A Guest Post from the FABULOUS Darren Craske

Today I am VERY delighted to welcome the fabulous writer, illustrator of ‘Freaks!’ and my friend, Darren Craske to my blog. He’s taken his first steps into the self-publishing world and I’m hoping you’ll offer him a hello and a ‘yay!’. (And I’ve 5 COPIES of ‘The Lantern Menace’ on epub or mobi files to give away at the end of this post). Over to you Dazling…

Hello.

Firstly, a big thanks to Caroline for lending me your eyes. I remain a friend and fan of hers and I am proud to be both.

I have employed Caroline to help me spread the word about my very first indie/self-published ebook, ‘The Lantern Menace’, a fun and energetic take on the traditional fantasy quest but with a nontraditional twist. For those familiar with my series of Victorian-set, fantasy/detective/adventures The CORNELIUS QUAINT CHRONICLES, you will find all of the same and so much more. It’s my first leap into the world of Middle Grade/YA fiction, an area that I both like to read and write in, and there’s plenty more books in the same vein to come…

My decision to take the indie/self-publishing route was not one thrust upon me by declining sales or even the declines of an agent or publisher, but merely an area that has recently become a lot more accessible for my kind of writer. Writing a book is the easy part, it’s waiting a year or so before it gets released that’s the tough bit for me.

So what is an author with an overabundant imagination supposed to do? Write more books, of course.

Can anyone say Catch-22 ??

Before you know it, you’ve got a whole stack of the things cluttering up your hard drive, and you’re desperate to get them out there. I’m still new at the indie-publishing game (one book out so far, many more to come) but already I am enjoying the freedom as a writer. I have no hoops to jump through, no fear of all my best lines being crossed out by the editor’s red pen, no looming deadline approaching, no agent or publisher to please. I can even draw the covers myself (I did, as it goes).

It is only when you realise how much control you have that you can truly be free.

So, before I lose you, ‘The Lantern Menace’ has it all: a spoilt Princess, a wizard, a heroic stable-boy and evil forces plotting against them. On top of that it’s also got plenty of humour, surprises, shocks and adventurous action. It’s everything that I love about ‘Star Wars’, ‘The Lord of the Rings’, ‘Harry Potter’, ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ and comic books, and I hope that people take this book to their hearts as I have.

‘The Lantern Menace’ is available right now (for only £1.02!) in the Kindle Store, or for other eReader platforms please visit my author page at Smashwords.com, and it will shortly be available in the iBooks store within iTunes. If anyone wishes to share any indie-publishing tips and tricks, successes or pitfalls to watch out for, I am on twitter as @DarrenCraske and my Facebook page is here and I am also on Goodreads (so there’s really no excuse not to come and say hello).

Thank you.

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And, I have 5 COPIES of ‘The Lantern Menace’ (epubs and/or kindle files) to give away. Simply leave a ‘please pick me’ comment by 3pm (GMT) June 8, then I’ll pop all names in a mug and ask a small child to select 5 winners. This competition is open to all.