    I need to make an achievable plan and work towards it.

  • Book Launch: Baby Teeth Wellington 30th October

    I have a short story in this collection of horror tales that we will be launching on the 30th of October.

    Pre-orders are available here: http://paperroadpress.shopezy.co.nz/store/products/baby-teeth-print/

    baby-teeth-wellington-launch-poster-lores-1

  • Words On The Wind: A Reading As Part of New Zealand Book Month

    As part of New Zealand Book Month I, along with other authors who are members of Speculative Fiction Writers of New Zealand, will be doing a reading.

    Date: Wednesday 20th of March

    Time: 6.00pm – 7.30pm

    Words On The Wind
    Words On The Wind

    Authors:

    Tim Jones

    Sally McLennan

    Matt Cowans

    Paul Mannering

    Anna Caro

  • Orangeberry Summer Splash Guest Blog Post

    I am participating in the Orangeberry Summer Splash blog tour to promote The Spiral Tattoo, which is somewhat funny for me being in winter. Anyway this guest post will be appearing on a number of blogs soon…

    Tradition is the cord that binds the fabric of society…
    “What are you writing Elanore?” I asked as I flew into her kitchen through the window.
    “A short treatise on tradition,” Elanore replied.
    “Why?” I asked setting down on the table and glancing at the neat handwriting on the page before her.
    “The answer to that my friend as that he requires it.” Elanore carefully dipped the quill in the ink pot, the feather held firmly in her clawed hand.
    “Who requires it?”
    “Him,” she said and arched her great bushy black eyebrow at me.
    “O Him,” I said and sat down next to the page. “What does he want?”
    “He requires that I write what tradition means to me.”
    “How far have you got then?”
    “Tradition is the cord that binds the fabric of society together as a homogenous whole,” she read from the page.
    “That’s an interesting point of view for a Troll to have,” I said. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather play a game of dice.”
    “I would rather be sewing my new dress however needs must,” Elanore said. “Now if will excuse me I need to finish this.”
    “All right don’t get your leathers in a twist,” I said leaping from the table and darted out the window as behind me the sound of quill scribbling on paper filled the kitchen.
    Tradition is the cord that binds the fabric of society together in a homogeneous whole. All cultures and folk within the lands have strong traditions that they hold to. Even my more simple cousins amongst the Trolls hold strongly to tradition. Otherwise the clans would fracture into anarchy.
    That being said, there is room to challenge traditions. Tradition would have had me killed as a young cub, my body left to feed the vultures. I cannot say that I am upset my grandfather chose to overturn and ignore that tradition. Yet he instilled in me a strong respect for tradition. This conflict had formed a great part of the conflict that has informed my formative years.
     Now, as I sit here, tradition means strength and cohesion, it also means restrictions and bondage and fear. The battle in the mind and within society is to respect those traditions that can still have meaning and help hold us together, while challenging those that are wrong without upsetting the balance of society.
     Elanore Fursk, Corporal, Delvenport Guard.

  • I Need A Map – What To Do?

    I have had a couple of reviews placed on Amazon for The Spiral Tattoo suggesting that I need a map of the city. Now I would have happily obliged and I have at various points hand drawn maps, and looked for some free piece of software to help me draw a map. But nothing has worked well enough for me to put up here or pass to the publishers to include in the story.

    My lovely partner has suggested that I run a competition. Send me your best map of Delvenport and I will, ummm, get it included in the next version? Include your name in the next book? Send you a free copy of The Oaks Grove when it comes out?

    So I need advice. What can I use on no budget to produce a good map? Or what would be a good prize for a competition?

  • Coming Up This Year On The Worlds Of Michael J. Parry

    This year I want to have more content up on this site. I have a plan, but it isn’t a cunning plan. 🙂

    I have decided to write two regular posts; a book review and a discussion on writing.

    Every week I will be posting a book review. The idea is not only to discuss books that I like, but in an effort to improve my craft, to look and what works in that book so I can apply that to my own writing. I will be rating books out of five, with five being “must have on shelf, comfort reading, will re-read often”, four being “will re-read but not a go to book”, and three being “good, will read others by author but won’t hunt out”. I won’t review books I would rate as one or two, as if I don’t like them enough to give a three, I don’t want to waste my time reviewing. Harsh but there you go.

    A little less regularly I will post on some aspect of writing. Not that I will be saying I am a font of wisdom or knowledge, rather this will be a me putting my thinking down as I work through various aspects of the writing craft. I could do that internally but as a writer it would benefit me to write it down. 🙂

  • The Spiral Tattoo Free For Friday 13th On Amazon

    For one day only, this Friday the 13th,  The Spiral Tattoo will be free for all from Amazon!

    This one day special offer starts at midnight PST, or 9pm NZDT and runs for 24 hours.

    Pass the word, download the book, leave a review!

  • Kindle Give Away Including a Pre-Loaded Copy Of The Spiral Tattoo From SpecFicNZ

    SpecFicNZ Kindle Give-Away

    Happy New Year and Good News!

    We are thrilled to announce that SpecFicNZ will be giving away a Kindle to one of our lucky members at the end of January.

    Not only will the lucky winner get a new e-reader, but it will be loaded with already purchased speculative e-fiction by SpecFicNZ members inlcuding:

    Dragons Away by K.D. Berry

    Sword: Tales of the Green Sahara and The Overman’s Folly by Lisa Agnew

    The Last Arrival in Time by Tim Kilgour

    Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris

    Ripple by Tui Allen

    Act of Will by Darusha Wehm

    The Spiral Tattoo by Michael J. Parry

    Nmemesis by Pat Whitaker

    Samiha’s Song by Mary Victoria

    To be entered in the draw for the SpecFicNZ January Kindle Give-Away, you must be a member of SpecFicNZ with membership paid up for the 2012 subscription year.

    HOW TO ENTER:

    If you have renewed your subscription or joined SpecFicNZ for 2012, you are already automatically entered in the draw.

    If you renew or join SpecFicNZ by the end of January, you will automatically be entered in the draw.

    If you purchase a gift membership to SpecFicNZ for a friend or colleague, they will automatically be entered in the draw, and you will be entered a second time for giving a gift membership. If you give SpecFicNZ membership as a gift, be sure to send us your details in an e-mail to specficnz@gmail.com, so we can enter you in the draw.

    SpecFicNZ committee members are not eligible to enter.

    HOW TO GET YOUR FICTION ON THE KINDLE:

    If you had speculative fiction work e-published in 2011 and are a member of SpecFicNZ in good standing, we’d love to purchase your fiction to include in our Kindle Give-Away.

    SpecFicNZ is giving priority to single-authored work, single-authored collections, and short stories by our members.

    E-fiction must also be available for free or purchasable download by Amazon Kindle.

    If you feel your work qualifies, please send your name and a link to your work to specficnz@gmail.com with the subject line Kindle Fiction by January 15, 2012.

    Good luck and Happy Reading.

    SpecFicNZ Kindle Give-Away

  • Amazon’s KDP Select Program: dancing With The Devil?

    So Amazon has dealt a new hand and produced a very enticing offer that only helps to solidify them as the player in the book sales market. It is a very tempting offer, but will it deliver the goods? Should I go with them?

    What it offers:

    This is what it offers:

    • Reach a new audience – Distribute books through the  Kindle Owners’ Lending Library and reach the growing number of  US Amazon Prime members.
    • Earn a whole new source of royalties – Earn your  share of $500,000 in December and at least $6 million throughout 2012 when readers borrow your books from the Kindle          Owners’ Lending Library.
    • Promote your book for free to readers worldwide – The newly launched Promotions Manager tool will allow you to directly control the promotion of free books.
    • Instant feedback – Check real-time performance of your books in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

    The draw back?

    What does it mean to publish exclusively on Kindle?

    When you choose KDP Select for a book, you’re committing to make the digital format of that book available exclusively through KDP. During the period of exclusivity, you cannot distribute your book digitally anywhere else, including on your website, blogs, etc. However, you can continue to distribute your book in physical format, or in any format other than digital. See the KDP Select Terms and Conditions for more information.

    Jeff Bennington writes Why I’m Joining Amazon’s KDP Select Program

    Amazon is playing games and they’re changing the rules again. They’re changing the game, and they’re doing it in time for Christmas. Most Amazon authors and publishers have received an email from Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform. Got mine today. If you haven’t, check your email, check your KDP account and check it fast.

    What are they doing? They are playing the Monopoly card, hoping to sway authors to publish solely with them, forsaking all others. And as far as I’m concerned, I’m going to play too. Essentially, Amazon’s Kindle store has set up a program called, Amazon Prime. This program costs kindle owners $79 a year, but once they are a member, they can access kindle books from the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library FOR FREE.

    Authors who publish on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform have the option to “opt-in” to the KDP Select program that will make their books available to Amazon Prime members. If an author chooses to do this, he or she will receive part of the $500,000 cash available in the program for December 2011, and the estimated $12 Million in 2012 as an additional source of royalties.

    Is there a catch? Yes. You have to make your ebooks available EXCLUSIVELY through the Kindle store. You can still sell your print books anywhere, just not your ebooks. You can no longer sell them on Barnes & Noble, iBook Store, Goodreads, Smashwords, etc.

    Will authors get paid for their books? No; not with traditional royalties anyway. The royalties, from what I understand, are based on the number of books borrowed divided by the amount of money in the fund. They hope to loan 100K ebooks by the end of 2011. If they reach that goal, authors whose books were borrowed will receive a proportional amount. For example: if your book is loaned 1,500 times before the end of December, and they reach their goal of 100K total books loaned, you will get 1.5% (or $7,500) of the $500,000.

    Sound complicated? It sort of is. Sound risky? Yes. Could it be worth it? I think so. The way I understand it, Amazon is doing what Netflix did in the movie rental business; only with Amazon it’s Pay a yearly fee and get free books all year. I think it’s a great idea and a model that Libraries should follow.

    Jeff makes some good points as do those who comment on the post.

  • Nathan Lowell Presents: Me On A Blog Tour

    Nathan Lowell has opened up his site to fellow authors to plug their wares. He kindly let me put this up:

    A Kiwi, A Fairy, And A Troll Walk Into A Bar…

    The punchline to that story is an interview. In this instance, the author isn’t interviewing his characters, but the other way around. For today’s entertainment, Nathan Lowell Presents…

    Michael J. Parry

     

    Gurt: So why’d you want us to interview you?

    MJP: There is an art to writing good posts, there is also an art to writing good advertising material and then there is the art of writing good stories. If you can do one it does not necessarily follow that you can do the others. I think I can do the third, but I am not so hot on the first two.

    Elanore: I can understand that. When writing my recent philosophy treatise, I found that very different to writing reports for the Captain.

    Gurt: That’s why I let you write them.

    Elanore: I had noticed that.

    Continue Reading at Nathan’s