Title: Tales from
Virdura
Author: Graham Downs
Series: Kingdom of Virdura (Book 2)
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: June 1 2016
Edition/Formats: eBook
Source: Author via RBTL
Book Promotions
Blurb/Synopsis:
Explore Virdura, a world full of fantasy, magic, and drama.
Find out what happens when a dashing young farmer's son
swoops a neighbouring daughter off her feet.
Meet Queen Tricia and the Royal Wizard Solon. Or Queen
Celeste, her daughter, as she continues to struggle to come to terms with her
new role as queen after the death of her mother.
Or read about Tobin the Bounty Hunter as he takes down
Jarvis, a merciless criminal who brutally slit a blacksmith's throat.
All these stories and more await you in Tales From Virdura,
a collection of flash fiction stories that take you deep into the world and the
lives of the characters who inhabit it.
If you enjoyed reading A Petition to Magic, this might just
be your next read.
You'll find out more about old characters and meet new ones.
You'll read prequels and origin stories, and you'll read original stories
taking place in new locales within the Kingdom.
｟This
book can be enjoyed as a companion to, or separate from, A Petition to Magic
Book 1 in the Kingdom of Virdura Series.｠
This is a free story out of the collection. It’s called Runt
Wizard, and it’s an origin story for Solon the wizard, a principle character in
the book’s sequel, A Petition to Magic:
Young Solon stared stoically ahead as two of his tormentors
held him down, and a third ripped off his shirt from behind.
He gritted his teeth as the thin reed stung his naked back.
And a second time. And a third.
Solon vowed that he would not cry out. He was the son of the
Royal Wizard, and he would carry himself as such.
Three other children danced around him, snorting like pigs
and calling him names.
"Foolborn runt!" they chanted. "Where is your
all-powerful magic now?"
The mocking continued, and the lashings went on. Seven now,
and Solon could feel blood trickling down his back. He focused on the smell of
the boys' sweat, mixed in with the dust of the dry, arid field they were in.
Despite himself, a single tear ran down his left cheek.
"Oh, he's a cry-baby now too, eh?" said one of the
boys. "Pathetic son of a useless mage."
Something inside Solon snapped. His eyes shot open, and
under his breath, he began reciting an old incantation.
Another thwack of the reed.
"What's he doing now, do you think?"
"Speaking gibberish. I think we may have beaten him a
little too hard, boys."
While his tormentors laughed, nobody noticed the storm
clouds gathering overhead. Nobody paid any attention to the flash of lightning,
and clap of thunder indicating how close it was.
Above a boy's head (the one who had insulted Solon's
father), the sky crackled, and a blue bolt began to take shape, high up in the
clouds.
Thank you for joining us today. I hope we haven’t
interrupted your busy schedule too much.
Thank you for having
me. I can assure you, the pleasure is mine!
Can you tell us how you came to be an author? Has it been an
easy or difficult journey?
I’ve always been an
avid reader, starting from a very young age. In Primary School I was regularly
a year or two ahead of the “normal” reading level.
I’ve also always had a
vivid imagination, and loved telling stories. I got into tabletop roleplaying
in High School, and I always seemed to find myself playing the role of Game
Master, inventing the stories, trials and tribulations that the characters
would face.
When I was maybe
eleven or twelve, I wrote a gamebook (I love gamebooks, my favourite being the
Lone Wolf series by Joe Dever) about a spy. I can’t remember much about it now,
and unfortunately – or perhaps fortunately, because I’m sure that it was really
rubbish – it’s long lost. In those days, there was no Internet, there were no
USB flash drives, and there wasn’t much education about backing up your work.
Anyway, the
roleplaying carried on through High School, and a little after, but eventually,
real life got in the way, and our little group wasn’t meeting very often
anymore. But something was missing from my life – the desire to tell stories.
I didn’t know
self-publishing was an option, and to be honest, I really wasn’t bothered to go
through the mission of writing something, pitching for an agent, then trying to
find a publisher, who would in all likelihood butcher my work beyond
recognition. Over time, I gave up on the idea of writing.
Until 2012, that is.
A Twitter friend of mine self-published a book, When Twins War, on Smashwords.
I’d never heard of Smashwords before that point. I knew about Amazon, of
course, but I didn’t know about KDP or self-publishing either.
I bought his book and
read it; it’s actually quite good. It sparked in me a desire to write again, and
knowing how easy it was to get my work out into the world was an experience of
freedom, that I cannot explain.
One night, soon
after, I had a dream about an old man, standing in a study, surrounded by all
manner of bottles and flasks containing a wide variety of multi-coloured
liquids. A massive tome lay open on his desk.
And so, my first ever
published work, A Petition to Magic, was conceived.
Over the next several
months, I learnt more than I ever thought I would know about marketing and
publishing. I contacted one of my old school teachers (Hilary Keegan), who’s an
artist, and explained my vision to her. A few months after that, I had my
cover, and I was thrilled to see that it was exactly what I had in my head.
Since then, I’ve
continued to grow, both as an author and a businessman. I’ve learnt a hell of a
lot about marketing, and I’ve also learnt enough about the traditional
publishing industry to make me believe that I made the right decision to
self-publish.
As to the future, who
knows? But I hope to be doing this for many years to come.
What motivates you as an author?
Book sales.
No, I’m joking. Well,
only half-joking. Seeing people purchasing and downloading my work (even
Billy’s Zombie, which is my free book) is so inspiring. I can’t believe that people
actually want to read what I’ve written.
A very close second
(or perhaps it’s even a first) is seeing those same people write reviews for my
books. It’s amazing. Not only are people reading my work, but some of them even
take the time to tell me what they think. Even when the reviews are bad,
they’re motivating… maybe more so for a bad review, because the bad reviews (if
they’re written in a constructive way) help me to become a better writer.
How do you deal with rejection and setbacks as an author?
I think I’ve answered
that a little above, but let me elaborate a little bit.
Let’s be honest, a
review that says some variation on “this book sucks”, and doesn’t go into any
detail, really… well, sucks.
I try not to dwell
too much on those reviews. I think they’re written by trolls who’re just
looking for a response. Which I never give,
by the way.
A review that says
some variation on “I didn’t like this book” is perfectly fine, though. My
writing’s not going to grab everyone, and those people should feel free to
request refunds from wherever they bought those books. No hard feelings.
Ah, but a review that
says “I thought this was a bad book, because of….” Now, those are gold. I gobble up those reviews, taking note of every
single piece of information in them. I internalize the reasons those reviewers
give, consider them carefully and prayerfully, and one way or another, use them
to improve my own writing.
How do you deal with writer’s block?
It’s tough, don’t get
me wrong.
I find it useful
sometimes, to close the manuscript I’m busy with at the time, and write
something else. Be it a blog post, an opinion piece, a private journal entry
which nobody but me will read. Anything, as long as it’s completely different
to the one that has me blocked.
Other times, I’ll get
up and move away from the keyboard altogether. When that happens, I will just
sit, and force my mind to wonder. I’ll analyse the plot of my work in progress,
the motivations of the characters, and try to figure out where they want me to
go. It’s important to know exactly what’s going to happen in a scene before you
write it. It makes the process go a lot easier, I think.
Note that this
doesn’t mean I’m a “planner”. I generally don’t write any outlines down, but
only keep a general idea in my head. But before I write any one particular
scene, I have it mapped out more-or-less perfectly in my mind (just like what
happened with that dream I had, which became A Petition to Magic).
Do you have any motivational books or websites which you
find useful from time to time?
Hmm, not really. My
Twitter feed and writing groups on Facebook keep me motivated. I have such
wonderful, supportive friends, and there are always things to read about the
writing journey, or how to be inspired.
I particularly enjoy
Joanna Penn’s tweets, YouTube videos, and blog posts, though. I guess that’s as
close to a direct answer to your question as I can get. Joanna is a career
indie author, and she’s always writing stuff and doing videos aimed at helping
other authors make successes of themselves.
Who has been the biggest influence upon your writing?
My readers. Hands
down. When the general public reacts to something I’ve written, I listen, Even
if I don’t follow what they want me to do, I’m a better writer for it, because
it means I’ve considered something and consciously decided not to do it – and I
know why I’ve decided not to do it,
too.
Tell us about a typical day for you. Do you have any special
routines which you strictly keep to?
I have a day job as a
Software Developer, and when things aren’t too hectic, work ends at four-thirty
in the afternoon. Because of a hereditary eye condition called Retinitis
Pigmentosa, I can’t drive, so I need to wait for my wife to come and pick me up
from work.
It’s in those quiet
times, when everyone else has gone home, and I’m waiting, that I work on my
writing career.
I try to get actual
writing in as often as possible, but there are lots of things that you need to
do when you’re an author, so I use this time for marketing, writing,
networking, and the like.
How have family and friends reacted to you as an author? Are
they supportive?
Very much so! My wife
has supported my decision from the very first day I told her I was working on A
Petition to Magic. My parents and siblings, and indeed everybody else, had no
idea until I announced that it had been published. They were bowled over, and
very impressed!
Do you have a muse? If so, please could you tell us a little
about him/her?
No, no muses in the
traditional sense. Sorry. Just my own experiences and imagination. And of
course, my dreams. Almost all of my books come from dreams, all pretty much as
detailed as that first one was, about A Petition to Magic.
What have been your biggest projects so far this year?
Well, I’ve just
published Tales From Virdura, and I am marketing it harder than I’ve ever
marketed a book before. That’s taking up a lot of my time – time I’d rather
spend working on my next project, to be sure, but the marketing is important.
I hope to start my
next one soon, though!
Going forwards as an author, what do you realistically hope
to accomplish?
That’s a difficult
question. I would like to reach the point where I’m selling a book a day. I
think that would be cool.
I know what you’re
expecting to hear: something along the lines of me wanting to quit my day job
and write full time. But that’s not true of me; I love my day job, as much as I
love writing, and both are an equally important part of me. It’d be nice to be
able to scale back the hours at my day job, maybe. And to be able to pay off my
house early would be awesome… but I’d need to sell a lot
more than a book a day to achieve that!
Of course, I’m not
going to be working that job for the rest of my life, so I hope that one day
when I retire, the writing will remain, and will keep me sustained for the rest
of my days.
Graham Downs is a South
African author. He was born in Alberton, in Gauteng, South Africa, and now
lives in Germiston with his wife. Aside from being an independent author, he is
a computer programmer in Rivonia.
Since publishing his first book (A Petition to Magic) in
2012, he has published four more, including his latest, Heaven and Earth:
Paranormal Flash Fiction. This is a collection of six flash fiction stories,
ranging from straight-up horror to downright weird.
Although he has always had a passion for writing, it wasn't
until December 2012, at the age of 32 that Downs finally decided to unleash his
imagination onto the world at large. The result was A Petition to Magic, a
short fantasy story about a wizard who cannot perform magic, and a queen who
demands his help.
Following on the success of A Petition to Magic, Downs was
asked by fellow author Darren Worrow in 2013, to contribute a story to a
charity anthology called I am not Frazzle, benefiting the Devizes Community
Centre for Children, in the United Kingdom. He eagerly accepted, and penned
Stingers, which was included. The anthology was released in December of 2013.
(Stingers was released as a stand-alone story on 16 June 2014.)
While I am not Frazzle was being prepared for release, Downs
released his second story, Heritage of Deceit, on 1 December 2013. It's a
modern day thriller, and tells the story of a man working in an office, who
stumbles across what he believes is a relic from an old genocide.
In October 2014, in time for Halloween, Billy's Zombie was
released. It is a very short horror story, about a high school boy whom
everyone thinks is a freak. In an effort to exact his revenge on his
tormentors, he borrows a book on necromancy from the library, which he
successfully uses to raise a zombie from the dead.
Wanting to continue his foray into the horror/paranormal
genre, he went on to publish Heaven and Earth: Paranormal Flash Fiction in
April 2015. This is a collection of six flash fiction stories in the
horror/weird fiction genre.
His newest work is due for release in June 2016, and is now
available for pre-order. It's called Tales From Virdura, and it continues the
Flash Fiction format. However, he decided to revisit his roots, so to speak, as
this collection expands upon the world and characters introduced in his first
published story, A Petition to Magic
In addition to his published works, Downs has written many
free flash fiction stories and essays, in a wide variety of genres. They're all
available for free on his blog. You can also find a monthly crossword puzzle
there, sometimes with prizes for solving it correctly. Find both his free
writing, and the monthly crossword puzzle, by visiting his Blog.
Graham Downs is always working on new stories, in a variety
of different genres, and he hopes to go from strength to strength as he
releases better and better writing, and his popularity continues to grow.
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