(Guest Post & Giveaway) Shadowland By: C.M. Gray

Hello! Today I'm hosting for Tourz De Codex. The main feature is C.M. Gray's Shadowland. There will be a Guest Post, thanks to the Author! Also, there is a Giveaway, seen below, where you have the opportunity to win one free Kindle Copy of Shadowland, so do enter! :) 

Guest Post

Becoming an Indie author.

Ever since I was about eleven years old I have been an avid reader. I remember starting on books like Enid Blyton’s Famous Five and The Secret Seven. Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe soon followed and by my early teens I had read everything by Wilbur Smith and was starting on the Steven King books as they were just coming out (yep, I’m old!).

There is an old saying that everybody has a book or two inside them, I remember that echoing around in my head for years. I discovered the world of fantasy in my twenties when discovering an old copy of The Hobbit in a second hand book shop. The Lord of the Rings soon followed. Those books unlocked a certain something in my head, as I know they did for many writers.

Fast forward a good few years, and after travelling the world, living in places like France, Amsterdam, Israel, India, Hong Kong and The Philippines, I settled in Spain with my wife and two Children, Dylan and Yasmin.

At the time I typed out my first sentence, Dylan was still a baby and my wife had discovered reality TV shows. I took a distinct dislike to watching people make fools of themselves trying to sing, and sat down at my laptop.

‘We all have a book or two inside us... ’ It was still there. Little did I realise, but the experience of writing was better than watching a film, better than playing a game on a computer and even better than reading a great book; it turned out to be all three things combined!

I type really fast and to be honest the first draft of anything I write is filled with mistakes and has very little grammar; I just have to get the ‘story’ out. It’s like reading that great book but controlling the characters as I would in the computer game and the film just plays in my mind.

About four months after sitting down that first time, the first draft of The Flight of the Griffin was born. I proudly typed ‘The End’ and thought I had made it; I was an author! However, reality struck when I started reading and found I had to do an awful lot of work to bring it into any kind of legible state!

I first took the ‘traditional’ route and looked for an agent, sending out at least a hundred manuscripts. Finally, just like the number eleven bus, two came at the same time! I chose one, we met in London to sign contracts and a couple of months later my book was in an auction between two very large publishers; fantastic! ...but then I came down to earth a month or so later when both publishers dropped the book for, what I thought at the time were, crazy reasons... the agent lost interest.

To be honest I lost interest as well for a while; in agents, publishers and even writing.

However, some time later I discovered Amazon’s KDP programme for Indie authors. I had written Shadowland by that time, just for my own amusement, and after getting a professional edit, I put that onto the Amazon programme. The Flight of the Griffin got the same treatment and followed soon after and now with them both on Smashwords .com and in paperback on LULU as well, I am selling quite a few books every day. I’m not making a fortune, but people are reading my work and I’m getting great reviews and wonderful feedback from readers. As you can see from this article I’m now working with some fantastic blog sites and add as much as I can to various websites and forums.

It’s tough being an Indie, but I don’t have anyone telling me what to write and when it has to be done and I’m much closer to you, the readers.

So, if you have ever heard a small voice in the back of your head telling you to switch off the television and write a book, give it a go. We all have a book or two inside us and it may just be an awesome read!

Book Description

We grow up with the Legend of King Arthur ... But where did he come from? Who was Merlin? What part did the Druids play in bringing Arthur to his round table? Shadowland is the story that came before, when Britain was in its darkest age. It tells of the start of the Pendragon line and the birth of a legend.

  

`I have lived more years than I can remember, probably more than the sum of all your years combined. Kings have called me friend and brigands have sworn to burn the flesh from my bones even if they have to search all seven halls of the shadowland to find me.'

On the night of midwinter's eve, a storyteller takes his listeners back to the Dark ages and a tale from his youth.

Usher Vance and Calvador Craen return to their village to find it being attacked by a Saxon and Pict war party. With the help of an aging bowman they pursue the warriors and manage to free Cal's sister. Now being hunted they escape into the forest and follow the path a druid sets them on find welcome and a few surprises with a rising army of Britons set upon reclaiming their land from the Saxon invaders.

With the death of Ambrosius at Mount Badon a new king must rise to meet the challenge and return the land to the tribes.

About The Author

Born in Essex, England in 1963 I have since been lucky enough to live and travel in many countries around the world. In fact I have lived more time outside of England than I have living there! Home for me now is just outside of Barcelona, Spain where I live in a house in the middle of the forest with my Dutch born wife and two children, Dylan and Yasmin.

My writing is mostly fantasy and many of the experiences I have had in Asia, Africa and the middle east come to life in my writing. The Flight of the Griffin follows the adventures of a group of young orphans as they battle demons and bandits on a magical quest to stop the world tipping into Chaos. Shadowland blends fantasy with history as an old story teller takes his audience back to Britain's dark ages.

Find Him And The Book Here

Blog//Goodreads Author Page//Amazon Author Page

Goodreads Book Page//Amazon Book Page

*Giveaway*

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