Tag: author

Why did I choose to self-publish?

T. J. BlakeLeave a comment

It’s been three years (on the 28th of March) since I self-published my first novel Endurance.  I remember working on it whilst at university, and I most of all remember having doubts about self-publishing Endurance – mostly because there was a niggling fear of what people would say or think about me for doing it.

I personally love the freedom of self-publishing, even though it does require some more work – who am I kidding, some? A LOT more work.

I believe new writers should try their luck with self-publishing; mainly to engage with readers, create a following and allow people to review your work and help adapt you as a writer. From my experience, encouraging people to read your stories is the key part to self-publishing; even if you give them the book for free

Covering: What are the benefits of self-publishing? & Self-Publishing on Createspace

Source: Why did I choose to self-publish?

How time flies – why did I choose to self-publish?

How time flies – why did I choose to self-publish?
Time. It’s a funny thing. We have so much of it, but we still don’t always take advantage of it.
This blog post is just a quick post about why I chose to self-publish and how it’s changed me.

T. J. BlakeLeave a comment

It’s been three years (on the 28th of March) since I self-published my first novel Endurance. 

IMG_0259

I remember working on it whilst at university, and I most of all remember having doubts about self-publishing Endurance – mostly because there was a niggling fear of what people would say or think about me for doing it. Once I adapted a hardness and carelessness for what people would say about me, my decision was made. The decision though even after that wasn’t simple, because then I needed to consider whether to self-publish Endurance after an edit, or to finish Endurance and then just see if I could get the story published.

However, when I thought about it, I knew that would be a challenge for anyone, let alone a nineteen year old university student. In the end, I thought ‘you know what? fuck it, I’m going to give it a go’ and decided to start my self-publishing career as T. J. Blake.
‘Why?’ I here you ask; because firstly, I could, but secondly, I wanted to see what people thought of my writing. I had a slight idea of what people thought of my work, because of my Creative Writing and English Language studies, but I wanted to know what more people thought; more than my family or my peers. This is exactly what self-publishing has done for me, it’s given me a great amount of experience, a huge boost in confidence and now I’m ready to self-publish more.

So here I am, nearly three years later with three books self-published, and a fourth & fifth in the works, I’m very happy with my writing progress.

Having self-published two out of three books from The Endurance Series (Endurance & Endurance: Apocalypse) and standalone novel The Author, I can proudly say that I am looking forward to self-publishing my fourth novel DECEPTION, the finale of The Endurance Series (Endurance 3) and the many more books and book series to follow.

If you want to find out more about my books, then feel free to continue to ‘Books by T. J. Blake‘ or continue to my Amazon author page or even my Goodreads author page.

Endurance: Apocalypse - Out Now!                                          the-author-front-cover2

img_0801-1

Overuse of the exclamation mark: You’re having a laugh!!!! A little strict?!!

T. J. BlakeLeave a comment

I’m sure you’ve heard today in the news – about the implemented changes to the use of the exclamation mark for primary school children. The newly introduced educational exclamation law means that for pupils across England, only phrases starting with “what” or “how” merit an exclamation mark.

I think that it’s always good to educate children on punctuation – it moulds our language and creates meaning. Without punctuation, people write extremely comical yet disturbing sentences.

“Let’s eat Mum!” & “Let’s eat, Mum!”

“I live for cooking my family and my dog” & “I live for cooking, my family, and my dog”

Unless you want to sound like a disturbing family orientated carnivore, knowing how to use punctuation is key!!! (Sorry!)

exclamation-mark-1183409_960_720.jpg

I support punctuation education, but I don’t quite understand the specific focus on the exclamation mark. Of course, there needs to be limited use of exclamation marks and even question marks when it matters most – two examples being in education or professional  writing, such as copywriting. People alter their writing and even their speech in certain situations, and I believe that for children it is the same; they will accommodate their writing when at school compared to when writing on say, social media, text or messenger. But even if they don’t, then it is up to the teacher to educate them.

Anyway, I thought this was interesting and definitely has much more needed to be said on the matter.

My latest article ‘How has technology affected the relation between speech and writing?‘ I believe has a great cohesion with this subject, so have a read of that too!

Also, this news is all over the Internet, have a read about the new exclamation mark rules on the BBC and The Guardian.

BBC – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03lrtwd

The Guardian – http://www.theguardian.com/education/shortcuts/2016/mar/07/new-exclamation-mark-rules-proof-the-government-wants-to-penalise-enthusiasm

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/07/children-use-exclamation-marks-department-education

Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and share this post!

Creative Writing: Illusory Waters

T. J. BlakeLeave a comment

Afternoon everyone.

I thought I would let you all know that I have now added another Creative Writing piece to my sparkly new Creative Writing page. This new entry is a short story of mine, which was previously called The Metaphorical Truth, now called Illusory Waters.
I changed the name simply because Illusory Waters is much more appropriate, and I think it sounds much better!

If you have a spare five minutes, then please, have a read of my new short story Illusory Waters.

Further amendments to my blog

T. J. BlakeLeave a comment

What have I been doing with all of my Saturday morning? Well I’m feeling a bit ill, so I thought why not stay in and do some work on my blog; before knuckling down to write some more of DECEPTION.  

So, what have I done? Well, I came across a piece of work which I wrote in my first year of university. At the time I think I received a 2:1, but reading back I’m not sure how I got such a good mark!
Anyway, I went through it, made a couple of changes and now it’s available to read on my blog as an article. This brings me onto my first change to the blog, my new page – the’Articles‘ page – where I can now upload articles I write or find lurking within my computer. You’re probably wondering what my article is about? It’s about how technological development has impacted our language. The article covers a basic overview of how technology has adapted, as well as looking into how it has changed people’s writing and speaking capabilities, or has it? – How has technology affected the relation between speech and writing?

I’ve also created a ‘Creative Writing‘ page, which basically merges most of my creative pieces together. These pieces currently include my Flash Fiction, ‘Poem Attempts’ and Short Story Nightmare.
On this Creative Writing page, I have added something pretty nifty. Everyone loves a poll (I know I certainly do) and when we see one on a website, it’s hard not to vote, right? This is why I have created a poll for my Creative Writing page. By going to this page and scrolling to the bottom, you can find the poll and place a vote!
It’s a basic question, it’s not political and it isn’t going to impact anyone’s life, but I would like to know which of my Creative Writing pieces you enjoyed most.

Those are my two major changes to the T. J. Blake #Author blog, feel free to have a nose!

Writing DECEPTION

T. J. BlakeLeave a comment

Just a quick one from me! 

Getting closer to completing the first draft of my thriller DECEPTION! Can’t wait to get into the editing to fine tune this beast of a book. I’m excited about it, I hope you will be too!   

Writing DECEPTION – Instagram post 

T. J. BlakeLeave a comment

  
#amwriting my next #thriller DECEPTION. So close to completing the first draft and really looking forward to making it available for everyone to read! 📖🖊 #author #writing #writer #mystery #DECEPTION #novel #book #TJBLAKE #comingsoon 
Follow me on Instagram – t.j.blake93

DECEPTION Ch.21 – Billy has finally read the entries

T. J. BlakeLeave a comment

I’ve been working on DECEPTION again this weekend, and now more has been shown to Billy. 

He was in unfamiliar territory when asked to read some entries that he promised he would never read. But because he needed answers, he’s had to go against that. After reading the entries, there are some answers for Billy, but some things are still unclear. 

Billy returns home and something is not quite right. Something is missing. Something he loves has gone. 

T. J. Blake #Author blog stats for 2015

T. J. BlakeLeave a comment

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,500 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 25 trips to carry that many people…

Where did they come from?

79 countries in all!
Most visitors came from The United States. United Kingdom & Brazil were not far behind.

Click here to see the complete report.

Thanks to everyone who has viewed and interacted with my blog, it’s always great to meet and speak with you all.

The Endurance Series and The Author – free today on Amazon

Free promotion – My three novels are free to download this weekend on Amazon.

T. J. BlakeLeave a comment

My books Endurance, Endurance: Apocalypse and The Author are all free to download today and tomorrow. That’s right, pay absolutely nothing to download them onto you Kindle and begin reading them within seconds!
If you enjoy a thrilling journey that is riddled with mystery and splattered in blood, then these three books are for you.

Head over to Amazon now by clicking the links below – they’re global links so wherever you are in the world, you will be directed to the relevant Amazon page – and begin reading my books for FREE!

Download Endurance – Horror, Mystery and Suspense

London is silent. Severed bodies lie amongst the rubble. What once was a lively city is a now a murderous grave, enclosed in smoke and ash. The cause of the destruction is unknown. Left haunted and terrified, survivor Tom Williams confronts the brutal, mutilated streets as he fights to uncover the truth. Could he be the last hope to restore normality?

Download Endurance: Apocalypse – Horror, Mystery and Suspense

London is intolerable; the infected dominate the ravaged streets. Miller has gained full control and takes advantage of his authority, experimenting with the virus in an attempt to form a new superhuman army.
“Danni entered the station, the breeze was the only sound, eerily howling through the underground; the station was deserted. She ran up the escalators and stood at the top of Waterloo station. Staring along the station she saw corpses scattered across the ground. Splattered and smudged blood decorated Waterloo.”

Download The Author – Thriller, Mystery and Suspense

Four years after his wife and children disappeared, Ryan Milligan decides it’s time to let go of the past and move to a new home on Mulberry Lane. Ryan hoped his new house and peaceful neighbourhood would help him to cope better with the pain of losing his family and to continue his search. Whilst settling in and writing his new novel, ‘Killing for your love’, he realises things are not what they seem…

“My new house is only a mile away from the home I used to live in with Tan and the kids, but now I feel like I’m in a different world. I can’t help but feel like I’ve been here before and done this before. There’s a presence here, I can feel it. There are things happening in this house that aren’t normal. I’m threatened by the lack of control I have over them.
There’s one room where I feel it most, and as I stare at the door leading down into the basement, it begins to creak open.”

Find out more about me by heading to my Amazon Author Page

IMG_0670