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Interview with Dani Atkins The Author of The Memory of Us

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The Memory of Us is a fantastic book. How long did it take you to write it?
The Memory of Us took approximately one year to write. I don’t write particularly quickly and
would panic if I had to produce a book any faster.
When I gave up work to write full-time I thought I’d begin at nine o’clock and work through
until five (with an hour for lunch, of course). It wasn’t long before I realised I’m not disciplined
enough for that.
People might be surprised it takes me twelve months to write a book, but I’m just amazed it
doesn’t take even longer!

Where did the idea come from?
My books have recurring themes of love, family, and friendship, often set against a life
changing moment or event. From the outset I knew I wanted this story to feature two sisters
and the unshakeable bond between them. Lexi and Amelia were a joy to write, and I miss
spending time with them.

The book has many themes. How did you manage to thread them all together so well?
I’d like to say it was a result of meticulous planning – except I don’t plan at all. However, I
knew the important plot points, so it was a matter of letting the story unfold naturally and
trusting everything would fall into place.

What is your writing routine like?
My day starts with a dog walk, when I’ll formulate my plan for that day’s writing and often get
ideas for conversations between characters.
Before I begin, I go back and edit the previous day’s work. I know many authors prefer to
keep their eye on the finishing line, but I’m not happy going forward if I think there’s
something that needs fixing.
Mornings are not my most productive time, so it’s mid to late afternoon before I usually hit
my stride.
Before turning off my computer I read that day’s work out loud. I find this to be a useful way
of checking both the pace of the story and the authenticity of the dialogue.

What advice would you give writers who want to maintain a career?
First, to keep reading in many different genres. Seeing how authors tackle a story, handle
the pace, the dialogue and the plot can be very inspiring. It motivates you to bring all you
have to the table the next time you begin to write.
Next, is to just write. Don’t tell yourself that ‘one day I’ll write a book’. Do it. Do it now. It’s
easy to think you don’t have time to write, but you just need to be disciplined and
determined. Don’t set impossible goals. If you aim for just 1000 words a day, in three months
you’ll have a novel.
Lastly, write the book that’s in your heart. It’s more important to be aware of current literary
trends than it is to follow them. At the end of the day, you must write the book you want to
write and tell the story you have to tell. Perhaps it isn’t the same one that everyone is
reading right then; perhaps you are bucking the trend… but it’s just possible you’re starting a
new one.

What’s next for you? 
My next book is well underway and has a working title of PROMISE ME – although I’m sure
that will change – they usually do. It is another emotional drama with some strong characters
who I hope people will fall in love with every bit as much as I’ve done. I don’t want to reveal
too much more, but I will say that I made myself cry writing the very first chapter, which was
a first for me.

The Memory of Us’ by Dani Atkins is just published by Head of Zeus in hardback. I loved it. It is a beautiful and heartfelt novel which takes many themes and ties them together beautifully. The characters are divine and I adored the love story. I was fully immersed in this beautiful book. Superb writing mixes with a novel that keeps you guessing all of the way. I can’t recommend it enough.

From self publishing to Penguin Random House without an agent: A Writing Journey By Ivy Ngeow

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Pitching to Penguin after being signed to small publishers and being self-published.

Beginnings: I had not planned to be an author. I grew up believing that books were written by others, not me, for us to enjoy. Three or four events in my life, like special occasions, led me to “think” I was a writer. I was raised in a rich environment of stories, via my mum, my aunts, my grandparents, my dad, my teachers. I enjoyed hearing them so much that I also began telling them. I had a little burst of success as a 16-year-old in a national short story writing competition with the New Straits Times. I felt that indescribable buzz when I saw my byline among 30 highly-commended entries. 

The hotel rooms: As a university student and an adult, I wrote nothing. I only started when I started travelling for work in hospitality and resort design. I was in hotel rooms and airports a lot. I learned that I really valued and enjoyed observation and being alone, which of course, are the prerequisites of the writing life. I was surprised to be flooded with ideas which had nothing to do with work. I began writing again because as you know, you don’t need any fancy tools or equipment. In those days, I printed and posted my stories from airports, or the nearest post office to the hotel. This period led me to believe I had again some chance of success because I was getting accepted by the Sunday magazines. One story was bought and broadcast by the BBC World Service. I had meetings with agents in Soho back in London, which led to nothing but an inkling that my writing was getting attention, any attention. I took writing more seriously when I invested in an MA in Writing at Middlesex University. As you know it’s not free, so I was taking a big chance but I was working and it paid for the fees. I was astonished to discover that I won the Middlesex University Literary Prize in an international competition, a cash award large enough to cover a third of my fees. The judge was Penelope FitzGerald and about my story, she said she had never read anything like it in her life. 

The agent: I was snapped up by an agent immediately following the prize, a decision that was poor. I had no other offers. After 5 years, she did not get me a deal despite my writing not one but two novels for her to market. I did not write a word for 10 years. My writing stayed on my hard drive. It was deliberate. I had two children whom I wanted to give 120% of my attention. After 10 years and they were in primary school, I started submitting the novel again, and following 87 rejections I won a prize in Hong Kong, also a large cash prize. This novel, my debut, Cry of the Flying Rhino, was the turning point for me, because I now was an author. My entire family flew out to Hong Kong for the award ceremony and the publication. It was a small publisher, like my second novel’s, Heart of Glass.

The pandemic: Following the two novels with small publishers which were given zero marketing and publicity and unsurprisingly, hardly earned any royalties, I started to wonder if indeed they had even been published. I wrote another, Overboard. I got 50 rejections and I decided to start an imprint to publish it as I consider it to be my best book yet. I think my limit for rejections is now 30. I do think there is a limit otherwise you will be querying until you die. I don’t think I have the time or the patience to withstand 87 rejections like I did with the first, and 55 with the second. There’s no point and nobody cares. It’s an art form. It’s not a pizza which is edible and sort of OK even when bad. During the 2-3 years of the pandemic. I ate, sleep, wrote, published. Repeat. It was like a bumper sticker. 

Keep going: I did online courses on self-publishing, keywords, genres and copywriting to study the market. I cannot stress how important it is for a writer. Without knowing the market and the audience, you can’t pitch. I learned to write through editing other people’s work and through reading hundreds of books in the genres I was interested in. The MA will not teach you these skills. My objective had always been to write the best book that could write. This kept me going in the lockdown years. I published a couple more, short stories, and another novel, White Crane Strikes.

Perfect pitch: A famous author, unfortunately I forget who, said that if you cannot tell your story in 17 words, you don’t know your story. That intro letter, one-page synopsis and first paragraph in your manuscript is everything. I wrote The American Boyfriendin November 2021 which I decided I would query until that magic self-imposed 30 rejections before I would publish it myself. I would trade the complete control and higher royalties in self-publishing for a traditional deal because of the connections. By the time I started querying again post-pandemic, I had already distilled my book to the most grabby Netflix 40-word synopsis. I saw a window of open submissions from Penguin Random House Southeast Asia. I was just about to release my book, because I got to 27 rejections. 9 months after querying, in August 2022, I got the best email ever. It was from Penguin and consisted of 5 words: has this manuscript been acquired? 

Worldwide connections: The worldwide connections have been the most astounding and rewarding part of the publishing experience. Having a publicist was already mind-blowing as I had never had one before with self-publishing (that would be me) or with the small publishers I had been with (that would be no one). 

The Penguin publicity, marketing and sales team have opened doors from day one: no. 1 Sunday Times authors providing the cover endorsement quotes, media and press outreach including World Literature Today, Nerd Daily, Culturess, Book Riot, The Telegraph and Elle, being no. 4 on the Straits Times bestseller list in its opening week, being on sale at WHSmith at the airport departure lounge, book launch at West End London bookshop and in the USA, in Barnes and Noble physical bookstores throughout USA and at the airports such as in Key West, Miami International and JFK. I have also been invited to the Jaipur Literary Festival (“the greatest literary show on earth”) in February 2024. I have also seen an uptick in the sales of my other books. These opportunities to build audience trust and author visibility would not have been possible without the Penguin label. This experience has changed the way I see publishing as I come from a “nothing happens” school of thought from my previous publications. I am proud that my book now belongs with the orange-spined classics I grew up reading. I am inspired to keep writing. Stories keep us alive. Stories are more than ever what we need in these times.

My parting words and 5 rules of writing: Persevere. Learn to write. Write the best book that you can write. Believe that top quality writing always stands out. Above all, read.

How I Got Published by Jane Lambert

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Isn’t it strange how sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to make a change for the better?

When I discovered that my husband had been having an affair my world fell apart. I could feel myself being dragged down a black hole, but instead of therapy, I turned to writing and began the first draft of a story I had been carrying around in my head for years.

It’s a romantic comedy, inspired by my rollercoaster journey from globe-trotting cabin crew to struggling actress.

It was my escape from all the sadness and drama of my divorce, giving me something positive and fun to focus on.

I self-published ‘Learning To Fly’ through Amazon, and I’ll never forget the feeling of holding my book in my hand. I felt like a cloud had lifted and that I was on a new and better path. The book got some great reviews and I was invited to speak about my writing journey at Blackwell’s Writers at the Edinburgh Fringe and on BBC Radio London.

I sent a copy to HQ HarperCollins, and much to my amazement, they offered me a contract!

I was asked to make some major changes to the story and they re-designed the cover, changing the title to ‘The Start of Something Wonderful.’  

I narrated the audio version for HarperCollins Audio and am now working on adapting it into a 6-part comedy drama for TV.

I’m also writing my second novel, ‘Marriage, Mafia & Mozzarella’, which was inspired by my rollercoaster marriage to my Italian ex-husband. So you see, life can have a funny way of working out, can’t it?

♥

 

Mark Ellis My Writing Process

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Q1: I took up writing when I sold my computer services business in the early 2000s, having always had an ambition to be an author. I have so far written 5 books in the DCI Frank Merlin World War 2 detective series. The four published books are Princes Gate (set in January 1940), Stalin’s Gold (September 1940), Merlin At War (June 1941) and A Death In Mayfair (December 1941). Merlin At War was nominated for a CWA Dagger in 2018. My aim is to continue to follow Merlin’s adventures through to the end of the Mark Ellis, author

Q2: The book I am promoting now is the 5th in the series, Dead In The Water, which will be published by Hachette (Headline) on May 19th. It is set in August 1942 and revolves around two artistic masterpieces stolen from an Austrian Jewish family before the war and which end up in London with fatal consequences.

 

Q3: As I am writing a historical series set in a specific period, my principal framework is the timeline. As you can see above, all books are separated in time by 6 to 9 months, so when I finish the latest I know roughly when the next one will be set.When I’m starting work on the new book, I focus intently on the exact time slot of the story. I research that heavily and that process often prompts plot ideas. I am already working on Frank Merlin 6, which I have decided to set in Spring 1943, and plot ideas are beginning to occur to me. When I have roughly formulated what ideas to pursue, I just start writingand see where they take me. I usually do not know who did what until I am about two thirds of the way through the book. I write a first draft straight off without stopping to edit. Then I do many edits before sending the manuscript off to the publishers. I did about 15 edits of Dead In The Water which is about the norm.

 

Q4: As is clear from above, I am not really a planner. I rather think of myself as a sculptor, except that I don’t have a piece of stone or marble to work with. My first draft is the working material. Once I’ve created that I start chipping away.

 

Q5: The word count of the new book is approximately 110,000. The word count of my first draft was over 200,000 so you can see a significant editing job was done. My plots tend to be quite complex and I don’t think I could manage anything much shorter but I think 110,000 to 130,000 is a good length for a thriller.

 

Q6: I am conscious as I write my first draft of teeing up various characters and situations but as I say don’t formally plan a structure in advance. After a while, I tend to find everything comes together in its own way. I seldom make major structural changes when I get down to editing.

 

Q7: I find writing the first draft very hard work. Also waiting for comments on the submitted manuscript is tough.

 

Q8: Editing is good fun. Also I love creating a fictional world all of my own and then sharing it with my readers.

Dead In The Water by Mark Ellis is out now in paperback by Headline Accent, £9.99.

 

 

 

Tim Sullivan My Writing Process

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tim sullivan the patientI’ve always written. I wrote and directed my first short film at university and the writing followed on from there. I began writing screenplays with some success, starting in the late eighties with an adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust starring Kristen Scott-Thomas, James Wilby, Judi Dench and Alec Guinness. This was followed by an adaptation of EM Forster’s Where Angels Fear to Tread starring Helen Mirren, Helena Bonham-Carter and Judy Davis. I then wrote and directed Jack and Sarah with Richard E Grant, Samantha Mathis, Ian McKellen, Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins. This led to a screenwriting career in America where I worked with many producers including Ron Howard, Scott Rudin and Jeffrey Katzenberg. I spent a year writing the screenplay for Shrek 4 before the studio decided to go in a different direction with the movie. My last two produced movies were Letters to Juliet starring Amanda Seyfried and Vanessa Redgrave and last year My Little Pony – A new generation. I’ve always wanted to write novels, specifically crime and finally found the time. My series centres upon DS George Cross a socially awkward and sometimes difficult but brilliant detective. He is based in Bristol and has the best conviction rate in the force. His third outing The Patient is released by Head of Zeus on March 3rd.

tim sullivan the patient

What is your writing process?

I’m a morning writer. I find I get my best work done then. Ideas seem fresher and I have the energy to get going. I tend to re-read and edit in the afternoons.

Do you plan or just write?

With screenplays I definitely plan. You have to. But with crime novels I start knowing who has died and who’s done it, but I have no idea how to get there. This can make things complicated and it’s easy to lose faith when you’re not sure which way to go. But I think it means that George Cross, the audience and I are all discovering things at the same time. I think this gives the narrative a more convincing and interesting path.

What about word count?

This varies enormously. I write everything long hand in fountain pen before it gets anywhere near a computer. So, a minimum of 500 words and a maximum of around 2500.

What do you find hard about writing?

The beginning of a book is hard. Until I’ve reached 20,000 words I’m not really sure whether it’s going to be a book at all. I enjoy it a lot more after that. I find it hard not to write long meandering sentences but thankfully I have an eagle-eyed editor who keeps me on the straight and narrow or should I say within the margins.

What do you love about writing?

I used to find the solitary nature of it hard but now it’s possibly what I love about it the most

I love creating characters and relationships. Writing things that move me or make me laugh. 

It’s amazing how many times as a writer you can surprise yourself.

Advice for other writers.

Find the confidence to do it and sit down and write. Write for yourself before you write for anyone else. Sketch down ideas and scenes. Write clutches of dialogue as they come into your head. Don’t sit down and try and write a complete project. Play around a little.

And enjoy it. Everyone writes better when they enjoy what they’re doing.

www.timsullivan.uk

Instagram @timsullivannovellist

Twitter      @timjrsullivan

Facebook   @timjrsullivan

Tim Sullivan is the author of The Patient published by Head of Zeus 3rd March, £18.99

How I got a Literary Agent.

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In January this year one of the most amazing things happened to me: I got a literary agent. Having an agent was always something beyond my wildest dreams, more than that, my agent is the amazing Susan Yearwood. Champagne popping time indeed.

I spent the months in the run up to Christmas researching agents and sending off submissions. I went through The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook with precision, choosing ten agents to send my book off to. I researched every agent heavily and Susan called to me. There are a few interviews I found in which Susan and her ethos resonated with me. I knew she was The One.  In fact, before her email asking to schedule a call with her, I had a dream she was my agent and we were being interviewed at a literary festival together.

In the end I sent my first novel off to a lot of agents and publishers. I got a lot of good feedback and a few full manuscript requests. I also got a wonderful rejection from Harper Collins, who read the entire thing and sent me four paragraphs of feedback. They even asked me to send them anything else I wrote. In the end Susan passed on my first novel, but she liked my writing enough to ask if I had anything else I could send her. Thankfully I did. I always write a first draft of a book and then get started on another one while I let the other one sit. Then I go back to it with fresh eyes, alternating my drafts. I did not think the other book was ready and had spent hundreds sending it off to a professional editing agency for feedback. By the time the feedback came back Susan had been my agent for three months! It may have been a waste of money, but I have no complaints.

Susan loved the book and took my on as a client after our phone call. I was a true pinch me moment. For anyone who wants an agent and does not have one yet I would say the following things:

  • Write a good book. Send off the first three chapters, along with a synopsis that really grabs.
  • Collate all of the writing you have done and any awards you have won. Write a paragraph about yourself that sells all you have to offer. Covering letters are important.
  • Get a copy of The Write”s and Artists’ Yearbook and research what agents work in your genre.
  • Start submitting.
  • Keep submitting.
  • Take rejection in your stride.
  • Listen to all feedback.
  • Redo your submission to suit various agents.
  • Start writing your new book.

 

Good luck!

 

How I Got Published By Alec Marsh

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Alec Marsh, writer, authorWhen I was 21 I started to write a novel. It wasn’t very good. I was working as a reporter for a local paper in Cornwall and my book… was about a reporter working for a local paper in Cornwall. 

Soon I moved to London to work for the Daily Telegraph and started writing a second novel. It was about a young journalist working for a newspaper in London. 

It wasn’t very good either. 

I met a top agent at a function and asked him if he’d see it. 

‘What’s it about?’ he asked.

After several seconds of flannelling he cut in: ‘If you can’t tell me in under 11 seconds then I’m not interested.’ 

I’d been introduced to the idea of the elevator pitch. If you can’t encapsulate your idea in a nutshell, you’ve had it.

I kept writing and the rejection slips (paper in those days) kept piling up.

Then one day a friend suggested I try my hand at historical fiction. ‘You’re obsessed about the past,’ he said. And it was true.

About a year later I read The Da Vinci Code, and was hooked. 

And I thought, “I can do that.”

So I started thinking about a historical mystery that could sit at the heart of a story, and some characters that would have sticking power.

That was around 2004. Before I knew it, I had started writing what would become my first novel, Rule Britannia. And I knew I was onto something, I could feel it in my fingertips. My characters – a historian and mountaineer Ernest Drabble and his pal, a journalist named Harris – were alive. And so was the story.

With a half-written book, I started polishing and went looking for an agent. Again the rejection slips piled up (still paper).

Then one day in 2008 an email landed at about 6pm on Saturday evening from an agent. Do you have any more, he asked?

I didn’t sleep that night. Soon I’d emailed the next three chapters, then we had a meeting. After that, I had an agent and went off to finish the book – armed with the self-confidence to finish it properly, to believe in myself and the benefits of his insights.

The agent then took it to market. But it was 2009 and e-readers, Amazon and the global financial crisis was hitting hard, and – for whatever reason – my book didn’t sell. After a dozen very polite rejections from major publishers, my agent suggested I try writing a different book. Which I did. 

For five years I wrote a book set in the First World War, but Drabble and Harris were still in the back of my mind, calling to me from the binary prison of a hard drive. 

By 2015 the First World War book was finished – but so was my relationship with my agent who finally spelled it out to me when he told me this was not a book that he could sell to his clients. We were finished.

Exhausted and disappointed, I stopped knocking on doors that wouldn’t open and focused instead on my day job. Every now and then someone would ask about Drabble and Harris; I would change the subject.

Then my son Herbie was born in 2016, and his arrival rekindled my ambition. So in the small hours, I dug out Rule Britannia and reread it, shook my head at parts that hadn’t aged well, and I polished it. And I pitched it again.

After a string of rejections (emails now), I went direct to publishers, finding an independent in Cardiff, named Accent Press. 

When the owner telephoned me and told me she’d take it – and she’d want two more books after – I was standing in a corridor at work. I didn’t punch the air, but a tear might have come to my eye. It had taken 20 years and I had endured numerous disappointments but it had finally happened. Drabble and Harris would get to their readers, and I was going to have a novel out. So what’s my advice for would-be authors. Don’t give up. And as Martin Amis once told me when I asked him for advice at book-signing: keep writing. After all, what else are you going to do?

Alec Marsh is author of the Drabble & Harris novels, published by Headline Accent. The latest book, ‘Ghosts of the West’ is published in original paperback and ebook on 9 September

 

My Writing Process Ray Star

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Ray Star, author, writer, how I write, my writing processWhat you have written, past and present

I wrote my first story when I was ten, scribbled untidily onto folded green paper, unevenly stapled together with crayon illustrations on every other page. My teacher had tasked our class with writing a story to include three things: a waiting room, a light switch and a wish. I opted to write a tale of a young girl who found herself in a magic waiting room that gave those worthy a wish, if fate called upon them to use the light switch. I received my first A+ and have wanted to be an author ever since.

After my school years, I dabbled in freelance journalism, covering ‘real life’ stories for tabloids and the women’s weekly’s in my twenties but found this mind numbingly painful. To the point, it put me off writing for a while. I ended up starting my own PR firm and then, life got in the way, as it so often does, and my dream of one day becoming a successful author was lost to the 9 to 5 routine and all that falls in between.

It wasn’t until quite recently in 2018 that the idea for a story found me, and it wouldn’t let me be. It would find me just before I fell asleep at night, an array of nameless faces that needed their stories to be read, heard and understood. The title came to me when I was at lunch with my mother one afternoon, and a year later, my first draft copy of Earthlings – The Beginning was ready.

  • What you are promoting now

My debut novel Earthlings – The Beginning, is book one of a YA Fantasy trilogy with a message to the narrative, and launches on August 12th, this year.

Earthlings is the story of a young girl named Peridot, raised with the realities of her world hidden from her by an overbearing mother. One day, a young boy Euan unexpectedly comes into her life only for him to leave as quickly as he came, from that moment onwards, her world is never the same. Peridot leaves the clutches of her mother’s home in the hopes of finding her friend, only to discover all she believed to be true, to be something else entirely. 

We follow her journey into a world filled with magick (yes magick with a ‘K’), wonders and horrors that Peridot couldn’t have fathomed in her wildest dreams – or nightmares. For every step she manages to get closer to her friend, something new and unknown gets in her way. There are many twists and turns in the Earthlings tale but ultimately Peridot’s story is one of finding friendship against all odds and trying to do the right thing – no matter the consequence.

www.raystarbooks.com

  • A bit about your process of writing

I’m going to be completely honest with you – I have no process! I wrote most of Earthlings when I was pregnant with my first born, which was utter bliss. Just me and my bump and a fresh pot of tea, writing away by an open window with the breeze fluttering past to keep us company.

The remainder of Earthlings was written with a new-born, which never in my wildest dreams could I have fathomed would be as hard as it was, but I did it, and then, just to make things that little bit harder for myself, another bump came along. Bump number one is now aged two, and his brother, is eight months.

Writing time now, is done in the rare moments of quiet, which admittedly, are far and few, but when they find me, the story flows and I find ‘the zone’ as I call it, quite easily. Writing is the one thing in this world, other than my boys and a good strong cuppa coupled with dark chocolate digestives, that brings me peace.

  • Do you plan or just write?

Planning to write when you have children, is like planning to have an early night when you have children. It does not happen. It works in my favour to not make plans, and then by not making plans, enables the possibility of that plan taking place… if you follow!

  • What about word count?

For a story to be the best it can be, I have to allow it to flow naturally. If I force myself to write a set number of words, they become in danger of becoming precisely that – just words. I used to set the target of writing 200 words a day but by doing that, I did the opposite. Word counts seem to be counterproductive for my style of writing and I prefer to enjoy the story as I write it, whether its 50 words or 500. The story will write itself if you give it time.

  • How do you do your structure?

Alike the above, I had no set structure for Earthlings, I sat down and wrote the story as it came to me when I was in the moment. Although, Earthlings is book one of a trilogy and with book two, there are specific moments that needed to happen, so I made a point of having a list of key events that I ticked off as they were complete. 

Editing wise; I tend to write a chapter or two, read through and do a light edit, then keep writing. This way, when I come to edit properly when my first draft is complete, most of the leg work is done and the editing process isn’t as daunting.  

  • What do you find hard about writing?

The environmental cost of books plays on my mind a lot. Whilst I’m over the moon to finally be an author, it bothers me that my work comes at the cost of trees. Beautiful beings that have lived on this planet longer than I have are sacrificed for the literature we know and love. This bothers me more than I can put into words. 

My publisher, Chronos Publishing, thankfully, is very supportive of my concerns and has ensured that Earthlings, where possible, is to be printed on recycled paper. However, we were unable to get this secured with one distributor (Amazon) so I have recently launched the #ReadGreen campaign to hopefully encourage Amazon to offer sustainable printing options to the publishing industry.

You can support the Read Green campaign with a simple signature via www.change.org/read_green/ 

I have also pledged to plant 1 tree per book sale via Ecologi to combat any Amazon sales of my book, the Earthlings forest is available to view via my website.

  • What do you love about writing?

Everything. Writing to me, is as wonderous as magick. It is the ability to make your wildest dreams a reality. The ability to breathe life into beings, places and creatures that we dismiss as unbelievable. Pure escapism. If you’re a good enough writer. Anything is believable. If it harm none, so mote it be.

Love and light

Ray Star

@RayStarBooks

www.raystarbooks.com

Earthlings by Ray Star is out now by Chronos Publishing, £8.99