Tag Archives: book

Connor Cadellin McKee launches Children of the Crater

I am excited! On Monday 26th May, Children of the Crater, the first novel from the very Connor Cadellin Mckee
talented Connor Cadellin McKee is launched to the world. Lucky world! Having had the privilege of editing this book, I know first hand just how good it is – a dark dystopian fantasy which raises all sorts of questions and will leave you breathless. Here’s what Connor has to say about it

 

 

Children of the CraterFive years ago, my 16 year old self had a dream. One of those really vivid ones that makes you sit up in the night and scrabble for a pen and paper because it was so vivid.
Now, I used to write down an awful lot of these, but this one was special. My recollection was fragmented, but I had the important pieces. A man tumbling down into a crater ringed with riot police. Flying above the night sky, green flames writhing across my skin. A longhouse hidden deep in the jungle. It was fantastic; I wanted to meet these characters, learn their story.
I used to do sketches from the more vivid dreams, and I got to work pretty quickly on this one. I tried making it into a graphic novel originally, but the sheer level of drawing needed for that dissuaded me. It wasn’t until that summer that I had the idea of writing it down on a computer. It weaved and shifted as the years went by; I continually chopped it up, rearranged it, threw in new sections, and it began to materialize from a myriad of different scraps of paper and text documents on my old laptop.
And suddenly the release date is upon me! It feels almost unreal; I had never expected it to come this far. Children of the Crater as it is now called, is a book sitting on my shelf, with my name and the character I once sketched out on an airline napkin. It almost makes me wonder how many undiscovered worlds are out there, sitting in desk drawers.

New Book Out Today!

girl with blue hairThe wizards at Magic Oxygen pressed the button this morning and Catching Up With The Past has already appeared on the digital shelves of the Amazon Kindle store as I write. Needless to say, I am very excited! And although the process still seems like magic, there’s a lot of work that goes in  beforehand, so thank you Tracey and Simon West for all your hard work, and thank you also Sophie Graves, Anne Maloney, Lucy West and Abby Smith, for giving me such helpful feedback on the original.

 As I mentioned in my last post, bullying is a theme in the book, and sadly still affects many people of all ages. If you are being bullied, please do not feel that it’s your fault, or that you have to suffer in silence. Tell someone you trust – you don’t have to be alone.

I hope you enjoy the story!

Launch Day!

When Joe Met Alice coverToday ‘When Joe Met Alice’ has officially entered the big wide world, and a long held dream has been realised. I have had something published! Please excuse me if I sound a little excited – in fact no, make that a big excited. As a writer you hope one day you will find yourself in print, be it paper and ink or pixels and screen, but that is tempered by all sorts of things, the vagaries of the market, what’s hot and what’s not, writer’s block, a good dose of self doubt etc., etc. However, at the risk of starting to sound like someone making a bad Oscar’s speech, I have been lucky enough to have family and friends that encouraged, enthused and occasionally nagged me, until the light at the end of the tunnel turned into sunshine and Magic Oxygen. Thank you, all of you, for having faith and telling me I could. I couldn’t have done it without you!

So… if you are champing at the bit to buy it head over to Amazon for the Kindle version or SmashWords for other e-Book versions.

The Final Countdown

Clock faceWell, the day is nearly here and I can hardly believe it. Tomorrow ‘When Joe Met Alice’ is officially released as an e-book, and will be available in all the usual places. ‘When Joe Met Alice’ is a romance with a magical twist, set around Halloween, which is why I’m so pleased it’s coming out now, so close to the day itself. Not surprisingly, I love Halloween, the history and the mystery, the chance to dress up and have fun, while remembering all those that have gone before. It’s a night where in the past I’ve scared myself silly swapping ghost stories with friends and watching daft horror films from behind a cushion. However now I prefer something a little gentler and kinder to my sleep pattern. Alice and Joe gave me the perfect story to celebrate with. So if you like something bitter-sweet and a little spooky, let me invite you into their world tomorrow. I hope you enjoy it!

New book coming soon – When Joe Met Alice

when_joe_met_aliceI am so excited that When Joe Met Alice is coming out at the end of October; how appropriate, since Halloween is a part of it. I wrote it over several months after Alice wandered into my head one day and it became apparent that her story needed to be told. When it was finished, several people liked it and said ‘You should get that published.’ But how? Where? That was when Magic Oxygen came to my rescue. Simon is nothing short of a web wizard and Tracey has such a great eye for detail. They have helped me to put together all the things I hadn’t even thought about, bio, cover and all. I had a vague idea of a cover image, which has been translated into absolute perfection, as you can see; my gorgeous ‘Alice’ is the lovely Lucy West. Thank you Lucy!