I'm on a nostalgia trip at the moment, having printed out a hard copy of my first published book-length story. It won two national contests before it was released in 2000, has been printed under license in China, In the UK as a large print book (hard cover and paperback) and released in the US under another name "Mitchell's Valley" with the locale shifted from the Victorian High Plains to Sacramento and the Sierra Nevada mountains. The reviews have been good rather than enthusiastic and I'm considering submitting it under its original title "Mitchell's Run" with the locale reverting back to Australia.
The story and character never quite fitted the US, even though I did my resarch thoroughly, and it's never been released as an e-book.
Saltwater Press, the original publisher, is sadly long defunct now, but I owe much to Diane Colman and I've managed to have all her books of mine rereleased with different publishers except this one, so I've taken the time out from writing the third book of The Alliance series to review it.

These are the three covers so far, the one in the centre being the hard cover large print version.

The Alliance was reviewed by Regina of Coffee Time Romance and she liked it enough to award it four coffee cups.
This is what she had to say:
Peter is a human that has managed to survive long past a human life span. In doing so, he has set himself the grim task of fighting a group of humans who he feels do not have humanity’s best interest at heart since they are set on taking over human colonies and adding them to the Federation.
Dael is a nearly immortal alien who has taken a human body and become Peter’s mate.
Karrell, Anneke, and Jean-Paul are the children of Peter and Dael.
Gabrielle is Karrell’s wife.
Jack is Karrell and Gabrielle’s son.
Rachael is a Federation agent.
Kamran is a man who is the child of a “spacer” and a peasant. However, he aspires to be much more.
All of Peter’s children must go on 60 missions for the Alliance that he has created to keep the Federation from getting too much of a foothold on human worlds. This is to help them learn, and to help humanity. Anneke is on a current mission on a primitive human planet when she discovers that some Federation agents are about to be killed. While the denizens of this world are cognizant of space travel, they themselves do not have space travel. Keeping one step ahead of those that could harm her is made possible by being able to slip into a place called Limbo. However, at the moment that is not possible since she has decided to rescue the Federation agent Rachael, and does not want to give away where she is from. Keeping Rachael and herself alive and out of the hands of Kamran who is hunting them is easier said than done though. Will she be able to do so? Also, will she be able to lead Rachael where she, and her father, Peter want her to go? Is Kamran truly the enemy, or is he something more? What are his plans for the primitive planet he was raised on? Is the Federation truly the enemy? Will all of Peter’s machinations and manipulations using his children and their powers make the universe a better place? So many questions and only time will reveal the answers.
I truly enjoyed The Alliance. The world building is extraordinary, and the relationships detailed and well thought out. All the characters relate well to each other and in ways that make sense. With as many plots and subplots as there are throughout the story that is a miracle! There is plenty of suspense as well making this book so much more than just a science fiction story, or even a romance. In fact, it puts me more in the mind of a space opera, similar to authors such as Catherine Asaro, and Kay Kenyon. I do wish I had read the first book before this one since I feel as if I would have a better handle on the whole universe, but despite this I found this book to be a very well written science fiction romance. I suggest that you read the first book first though unlike I did so you can follow the storyline more easily. If you enjoy plots, and subplots, romance, suspense, multiple characters, horrible bad guys, bad guys that turn into good guys and unique worlds then you definitely want to pick up a copy The Alliance.
Regina
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance & More(I think I like her.)

The first draft of Coasting is finished (I suppose I should call it the eleventh draft, because that's how many times it's been written from beginning to end) It ran to a little over ninety thousand words this time.

I've added photographs of the two ships that inspired the tale. I'd sailed on both of them by the time I wrote the first draft and used them as the skeletons of the Kooyonga and Dargo, just as I used some of the people I'd met over the years of seagoing as skeletons for my characters.

Those shipmates, who read the early versions of the tale, were certain they recognized individual characters and invariably named them. They were always wrong, but it did show how well I'd captured the archetypal characters that populated the coastal shipping industry in the mid-seventies.

I've printed out a hard copy and it sits on the upper shelf of my bookcase. In a month, I'll take it down and read it from beginning to end and then the hard work of crafting it into a finished story will begin.

Wish me luck.





After fourteen years of sometimes faithful service, I have retired my old computer and disciplined the new one into something approaching my needs, welcomed a new grandchild, designed and test run an online writing course for our local adult education system (whether they take it up will be their commercial decision, but the trial went very well) and returned to a story I first wrote in the mid seventies of last century.
"Coasting" has an interesting background. I'd returned to sea-going after eight years working ashore for Lloyd's Register of Shipping as a ship and engineer surveyor (the period covered the birth and early years of our three children) and had two short stories published in men's magazines (sadly long defunct now).
Buoyed by this success, a writing life beckoned, but engineers do not make decisions without proof of  potential success and I set myself the task of writing a novel length manuscript. Logical as ever, I chose to write about something I knew very well, life at sea on the Australian coastal ships.
My first attempt ran to a little over one hundred thousand words, every one typed on an old portable typewriter perched on my knees on watch in the engine room of various ships. The first draft finished, I reread it carefully, acknowledged its faults, did a little cut and paste, and then started again at the beginning.
I stopped when I had ten complete versions of the story and did some hard thinking. I had three school age children now, a challenging, well-paid career and a nervous wife, so I put thoughts of a writing life away and focused on what I had trained myself to do. My eldest daughter, who'd read the story in its various forms, grumbled (I think she saw a lot of herself in the heroine), but that was all.
Coming back to it, thirty plus years later, was a shock. It was amazing how much of it I'd forgotten. I read the ten versions and started planning the eleventh with the skills I'd developed since 1997 and in eighteen published stories.
I'm seventy-five thousand words into it now and am having a ball.
The photos above were taken on a similar ship to one in the story. (The sea was a little rough that day.)

A Chinese Curse

"May you live in interesting times" is said to be a Chinese curse.

I have avoided war, famine, flood and fire, watched earthquakes and tsunamis from afar, but, on a personal level, my life has been just a little too interesting of late and and I long for a quiet period of "steady as you go" living. It's an unlikely prospect, alas, but I can dream.

On the up side, the edits for "The Alliance" are almost done and all is ready for its release on July 7th by Eternal Press.

The second book of the series sees Peter's children and grandchildren join the struggle, recruiting others into an alliance that will curtail the Federation's freedoms.

I have the usual number of submissions current and some look prospective, especially a favorite of mine, and am deep in the research of others.

A New Year with new books

We all have periods when our lives seem to spiral out of our control and demands exceed our abilities. I am, hopefully, emerging from one to the news of a contract for the second book of The Alliance series at Eternal Press, to be released in July, and the cover art for "Her Brother's Keeper" at Whiskey Creek Press, to be released in April.

Gemini Judson has done a great job, don't you think?

The back cover blurb reads:

A brother par excellence, comforter, protector, mentor, guide, working overseas to support her and his mother, everything a brother should be and rarely is—or a lover beyond her dreams? Drawn into a web of intrigue by others, Heather’s quandary intensifies as Richard returns to Malaysia when a long-time friend of his father’s suffers a heart attack. The strands of the web begin to tighten when she is sent to join him by the plotters with the intention of compromising her in a drug deal. Richard hustles her out of the country and goes to ground to untangle the matter. Forced to rely on piecemeal and contradictory information, Heather can only guess what is happening to the man she grew up with as a brother, but is now the core of her existence
Amy
Romance with a touch of reality - or vice-versa?

November Contest

They're running a contest for me as my alter ego, David Andrews, at Coffee Time Romance.
Pop in and read the nice things they've said. There's a twenty-five dollar voucher and downloads of my books up for grabs.

After a decade of writing as Amy Gallow, thanks to my first publisher's insistence that only women could sell romance books, Eternal Press will release the first book under my own name, David Andrews http://www.eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781615722136 and I admit to being excited.
A science fiction/adventure/romance about an immortal dynasty of telepaths and their opposition to tyranny in all its forms, I'm quietly proud of it.

Different ships- different tally bands

An old saying that is part of the culture of the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy, and probably all the national navies that were once part of the British Empire. It acknowledges the cultural differences that can separate two identical ships in the same navy, part history, part personality, part circumstances.
"The First Born" is being published under my own name and that small difference has infected the whole process so far, giving it a different feel to the fourteen previous books under Amy Gallow.
It will be interesting to see how far the difference manifests itself, especially as I have four other books planned as David Andrews.

A Good Companion

I began writing as a relaxation over thirty years ago, an hour's escape each day from the pressures of a 24/7 career and there were times when I owed my sanity to the practice. I kept a journal too, a lightning conductor where I could write the thoughts it was impolitic to say aloud. Reading my early prose is an education in the way I matured, both personally, and as a writer, through the years.
When I sought feedback by entering competitions some twelve years ago, I found myself with a contract to write five books for a new Australian publisher in fifteen months and a new name, Amy Gallow, because every woman knows that men know nothing about romance. (The name came from my wife's middle and maiden names, proving I knew a little, at least). Fourteen published stories later (Whiskey Creek Press will release "Her Brother's Keeper" later this year)I dusted off some of my earlier ideas and received a contract from Eternal Press for "The First-Born", a science fiction fantasy of time travel, love and some speculative musing over the obituary of a WWI veteran.
It is the first in a series and the first under my own name and you can read more about it and me at http://www.davidandrewsauthor.com
Amy will continue to write romance, with at least one WIP approaching completion.

Another good year?

I released three books in 2009: "Snow Drifter"; "A Soldier's Woman"; and "A Fair Trader". I've begun this year with five submissions and they are all ticking down to their response dates. Two represent the next stage in my long term planning as a writer and I am understandably nervous, having gone for a while without a rejection. Both were triggered by the uniformly good reviews for the 2009 books, but I wonder if I've not taken a step too far. Only time will tell.
Where next?
That depends on the two.
Rejection without feedback will send me into analysis of the stories and writing, to see how each can be improved while I continue writing at the level where I am successful. I already have two projects at that level and one of the adult education courses I conduct is due to start mid May.
Acceptance will shift my focus to a new level of story and a set of projects waiting to be started.
Either way, I will continue to learn a craft that fascinates me.
Amy
Romance with a touch of reality...or vice versa?

A Best-Selling Author?

"A Fair Trader" has crept into the bottom of Whiskey Creek's best sellers for January.
Technically, this makes me a best-selling author, but I doubt that the change in circumstances will go to my head.
I won't know the effect this has in terms of royalties until mid-May, nor the cause for its elevation to this status until even later. My publicity contract with Heartfelt Promos is still running and I see its effects by web searches (Google now has twice as many returns for my name, but some of them have been generated by my own and other's efforts. The interview with "Cat" Johnson is a perfect example).

The middle of next month will see the next round of royalties and there will be time for Eternal Press to have returns from their distributors as well as books sold directly. I can then make a judgement of their value to me, as opposed to the revitalized Whiskey Creek Press.

"Her Brother's Keeper" is in the final rewrite stage and I will have to make a decision about where to submit it soon. The romance is good, the lovers engaging, but the intrigue has grown perhaps too complex for Harlequin, reflecting my personal knowledge of the environment.

That aside, it's a good yarn, told with verve and authenticity, and I suspect it will do well with reviewers.

The 1802 historical romance needs only the loose ends tidied before it is ready for the rewriting stage. Its length is a problem, currently ninety thousand plus words, and I will have to think more when it is done.

That leaves the story set in the Australian coastal shipping of 1970 or another venture into the contemporary offshore oil industry as my next story...a decision for the future?

Amy
Romance with a touch of reality...or vice versa?

Reviews and other things

By November 16th, I will have released three books in four months: "Snow Drifter" and "A Fair Trader" from Whiskey Creek Press and "A Soldier's Woman" from Eternal Press. All have garnered excellent reviews and I admit to being pleased, flattered and grateful that other people have enjoyed my writing efforts. "The Widow-Maker", my previous book at Whiskey Creek Press, performed just as well, even attracting a film rights contract, yet book sales reflect none of this and I suspect that the fault is mine.

I am abysmal at promotion because I'm not really interested. I have a real hunger to write, and to write well, to share my love of complexity and adventure, but, approaching seventy-two, my financial dreams are limited. A new monitor for my creaking computer, the costs of a research trip to some location that interests me and I haven't already visited. (I've been to writer's conventions, so they're no longer on my wish list.)

I earn more income from the adult education writer's classes I conduct, but I suspect I would do them even if they paid nothing because of the pleasure of opening other minds to the joy of writing.

I enjoy some promotional activities--the blog radio interview with Cat Johnson was a ball, even if I was as nervous as a kitten--the occasional chat via some writer's blog, answering reader's comments, etc., but, my current venture with Heartfelt Promos aside, I've made a value judgement on how I want to spend my time and writing wins hands down...

Countdown

In a little over a week, we're off to spend ten days with a grandson I haven't seen since he was three months old. He lives in Sydney, while we are in Melbourne and too many things have been allowed to gt in the way of visiting him and his parents. Some we had no choice about, but others we did, and I regret missing so much of his life.

For the rest, my coordinator duties for the annual competition at EPIC are winding down, I survived the interview on blog radio "What's Hot In Romance" thanks to the skill and generosity of Cat Johnson (you can listen to it here http://www.blogtalkradio.com/search/amy-gallow/) and my current WIP is on track for a November submission. (about the time Whiskey Creek Press release "A Fair Trader" - see above)

"Her Brother's Keeper" (my WIP) has passed through a number of name changes as the story itself changed and I'm still uncommitted to the present title. It began as a teaching tool for the writing classes I conduct in the adult education system here - a common story we could use to illustrate various stages in writing a novel, and was never intended as anything more. A simple, linear, story generated from a scene in a movie staring Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman that owed nothing to the tale told by the movie and began as a means to show how a simple idea could be developed into a story.

Over a period of three years and ten courses, I added more and more until I had thirty thousand words written in fragments and had fielded innumerable queries as to why I didn't complete it for publication. A passing moment of weakness made me agree it should be finished and then the fun began.

More when I've finished it...

It's a great life.

Amy

Post-natal depression

I have never suffered real post natal depression, but would be the last to denigrate what is a very serious problem. As a writer however, a similar malady strikes everytime I release a book.

My literary pregnancy begins in earnest with the arrival of the contract, and, as in real life, my joy is diluted only by the realisation that some time will pass before the book becomes a reality. My pre-natal exercises of editing, proofing, cover art, etc., increase my anticipation of the happy event proportionally until the book is released. Then comes the flurry of promoting, posting of excerpts, chats, interviews, competitions, etc., etc., etc...

After that, things settle down a little, not unlike the establishment of regular feeding patterns with the new child and a return is made to the current WIP...only to find regular work patterns disturbed by a vague anxiety leading to restlessness and reduction of daily output. This problem increases exponentially as the first royalty reporting date approaches and a delay, or silence, from the publisher becomes exceedingly painful.

With two books released in the last month, and another due in November, I am not looking forward to the next six months

It made me very grateful for Zollyanna's reviews of "Snow Drifter" and "A Soldier's Woman", particularly her final paragraphs:

Snow Drifter
Amy Gallow is a bright and talented author always gluing you in your seat until you finish the story. The characters pop right off the page into whatever room you are reading in. I will definitely read any other book that Amy Gallow writes. She is a wonderful author who can sweep you off your feet and into a whole new realm.

A Soldier's Woman
Amy Gallow never ceases to amaze us with each and every one of her books. She is a bright and very talented author. Her characters keep you riveted to your seat making each word seem to come to life. I am very, honored to read each one of her books that come across my desk.

Post-natal depression or not, it's a great life

Amy

Promoting Books

I have published five e-books, with two more releases scheduled before the end of 2009, and found promoting them the least rewarding of my activities, if one judges by royalty statements and website traffic. All five were received enthusiastically by the publishers, garnered good to excellent reviews, and I used the traditional means of promoting, posting excerpts, chatting, interviews, RT adverts, blogs, presences on the web via Yahoo groups, Myspace, Facebook, etc., etc., etc., but the most significant factor in sales has been the dwell time on the front page of the publisher's website. It outweighs the effect of every other activity by so large a factor, it is embarrassing.

This leads to two opposing conclusions, either my efforts have been so badly directed as to be totally ineffective, or the traditional means of promoting are nonsense and nothing works beyond having enough books released that they promote themselves by their excellence and the fact that readers keep tripping over them on the web.

My first five books were all in print and the publisher did the general advertising etc, allowing me to hold local events, book-signings and the like, and dabble with conferences and my magazine short stories required no effort on my part. It spoilt me for the "real" world of E-publishing.

In case the first of the two opposing conclusions is the right one, I have signed a six month promotional deal with an affiliate of Coffee Time Romance and will observe the process with considerable interest.

Wish me luck!

Amy

A Soldier's Woman

The final edits are done and everything is ready for Eternal Press to release it on August 7th and I must admit to being quietly pleased with the final product.

Blurb
Having lost her father in the Falklands Campaign, it takes a very special soldier to overcome Megan Ryan's distrust of all things military, especially when Michael Davidson returns from Afghanistan to usurp her hard won position at Davidson's Machine and Tool. Only the seriousness of the position holds her there as they battle to save the firm, both at home and in Singapore.
After prolonged tension catapults them into his bed, the ultimate confrontation at the Lim mansion, leaves Megan with two impossible choices.
Lose Michael to the SAS or follow her mother's footsteps and become a soldier's woman.

I love researching my books and this one was no different.

Singapore was home territory for so long that it needed very little effort, and Oliver's Hill was equally familiar, as was the engineering firm. This left only the SAS and my search introduced me to some very generous souls who shared their knowledge freely, giving me a glimpse into a hidden world.

The Special Air Service was the brainchild of then Major David Stirling in the middle east during WWII and their name was chosen to confuse German Intelligence into believing there was a parachute battalion being formed in North Africa. After an initial false start they combined with Ralph Bagnold's Long Range Desert Group to perfect a very effective tactic of appearing out of the desert in armed jeeps to attack German garrisons.

The Australian SAS copied much of the tactics of the British 22 SAS after the War and adapted them to the different cultural imperatives of Australia, serving with distinction in Borneo, Vietnam, East Timor, Iraq and now in Afghanistan. There is a love/hate relationship between them and the regular Australian Army, where they are referred to as "The Swanbourne Polo Club", or the "Brown Hats" (Swanbourne is a suburb of Perth containing the SAS headquarters and the SAS wear beige berets.).

One regular soldier in the airborne infantry battalion illustrated this perfectly when he asked "How many SAS troopers does it take to change a light bulb?" When I looked blank, he answered "A whole squadron. One to change the bulb and the rest to applaud."

The tall poppy syndrome is alive and well in the Australian Army!

Following the muse

My current WIP is taking me on a fascinating journey. It began with a teaching tool I've used repeatedly in the Adult Education courses, a means of providing a common connector to a group of disparate would-be writers in developing a story from a single scene in a forgettable movie starring Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman. In the process, I've written a dozen or so scenes from the story to illustrate how to begin, develop, sustain and complete it. Of necessity, I've kept the story reasonably simple, but my last group of students challenged me to write the whole story and, in a moment of unusual weakness, I agreed.

I began by joining the dots, connecting the existing scenes into a continuous narrative, but the character of the hero kept eluding me. I couldn't quite see how he came to be as he was and went searching into his background for an answer.

A memory came to me of a transit lounge conversation in the early hours of the morning, some ten years after Vietnam. Our plane was delayed, we were tired and bored and my companion on the journey had drunk more than was wise. He'd been involved in covert operations during the conflict, but didn't speak much of their details, concentrating instead on how he was recruited and trained. An astute individual, his descriptions of the methodology and the individuals involved kept me interested and successfully passed the time until our plane was ready.

Vietnam was too far in the past to be of value to the story I was writing, but the effect of the passage of time on my companion wasn't and I had the environment that moulded the hero into the man he was.

Storytelling presented a problem. With so much to be hidden until the right moment, a simple narrative from the heroine's point of view was inadequate, and the normal(?) balance of heroine/hero not much better. I'd already passed the thirty thousand word mark and was loathe to discard the lot so I went searching for another point of view that could carry the story and found it in a secondary character.

I'm now back at the thirty thousand word mark, having re-written the beginning to capture the changes in the heroine and introduced the thoughts and actions of my second point of view. Other than a very general picture, I have no idea where the story will go from here...and it's fascinating.

It's a great life...insane or not.

Amy

Snow Drifter

July is almost here and I'm gearing up for the release of Snow Drifter.

The first step was revamping my website, http://www.amygallow.com/ . I'd updated it along the way, adding books as they were released, reporting the progress of The Widow-Maker from book to film, but it no longer reflected my writing and it was time to change.

What I'd forgotten was amount of work involved for an amateur like me.

It took two days of experimentation, false starts and simple mistakes before what I'd designed could be seen in my web browser, let alone on the web itself, and another day before the website was successfully loaded onto the web. Since then, I've grown cross-eyed looking for errors and can only hope I've caught them all.

Yahoo group, Coffee Time Romance, etc., etc., etc., are next...then the preparation of excerpts for each of the groups I belong to...

With A Soldier's Woman coming out in August, I can't see me getting much writing done for a while.

Still, it's a great life.

Amy

Chaos

Our home bulges at the seams with children and adults. Our eldest daughter has returned home with her two children while their house sells and she reorganizes her life as a single mother after ten years of marriage. The children struggle with the effects of the change and she is as prickly as a hedgehog (an Echidna to fellow antipodeans).
Our second daughter struggles with a two bedroom house and returning to work as a teacher part- time with two children under five and needs what help we can give.
In the midst of this, edits arrived for "A Soldier's Woman" with a forty-eight hour deadline and jury duty beckons mid month, all making the completion of "Her Brother's Keeper" a matter of snatched moments.
I suppose the next crisis will involve the second round of edits and those for "A Fair Trader".
Looking backwards at our parents' lives in their seventies, it all seems so impossibly serene, but I suppose we should be grateful that we are both healthy enough to manage and still so involved in life as to feel the need to try?
It's a great life.
Amy