New Flat

Just a quick update on my activity at the moment. Nothing going on at all in the writing / podcasting departments, because my wife and I are in the process of moving house. Yes - again. Third time in three years. But the good news is, this time it's into our own flat. We bought a place - we got the keys last weekend.  Yay!

The new room wherein all writing and podcasting will take place. 

Those curtains'll have to go.

Since then we've been painting, decorating, buying appliances etc. But now it's time for the worst bit - packing up our stuff. Arrghh!! But what makes things just that little bit more arrghhh (and also makes podcast recording an impossibility right now) is that I have a stinking cold. My students have all had it, but I miraculously resisted ... until I took a week off work to move house. The day my holiday started, ah-choo! It's like the virus was just waiting for me to leave the school before it pounced. Oh well, plenty of symptom-suppressant medication, rest, and vitamin C, and hopefully all will go well. And then, after we've settled in to our new home and I've set up my microphone etc in the little room above, I shall resume a normal service. Ahhhh-choo!

Fracking in Balcombe

I've become obsessed with the fracking in Balcombe. It's not far from me - and worse, it's not far from the reservoir that supplies my home and 65,000 others around here. I've been up to the fracking site once, and I'd go up there a lot more if I didn't have to work every day and wasn't in the process of moving house right now. But anyway, I won't go on too much right now, but I just wanted to share this video that's appeared on YouTube. I watched it this morning and I found it deeply moving. I can't bring myself to watch it again because I know I'll blub like a fool.



If you're unanware as to what fracking is and why so many people, including me, are so worried about it, watch this too.

U&F on Wattpad

Resurrection has started on Wattpad. So far I've posted 10 episodes. I want to see how it goes. It could connect me with a new audience of millions ... or none. Who knows? All I know for sure is: if you aren't in it, you can't win it. So, if you use Wattpad, please give it a like and share it with your Watty pals. Many thanks :-)

I'm using this cover - complete with gongs - to try to lure in the uninitiated.

Vote U&F in the Top Adult Vampire Chart at Goodreads!

Are you on Goodreads? If so, please could you drop by and give Resurrection and Bonded in Blood some stars. I'd be very grateful.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18209151-resurrection
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18209165-bonded-in-blood
Also, I'm trying to push U&F up the Best Adult Vampire chart on Goodreads (currently number 145)

So if you'd like to help, please vote for Resurrection here:
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/129.Best_Adult_Vampire_Books
Thank you, and Huzzah!!

Get Started with The Chronicles!

		z
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk Smashwords (epub)		Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk Smashwords (epub)

The Underwood and Flinch Chronicles Launch Today!

One podcast becomes two ebooks

Happy Underwood and Flinch Day! Yes, Underwood and Flinch, the 45-episode podcast, becomes 2 separate ebooks as today I launch The Underwood and Flinch Chronicles. Volume One is called "Resurrection" and contains the text of the podcast episodes from Night Crossing to Episode 21. Then the story continues in Volume Two, "Bonded in Blood", which is episodes 22 to 45.
These books are on sale now from Amazon stores worldwide (DRM-free, so you can share them with friends and family) and if you use Nook, Kobo, or iBooks, you can get epubs from my page at Smashwords.

Why two books? Well, multiple reasons, actually. But most importantly, it's because they actually are two books; I'm made aware of thisevery time I try and write a plot synopsis. It's like two seasons of a TV show - describing the events of one doesn't cover the events of the other. Also, we're now in the age of the saga - the ongoing series of books. And since the sequel to U&F is, in fact, the first of three sequels (at least), I realized I was at the helm of just such a segmented century-spanning literary adventure (however, the word "saga" calls to mind "Twilight", and I don't feel comfy there, so I went with "Chronicles" instead).

The book I'm currently writing, the first sequel to the podcast story, is called Volume Three "Blood and Smoke". More than that, I cannot say, but I can say it's set in the Caribbean and Colonial America, and features Underwood and Matthias Flinch. The ebook will be out (hopefully) by the end of the year.

But for now, please help support The Underwood and Flinch Chronicles by buying a copy - or copies - of the ebooks and (if you'd be so kind) leaving a few positive words in your wake. My hope is that if enough people buy the books on Sunday they might propel them to a chart position where they'll be noticed by newbies in the ever-teeming marketplace that is the ebook-o-sphere.

There's a Facebook event today (Sunday), so if you're on the Book, please join us. You can also follow my tweets on the day by following me on Twitter @TheMikeBennett.
And so for now, all I can say is, Hip-Hip for Underwood and Flinch! May today be a cracker among days for the gentleman vampire and his trusty servant(s). Huzzah!

M.J. Hahn's fabulous covers

catch the mood of U&F perfectly!

No News Lately ...

... I've been busy with other stuff: visiting my parents, working the day job, etc. I did manage to get the full story outline of U&F 2 developed while I was at my parents' house. I now have a beginning (which is written), a middle (which is what I'm writing when I get the time) and an end (which is still to be written, but now at least is fully mapped out).

U&F 1 is almost ready for ebook release (in two parts). I also need to get my Parsec submission sorted out for The Shadow Over Innsmouth. And of course, there's Dracula, Part 3 to record. Parsec deadline is the 15th, so that has to take priority. Then U&F 1 ebooks. Then the next Dracula podcast episode / U&F 1 paperback / hardback releases.

And when I can, U&F 2.

Beyond that, as I say, there's no news. This is just an update in case you thought I was dead or something.