Excerpt 1

  The vagrant didn’t look very special with hair that hung in great dirty clumps, bouncing off his shoulders as he shuffled backwards. His colouring was Gaulish but he was thought to have come from a different tribe. Only a few words had been uttered since he stumbled upon the war party manoeuvring on the outskirts of Ravenna, and those utterances were unintelligible to the Romans.

Now Get Yourself Out There!!!

Google Books seems to me like a great idea. I have signed up and made a portion of my book available. I check the reports monthly and ...nothing. Nothing. Amazon, ebookmall.com, Borders etc etc. and no-one seems to be able to find it. It's a struggle there is no doubt and it leaves me wondering why I wrote the book in the first place. The answer is I don't know. I don't know why I wrote it and I don't know why I keep writing other things people probably won't read. I just do. I get an inordinate amount of satisfaction from it and I guess a little bit of therapy. I can't imagine a more thankless thing to do.
People tell me that my book is great althoigh there are a lot of characters to get their heads around. It's true its not an easy read and I love it all the more because of it. For those who stick with it though the rewards are great.

Steven J Brooks

Historical Fiction or Fantasy?

A novel that is not easily classified is not an easy one to market. To explain to a potential buyer what your new book is about is very difficult. My book is based on a factual time or era with some real  characters an some fictional. Confused? Wait there's more. The novel is based on medieval lays or poems which in turn are based in the 5th Centure AD. Even more confused? Well it is becoming obvious this book was not written to make lots of money...though you never know.


My first novel Armourer Book One of the Burgundiians also contains large chunks of fantastic elements woven into the factual fiction. This is where you lose publishers interest big time. I know that it is a good story...one that I would like to read... and that is what keeps me marketing my novel as I truly feel it deserves an audience. Most writers will tell you that a book usually writes itself and they are merely the channel or facilitator. This was true for me. The best analogy I can find is that to write, for me, is like walking on rocks down at the beach. Walking quickly and deciding which rock offers the surest footing and direct route for me to make progress. It can be quite thrilling.

Armourer is my book. I researched it, I wrote it and rewrote it until it is a marketable product. For more visit www.stevenbrooksonline.com and enter into my world.