Simon Royle

Kindle Fire Department: Bangkok Burn: Today's Book of the Day 2/12

2012-02-12T07:04:00.000-08:00

Kindle Fire Department: Bangkok Burn: Today's Book of the Day 2/12: You won't find an edge-of-your-seat ride like Bangkok Burn from author Simon Royle. I have to admit that as soon as I saw in the descriptio...

Graduation Day - Welcome to the Real World

2012-01-16T20:46:00.000-08:00

On the weekend I went to the graduation ceremony of the daughter of a close friend. I hadn't been to one of these in a while and it was great. Proud parents, happy ex-students, and a sense of hope for the future.

Driving back in the afternoon, I was listening to the radio, Wave FM88, here in Bangkok, is the only 24 hour English language radio broadcast. The news was on and the first item - McDonald's is sponsoring the Olympics, again. Saturday was also children's day in Thailand.

What message does this send to our young, the inheritors of our future, our hope? It sends a message that money is what we admire above all. It sends the message that we are okay with allowing a company more responsible for child obesity than perhaps any other single entity or product; to be aligned with the pinnacle of human achievement in sports.

Olympic Committee you should be ashamed of yourselves. What you have done is disgusting.

Copied from the Olympic Charter (the highlights are mine)

1. Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the
qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism
seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good
example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.
- Just what part of good example is McDonald's food?

2. The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development
of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the
preservation of human dignity.
- That would be Happy Meals harmonious would it?

3. The Olympic Movement is the concerted, organised, universal and permanent action,
carried out under the supreme authority of the IOC, of all individuals and entities who
are inspired by the values of Olympism. It covers the five continents. It reaches its
peak with the bringing together of the world’s athletes at the great sports festival, the
Olympic Games. Its symbol is five interlaced rings.
- You should add the Golden Arches to the rings. Inspired by your values? No. Disgusted, yes.

4. The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of
practising sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which
requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.
- Being a really fat kid because you got sucked in by happy meals, doesn't enhance the possibility of practising sport - how do Happy Meals fit into "fair play".

In summary Olympic Committee - epic fail.

Bangkok Burn - A Thriller - The book blurb

2012-01-08T00:09:00.000-08:00

Product Description

Take a walk on the darkside.

Orphaned as a child and raised as the only son of a Thaimafia Godfather. Chance, plans to quit the family business for the woman he loves.

Chance’s father, Por, is The Godfather of Pak Nam, and ownerof the largest crocodile farm on earth. He didn’t get to where he is, withoutknowing a thing or two about people and how long it takes for a crocodile todigest one. Before Chance can quit, his father asks him to, “take care of alittle something for me.” Then a bomb goes off.

Waking up in hospital later that night, his father in a comanext door, Chance’s troubles have only just begun. There’re three guys dressedin black down the corridor, and they’re not carrying flowers. Worse, Uncle Mikeisn’t answering his phone, and a guy with a lisp is asking for a hundredmillion dollars in a week or “I’ll kill him, sthlowly.”

While figuring out who is trying to put the familypermanently out of business, where to get a hundred million, and who’s gotUncle Mike, in a Bangkok gone crazy, quitting the family business takes abackseat to survival.

Survival begins with dying. And dying was the easy part.

***

So what do you think?

Planning to release the novel in early February depending on wind direction.

Bangkok Burn: For release early 2012

2011-12-31T00:15:00.000-08:00

If you'd like to sign up for an advanced reader copy (ARC), (which will be a pre-release in epub and mobi format), let me know by leaving your email addy here.

Tag, featured on Pixel of Ink today

2011-12-23T17:43:00.000-08:00

Tag was featured on Pixel of Ink today.

Little story behind this.

I saw that POI had opened up the advertising again. Usually you cannot get a slot they are so popular. So fired off an email and waited. Two days later I got a response. I'd been rejected! Ho hum, why? David Rosen, who runs advertising, felt that the text on the cover was too small. Further, he doubted that anyone would one click the cover to read the small text.

I loved the old cover - but as with writing, so in publishing; "darlings have to be killed."

I redid the cover and resent (I also really like the new cover). So far response has been amazing.

Thanks to everyone for the tweets and retweets.

Getting Aboard the Bandwagon with Amazon Kindle Select

2011-12-22T00:02:00.000-08:00

You have to read this blog post while listening to this.

I unpublished Tag from Smashwords and all other retailers, except Amazon, about two hours ago. I did this because I wanted to join the Amazon KDP Select Program. I thought about this a LOT before I did it. I weighed in on a few blogs and listened to the responses.

The pros outweighed the cons.

The cons:

Monopoly of ebook content by Amazon (for 90 days).
Losing all the reviews (6 of them) on Smashwords (didn't have any anywhere else).
Maybe they'll be evil.

The pros:

Movement. Forward. Onward.
Supporting the guy who's sold more of my books than anyone else by a ratio beyond 100-1.
Maybe they'll be cool.

Suppose this of mine move causes Kobo, Barnes and Noble, iTunes and Smashwords to collapse. Suppose I am personally responsible for killing off the nascent ebook industry outside of Amazon. How long before someone says, "hey I can do something better, cooler, faster...", and innovates their way to profit?

Languishing in obscurity in sites selling ebooks is not what I'm about. Letting people know about what I've written and what I'm writing - that's what I'm about. Right now Amazon is giving me the tools to do that.

An open letter to my publisher, I & I Press

2011-12-17T03:56:00.000-08:00

I was kind of inspired by this, to dash off an open letter to my publisher.

To: CEO
I & I Press

Hi Simon,

You better take a seat.

This is going to get rough.

We've had some straight talks before, and I don't want to look like I'm just causing problems. Well, actually I do; but more to the point, I am writing because, we do have a serious problem.

Over the past year you have begun treating me like a slave. Like you own me. In truth, this is partially my fault, because I've let you treat me like a slave. But it's mainly your fault. Why. Because I'm an artist. I produce the content by which you live. Ergo, I am the reason you live. You really ought to be taking better care of me. I am not your slave.

The Backstory Starts in Southeast Asia

Bangkok to be exact. I'd just finished submitting, Tag, to a few agents, all of whom politely, in most instances, declined. Not to say that the others were impolite, I don't know, because they didn't reply at all. Anyway. You came along and you offered to publish my book.

On the 1st December 2010, your publishing house and I signed for an advance of US$ 240,000 for two books with an option on the third (when I explained what trilogy meant).

I'm under the impression that's pretty good for an unknown author who started writing a year before signing with you. And you and I, we hit it off. We partied, (remember that Samba in Patpong... but hey it's cool - what happens on tour, stays on tour ;)), and man you made a lot of promises. I know, I recorded them.

Simon, I was really excited to work with you guys.

Really, really excited.

That night you published. Bang, worldwide distribution.

You put up a blog, you promoted me in forums, set up a facebook page, got me onto just about every ebook major vendor site there is via Smashwords...

So, okay, you did well. And, I grant you, you hung in there all year. You got reviews for the book, without paying for of them, you spent money on advertising. Some of which worked and some of which didn't. You reported sales to me twice a day (at least :)). You got me new credit cards, bought me a car, put my kids through school for the year, paid for my bandwidth, and listened to me whenever I needed.

And you know, some authors might be satisfied with that. But no, Simon. That's just not me.

Like I said, we have a serious problem.

You see, back in that bar in Patpong, when you were talking to ... well never mind, back then, you promised that you would put out a print version. Simon - that was a year ago. Yes, a whole year and fifteen days ago to be exact.

This windowing of the hardcover and the paperback has got to stop.

Okay, I know that you've been busy, even though I'm your only client. I know you've been moonlighting as an agent on the side, and that's cool - I've got my day job too. And I know that you've agreed to the same terms as last year for next year - and that's cool. Really I'm appreciative (hey, thanks for agreeing to throw in that holiday over the New Year - that was pretty nice of you), but this windowing fetish of yours has to stop. Now.

Dude, get on with it! Okay.

Thanks,
Simon
Author of, Tag (just in case you forgot).

Interview at Sift Book Reviews

2011-12-07T18:59:00.001-08:00

The charming and lovely Sarah of Sift Book Reviews interviewed me today.

Our Modern Feudal Society

2011-11-27T07:18:00.001-08:00

Just a quick reminder. There's only 32 days left in this year.

OK, before I begin, some house cleaning. The Day # of 180, thing - that got old (and I got too busy to blog everyday) - so that is O-Fish-Ally shit canned. OK, as you were, back to... what was I talking about, oh yeah, 'Our Modern Feudal Society'.

The word in particular that I want to pick on is 'Feudal' because it is. We are still operating on the same model - the one they had back when the fastest you could travel depended on the horse you were riding.

The model is dressed up a bit and names changed to protect the not-so innocent, but the shape, function and outcome is the same. Note also that I am not, absolutely not, talking about monarchy or democracy - I am talking about Nation states. Countries. Now I know that this is not yet the popular view - that many, are still tied to the flag, but I think, ultimately the only way forward for humanity is to truly band together; and we won't do that while we're separated. Any alternative to a single nation simply leaves us fragmented.

The social construct of "Country", confined with geographic areas, and adhered to by laws drawn up between countries; laws that are often broken; is an extension of the time when people lived on a Lord's land, paid a tithe to the Lord and did his bidding. In that time, there were laws too, just not as many, but the few were often broken; and then, as now the people who had to fight the wars were the poor.

Not much has changed.

It doesn't matter whether you're in America, Australia, China, Japan, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Greece - whatever; the model you're all operating under is based upon that old feudal model. The concept that a group of people own a piece of land and that a collection of those pieces is called, "a Country". Land (or space) ownership should be a basic human right, but does it need to be "collected" under the banner of a country?

The model we need to work towards is geographic cultural identification and distinction, migrant benefit to the geographic, and a balanced approach to the resources of the planet.

How long will it take for this to happen? Would such a move eradicate war? Without national armies how much money (resources) would be saved? If jobs in the "military industrial complex" (MIC) are lost, how could these jobs be replaced? Is it possible to dream that we could eliminate starvation as a cause of death?

Are we nuts to think that we could live in harmony respecting our differences and our individual property?

One thought: We could get rid of one of the "layers' of bureaucracy.

What benefit do we, as individuals, really get from belonging to a country? Ask not what you do for your country but what your country does for you.

House, Village, Town, City, Mega-City, Global. Naturally, Global would be broken down to cover geographic areas; but still, there could be a drastic reduction in the number of politicians and bureaucrats in the world (that's a BIG win in my book).

Where the concept of country get's really "old hat" is when we're all digitally connected. I mean all 7 billion of us, excluding the babies who haven't yet figured out an iPhone (my two year old daughter happily flips through the images on her mother's phone). It hasn't happened yet, but when it does, imagine what change the people of the world could bring about by simply voting on line.

Perhaps we can then have a "Earth's Humanity Spring" where we insist that wars cease and the polluting of the only rock with life on it for as far as we can see - stop.

Day 7 of 180: Is the loss of privacy in 'Tag' too far fetched?

2011-11-15T18:49:00.001-08:00

Obviously I don't think so, and neither does the US Supreme Court.

In GPS case, US court debates '1984' scenario

Basically this is a crude form of Tag. Your phone is a GPS, transmitter and receiver. How long before police don't need a warrant to track that... already done.

Met police using surveillance system to monitor mobile phones

The relevant "Tag" part - "The surveillance system has been procured by the Metropolitan police from Leeds-based company Datong plc, which counts the US Secret Service, the Ministry of Defence and regimes in the Middle East among its customers. Strictly classified under government protocol as "Listed X", it can emit a signal over an area of up to an estimated 10 sq km, forcing hundreds of mobile phones per minute to release their unique IMSI and IMEI identity codes, which can be used to track a person's movements in real time."

Far fetched, hmm, I don't think so.

Day 6 of 180: Is Blogger based in Western Samoa?

2011-11-14T03:13:00.001-08:00

You're right. I don't have anything to write about today. So I'm writing about nothing. Yep. That's the topic - nothing; and as a bonus topic... is blogger secretly based in Western Samoa? More on that later, if I remember. Back to writing about nothing.

The first thing to remember, writing about nothing, is that once you have written about nothing, then you have something. That's a non-trivial fact. Something for nothing. So that's one immediate benefit. Nothing has benefits? Yes.

Next, consider this. If everyone always writes about something, no one is writing about nothing. That makes nothing special. When someone writes about something, nothing is left over. We take what we can.

Nobody wants nothing. Everyone wants something. Something is not always a good thing and sometimes, nothing is a heck of a lot better outcome than something. "I was waiting to be crushed by the falling building and nothing happened." Not bad, eh.

"The car veered off the road, out of control, no one at the wheel and I was directly in its path."
"Christ, what happened."
"Nothing."

So. Conclusion.

Don't take nothing for granted.

I've noticed that the times my blog is posted as being the time and date when it was published is wildly different to when I actually write them - I'm cool with that, we're not exactly running a nuclear power station here, but it has made a bit of mess of the Day Blah of 180 thing. But hey, we can live with that right - we know it's not literal :)

Day 5 (part two) of 180: Me, Interviewed about Self publishing, and Tag, on Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing

2011-11-12T21:13:00.001-08:00

Got a really nice surprise through twitter @sgroyle today. The interview I did with Shaun Farrell of Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing, went live. Shaun and I connected 8am his time on a Friday morning and 11pm my time. Skype is a wonderful thing.

It was a good chat and the web site, if you haven't checked it out yet, is chock full of interesting information and cool books to read.

Days 4 & 5 of 180: Psycho Killer - yeah baby

2011-11-12T19:52:00.001-08:00

I'm probably influenced more by music than I am by other writers. Without music at least 60 % of my source inspiration would be gone.

So if you've got any cool bands AKA Talking Heads or such like let me know. Check out how wired Byrne is here - Coked up or just on natural high?

Day 3 of 180: #amwriting

2011-11-10T23:35:00.001-08:00

Between Day Job stuff, redirecting websites, floods and family, it's been difficult to find the time to write. And I'm not one of those who'll say (with a toss of the head), "I'd die without writing..." however I do get a lot of enjoyment out of writing. So when I find the time (usually in the 'dog hours' of the day) I get some words down. Last night about 2,500. I'll probably cut a good chunk of those, maybe all of them, but it can be called progress.

I never printed 'Tag', not once. From a retail point of view it is something my publisher, I & I Press, keep promising, but so far it hasn't happened. And from an author point of view, I never stuck a bunch of A4 in the printer and hit 'Print'.

'Zoo' is different. In plot terms, more complex. I was getting a headache thinking about how many monitors I need to cross reference dates, times, event and so on. So I printed it out.

Needs more work, a lot more, but beginning to look like a manuscript. I think I'll print more often. Bummer from a 'green' standpoint but, I am using recycled paper and it is a lot easier to edit.

Oh yes, and to anyone who can guess the exact amount of pages that is. I'll send you a free (digital) personalized Limited Edition of 'Tag".

Day 2 of 180: Dam!

2011-11-10T00:51:00.000-08:00

One of the questions I get asked a lot about Tag, is how did I make the world that the story is set in? The answer is that I didn't make it up. It exists around us today. The technology is either already available or a close extrapolation based on what we have. Also the politics and nature of business described is all "lifted" from what I experience - of course with embellishments, or twists (sometimes to make the truth less strange :)).

Inspiration for writing comes from what we experience and feel. In some cases we're just writing to ourselves, perhaps to absorb "it" better but for others we're trying to share experience through description.

So it would be remiss of me, not to talk a little about the floods we are experiencing right now in Thailand. This next pic is me driving home. This is taken right outside the infamous, "Bangkok Hilton", or Bangkok's main remand prison. Infamous inmates have recently included, Victor Bout, prior to him being shipped off stateside.

It's a bit blurry as it was snapped from my BB while I was driving. That's how it goes. From a writer's point of view, national disasters are much food for thought. How people react. Emotion, fatalism, sharing, thievery (yes, thieves on boats). How politicians have reacted; photo ops and meaningless politicking. Who's really helping. All of those things are fuel for for a writer. Fiction or not.

A funny thing...
I took the main elevated highway headed north out of Bangkok and dropped down on the Nam Wong Wan Exit. I knew the area below was flooded - I didn't know how high, but it had been reported at between 80-50cm. My car would be OK with 50. Not so good with 80, but I figured I'd probably make it. I descended from the highway, cars parked on the hard shoulder and the outside lane. People have taken to parking their cars on any high ground available - normally, unless you've broken down you're not allowed to park on the expressways, but this isn't "normally". The parking stretches for many kilometers on many of Bangkok's expressways.

As I was saying, I drove my car down the exit ramp, to be greeted by a car driven by a young woman. Naturally I stopped. Fortunately, she stopped too. And then she looked at me, as if to say, "Hey I've got my hazard lights on, so I have right of way..." It was tricky to back up as I was concerned about another car coming down from the expressway. She looked at me. I shrugged my shoulders. Finally, I think it dawned on her that she was driving the wrong way on the expressway and she reversed back so I could exit.

And then I drove down into the water as pictured above. That's taken at one of the lower levels of water on the road. Further up it gets as deep as a meter.

Another, funny thing...
I got overtaken, on the inside lane, by a boat. Yes, we were both using the same stretch of road. I got a wave. From the driver and the boat. A little surreal.

What isn't funny...

Is the way that this flood has, and is, being , ~~mangled~~ handled by the government. The information has been inaccurate, misleading, alarming (one message last week - "Evacuate Bangkok Immediately"), and generally unhelpful. It seems to most people (I spend more time talking to Thai people than I do other foreigners) that the only thing the politicians are doing about the flood is using it for photo ops.

Meanwhile ordinary Thai people 99% have been helping each other. Sharing food, donating money and pitching in to fill sandbags or help protect each others homes.

The sheer volume of water that built up at the back end of the rainy season was simply too much - seems to be the excuse. But guys (and gals) it took a long time to build up, and people have been dying (533 to date) for over three months.

Early September, flooding had already hit many provinces in the North. The Dams were full, water being released as fast as it was collected. The water in Thailand, for quite a few years now, has taken its usual path to the sea, downwards. This is a fairly common phenomenon, but one that appears to have been ignored.

To be sure, it has been a big challenge and bad luck for a new government to come into office just as Thailand gets hit with these floods. But the team put together to handle the flood and all aspects of the flood, news, relief etc. have not performed well (it would take a brave woman to deny otherwise). In a way this flood could have been the making of a great leader, someone who truly set aside any notion of politics and simply got on with the job of making Thai people's lives better. Unfortunately that hasn't been the case. However we live in hope. Both for a drier and less partisan future. One that reconciles and benefits all.

This NYT article about the flood is reasonably balanced, despite the overly dramatic headline.

On a personal level, I was in hotels for a couple of weeks, while family was upcountry in a safe and dry place. We're all back together now at home, virtually surrounded by water, but we're told, sort of, that the worst is over and Bangkok will be dry in about ten days. That road pictured above is about four kiloms from where I live and still very wet. Many of the staff of my company in Thailand are in hotels or hostels around the city. We, of course, are helping with that expense but it is small help compared to the inconvenience and hardship being faced. Many have their homes flooded.

What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger (and gives you lots of material to write about).

Day 1 of 180: Me Me Me

2011-11-08T18:59:00.000-08:00

The real challenge for any indie author is to rise above obscurity. To become a name. Right? Well, maybe, it depends upon your take on things and in particular your goals. For instance, if you type simon royle, into Google, I'm reasonably sure you will find, on the front page, me. Or at least you'll find the website I created (back in October 2010) to promote my work. I'm also sure that this page http://simon-royle.blogspot.com will be way back into the nether regions of searchworld, in a word, obscure.

The thing is, although the SEO and pagerank on www.simon-royle.com is great, what the site does is promote everyone else but me. And the thing was, the site had become quite popular (primarily for the reviewers listed and contributing there) with indieviews by authors, reviewers and so on. Oh sure I had a few links up to the book on amazon and a page for the book and reviews but I never felt comfortable to share my own fiction or opinion on "things" when so many others were contributing.

So although I lifted my site from obscurity to "a name", it wasn't achieving what I wanted to achieve, which was to introduce more people to my writing and stories. To solve that problem I set up and registered www.theindieviews.com and then redirecting ALL traffic from www.simon-royle.com to www.theindieviews.com. Traffic went from 150 visitors a day to 0. Cool, problem solved. I am now obscure, again :). Step 1 of starting again completed.

The lesson: Before you start your website or blog or whatever, think carefully about where it fits in terms of your strategy as an author. Then think carefully about where it fits in terms of your strategy as a publisher. Those two strands of thought may not converge...

I am reliably informed, I know this because it was told me by Google, that my redirect needs to stay in place for 180 days before I get www.simon-royle.com back. 179 to go.

This blog is the temporary home of Simon Royle, Indie Author. Here you will find my writing, opinions on things and my life.