Want to read extracts of my new book?

Afternoon,

Apparently there are still people in the world who don't "do" Facebook, twitter, instagram or any of the other widely accepted social media sites/apps.

For these people I maintain this blog. Interesting that these people have broadband yet don't want to be "social". You have to wonder what they're up to on the internet?

Anyway, I've added a revised opening to my upcoming first person novel FEAR to Wattpad for folk to have a read of. The link has been shared on the usual social media outlets. For everyone else, it's here.

Enjoy.

Fancy reading my new book on Wattpad?

Evening all,

Short one tonight. First off, Chelsea looking like they might have a finger or two on the premier league title. Liverpool realistically need to win every remaining game and still need Chelsea to slip up. Huge ask. But of course it's Liverpool so we dare to believe.

Anyway, the book signing approaches at pace so I've been editing the paperback today. Very nearly there. If you want to know more about it, meet me and have a free cake, then I'll see you at the Headway Hotel on the 29th.

If crime thrillers written by blokes aren't you're bag, then how about fantasy written by a woman? Frion Farrell will be my companion on the day, reading from her debut novel and generally making sure all goes well.

Finally, Wattpad. I've just added another 3000 word chunk of my upcoming novel FEAR to Wattpad for you read for free. If you've not been to the site before, the first two chunks are there too. Hope you enjoy, it's nothing like any of my other books. I'm diverse like that.

Right, that's it for tonight. No more writing, promo or anything. I will now be drinking ale and watching films and dabbling on the Xbox until the small hours.

Keeping up with your blog

Afternoon gang,

It's been a while. In fact I was pretty shocked to find out that it's been a month since I posted anything to this blog. Not good enough!

Before Christmas I was making bold predictions that my new book would be launched in time for the festive period. Well that didn't happen. The bottom line is I simply took Christmas off. I had time off work and just did... nothing. I stayed up late, drank ale, ate pizza, Xbox, Tele etc. But everything else went on the back burner.

It was nice too. We had a super Christmas and New Year and since then I've been back at work in a slightly new role which has been time consuming. Although not to the extent we thought it might be.

Anyway, I'm into the swing of 2014 now. The new book will be released very soon, promise, and I will be releasing more chunks of my next novel FEAR via Wattpad. I just won't be pushing myself quite as hard as I did last year.

So what plans are there for the new year? Well, we achieved all our goals for last year, aside from releasing the new book.

I started a new job, was good at it and so remain in the new job. We paid off a chunk of our mortgage with the extra money and also bought a second house as an investment. We bought a dog too. The wife started a Masters degree which we also paid for. So all in all last year was a vast success.

This year I will be releasing two books. That's a bit of a cheat because one of those is the one I was going to release before Christmas but there you go. The second will be FEAR. I will also begin writing the third book in the jazz café series (first two pages already done!).

Work - little bit trickier to predict as it's out of my control. But hopefully I'll get to stay in the job I'm doing. If so we'll be either buying another property or paying off more mortgage on the one we live in. We will also be buying a shiny new car. It will likely be German and go very fast.

Lastly, and this is very job dependent, we are going to aim to top six figures in terms of income. That last one is bold, and perhaps unrealistic but I'm motivated and full of ideas so we shall see.

Right, that's all for now. I've done a couple of hours writing today so I'm going to reward myself with a brew and some Xbox before I watch Liverpool roll over Aston Villa later.

Carry on...

Do you want to pay for my book?

Morning gang,

You recall how last week I posted the first bit of my new book Fear on Wattpad for you to read for free?

No? Well check back on my recent posts because I did.

Now the second chunk is available on Wattpad, for free, right now. Woo!

It's raw, posted seconds after I finished writing it. Makes it more exciting. Anyway, enough talk. Click the links, go read it, tell me what you think. It's that simple. Failing that just go to Wattpad and search for me.

Thanks

PS I'm almost at 10,000 views of this blog so if you tell someone to come and visit I'll get there sooner!

Wanted: Job for an award winner

Morning gang,

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post but there's lots going on. It's also late and I'm weary but we'll press on.

First off, I've had great feedback from the opening extract of my novel Fear which I posted to Wattpad. There will be another chunk this weekend. A colleague read the extract and said I should submit to publishers, she liked it that much. All positive. And she's a published author herself!

Second, I've had a couple of excellent reviews on Amazon which I've added links for. But, as ever, if you can't be bothered to click, I've pasted them in below.

"Wasn't quite sure what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. Characters well drawn, not stereotypes, with faults and a past that we all have to live with and tackles some really worrying issues with a degree of balance and sensitivity. Guessed fairly early on who the culprit might be, whose activities were revealed when least expected, but strangely it didn't detract from the narrative, Would definitely look out for more of Jamie Sinclair's work in future."

"Quick compelling read. Didn't put it down and read in a day. James Sinclair is amazing. Well done !!!!!! Thank you"

You see? I'm making lives better through awesome fiction. Get on board, spread the word, buy my books etc etc.

I have now edited 80 pages of the Jazz Café sequel and it's now very, very good. Finally. I've had to work at this one. To all those who have been asking me when it's going to be published, thanks for asking, thanks for caring. It won't be long. Probably.

I'll have plenty of time to write in the new year because chances are I'll be back in my old job. I can't convey in words how this makes me feel, but suffice to say it's not good. The only remote positive is that I could not have done any more to have made the new job work. I have delivered on every project and every senior manager is a fan. I also won an award last week. Fancy dinner at Blackpool Tower, met the Chief Exec, in the paper etc. Director of Community Services came to congratulate me in person and I got a nice letter from the Head of Locality. But no job. I tried my best. Sadly my employer is so skint you might well be hearing about it on the news.

The dog's huge. The new house is still empty but I'll be sorting that in the next week or so. And I'm off to Anfield tomorrow to watch my beloved Liverpool play Fulham. So lots of good things going on and I always have the option to just quit work which is nice. Finally, I'll be entering the Richard and Judy new author comp as well, why not?

Anyway, that's it. Two books underway, out soon. Keep an eye out, I might be huge one day!

Do you fancy reading my new book for free?

Evening gang.

Easy answer to the question above. Of course you do! As promised in recent posts here is the opening segment of my new novel FEAR. It's a first person confessional, pretty dark subject - the murder of a young girl - but also pretty humorous in places because I can't help it.

Anyway, click the link, that'll take you to Wattpad where you can read the story. It's also available via my Facebook author page and my Twitter account. Any feedback welcomed as this is a work in progress. As such there will be more segments to follow. All very exciting.

Enjoy.

http://www.wattpad.com/story/9438431-fear

Ladies and gentleman...the Rolling Stones!

Evening gang,

For fifty years the world's greatest rock and roll band has been announced using the title of this post. I was watching a bit of their latest effort, the concerts they did in Hyde Park in the summer, following their triumph at Glastonbury, and after all the build up, the music, the lights, everything stops. And then...Ladies and gentleman...

Then Keith Richards appears, batters a riff and away they go.

In essence what I'm talking about here is legacy. Theirs is set. Millions of albums sold, some of the most famous songs ever written, still touring even though they should be well past being able. People will know their name a lifetime from now. People will still listen to their songs. As they will with The Beatles, Elvis etc. Just as people will still read Shakespeare, Bronte and, maybe, JK Rowling.

I'd quite like that to happen to me. That's one of the reasons I write books. I want to leave evidence that I existed. When I'm dead I like the idea that around the world people (the number yet to be determined) will have read my books and my name will be on their book shelf whether that be digital or wooden.

With that in mind I've become somewhat energised these last couple of days. I think rationalising my job issues has helped. I get paid a lot at the moment, it allows me freedom to do certain things. I even quite enjoy the job. But it's a false position, and it won't last. I've been thinking too much about what might happen afterwards and it's been getting in the way of the important stuff. Writing!

As such, with 11 short weeks to go on my contract I've decided it simply doesn't matter. My wife is in a similar position. A job has come up which, if she applies, she will likely get. The pay is pretty vast. I would only need to work part time at best and we'd still be well off. But she's not applying. Doesn't fancy the job, or the hassle and we don't need the money. So sod it! I'd rather be happy than fretting. If a job comes up in the next 11 weeks, great. If not, I'll go back to my old job, take a pay cut and spend my days writing books while keeping half an eye on the staff to make sure nothing's on fire.

So, editing on the final draft of the Jazz Café sequel is progressing well. But slowly. However, and here's the exciting bit, I have also started - last night in fact - reworking my third ever novel. I wrote it back in 2003. It's called Fear and was very, very nearly published by Transworld. Regular readers will know this because I've talked about my flirtations with big time publication before on this blog.

How did this happen? I started reading Doctor Sleep, the new Stephen King novel. On the first page he refers to FEAR in the following terms - Fuck Everything and Run. That made me think of my 2003 novel because every chapter was an acronym of the word fear, which was a challenge in itself.

So, I made a few notes last night (it may have been 3AM) and tonight I started to read the book. I've already added my notes from last night to the book and it's looking good. The plan is to edit a few pages then publish them right here on the blog, as well as to my Wattpad account which is sorely underused. Then, once complete, I'll publish the finished book in the usual way for purchase.

It's wildly exciting, to the point where I really could stay up all night doing this and happily not go to work tomorrow. Chances are I'll stay up anyway and drag myself through tomorrow. Ho hum.

In other news I've submitted my tax info to Amazon so they don't remove all my books from sale next week. I have also, finally, submitted my entry to the Telegraph Crime Competition. The website is crap so I've emailed it to them and asked them to confirm they've got it. Closing date is next month some time if you fancy it. I've submitted 5000 words of the Jazz Café. Each entry has to have an international element of some sort. Mine is the global Jazz music which forms the soundtrack to the book. Will I win? Unlikely. But one has to at least try.

The big, non work, non book news is that I transferred the money for my house fees tonight, in excess of 8 grand in the click of a button. The proposed date for completion is this Wednesday which means I will be an official property investor/speculator. Plans are already afoot for Easter when we are aiming to buy another. Surprising how motivated I become when there's the chance to make money without going to work every day.

And that's it. Dog's huge, Liverpool are doing well and I'm already planning the wife's Christmas presents. Right, I'm off, I've got books to write.

What did you do today?

Evening folks,

Regular readers will know I often wander off topic so tonight I'm going to start right on topic and see where we end up.

Today I got up at 11:30AM. I ambled downstairs, flicked on the kettle, made a brew and then switched on the laptop. I cracked on with the editing on my book, working title The Trust, and it went really rather well.

Just as an aside (here we go, off topic alert!) I'm almost halfway through the second draft and still hopeful the book will be available before Christmas. You might recall it's a book from my back catalogue (2006 or there abouts). I'd anticipated tidying it up and publishing it before returning to my main project which was editing the newly written follow up to The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe. But The Trust has developed into much more than I'd imagined. The plot is strong and the themes are still very topical, to the extent that I was reading a relevant piece in todays edition of the i newspaper.

So, in short, I'm taking my time on the editing until it's just right. If this means publishing after Christmas then so be it. It's a winner though and I'll start revealing plot details in coming weeks.

Anyway, let's return to the topic. After an hour or so of editing the phone rings. It's the wife. She's out and about doing stuff and wants to know if I want to go out for lunch. Neeldess to say I do. So she picks me up and we mooch into town, have a very pleasant lunch at Sun Street Cafe (where I perused the i newspaper mentioned earlier). After this we picked up her oldest niece and went to watch Silver Linings Playbook at the local cinema.

I was expecting very little, although I like Bradley Cooper a lot. But the film is actually very good, well cast, pretty well written and both Cooper and the female lead Jennifer Lawrence are very good in their portryals of folk with mental issues. Sadly the cost for three of us with one popcorn was £27!!! Madness.

My evening consisted of roast chicken for tea, an episode of The Hour and now I'm blogging about it all.

Now to meander off topic again. The Stones gig on Thurday night was epic! Wildly expensive but they really know how to put on a show. That said, Bruce Springsteen has announced UK dates next year. He is known for playing at least three hours, has a stellar back catalogue. Ticket price £55-68. The Stones? £250. Hmm.

Tomorrow's plan? More editing before the drudgery of the day job on Monday. There was something else I was going to mention but I've lost my thread.

Last of all, I'm not getting any joy reader wise from Wattpad. I might well stick something else on there but to be honest I think I might let it go. We shall see.

Until then...