A new year and a break from the norm. Pericarditis - my story.

Happy new year to everyone. I hope you all enjoyed a nice Christmas and were able to get some time off your work to spend with friends and family.

Usually my blogs are about writing, my books and my experiences as an author. This blog is going to be a bit different. I'm going to talk about a disease called Pericarditis.

In 2001 (when I was 26) I was in my office going about my normal day when I started to get pains in my chest. The pain became more acute and would not go away. I struggled to the first aid room and lay down, which made the pain worse. I was terrified that I was having a heart attack and an ambulance was dully called.

I don't remember much about the ambulance trip but I do remember getting to the hospital just as the A&E was being evacuated due to an MRSA outbreak. It was a scene of chaos and turmoil. Eventually I was in my hospital bed with my mum and brother standing next to me. The doctor came in and told me that I had pericarditis; an inflammation of the pericardium which is the sack of fluid around your heart. 

All I heard were the words inflammation and heart. Not understanding what the disease was or how it could be cured I was terrified. I remember my mum's face and my brother looking shocked. I was 26, 26 year olds shouldn't have heart problems. I decided to ignore the fact that at the time I was a smoker of 20 cigarettes per day. As it turned out smoking had nothing to do with my getting pericarditis. However I never smoked another cigarette again. 

I spent some time in hospital and had a prelonged period off work to recover. A side effect of pericarditis was a condition called fibromyalgia which causes pain all over the body. I will talk about this in another blog soon. 

The important thing is that with the correct medicines and care I made a full recovery and was even able to go back to playing football. I had 6 monthly tests done every year for several years after which showed a return to normal. The experience meant I gave up smoking and ended up a lot healthier.

Pericarditis is quite common in men and is usually caused by a viral or bacterial infection. It is fairly easily treated now and in most cases is not life threatening. 

So you are probably asking yourself why am I telling you about a disease I had 13 years ago that some of you may not have heard of. Well just before Christmas I had a return of chest pains and some of the symptoms were very similar to 2001. Finally after several weeks I went to the doctor and this week I was in hospital at the cardiology unit getting all the tests run that I had back 2001. After a day of ECG's, ultrasounds, treadmill tests and chats with my cardiologist I am glad to say the pain is not being caused by any heart problems or a return of pericarditis. The cause of the pain is still unknown but ruling out the major cause of chest pain was a relief. 

This return to hospital reminded me that I always said I would write about my experience and offer this simple message to anyone who is unlucky enough to suffer pericarditis. It can be cured and you can return to a normal life fairly soon afterwards. Maybe, you will gain something like giving up smoking as I did. I've included a link to the NHS site here in the UK that gives more details on pericarditis. 

NHS Information

I hope some of you find this blog post useful and maybe it will reassure some of you if you are going through pericarditis just now. 

Kevin

www.kevinmcleodauthor.com

twitter @bannon1975

email Kevin's email

Book Week Scotland and the authorsdb 2013 book cover contest

How is everyone?

I hope you are all well, and I hope if you are in Scotland you are able to join in Book week Scotland in some way. Even if it's just picking up a book for the first time in ages, and sitting down to get lost in the imagination of your favourite author.

My Book week has started very well. This morning The Master's Revenge reached number 1 in the best seller list for norse on Amazon.co.uk. Thank you to everyone who has purchased a copy. I really appreciate it. I still can't believe how successful both books have been. This time last year I was still waiting on The Viking's Apprentice being published and now I am lucky enough to have had a number one best seller in Canada and the UK and number 2 in the US. It's amazing what you can achieve when you put your mind too it.

Back to book week. I feel I should point out this is my first Book Week Scotland as an author. This week I have a series of talks in local schools to talk about writing, reading and my own experiences as an author. Public speaking is something I'm getting used to, and hopefully better at, however I'm much more comfortable behind my laptop than in front of an audience.

The children I will be talking to are all in the age group that my books are aimed at. I am genuinely interested in seeing how many of them are regular readers and what they look for in their books. I will post again on Thursday night once I have completed my series of talks and I will let you all know how it went and what I gained from the experience.

If you would like to know more about Book Week Scotland please visit their website Scottish Book Trust.

AuthorsDB Book Cover Contest

You may be aware of a great website called www.authorsdb.com this is a website that shows 1000's of great book covers from every genre from new and old authors alike. Every year they hold a book cover contest and I'm delighted to say that The Master's Revenge has made it through to the semi finals. Voting for the semi finals ends on December 15th. I would love you all to please follow this link and vote for my book cover. Scroll down to where it shows you the star ratings and please cast your vote. You can vote once per day. I appreciate all your support. The link is underneath the book cover.

click here to vote

Thank you to everyone who votes. If you would like to contact me you can do so by any of the following means.

Facebook - www.facebook.com/thevikingsapprentice

twitter - @bannon1975

email - kevinmcleodauthor@gmail.com

website - www.kevinmcleodauthor.com

Guest post from a reviewer

How is everyone today?

It's freezing in Scotland, and yesterday we had the first snowfall of the winter, and technically it's not even winter yet. My car is in the garage getting a winter service, while draining my bank account as the repairs get done.

I don't want to talk about my books today. In fact I don't want to say much at all. I am going to hand over to a reviewer to tell us a little bit about themselves. Quite often authors are invited to talk on reviewer and blogger sites and I thought it would be nice to reciprocate.

My very first guest on my blog is Rebecca Bennett of Rebbie reviews. Rebecca was the first reviewer to review The Viking's Apprentice so it seems only fair that she is the first reviewer to guest on my blog. Her reviews are excellently written, well structured and tell you enough about each book without giving too much away. That, in itself, is a skill.

Ok, over to Rebecca:

Reading has always been my passion, ever since I was little. I'd join book clubs at school and spend my free time exploring libraries or doing research online. I've always had far more books than bookshelves and that has never put me off buying new ones. Reading has actually got me through some really dark times and helped me to escape reality for a few hours, as I'd lapse into character after character. As you can imagine, having a kindle now it's more tempting than ever to buy every book I find since it all fits into one device!

I was reading that many books and verbally reviewing them to my boyfriend that he suggested reviewing the books on Amazon and similar websites. After a while I decided I needed a hobby so I created Rebbie Reviews, a simple blog on wordpress where I would publish my reviews and eventually when I got bored I could just shut it down. I never imagined anyone would actually read it! When I realised I was getting regular views I decided to make a Twitter page and the first person I met was an Indie Author named Kevin. I hadn't even realised that there was this whole online community of new and relatively unknown authors out there when I first decided to start my reviews, and it quickly changed from a hobby I could quit at any time to a way to promote these wonderful people and help move indie authors into the spotlight.

Of course I still review any book I read but I have found friends in the indie community and love reading their work and chatting to them about their works in progress. Another thing I like about reviewing is the ability to recommend books and encourage younger people to read more. All from my laptop! There are more and more kids out there who don't read and those kids are quickly becoming adults. If I can inspire just one person out there to read a book then I've done my job.

I want to thank Rebecca for taking the time to write her post. If you're an author looking for a review or a book lover looking for your next book then I encourage you all to visit Rebbie Reviews and have a look around. You can connect to her on twitter @rebbie_reviews

Would you like to guest post? If so drop me an email or leave a comment on this post and I will get back to you. Everyone is welcome (within reason). My contact details are at the end of this post. 

I am considering doing proof reading for other aspiring authors out there. I have had several requests and if you would like to make a request please get in touch. 

Ok, so just in case you don't know anything about my books here is a very short summary. 

The Viking's Apprentice has been an amazon best seller in America, Canada and the UK and can be viewed here - The Viking's Apprentice Highest chart positions: 2 in America, 1 in Canada and 5 in UK.

The Master's Revenge, which is book 2 in the series, has reached the Amazon best seller list in America and Canada (still working on the UK!) Highest chart positions 4 in America, 3 in Canada and 31 in the UK. It can be viewed here - The Master's Revenge

Both books are available in paperback and kindle. 

My contact details are: www.kevinmcleodauthor.com or kevinmcleodauthor@gmail.com. 

My twitter account is - @bannon1975

facebook - The Viking's Apprentice

Have a great week everyone.

Kevin

The Viking's Apprentice

The Master's Revenge

Grammar.... The word writers fear.

How is everyone today?

You're a writer, and you've just finished writing your book. It feels good doesn't it? You've probably read the book a thousand times cover to cover. You're convinced it's great, there's nothing to add, and nothing left to change. Wait though; how good is your grammar?

The first time I was asked that question I was taken aback. Hang on! Is someone questioning me? I'm an author, and I've written a great book. How dare they, but maybe I will look it over one more time just to be sure. Now that I read it again I'm not so sure those commas are all in the correct places. When do I use a semi colon instead of a comma? What's a hyphen? Oh my god do I even know how to use a full stop!! Ok the last one is a little dramatic, but you get the idea.

I wrote The Viking's Apprentice, and I was completely happy with it until I gave it to an editor to have a look at. I expected it back with a few corrections and suggestions. What I got back was the same story covered in red marks and suggestions for improving my grammar. Again. How very dare they!! Then I read it with their changes and without their changes. You'll never guess what; they were right. I was so caught up in the story I hadn't paid enough attention to the grammar.

I decided to take myself to grammar school. There are a lot of aides and websites out there that promise to check your work in an automated fashion. Do you trust those? I don't, and my reasons are simple. Isn't that what Word is supposed to do? Also an automated programme is only as good as the programmer who makes it. What if they don't know their stuff then how does the software they push out? 'Garbage in = Garbage out!' as my computer teacher used to say.

I went old school. I took the time to learn how to do it for myself.

I have visited 100's of sites and a lot of them just want to sell you something that will apparently make your life easier. What will actually make your life easier (as I have found out) is sitting down and reading. Learn how to use grammar correctly. Practice it daily, and become more confident in yourself. You won't get every line of your book right, but you will know that it is a lot closer than my first attempt.

Here are some of the links that helped me most.

Summary of commas

Semi colons

Comparing colons and semi colons

The Apostrophe

The Hyphen

All of these links will hopefully help you write a story which is structured correctly, which will add to the overall appeal to the reader. Also when you click on these links if you scroll around you will find links to more grammar help.

Oh, now here's something I'm going to admit. Should I.... OK I will. My second book The Master's Revenge which is book 2 in the Viking series was on it's final read through when I was asked this question. Is that the correct use of 'past'? What do you mean? I answered; suddenly doubting myself. Well, do you walk past something or do you walk passed something? There it was, I was stuck, suddenly completely useless in the world of English, a language I have spoken since I was about 2! 36 years later I am wondering if I have ever used the words past and passed correctly. I put on my learning head and went to the web for answers. I found a great site that helped me answer this question and some others.

Grammar monster past v passed

Just so we are clear, I am in no way affiliated with any websites, and I receive no money for offering up links. I just want to help you find the best sites out there quickly and easily to aid your writing.

Please don't waste your hard earned money buying up grammar checkers. Get the knowledge from the links I have suggested or others like them. Take the time to make your story even better.

I hope this has helped some of you. If you would like to contact me to talk about this post or anything else then here is how to do it.

kevinmcleodauthor@gmail.com or twitter @bannon1975 or www.kevinmcleodauthor.com or even my facebook fan page

Currently I am happy to say that both of my books are in the top 25 in their genre on Amazon.com. The Viking's Apprentice is a previous number 1 best seller in Canada and number 2 in America. If you would like to purchase either book or find out more about them please click on these links.

The Viking's Apprentice

The Viking's Apprentice II: The Master's Revenge

Some writing tips when writing for children

I made a promise to blog more, and I also made a promise to give more back. Rather than tell you about me and my books I hope to give you some helpful tips a long the way.

I would like to start with a subject that is close to me as it is the genre I am currently writing in. My books are aimed at anyone 8 years and older, but in particular they are aimed at children between the ages of 8 and 14. When writing for this age group we have to take into consideration something that is maybe not that obvious at first glance. Children have amazing imaginations and they want to use them. Children do not want to be told exactly what every character in a book looks like. The trick is to give them enough details so that the description is sound, while leaving room for those amazing imaginations to flourish and take the reader where they want to go.

My good characters are described by height, eye colour, hair colour and by some of their traits. IE Peter is the sports champion whilst George is the cheeky, always getting a laugh, friend. This gives children the building blocks to build their imaginations into the characters I have created for them.

I'll give you another example of this, and then a story to back it up. In my first book, The Viking's Apprentice, the cover depicts two Vikings with horned helmets. History buffs may point out that very few Vikings actually wore these helmets (a point I discuss in my author notes at the end of the book) but if you ask a child to draw a Viking the horns are always there. Throughout the book there are various Viking characters and not once do I describe what they are wearing. If I was writing a book for adults I would have gone into much more detail, but for children it's not required and I don't advise doing it.

So how do I know that my Viking characters got children's imaginations going? I visited a school who had taken the book as their reading book for primary 5 - 7 (ages 8 to 11), and the children had put together three projects for me on the book. Some of the projects were of their drawings of the characters in the book. There were several drawings of my Vikings and all were different, but all had the horns. Each child gets the chance to fill in the characters how they want to see them. I urge you to read my books and judge for yourself. Do you see what I mean? The technique involves giving them enough starting points to set their imaginations free. It works!

The evil characters in my books were tougher to describe. I had to take myself back to being a child and remember what scared me. The dark scared me, what's lurking there? What is hiding in those shadows under my bed or in the closet. Do you remember that feeling? I tried to capture that feeling in creating some of the evil characters, in particular the Shadow walkers and their leader who I will let you meet for yourself if you read the book.

While I'm on the subject of children's books, and before I forget here is a tip for the cover of your book. Always have the hero facing away from the reader. Why?? The same reason as above. Children do not want to be told exactly what their hero looks like. How many times have you read a book and then the film comes out. They change the cover to the actor's face. What do we all say? 'That's not how I imagined him!'. Exactly the same for children. So if you have one of your main characters (good guys) on the cover have them facing away from the reader. See my cover for The Master's Revenge below.

The hero faces away from the reader, what does he look like to you? What face are you imagining? Your child or the child reader is doing exactly the same, and their imagination blows yours out of the water!

To sum up when writing a book for children of this age group allow them to use their imaginations to place their hero, how they picture them, in the world you have created for them.

1000's of you took the chance to download The Viking's Apprentice for free last weekend, and I thank each and every one of you. I hope you enjoy the book, and hopefully enjoy it enough to continue on to book 2 and beyond.

If you would like to buy my books you can do so at these links. The links will take you to the Amazon page for your country.

The Viking's Apprentice - Buy it here

The Master's Revenge - Buy it here

The Viking's Apprentice reached number 1 in Canada and number 2 in America. It is still in the top 20 in Canada and the top 10 in America.

I have recently started a pinterest board called 'Judge a book by it's Cover'. I would love you all to come and follow me there, and I will add you all to the board so you can pin your favourite covers with me. You can do that here - My pinterest

Contact me at www.kevinmcleodauthor.com or by email @ kevinmcleodauthor@gmail.com. You can reach me on twitter @bannon1975 or on facebook via www.facebook.com/thevikingsapprentice

Would you like to listen to my latest radio interview? If so click here - Interview with Janice Ross

I will write again early next week. Have a great weekend.

Kevin

Free kindle giveaway and book 2 release.

How is everyone this morning?

Today marks another step on the journey for me. Book 2 in the Viking series, The Master's Revenge is released on Amazon kindle. To celebrate this release and to say thank you to the 1000's of you that have read my blog I have decided to make book 1 free this weekend. You can get your copy of The Viking's Apprentice for free from today, Saturday 28th of September, until Monday the 30th.

Here is a shot of the cover art for The Master's Revenge.

I apologize for the lack of blogging over the past two months, but I have been busy writing The Master's Revenge and I hope you all love it as much as you appear to have loved The Viking's Apprentice. My blogs will start up again next week and I promise to blog more and I will talk about how I create my characters, and I will also share with you some useful sites etc for grammar.

If you would like a free copy of The Viking's Apprentice kindle version please follow these links.

US readers - The Viking's Apprentice

UK readers - The Viking's Apprentice

Everyone else - The Viking's Apprentice (this is a universal amazon link which will take you to the correct amazon page for your country )

If you want to purchase The Masters Revenge you can do so at these links.

US readers - The Master's Revenge

UK readers - The Master's Revenge

Everyone else - The Master's Revenge (universal link for all amazon sites)

Have a great weekend everyone.

Kevin

Radio interview, why I chose Vikings and writing tips

Today I had my first radio interview with host Janice Ross. If you would like to listen you can here. Radio Interview. As this was my first interview and it was being conducted with an American host I required to use Skype to do the interview.

HOT TIPS for people using Skype to do their radio interviews:

1. Make sure you are signed in and online! Yes I know how can someone not sign in and be online.. well I managed it. Fortunately I noticed with 3 minutes to go and finally clicked myself to 'online'.

2. Close the window with the radio station on it if you don't you will hear yourself about one sentence behind. Again a rookie error in my book, but I realised quite quickly and turned it off.

3. Have notes, just wee reminders about things you want to talk about. I had my notes and we covered everything in them through the natural flow of the conversation. Still it was useful to have them just in case.

I really enjoyed the experience and would love to do more. I am booked on to Janice's show again on September the 28th. If anyone else would like to interview me please drop me a line. My contact details are at the end of this blog.

Vikings

Something I am asked a lot is why I chose Vikings for my story. There are a couple of reasons. Growing up in Scotland every class at some point in primary school does a Viking project. This begins the interest in Vikings which never leaves us. These amazing people that traveled the seas, invaded and pillaged. Their fantastic ships cutting through the waves arriving on foreign shores.

The other reason is that there is a link between my clan, the clan McLeod, and Vikings. Olaf the 2nd of Iceland or Olaf the Black as he was known was a Viking king who had seven sons. One of these sons was Leod. Leod was a Viking who came to Scotland and never left the country. He married a Scottish woman and they had a son. That son became McLeod as Mc and Mac in Scotland mean 'son of''. The clan McLeod was born and Leod became the first chief. Leod lived from 1200 to 1280AD.

I hope that answers the question as to why I chose Vikings.

The role of the Vikings in my story is not that of the traditional pillaging invaders. They take on an almost heroic role. There are always two sides to every story after all, they can't always be the bad guys!

If anyone has any questions for me about the themes in my book I am always available to answer them. Feel free to contact me.

Writing tips

When I am talking to people about writing a comment I hear over and over goes along the lines of: 'I thought about writing a book, even started, then gave up on it.'
The first tip is you need to stick at it. If you are one of those people who has a story to tell then keep going until the story is told.

Set a deadline, in fact set several throughout the project. When will you have a chapter finished? When will you have the book finished? Setting deadlines gives you a goal to achieve, something to work too. Make the deadline realistic. If you have a day job, a family and other commitments you are not going to be able to devote hours a day to your writing. I set myself a deadline of two years for The Viking's Apprentice and completed the first draft with two weeks to spare.

Be prepared for your book to need work. No matter how good a writer you are an editor will find mistakes. Don't take the corrections to heart, each correction makes the story better for the reader.

I used a couple of editors for my book and a proof reader. I think this is a really important part of the process and one every writer cannot afford to skip. It is almost impossible to edit and proofread your own work. You are too close to it. You created the story so will miss small mistakes that an editor and proof reader will find.

Choose a title that makes sense to the story. Seems straight forward and obvious right? The Viking's Apprentice was originally called Campbell's Cove. I kept that title right through the first draft. It was feedback from the proof reader and my wife that convinced me to change the name. What did the title tell the reader about my book? The sum total of zero. So why was I convinced it was correct? I created the town of Campbell's Cove for my book so it meant a lot to me. I could connect too it, but readers wouldn't.

I read through my book three times before choosing the new title, The Viking's Apprentice. I love the title and readers seem to love it as well.

If you choose the path of trying to get an agent and/or publisher do not be disheartened by the word 'no'. Not everyone will share your vision of what a great book is. Harry Potter was passed on several times before someone took the chance on it. Every writer has rejection letters, go and ask any of them and I bet they all tell you they got rejections along the way. I remember a writer telling me they had enough rejection letters that they could redecorate their bathroom with them. They were a published author as they didn't give up and eventually got that yes.

In my next blog I will talk about character creation and development. A subject that is discussed in my radio interview.

If you are enjoying my blogs and would like to read The Viking's Apprentice please find the links below.

American and worldwide readers please click here: Viking Ebook

UK readers please click here: Viking Ebook

If you would like to contact me please do so through one of the following channels. I always respond personally to all emails, tweets etc.

Twitter: @bannon1975
email: kevinmcleodauthor@gmail.com
web: www.kevinmcleodauthor.com
Facebook: The Viking's Apprentice FB page
Goodreads: My author page