News Report On Burlington Bunker
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-28158437
If you’ve read The Four realms, you’ll remember the underground bunker where Darwin & Cassidy find D’Toeni. As some of you are aware, this location is loosely based on Burlington Bunker in Wiltshire. The location isn’t open to the public and there are very few photos of what was intended to be seat of government in the event of a nuclear war. However, this news report I found on the BBC talks about it being utilised as a data centre and shows some of the site.
What do you think? Could you imagine Mr West and his fellow aliens prowling those halls? I still reckon it would be a good lair to re-establish the Vampire Council. If only the aliens hadn’t got there first!
Some Four Realms News
With Black As Knight out the way, I spent some time last night scheduling the remaining work needed to get the final draft of The Thieving King done. It’s a huge, complex book and I really started to appreciate all the planning I put into this draft which should make it easier now I’m in the meat of the novel. Still, I reckon I can get it done by my internal deadline, even allowing for all the other craziness that’s currently going on in my life.
But, as if to remind me Thieving King needs to deliver as much as its prequel, I got a couple of bits of good news about The Four Realms.
It appears that The Four Realms
The Four Realms also recently got voted as one of Reddit R/Fantasy’s Official Underrated and Underread Fantasy. Whilst the main vote is now over, there’s an ongoing poll over at Goodreads. I’m currently sitting at #16. So if you loved the book (or indeed loved any of the others listed), please be sure to go vote.
Which leads me to the last point. If you’ve read the book and love it, or even if you didn’t, please be sure to go and rate the book at places like Amazon and Goodreads. Aside from being a major ego boost when someone posts how much they loved your novel (and trust me on days when you discover massive plot holes and have unco-operative characters, you need it!), small press books like mine really, really depend on word of mouth and reviews at places like Goodreads or Amazon. You honestly have no idea how much. False platitudes aren’t going to help anyone but honest reviews might just help someone find a book they love.
It’s a bit of a catch 22 situation. You need honest reviews to get people to consider your book and possibly buy it. But you need people to buy it so they can review it. So if you have two minutes to either rate or review, I’d really, really appreciate it.
Just a quick note to say that there’s an article on myself and The Four Realms inside this week’s Bracknell News, including a suitably dodgy picture of said author. If you live in the area, be sure to pick up a copy!
Read All About It!
Readers’ Mailbag #2
It’s been a couple of months since the last mailbag so I thought I’d run another bunch of reader questions about The Four Realms. Please note that these DO contain spoilers for the book so if you are still reading you might want to bookmark this blog post until after you’ve completed it. If you’ve got a question about the book, send it in and I’ll answer it next time!
Reader Art: Joseph
I’m not very good at drawing so I’m always a little bit in awe of those who can. I love a really cool piece of art, and love it even more when it’s based off of one of my stories. Mark Phillips sent in this piece of art he drew of Joseph from the Four Realms. Love it! If any more readers have art based on the book they’d like to share then I’ll gladly feature it here.
The Four Realms Location Map
Today I launch a bonus feature for readers of The Four Realms – the location map. I’ll admit to stealing this idea from Ben Aaronovitch who does the same for his truly excellent Peter Grant books. It’s a google map with all the locations, both real and imaginary, from The Four Realms. Obviously when I say ‘all’ I mean the Realm of Men(i.e. our world) as I don’t think Google has got around to doing satellite photography or Street View of Venefasia yet.
Hopefully this will be a treat for fans of the book. I’ve tried to include some notes about the locations to give you all a bit more background information. And as an extra special bonus, I’ve included one new location scheduled to appear in Book 2!
Enjoy! You can find the location map from the main menu or at http://adrianfaulkner.com/novels/the-four-realms/the-four-realms-locations/
A Find In The Tomb Of Old Drafts
I’m doing the happy Snoopy dance at Faulkner Towers this morning as digging through some old files I’ve found the one piece of text I cut from the novel that pained me the most. And I’m planning to put it online as a special “bonus feature” for readers of The Four Realms.
Readers’ Mailbag #1
So over the last couple of months I’ve had questions from readers regarding the Four Realms and writing in general. I responded to them at the time but thought they were good enough to deserve a wider audience. With their permission I am allowed to share their questions and my answer with you. If it’s popular and readers continue to send in questions, I may do this as a semi-regular thing. I have enough for a couple of blog posts but beyond that is down to you!
So without further delay, let’s get on with the first couple of questions. (Minor spoilers as to the location of major characters at the end of book 1 contained within!)
Bookshelf Bombshells Rates The Four Realms As A “Buy It!”
Given how much writers struggle with putting together the synopsis of a novel, I’m starting to wonder, following this brilliant summary of the setup of The Four Realms, whether authors should employ reviewers to write them. I jest, of course, but this review does a really good job of getting ‘inside’ the setup of the novel.
They liked it and rated it a “Buy It” as well. This, as you can imagine, makes me happy.
“Drop that stack of romantic books about reluctant vampires and grab this harsh story of a vampire who would love to kill you—and the lovely old lady who will find a way to stop him.”
A Different Sort Of Review
I had a number of writers tell me over the weekend that they don’t read reviews. Maybe I’m a little odd or maybe I’ve just been very fortunate that the reviews I’ve received are intelligent and insightful, but I enjoy reading them. That includes this one from Fangs for Fantasy which is a little different.