Imagine…a writers journey

Joff Gainey shares his journey today ~

Imagine a world where you are being watched over by people who live in the clouds.

Imagine a world where every black cloud has danger within.

Imagine what happens next…

Throughout my career, as a primary teacher, I encouraged children to read anything and everything. I used my own short stories and passion for writing to stimulate their imagination and hopefully inspire them to write for themselves. It was after being made redundant that I decided to practise what I had been preaching to the children for so long. The idea for my first novel had hovered around my head since my own school days. With much encouragement from my wife and children, it was time to put pen to paper.

After six months of writing and a further four months of re-reading, editing and asking friends and colleagues to digest every word, it was ready for publishing.

Sleeping on a Cloud is part one of a trilogy, aimed at teenagers and young adults. The central characters are a teenage boy and girl, who are Silver Liners. They live and travel in the clouds. The Dark Walkers, from a distant planet, are attempting to take over the earth. However the Silver Liners, who have never approved of such belligerent tactics, have spent many years trying to thwart the Dark Walkers plans. Prophecy has told of the twins and their powers. It is one of those powers, a secret power, which is capable of destroying the Dark Walkers. Unfortunately for the twins and the human race they don’t know what that power is… yet.

For the past couple of months I have been writing to publishers and agents in the hope that someone out there will be interested in my novel. I have had half of those approached reply with ‘like it but not for us’ or ‘its got potential but in the present market we are being selective’. The other half have yet to respond. So while I have been waiting for the yes vote, I sketched an idea for a front cover and then my brother-in-law designed and drew the result here.

I have had no further replies from publishers or agents. So with this in mind I have spent the last couple of weeks preparing my book for publishing as an ebook. Many of my friends, including those on Facebook, have supplied valuable advice and encouragement on how to do this. Also a book that I found very useful and easy to follow was ‘Kindle Publishing Made Easy’ by Ashley Kalym. It was recommended and thankfully so as the step by step instructions guide you, easily, through the process of formatting and uploading an ebook.

I have finally uploaded Book One of the Silver Liners adventures to Kindle and as a paperback.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009T6OSTU
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sleeping-Cloud-1-Joff-Gainey/dp/1480179396

More recently I’ve begun thinking of ways to market my book, other than social networking sites. I decided to approach some local schools and offer them each a copy for their libraries. While at the same time offering to come in to the school to give a talk about the book and its journey to fruition. This week I have sent a copy to Ron Howard‘s film company, Imagine, and a copy to Chris Evans at BBC Radio…nothing ventured nothing gained!

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