1 Book Lover' s Opinion: Author Feature Neil McGowan

1 Book Lover' s Opinion: Author Feature Neil McGowan: Author Biography for Neil McGowan Neil is the author of The Surgeon, a gritty horror novel described as ‘fast-paced’, ‘nic...

Free Promotion on Amazon

Been a very busy week. Sorted out a free promotion for The Surgeon, from Fiday 28th June to Sunday 30 June inclusive. It's available for download from Amazon, five star reviews. This free promotion is to celebrate myself as featured author starting on Friday 28th on , I heartily recommend popping by this site, some very interesting stuff on their. I also uploaded a short story to Wattpad, another great site that's well worth a visit; there's a free iPhone app as well, so you can download and read stuff offline. I can see myself making good use of this, dipping into a short story when I have a few minutes spare - the Kindle is fantastic but not as practical for short periods of time - a ten minute train journey is ideal for consuming a short story, but not so good for trying to finish the latest Stephen King novel on the Kindle. The Surgeon is also available now in print format as well, via , or from Amazon. Fantastic to see my work actually in a physical print format. The Kindle version is still doing well, with five star reviews and lots of downloads, had some really nice feedback on it. The Surgeon will soon be available on other ebook retailers as well, including iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Kobo etc. Meanwhile, I'm still hard at work on the new book, Nanobite. There'll be an exclusive posting soon of the first couple of chapters, so keep checking back in order not to miss it.

Edinburgh Book Festival

After a busy day writing, I'm now checking the Edinburgh Book festival programme. Julia Donaldson is a must for the kids, whilst I'm looking at some of the writer's workshops that are available - Val McDermid will be there, as will Denise Mina, plus many more. Should be a chance to pick up some tips from seasoned professionals; might even see if I can take The Surgeon along as well for some promotional work. Leave a comment if you're going, with details; there's a chance to win a copy of my book for the most interesting post.

Reviews

Well, The Surgeon has been out for five weeks now and the response to it has been amazing. Frome the reviews: "Nicely inventive...Extremely graphic" "Fast-paced and gripping" One of the best comments I've had though was from a reluctant reader, who said that they found it so good that they were compelled to keep reading it; apparently, it's only the fourth adult book they have ever read! That is awesome, if I can inspire people to read like that, makes it worthwhile writing. Not that I write for people, though. Even if my work never saw the light of day I'd still do it; but the fact that other people read it really takes it to the next level for me

Back to the grindstone

Well, after a few days off writing due to family commitments, it's time to get back to work. Just been checking the rough draft of my new book today (and wincing at some of the typos that have slipped in), ready to get back to it tonight. I am itching to get back to it though, can't wait to dive back into the world of vampires and technology again. Spent this afternoon researching some stuff on nano technology - found out a few things that I thought I'd made up are actually true! At least it gives the book some veracity. I always like to try and finish writing with my characters at a cliff-hanger point if possible, in order to drive momentum when I start the next session's writing; this time I've already sketched out in my head how it is going to progress. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out when I've written it - it's never usually quite how I imagine it to be; and if it is, then it usually means a fairly hefty chunk of rewriting.

NanoBite - first details

Port Seton.
A quiet town on the east coast of Scotland, not far from Edinburgh
 But something is very wrong. A cyclist has gone missing. A woman is followed home from work. A house fire claims three lives. Two teenagers are found dead, their bodies mysteriously drained of blood.
Liam Baxter and Karen Nicholls start to unravel a complex web of horror with a genetics and bioweapons research facility at the centre of it. An experiment involving genetically engineered nano-technology has gone drastically wrong, turning all those who come into contact with it into modern day vampires.

Details for my new book, NanoBite. Due out late summer/early autumn on Kindle. Keep posted for more details, sneak peeks, and other goodies.

Thank you all

Just want to give a big shout and say thank you to all those people who've taken the time to download The Surgeon and review it. It's humbling for a writer when someone reads your work, even more so when they take the time to review it and let you know how much they enjoyed it. It's still on promotion at the moment, so if you fancy a fast paced horror story, follow the link at the top of the page and give it a whirl. Not for the faint of heart though....