Mark Alders

Browsing Archive: October, 2009

Of Fans and Fictionwise

Posted by Mark Alders on Saturday, October 31, 2009, In : Giveaways 
Fictionwise, one of the largest online eBook sellers has my book The Pauper's Prize up on their listings so you can pick up a copy of my book for a great price. Here is the link to get there.

Speaking of The Pauper's Prize, I got an email today from a fan--yes, a FAN who chose my book as part of the giveaways that went with the Rainbow Awards (Remember my book is now in the third and final round of those awards!). I was thrilled to hear that someone, other than people I know, wanted to read m...

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The Pauper's Prize into Round 3!

Posted by Mark Alders on Thursday, October 29, 2009, In : competition 
Yep, I can't believe it. In the fantasy category, my book, The Pauper's Prize has made it into the next round. Round 3 is the judges choice section. Now, really I don't hold out much hope for my book progressing any further, but I tell you what, it's been a fantastic feeling having people vote for my work.

I would like to thank you all for supporting me, and above all I would like to thank Elisa for running the Rainbow awards. It has been a huge contest with well over 500 (or so) books offere...

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Which NaNo Type Are You?

Posted by Mark Alders on Wednesday, October 28, 2009, In : NaNoWriMo 
There are two main types of NaNo people.

1) Those who want complete control (as much as possible) They are the ones who draw up maps of their world, create detailed character sheets, write a complete plot tree, a family tree for all of their major characters and even go to the extent of providing drafts of each room or scene the characters will interact in. Basically, planting down the words is a given after the fact.

2) Then there are those who will live by the seat of their pants. Taking the ...

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The Life of Writing

Posted by Mark Alders on Tuesday, October 27, 2009, In : Thoughts on Writing 
No, I'm not talking about my actual life, I'm talking about the words written down on the page and what it's like to create them.

Sure, when we read a story, we can say, 'Oh, the characters came alive' or 'the world the author created was so real'. But I am not talking about that either. I am talking about creating a work from an empty page/document file (I know most of us writers do everything on computer these days)

So how do I create my work?

I outline my work first, usually just enough detai...

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The Coming of the Unicorns

Posted by Mark Alders on Monday, October 26, 2009, In : eBooks 
After NaNo and my mad attempt to plant down 50 000 words in a month (although I have a feeling I'll run out of story before I do words--as happened to me last year) I will be working on the final edits for my fantasy series, The Lands of the Keeper. The first book being Unicorn's Peril. A story about a young man who discovers an injured unicorn. He rescues the beast and the consequences of such an actions set in motion events that will change not only his life, but the lives of all those arou...
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NaNo Dreaming

Posted by Mark Alders on Sunday, October 25, 2009, In : NaNoWriMo 
I know I am on the right track with my latest work because I dream about it. All last night I was dreaming about conversations, plot and characters. Mainly the sequence of events, the key components of the novel, and so on.

Am I the only one who does this?

I think some of the nuances of my NaNo novel have changed, now that I have worked out what the basic plot lines is in each chapter. I have outlined them, spent most of Sunday doing so.

I think when you're writing at such a blistering pace (NaN...

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NaNoWriMo Participant

Posted by Mark Alders on Saturday, October 24, 2009, In : NaNoWriMo 
This year I have decided to do NaNo! Yep...I won Nano in '07, failed in '08 and am now going to give it another crack!

Why?

Well, I need to get some words down. Promoting and being published this year has meant my actual sit-down-at-the-computer-and-writing time has taken a beating. I am still writing but nowhere as near as much as I would like. Perhaps I as I am getting older the words I plant down satisfy me more, therefore needing less of them, but who knows. I think every author has this pr...

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Rainbow Reviews

Posted by Mark Alders on Saturday, October 24, 2009, In : Reviews 
The good people over there at Rainbow Reviews have been kind enough to review two of my books.

The first is The Pauper's Prize, with Jim saying that it was a fun read and that I have a good imagination :-) to read the full review, click here.

The second review was for The Cadet's Officer, a short Fantasy Garden story I did for eXtasy in the genre of sci-fi/erotica. The review was okay, with the reviewer saying that those who like romance will like this story. Click here to see that one.

Having...

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Fiction Wise and The Pauper's Prize

Posted by Mark Alders on Friday, October 23, 2009, In : eBooks 
My best selling novel, The Pauper's Prize is now available at fictionwise, one of the largest eBooks sellers out there.

I would really like to thank each and every one of you who have helped support me and bought a copy of my book (or any of my other books) It's such a thrill to know that my books are being read and enjoyed by people who don't know me.

To purchase a copy of The Pauper's Prize from fictionwise for a great price, click right here.

Or if you want to purchase the book from my pub...
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The Response

Posted by Mark Alders on Thursday, October 22, 2009, In : news 
I've had a great response to this blog so far with plenty of you leaving me wonderful messages about how easy my new shiny site is on the eyes, easy to navigate, and above all, giving heaps of information about my books and yours truly.

I've had so much fun doing this site and look forward to making it even better as I get used to all the features on offer. Such an easy system to use, I don't know why I didn't have my own website years ago...

Now I just have to figure out how to activate comme...

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Things going well

Posted by Mark Alders on Thursday, October 22, 2009, In : news 
I am very happy with the new site here. Very functional and very easy to use, and that's saying something for me. I'm usually damn well lame at tech stuff. So yeah, stick around and follow me on my magical writing journey.

I will be updating this blog pretty much every day, so stay tuned. You can catch me on twitter, too. Just click on the link on the right hand side of this blog. While you're there, follow me and I'll follow you back.



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Halloween Competition

Posted by Mark Alders on Thursday, October 22, 2009, In : competition 


Now, seeing as Halloween is fast approaching, I thought it may be a good idea to hear from you—my readers—about any scary stories you may have that has happened to you. Just for a bit of fun. It can be about anything, from actual ghosts and things that go bump in the night to something more earthly, like being faced with an infestation of mice in the back shed. Whatever!

To get things rolling and to help get you in the right frame of mind, here’s my scary story! The scariest thing th...

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New Website and Blog

Posted by Mark Alders on Wednesday, October 21, 2009, In : news 
Well, folks, I have decided to condense all of my blogs and have all of my content on the one 'official' Mark Alders web site. Welcome!

For all my writing news, reviews, updates and releases and anything else about my writing, you'll find it here.

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About Me


Mark Alders My name is Mark Alders. I live in a house. This house has a street in front of it which is a good thing because if it didn't I wouldn't be able to drive down to the shop and purchase the chocolate I need on a daily basis *giggle* Seriously, I am a mild mannered post office worker by day and an erotic romance writer (mainly male/male) at night. Not much else to say other than, like everyone else, I have bills to pay, a mortgage and family that I love and drive me crazy all at the same time. Oh, and I have a dog, too! See? Average Joe...except when I get down and write...then I let my imagination go to places I never knew existed and my characters invade my mind.
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