Tuesday 21 August 2012

I've turned to a life of crime

For the past year, along with writing the sequel to KEY WEST, I've been writing a gritty crime thriller. I knew right off that I wanted to base the novel in Glasgow, Scotland. The city has such a rich tapestry of villains and heroes to draw from. The city, itself, is a living, breathing character of its own. The result is DEATH BY GLASGOW. A 21st-century story of revenge.

I finished the novel and was thrilled when it was short-listed this summer for the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award. The manuscript is currently making the rounds of publishers so keeping all appendages crossed. Stay tuned for more updates on this.

In order to improve my crime writing skills -- which as any crime writer knows is not easy keeping the pace fast and furious, but, at the same time, slowing down to let the reader catch his or her breath -- I was taken under the  incredibly talented wing of crime writer Alison Bruce. Ms Bruce was kind enough to read my novel despite being under serious time limits to finish her fourth crime book THE SILENCE (which was just published by Constable & Robinson). Alison gave me insightful feedback, suggesting story changes, and helped me shape the book for the commercial market. I'm now indebted to her and owe her many a bottle of Shiraz, as thanks.

Have a peek at Alison's website here



Wednesday 1 August 2012

'NAKED EUROPE' - coming out in Paperback

Great news!

My eBook NAKED EUROPE has been selling so well on Amazon that I've decided to publish it also in paperback.

Jon Breakfield's travel book
NAKED EUROPE by Jon Breakfield   

KEY WEST (which is actually the sequel to NAKED EUROPE) was published in paperback back in June and, to my great surprise, is doing well in both the U.S. and the U.K., so it made sense to have the prequel follow suit...if you follow me.

Will be using Createspace again as they were incredibly efficient and fast in producing KEY WEST and very user-friendly; not to mention they actually reply to my questions on the same day.

Am hoping that the paperback will be available by the end of August, so if you would like a copy please let me know.

I'm currently knee deep in page breaks and page numbers...here's a tip: Ensure you put in your page numbers before you try to add in your name and title in the headers. A lot of 'head banging' had been going on today, but once I realised I'd put the horse before the cart...

The front cover is done so just the back and sides to work on. Createspace provides a super template for this, so once you've decided on your artwork, you can't really muck it up too badly.

Looking forward to writing up the 'Acknowledgements' ... you'll have to buy a copy and see if you have been named.

Will let you know as soon as it's ready to hit the presses.

And now back to those page numbers.