Hot off the Press – Children of the Resolution.

Early this afternoon I received the first copy of Children of the Resolution for approval. I did have a few doubts before receiving it, as I’m sure you’ll understand, regarding the quality of the end product but, blessedly, I really don’t think I could have been happier. As it’s turned out, it’s as professionally bound and printed as any other quality paperback. The typesetting is perfect and the large format 6″ x 9″ paperback, with its glossy cover, really does, I think, justify the slightly higher price.

Below is a photograph of the book itself beside a copy of If I Never, just so you can get an idea of the size difference.

The book has now been approved and is currently being submitted for distribution – which means it should be listed on major bibliographic databases and available on online retailers worldwide (Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc) within 6 to 8 weeks. If, however, you don’t feel you can wait that long, it can now be bought directly (I believe) here. Please bear in mind, though, the retail price does not include p&p; unlike Amazon, I don’t think there’s a free postage option available (though I may be mistaken – please let me know if I am).

Given my do-it-yourself approach with this particular project, I do have little in the way of marketing/promotional support. So if you read the samples/the book and enjoy, please don’t forget to recommend it to others.

Thanks in advance and happy reading!

To read your sample chapters, please click here. And if you enjoy, by all means feel free to share them.

© 2010 Gary William Murning

Children of the Resolution – Final Cover.

Just a quick post to share with you the full, final cover for Children of the Resolution. My first attempt at this kind of thing so really quite pleased with the end result!

To read your sample chapters, please click here. And if you enjoy, by all means feel free to share them.

© 2010 Gary William Murning

Children of the Resolution – Preview.

Today – by way of a taster – I’d like to share with you the prologue and first two chapters of Children of the Resolution, my first foray into the world of self-publication.

As previously mentioned, the principle reason for my choosing to self-publish this piece is that my existing publisher, Legend Press, does not feel that it fits with If I Never. This is something I can understand, though I do believe that, whilst rather different to If I Never, it is a piece of work many of my existing readers would appreciate.

Very much inspired by my own experience of the integration of disabled children into mainstream education in the 1970s/1980s, Children of the Resolution is nonetheless a work of fiction. I have very deliberately avoided overdramatising, however; whilst I could not write it as straight autobiography, neither could I create a false narrative – that would have felt too much like a betrayal.

Intended as the first in a series of books focusing on the life of Carl Grantham, it explores the educational climate of the time, focusing on the almost revolutionary zeal that, ultimately, faded away. More than that, however, it is a story of friendship – of loss and hope in a world where there should always be further potential adventures in store.

To read your sample chapters, please click here. And if you enjoy, by all means feel free to share them.

© 2010 Gary William Murning

John Irving – The Novel As Performance.

A piece that I found particularly interesting…

Two sample chapters of If I Never can be read here.

To buy your copy of If I Never, please click here.

Also, UK Kindle users can now buy If I Never here. (US Kindle users here.)

© 2010 Gary William Murning

One Year of If I Never – Rick Hickling’s Guest Blog.

As I have said before, one of the best parts of this whole writing lark is the opportunity it provides to meet people you otherwise might not have. Many become regular acquaintances, one or two, I have to admit, become sworn enemies, but some – far more than I might have imagined – become genuinely good friends.

Rick Hickling, who I’d like to introduce you to today, is now one such person. Over to you, Rick:

I just felt that this was probably the most appropriate time to wish my Twitter buddy, Gary Murning, the biggest congratulations on the first anniversary of the release of his first publication If I Never.

Without Twitter I’m sure the book would have been brought to my attention eventually, but the fact that I actually got to interact with the author during the writing stages and also through the publication of the book, made it feel like I was somehow involved.

The book itself was a fantastic read and was finished in a couple of afternoons reading, as it always kept that ‘just need to see what happens next’ feel to it. There was also, I found, an undercurrent of comedy involved, especially with the main male and female characters and their respective medical conditions. I found myself chuckling to myself as the story unfolded. Don’t get me wrong, this was by no means a quick, laugh a minute, pass the time read. It was informative, well rounded and had a very clever, in-depth feel to it throughout, with the characters personalities being much thought about pre-writing. It is definitely a book you need to see in your personal library and I found, after a second read, you find more and more things you like about the book.

Although I haven’t, as yet, had the opportunity to meet the man himself, I’ve had many a cyber-chat with the guy and was privileged to have him talk me through a lot of what he’s been doing with the new novel. A smashing bloke who deserves to have as much success as possible with all his ventures for the future.

All the best Gary and I await the next instalment with great anticipation.

Two sample chapters of If I Never can be read here.

To buy your copy of If I Never, please click here.

Also, UK Kindle users can now buy If I Never here. (US Kindle users here.)

© 2010 Gary William Murning and Gregg Fraley

Embracing The E-Book?

As many of you will already know, I’m fond of technology — especially technology that enables me to do things I wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. The Internet was a real groundbreaking development for me — enabling me to interact and work in a whole new, liberating way. Voice recognition software, although I fell out with it for a while, now allows me to get through vast amounts of work in a fraction of the time it would otherwise have taken. As well as the laptop before me, I also have a PDA and smart phone within reach, and another PDA in the drawer a few feet away. I have in total four different devices which have hard drives, and all of them get used (for storing TV programmes, movies, music, photos — all the usual stuff.) Something new comes on the market that I feel I might benefit from in some tangible way (I don’t believe in wasting money — especially money I haven’t got!), I get it when I can afford it.

One aspect of technological development that I have not as yet embraced, however, is the e-book. I’ve had hand-held devices for many years and was aware of Project Gutenberg from the time of its inception. I’ve tried various formats, and I have to say it will probably be a very long time before I give up traditional books — hardback or paperback.

Why? Well, this is the point where most traditionalists will trot out the standard response of “reading from a screen is harder on the eyes”, but that argument doesn’t really hold water any more. E-book readers are now available which convincingly reproduce the effect of ink on paper. Far better on the eyes and comparable to the real thing. So that isn’t it — for me, at least. No, my reasons for preferring traditional books centre around the tactile experience of reading — the individual feel and look of each book, the smell of ink on paper, the texture of the page, all of it. Fill your e-book reader with e-books and each and every one of them will look the same when you come to read them. By this I mean the e-book reader will not look any different, no artwork on the cover, no crinkled pages, no pencilled notes in the margin, just data on a device that you could all too easily mistake for someone else’s.

But of course, the content is what matters, isn’t it? If the book’s good, you’ll forget about how you’re reading it, right? I wish I could say that that was true, but in my experience it simply isn’t. A few years ago, I tried reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula on a PDA and, yes, it worked well enough but… I just couldn’t help feeling that I was missing out on something. It seemed somehow too clinical, too removed. The PDA kept me at a distance, it seemed. Getting beyond it and into the story seemed much, much harder than I had previously expected.

So for the foreseeable future I’ll be sticking to books — the old, tried and tested kind. At least until they come up with an e-book reader which replicates the individuality of each book to such a degree that it is indistinguishable from a real book.