Sunday, March 22, 2009

Welcome to The Crystal Realm and Book News!

Hi! Chris Ballantyne here - welcome to my Book News Blog.

I started writing this book in 1996. Yes, I know it's been a long time since then, but after writing four chapters I had to let it slide because of family and work commitments.

Then an amazing thing happened! In 2008 I logged onto a web site called Stormthecastle.com maintained by Will Kalif.

Will has written two books and is self-published. More importantly, he has written and posted many articles aimed at helping would-be writers, particularly fantasy writers. After reading them all, I decided to take some of his advice and return to what I started in 1996. My creative thoughts started flowing and the first book of my trilogy is finished and is now in the hands of a very capable editor. This leaves me time to start on the second book!

The Crystal Realm Trilogy has been described as an urban epic fantasy, with an historical slant. Book one is titled Krytor's Return. As soon as I can I'll put up a chapter excerpt and let you read the blurb to give you a taste of what you can expect.

As I continue with this blog, keep checking in and you will notice interesting improvements. I'll provide chapter samples for comment, keep everyone up to date with my query submissions and the responses I get from agencies and, hopefully, publishers! You are welcome to come with me as I share the wonderful experiences I've had while writing this story. There are a lot of pitfalls that inexperienced authors can fall into, and I'll discuss these in an effort to help others avoid some of the mistakes I made.

So stay with me, look forward to regular chapter excerpts and discussions, and I'll try to have something new at least once a week for you to think about and comment on.

All the best with whatever project you are striving towards, and remember 'there is only one difference between published and unpublished writers and it is this - the first group see their work in print on the shelves ... the second group are yet to have physical evidence of the hours, weeks, years spent fashioning words into their patterns. You are already a writer.' Kate Mosse

Chris Ballantyne