Can you tell us a little bit about
"The Best Weapon"
The Best Weapon is the story of two
young men, born on the same day on opposite ends of the world and
into two vastly different cultures, who are inexorably drawn together
by forces outside their control or understanding.
As they come of age and face their own
personal trials, they begin to become aware of their true identities.
Driven by dark forces, their shared fate draws them on a journey to
the center of The World Apparent, where their enemies gather in wait.
As their world slides into war and
chaos, they discover there is much more to The World Apparent than
meets the eye, and glimpse the other worlds that lie beyond the
physical plane. Created and manipulated by demonic forces, they must
seize control of their destiny, conquer their fears, vanquish their
enemies and prevent the very disaster they are supposed to bring
about. But first they must learn that the power to do so lies
within...
What's your background with
writing?
Before I met David Pilling in roughly 2007 at
the Tate Archive (where we both worked), I spent most of my time
writing small pieces of nonsense, mainly just for the amusement of my
friends. I posted a few surreal and ridiculous blogs on MySpace. When
I met David, he encouraged me to try and write a serious short story,
so I wrote a nightmarish, gratuitously violent story called The First
Day.
It was a bit raw, but he seemed to like
it, and we got talking about co-writing a fantasy novel over a few
beers. That's when we came up with the idea for The Best Weapon.
Who are your
inspirations/influences?
My influences tend to change and evolve
over time, but the ones that stay with me and really inspire my way
of writing are Robert E Howard, H.P. Lovecraft and Bernard Cornwell.
The writers I have recently been
reading and taking a lot from are Rafael Sabatini, Carlos Ruiz Zafon,
Joe Abercrombie and Charles Bukowski, to a name a few. I take
something from every writer I read. I enjoy reading almost as much as
writing and I think it is important for any writer to read as much as
possible. After all, my love of writing was born of my love of
reading.
Who was responsible for the
cover/book design?
The cover is by More Visual.
We had a vision of what we wanted the cover to look like and I did a
very scruffy sketch and sent it to More Visual. They pretty much
nailed it first time. They also do the covers for David's historical
fiction books.
What are you doing in terms of
marketing/publicity?
We've done a few interviews on various
blogs and we're trying to take advantage of social media as much as
possible with Twitter and the Bolton and Pilling Fantasy Fictionfacebook page.
We also gave away three paperback copies on Goodreads.
We have several four and five star
reviews on Amazon and a few different fantasy blogs and websites, but
you can't have too many reviews and I'm now looking for reviewers.
What is the name of your blog and what can readers expect to find
there?
Bolton the Writer. I mainly talk about my writing on my
blog, I do the odd author interview and occasionally I'll post a
short story. You will also find artwork posted, as and when I
complete a piece. I document my dreams too, whether they're sleeping
dreams or day dreams. I find I have particularly vivid dreams and for
some reason my memory of them often seems to remain clear, this may
be a result of irritable bowel syndrome as discomfort and sometimes
pain in my stomach seems to disturb my dreams.
What projects do you have planned
for the future?
We have written a sequel to The BestWeapon, titled The Path of Sorrow, and it will be released later this
year. We are currently working on a third epic fantasy novel set in
The World Apparent, but further to the east and with a whole new cast
of characters and new cultures and landscapes. I can't say much more
about it and this stage and we're still discussing the title.
I also write a short story every month
for The 900 Club, a group of four writers who each write a 900 word
short story and post them on the blog on a monthly basis.
Those two things take up most of my
time but I am also working on some artwork and potentially starting a
new t-shirt business using some of my designs. So I have plenty to
keep me out of trouble!
Is there anything else about you we
should know?
You can see some of my artwork here.
I mainly work in ink (dot drawings) and pencil.
Thanks for coming by Martin! Pick up "The Best Weapon" at Amazon here!
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