Posted on by sarahmichellelynch

Prologue for THE OPERATOR, UNITY VOL.3

This book has been the undoing of me, I have to tell you that. Anyways, here’s a snippet you might like…

This is from the third book in the UNITY series and you can purchase the first two by visiting unitynovels.com

The following is unedited, subject to change etc, but I can tell you this book is the best thing I’ve written yet…

So here we are…

PROLOGUE

When you grow up being told that people are either good or evil, you don’t ever know any different. You can’t distinguish any middle ground. You are told most are evil, though you don’t really know what evil is until evil does. A childhood knowing only that people are to be mistrusted ‒ it stays with you forever and ever. Eighty-odd years of life didn’t convince me that I will ever get over what happened to me both then, and afterwards. What I learned over time, however, was that people and their individuality make everything better, more wholesome. Lots of people along the way smoothed out my rough edges and wore away at my hard shell.

I used to think it was enough to take succor from small things. Perhaps that was my way of coping. Beach walks, strolling around markets, a street stall jacket potato still in its foil wrapper and a plastic fork… those things still seem pretty great, even though I can’t have any of them, not anymore. That is not the world in which we live now.

I used to look at other people and envy them their ignorance, their naivety, their carefree ways. I’d assess them within a heartbeat and know everything about them and their needs, their desires. The stressed-out girl on a delicatessen was only concerned with getting out of there so she could spend her pennies at the local pub with her scruffy boyfriend. The man power-walking the streets with fury was only doing so because his wife wouldn’t put out and he had no other way of sweating off some steam. That paper boy who never spoke… that businesswoman who wore gray suits with such swagger that she convinced herself we didn’t all know it was just High Street clobber and not designer, not at all. That bus driver who always gave me the eye and complained when I didn’t have the right change. All those people, those beautiful people, made the pattern of what was once our world.

Oh we all see the outsides of people. We see the outlines of shapes and images, but do we see their essence, their souls? Their real story? Everyone has a story so they say. Some are possibly better left unsaid.

When you get to the end of my tale, you might wish you’d never heard my story. Sometimes I wished I’d never heard my story. However, it is what made me, me. What shaped me and formed me into the person I became.

Somebody made me realize that surviving wasn’t enough. This person challenged me. Really changed me. Whatever you believe about love, I might show you otherwise. Whatever you think love is, I may prove to the contrary.

You know the basics… now to get to the grit of this tale of UNITY.

You know who I am…

I am the Operator.

 

RELEASE DATE TBC

Posted on by sarahmichellelynch

99 cents each…

the radicalIn the first instalment of S.M. Lynch’s dystopian adult romance series…

The year is 2063 and Big Brother has control; 40 years previously Officium took over global intelligence, government, supply and policing. In the wake of viral disaster they offered to return the world to order, but at a cost.

New York journalist Seraph Maddon has been trying to link the death of her British parents to the group that has rinsed the world of all hope – but more than ten years of investigations have turned up nothing. It is only when she leaves her job behind to travel to England for a funeral that she starts to unpick her family’s involvement in a movement known as UNITY.

Someone intends Seraph to cross paths with Dr Ryken Hardy and when they meet, it is not long before they are running for their lives – their combination a significant threat to those who believe themselves beyond surveillance.

Seraph’s rollercoaster journey of reawakening and newfound love is a battle to finally break free of the shackles of oppression. Secrets and lies are the norm amongst a frightened population and the truth may be best kept hidden.

But someone is determined… the truth will out, for better or worse…

The story continues in UNITY Vol.2, THE INFORMANT

EXCERPT

“All we know is that we were born into corruption and madness and that nothing can move forward until the veil is lifted. Knowledge is freedom, and if the world knew the truth for a certainty, I’m sure people would rise up against Officium finally. But without definitive proof, we can do nothing. We need hard evidence otherwise anything else might send panic through the population again. I know one thing for sure at least, they will stop at nothing to keep the truth hidden…”

 

the informantIn the second instalment of S.M. Lynch’s dystopian adult romance series…

Exploding the secrets of 2023 was just the beginning. The Operator’s legacy has yet to be fully realized and there are those among the resistance who are having a hard time following orders…

Camille knows a few secrets guaranteed to create havoc if they escaped. While she watches two families come together to prevent Officium’s resurgence, she hovers on the brink of despair, desperate to be released of her responsibilities once and for all.

Meanwhile Seraph starts a new life in Paris, hoping to leave all her ghosts in the past. However, dark truths threaten to tear her world apart and a dramatic confrontation in the Catacombs spells tragedy for one UNITY member.

Still the journalist, Seraph is always listening… and always watching… and dark secrets seem abundant…

EXCERPT

I was both the Principal and me, needing to suffuse the two to become something more powerful than I had ever been before. I saw the images of all I loved and ran at the group, holding a hand out for Mara to stay where she was. As I neared the pack, I reached down for the instrument hidden within my knee-high boot. It swished and gleamed against the twinkling skies overheard. I heard the emissaries take a quick intake of breath and licked my lips at the sight of their fear.

 

 

 

 

Posted on by sarahmichellelynch

Another instalment in the saga…

Two years ago when I was pondering whether or not to self-publish my first book, I had no idea how my work would be received. No idea. When people texted/emailed me to say they couldn’t put it down and were in love with the characters, I just didn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe it. To me, writing was just something I enjoyed and that others enjoyed it was such a bonus. I didn’t know it would lead me on to write a book like A Fine Profession, nor A Fine Pursuit or Angel Avenue, which have been so well received since then. And the journey continues, the development is ongoing…

Today THE INFORMANT went live on Amazon. I am not going mad promoting it yet. I will do however when Volume 4 comes out. Then I will go mad. The reversions of what was the Ravage Trilogy, to me, signal the end of this stage of my creative development and the beginning of something new. It was only today I went to give a talk on self-publishing and had a potential pack of ten or more writers ready to put their work in my hands to edit and publish. I owe a lot to that first novel. I wouldn’t be here now without it.

Anyway, what I can tell you (without spoiling the plot) is that when I was writing these sci-fi novels, I was a new mum. Many of you know that. I was writing for the first time and it is only natural that a lot of my new concerns in life came to the fore in those novels. Also, a lot of people that came and went in my life, and those still with me, manifested in some respects in those early works that were more me than I think anything else ever will be.

It is sci-fi. Yet it has such a romantic edge. These are just stories that can take you away from this place. One major theme in the UNITY series is motherhood. I guess that will always stand prominent in any work of mine. You see my own mother was fostered when she was four and didn’t have it easy. My husband’s mum lost her mother when she was eight. That wasn’t the beginning of it for either of our mums. Both my mum and Andy’s mum strived so hard to give us what they never had. When I had a child too, so much hit me. I am sure so many other mums here and elsewhere can relate to that. UNITY is not only about a virus attack – it is about friendships, lovers, connections, relationships… it’s about alcoholism, abuse and how our imbedded personalities define us – all against this mad background of threat and suspicion, fear and longing. Dive in. I dare you!

Click covers to buy or visit unitynovels.com to find out more!!!

the radicalthe informant

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Prologue – THE INFORMANT!!!!

the informantOUT THIS WEEK!!

This is the sequel to THE RADICAL and promises to be explosive, action-packed, full of romance, intrigue and surprises galore!

To buy THE RADICAL… GO HERE!!!

READ ON FOR THE INFORMANT PROLOGUE…

January 2064

Mine was a life unlike all the others’. How bold a statement, you may say. Yet quite true. The rest thrived off reputation and hearsay whereas me, Camille Honoré, needed no reputation to prove how much of a threat to Officium I was. Nothing they had thrown at me had killed me. They had tried numerous times. I had kept my head down yet they knew of my conquests. My name was still synonymous with threat.

I sat in a bedroom in Paris, with these thoughts all swirling around my head. I looked out over the expansive rear gardens of Seraph’s new purchase: a house. The place needed a great deal of work and the gardens were more junkyard than recreational space, but I could see she believed in a possible transformation. I’d complain about the seals, the safety locks, the roof and she would smile and return, ‘It has potential.’

I loved her enthusiasm. Even after all that had transpired, she saw something good in everything. I knew it was because she had been to rock bottom and come back again that she didn’t take anything for granted. I had learnt that same lesson myself.

The strain of the past few months had driven me to the odd cigarette and I puffed on one out of the window so she wouldn’t see my vulnerability. Me, yes, me Camille Honoré, who was meant to be beyond all these earthly pleasures. Yet the past nine months had nearly killed me. Why? I could admit the reasons but only to myself. It knew it would take more than retrospect and reflection before I would be able to digest it with anyone else.

Seraph and her “condition” put a spanner in the works, let’s say. A touch of nausea on a certain Dakota apartment balcony was the whole damn reason why nine months had nearly killed me…

I was digressing. Getting sloppy. Allowing emotions to get the better of me. How crass. I forgot Camille Honoré does not admit she has the potential to die, when in fact she has more than the potential. I was just as fallible as the rest, if not more, though I was better at hiding it.

We thought Ryken had successfully paved the way for a resurgence. When in actual fact, no.

“Fuck him,” I whined to myself.

I blamed Eve for teaching me swear words. I blamed her for a lot of things actually. She had passed on and left me with a shit load of problems to mop up, sweep away, tuck under the carpet… (insert other archaisms here).

I was dealing with a mountain of logistical nightmares in fact and no amount of swearing would make me feel any better. Nothing was going to sway me from my feeling that the proverbial was going to hit the fan before long.

He damn well forgot to wear a prophylactic. Nothing but mayhem would ensue because of that one, silly, neglectful action.

I finished the cigarette and took out a mint, spraying myself with scented water too. Perfume would have her licking my face with the heightened sense of smell she had.

A ding from my xGen arrested me and I inwardly recoiled. What now? I told them all to leave me alone. I am not in the mood.

I had retired myself, I suppose, to a certain extent. I had left my no.1 in charge at the shop and had come to Paris with Seraph in a bid to start fresh, breathe away the cobwebs and reconnect with who I used to be. That thought made me chuckle inwardly: who I used to be…

I recalled a little French girl, treated like a princess by her parents, strolling the streets with her mamma, seeking shoes from stalls that would inscribe your name inside and make it all the more magical to have something that was entirely your own. How fantastical. How whimsical. How nothing of that little girl remained in the powerful machine that had replaced her.

I picked up my xGen and saw a message. I saw the sender and heat flooded my body. Heat rose in my cheeks. She still had that affect on me. It read, ‘Got time for a chat? Only a quick one.’

‘Sure,’ I replied, unable to help myself.

She called within a minute and I froze when I saw her. She was all blackness and I loved it. The darkness within her contrasted with the lightness in me. Though what she knew, and only she, was that my depths ran darker and deeper than most others’ – and in that respect we were a perfect fit.

‘How are you?’ she asked with concern.

‘Shit,’ I replied. I never swore. She knew that meant it was bad.

‘He is on his way?’ she asked tentatively.

‘Yes, he is,’ I mumbled.

‘Do you want me to come over?’

‘No,’ I told her, my lips pursed.

‘I don’t like the way you look,’ she argued.

‘How should I look? Pleased?’

I was more miffed than I had ever been.

There was a very valid reason for Ryken’s disappearance off the face of the planet and now I feared all this sacrifice, all this struggle, would be for nothing.

‘You can tell me what is going on in that head of yours. If it will help to unburden you, you may as well.’

I sniffed. I shook my head and rambled quickly in French, quicker than even she could understand. I went into my roughest dialect, my street tongue, and she gawped as I reeled off a lot of jargon.

‘Don’t be such a child and just tell me,’ she chastised.

‘Huh,’ I harrumphed, sitting down on my bed with her on my lap. I had to think of Seraph and her talk of piles earlier… anything to take my mind off the beauty of the woman opposite me.

I cogitated and twisted my mouth before admitting, ‘You haven’t been here when she cries in the night. You haven’t seen her…’ I paused, my mouth twisting uncomfortably while I tried to combat my emotions, ‘…talking like she is happy when she isn’t, not really. She is only pretending… when really she is so sad, she can barely get out of bed in the morning.’

‘Camille, you always knew it would be this way.’

‘Oh, yes, yes,’ I laughed in a trite manner, ‘oh that’s right. Camille follows orders, that is what she does.’

‘This is not you speaking, who is this creature?’ she demanded, her eyes narrowing.

‘I am so tired of this,’ I moaned.

‘You cannot let emotion get the better of you. Not when we have a traitor amongst us.’

‘Ha, a traitor! That is a laugh, is it not? We are all traitors to ourselves. We are human and still we convince ourselves we have no feelings… just to get the job done.’

‘If you don’t bloody tell me what is wrong, right this instant, I am going to come over there to knock some damn sense into you!’

‘That traitor as you term them… that thing who proclaims to be a person, well… my spies tell me things I don’t like to hear. Things that mean this whole sham could have been for nothing! Nothing!’

‘I am coming,’ she warned.

‘No. I don’t need you adding to my problems as well. I already have too many people on the watch list, thank you very much.’

‘A few more days, Camille,’ she comforted me, ‘and Seraph will not be so vulnerable. Just a few more days.’

A few more days, a few more months, a few more years… they had piled up and robbed my life, those “calculations of time” that meant shit. This fight felt like it would never be over.

I wanted to tell my counterpart that she had no idea of the real legacy the Operator had left behind. Secrets nobody but me knew. Some so terrible… some days I had to break skin on the punch bag to rid myself of the guilt I sometimes felt. Me, Camille Honoré, breaking skin. Oh Jesus. Who was I kidding? I was just a woman too. No plan, no motive. Just a woman.

‘I will come if you want me to,’ she added. Oh I bet you would…

‘Non, I don’t want you here,’ I insisted in a harsh voice.

‘Well, chin up. You never know, you might get to kick some more ass before long.’

I looked into her eyes and couldn’t help but crack a wry grin. That had me perked up. She was never easily offended, never gave up on me. She knew just how to appeal to my sense of humor.

‘She’s back, there she is, Camille is in the room again,’ she beamed.

I heard the door to Seraph’s room open after her nap and nodded towards Mara, whispering, ‘Got to go.’

She mouthed, ‘Okay.’

We ended the call and I heard Seraph yell from the corridor, ‘My back’s fuckin’ killin’!’

I chuckled inwardly. Seraph didn’t know how alike she and Eve had been. I had to hope she would never know the extent of the truth in that.

The Radical revealed her place in this tale, now I will unveil mine. Maybe I was the Principal first and foremost, in the eyes of the world. But there is/was so much more to me, too.

I was the Operator’s right-hand woman and you have yet to discover the extent of our former leader’s skills… prepare to be driven deeper into the murky abyss.

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Unity Novels Progress…

VOLUME ONE OUT NOW… if you’d like a review copy then please get in touch.

VOLUME TWO… 100% COMPLETE… out next Friday… if you’d like to review this, message me on http://www.facebook.com/SarahMLynch to be put on the list http://unitynovels.com/buy-books/book-two/

VOLUME THREE… cover reveal coming soon

VOLUME FOUR… TBC

Ha ha.

 

the radical the informant

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New Book Out Now

the radicalGuys and Gals,

A re-energised, re-edited version of my dystopian romance series has just begun to make its way in the world. You can visit unitynovels.com to find out more. Or you can paste/click this link to be taken to your country’s Amazon site .

How do I get you to start reading a series? How do I get you to start reading full stop? There’s a lot out there available to read. And a series this long and this epic is an investment for sure!

I guess all I can really do is tell you what these books might do for you. Firstly, they may show you how me, Sarah Lynch, sowed the seeds of my writing career. THE RADICAL may be re-edited and souped up, but the essence of it is still my first novel. I think if you read it, you’ll see how very strongly this book took me, swept me off my feet and controlled me to the extent that I had to write it, had to get it down. It was an idea screaming so loudly in my ears. I continually had to fight off the urge until I just gave in and wrote it.

How did it become a series? What makes a series? How do you define A SERIES? Or is it just loads of words separated into volumes that should actually be one book…?

I have given this so much thought recently. So much thought. I have read a lot of series thinking “My god this could have been one book, or even a novella!” The truth is, well, a reader’s enjoyment is subjective for so many reasons. A lot of readers want to be carried off with an easy read, wheras many others prefer to be lumped in the realms of a thriller or mystery they can twist their minds with. I know that sometimes – my own experience is this – if we are constantly reading, reading, reading all the damn time, it gets tired. The same goes for writing. We need breaks in between the two. So if you come to something without any expectations and just let your eyes wash over it, let it sink into your head, you just don’t know what the feeling may be after you finish reading/and or writing. If you get me? 🙂

So, these books are a series and what defines them as a series is that they are a collection of puzzles. Each book is a puzzle to be unraveled and unfurled in itself. The puzzle will not be answered in volume one, nor volume two, or three, or even four. It will be solved when you go back and read them all a second time and go, “How did I not see these hints?”

Oh, and it’s only a few cents/pence at the moment! I am not underselling myself, not at all. Money is not important in this writing world. Investment in words – which costs nothing – is.

ENJOY!

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unitynovels.com

Some of you know me only as an erotic/romance author. Some of you know I started out by writing futuristic stories that combine romance, thriller and scifi. Well, soon I will be unveiling how my work is developing and going down two separate routes. Don’t get me wrong there is always going to be some romance in anything I write. There will always be plenty of STEAM (to highlight the story, mind). However, when it comes to my scifi writings I will be known as S.M. Lynch now. That is because the scifi is definitely grittier and less forgiving than my other novels. Although if you read anything of mine you may notice I don’t write simple characters – ever – I always writing 3D souls who’ve seen, done and been places. Some protagonists may aggravate you but then not everyone is likeable in real life – it’s just understanding why that is sometimes difficult to comprehend.

So… I have a new series coming out very, very soon. I say NEW but I released these books before – at a time when I didn’t know much about professional writing. I just knew I had a good story. Perhaps a great story. I just didn’t really know then how I could tell that story in the best possible way.

I believe when you leave a story alone, and go back to it after a period of reflection, you obviously have a lot more perspective. I can’t recall exactly when I decided to revise these books but it just hit me before Christmas that it was important that I SHOULD.

If you visit the above website, you can get a feel of the series. I can reveal that one of the reasons I thought I should revise these books is because I do have some ideas at the back of my mind for a follow-up series to this series. The possibilities excite me very much. You see – these are set in the future. And the future is for the taking.

THE RADICAL is fully edited and will be released on track, this Saturday. If you like a read that you can swish through in one gulp, you will love this book.  It will keep you guessing right until the very end and hopefully – well definitely – will make you want to read on. THE INFORMANT will follow pretty closely behind.

So just how do I get you to invest in not just a trilogy, but a series? It’s a big, big ask. All I can say is that we’ve surely heard and read the same plots retold in different books over and over again. What you may like about my scifi novels is the characters. They’re all different. I push them through individual challenges and the world in which they live is a tightly controlled environment of fear, dread and corruption. So getting away scot-free won’t come cheap…

Please head on over and take a look at unitynovels.com

the radical

 

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The Beauty of Science Fiction

I recently did a guest post on another website but thought I would post this here too… it pretty much says everything I am currently going through… 😉 and it’s all good!

The Beauty of Science Fiction…

As an author of erotica and contemporary romance, plus science-fiction, I have been on all sides of the writing spectrum. Each genre has its own challenges. In fact, genre is something widely discussed amongst the Indie writing community purely because many Indies have books that don’t necessarily fall into one category and therefore have been passed over numerous times by agents and/or publishers.

When I say science-fiction, in my mind I think of Quantum Leap, Star Wars, Star Trek or The Fly (this film terrified me when I first saw it). I think of Stephen King and The Stand, another story that left a lasting impact. I think of Blade Runner, The Fifth Element and even Demolition Man (don’t beat me with a stick). There are so many other films/books/comics I love because I love science-fiction. In fact, there are so many books/films that bob under the sci-fi radar because it is a genre that is all-encompassing. Did you think The Adjustment Bureau was necessarily sci-fi? Did you think Never Let Me Go was? The Time Traveller’s Wife?  Sci-fi does not leave those who prefer more romantic stories out in the cold.

My husband and I met through a mutual love of the arts. We were sent together to a Press night to review a play for a university magazine and it turned into a story… nine years on we have a daughter and have been married almost six years. When I met him, I had no idea I was marrying into science-fiction madness. His mother is a mad Trekkie. I am talking super mad! She can name you the title of any Star Trek episode just from the first line. She dragged my husband to Star Trek conventions when he was little and he has been indoctrinated in all the various offshoots of Trek… and beyond. My own love of sci-fi was something burning deep but not on the surface. I am just a lover of great stories… aren’t we all? It was only when I started writing sci-fi that I realised what a great source I had in my husband for ideas and opinions. Thus he became my editor.

When I started writing my first novel, all I saw was a theory. I didn’t classify it as one genre or another. I knew there would be a love story at the heart but I also knew the book would be set in the future and in some respects, this already placed it in the sci-fi bracket. Yet I also had a yearning for romance and felt I had to weave this in. I needed that too. So when I was asked to write this post, I got to thinking what differentiates straight erotica, straight romance, straight sci-fi. Setting perhaps, language maybe, yet you still have to throw a lot of imagination into whatever you try to tackle, whichever genre that may be.

Erotica was something I wanted to try my hand at because it was a challenge. It is not necessarily where my heart lies. Don’t get me wrong, I love erotic stories. I didn’t love Story of O at first. In fact I hated it. However, I grew to love it and now class it as one of my favourite books. Every reading always produces another insight or a different reaction. When I finished writing a pair of erotic novels last year, I was pretty pleased with the result. Some said the books were much more than erotica. And they were. I tackled some subjects that I felt were important to explore. In fact, there are tons and tons of erotic writers out there that have written much better stuff than will ever see the bottom of a jumble sale. That is because erotica, when done right, allows us to explore emotional issues no other genre allows so easily. Erotica can be so much more than just fantasy. It can be a vehicle of exploration for how intimacy and sexual honesty between two people can be such a force of good.

So after writing two erotic novels I wrote a contemporary romance titled Angel Avenue. It was such a joy to write, so easy in fact. I wrote about exactly what I knew. It is set in my own environs and it features characters I am familiar with, or versions of real people I know and respect and love. If any writer ever tells you they are not inspired by life, they are lying. Whether directly or indirectly, we all are. We are sometimes subliminally, subconsciously, inspired by real life whether we like it or not. Anyway, it was this switch from erotica to contemporary romance that made me realise a few things. It made me realise sometimes we forget the small stuff, which can make a heck of a difference in books. It makes us connect with characters so much more.

As for the sci-fi, that very first novel I began during maternity leave almost three years ago turned into a trilogy. It spun wildly out of control and I never thought I would get any success at all from it. In fact my first novel was my first creative outing. I had never even attempted a short story before then! I just had this dream and I followed it. I explored ideas and theories until they were wrung out. The point of this article is that I have recently gone back to these books and re-written/re-edited and re-imagined them. When I went back to the drawing board after writing three romance novels, I realised just what a task I had accomplished in writing a trilogy of sci-fi books. Because as you can imagine, sci-fi sometimes requires a whole new setting to be explained and described. It asks that we IMAGINE like we never imagine with any other genre. In science-fiction anything is possible. Nothing is off the table. As a romance writer first and foremost, that was difficult for me to master at first. I constantly thought of things in terms of would this actually happen ?? When in actual fact, I should have been telling myself, this is science-fiction and anything can bloody happen! My point is, science-fiction can comfortably feature action, thriller, romance, drama, adventure and fantasy, all within a completely different world. It can comment on universal political, social, moral and ethical issues. The challenge is immense but it is one I love and relish. Nothing excites or enthrals me as much. The possibilities are endless. It is exploring the people we are, through the things we could be capable of. And that is the beauty of science-fiction.

 

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How your first novel shapes you…

I may be repeating myself here but it needs saying. It does need saying. Again. A lot of first novels get consigned to the bin. One bestselling author I talked to wrote five novels before he got “published”. All the others may never see the light of day. I hear Hilary Mantel wrote dozens before getting “published”. “Published”: here I am referring to getting that elusive traditional publishing deal. Many hold out for this because to be an Indie means being very brave, or simply believing you have some words people may enjoy. Many writers can probably say… we wrote something and binned it at one time or another. We went on and wrote other things that we thought were better.

My first novel was so far from perfect. In fact it was the hardest novel I ever wrote and will always be because I started writing with an idea but no notion of how to set out the threads that weaved from that initial strain. Some of you might remember me saying that I wrote it while I was on maternity leave. I look back now and with hindsight, I actually don’t know how I accomplished what I did.

One thing I refuse to do is take myself seriously. There are so many, many writers now and it is amazing if you can get a small, loyal following. If you have that, pat yourselves on the back. It is an admirable thing to get something written down let alone published, whether by traditional or any other route. I think of things in terms of my own, personal victories sometimes, because often that is enough for the time being. Now I look back, I realise there were so many times I could have given up and given in. So many points along the road where I was tired, dejected, feeling unappreciated. Wondering what the point was. Whether anybody even cared. My husband always cared but yeah, that is his job. So then… when other people started caring too… that gave me something else. A bit more of an edge. I had to tell myself “you wrote a bloody novel when you had never even written anything creative before!” It was true. Yes, I was a journalist. Yes, I had an English degree. Yes, I have a way with words… that much was clear when I returned to work after maternity to find about six people doing a job I used to do singularly. But a novel is such a different ballgame… I had written a few fictional pieces in my youth and a bit of poetry but I hadn’t even really attempted a short story before I wrote Beneath the Veil.

There has to be so much self-belief. So much self-motivation. It is such a lonely game, such a weary, lonesome road to travel. I am a humble person (I actually am!), but when it comes to self-publishing apparently showing off is essential because nobody will listen if you don’t believe in the first place! I had to change from that humble, carefree “so what, who cares” type person to what I am now, which is a forthright, “here is my book and I flipping believe in it and will fight for it” type hybrid writer/promoter! I am still learning, bloody hell don’t get me wrong, I am still learning there!

Truth was my first novel (to me, back then, when I first started writing) was just a little challenge to myself to see what I could do for myself for a change. I never anticipated what I would turn out. Not in a million years would I have been able to foresee what I could achieve without first giving it a try. I never expected what happened – to actually happen. Never.

I didn’t give up on my first novel because it was such a rush, such a monumental period of creativity I couldn’t pass up. I was taken by an idea for a future world and it took me along for the ride. I just knew I had to get it down, it was then or never. It was all ready in my mind, waiting, to be written down. Sometimes you sit having to force the words. With my first novel, I couldn’t contain them. I itched to write, to scribble, to get it all down. It is great to be able to say, “I wrote erotica that people see as more than just erotica”. But it will be even better when my science-fiction gets me more notice because in actual fact, that is more me. You see, my first words were my truest and I will always gravitate back to them.

I have spent the first part of this year revising this first novel because I felt it was time. I felt there was more. There is still more… more future novels. The reason why I went back is because the prequels have to match the sequels now. There is so much I want to tell you all, and I will, in good time.

We wouldn’t have had A Fine Profession if I hadn’t gotten over that first hurdle of the first novel. Nor would Warrick Jones be breaking hearts either, if I hadn’t carried on, kept the faith, kept writing, knuckled down. Each time I finish a novel I prepare myself for the slump and the possibility that I might not have any more in the tank. I might not have the urge to keep going. I am a realist and sometimes, it just ain’t happening. The pen does not want to move. Yet, always, when I am least looking – I find something else to do. To explore. My first novel taught me that… you start with a singular notion and you let it run riot from there. You don’t stop until you have exhausted every possibility in your mind. I learnt to stop looking to myself for the inspiration and look at the world. The “shaping a novel into a smooth ride” thing, that comes later. Worry about it then…!

More to come…

Posted on by sarahmichellelynch

Happy Valentine’s Day!

What did you all get? I got some of my fave bathing products and some science fiction graphic art books to inspire my work! Yes, I am a mega secret geek!

Just to let you all know, there is still lots of time to get your copy of Angel Avenue for free! Either on Smashwords or B&N.

Plus, today I added some new material for your reading pleasure. Just click here!

♥♥♥♥