Free Short Story Book

Posted in Free ebook by heatherbwriter

First of all, I apologise for being quiet lately both on the blog and on social media. The reason is because I’ve been working hard towards meeting my publishing deadline for my next book, which will be the first book in a new trilogy. More news will follow on that later but in the meantime I need to continue promoting my existing books.

As part of my book promotion, I’m pleased to announce that my short story, Crime, Conflict & Consequences is now permanently free on Amazon UK and Amazon.com. Here is the Amazon link: http://viewbook.at/Consequences. There is also a preview of the first chapter of Slur in the back of the book so if you haven’t yet read any of my books, here is a chance to sample my writing free of charge.

Crime, Conflict & Consequences is also free to download at Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, 24 Symbols, Thalia and Inktera. I don’t have a link for Apple but here are the links for the other stores.

To give you a preview of Crime, Conflict & Consequences, here is the book blurb:

This entertaining collection of 10 assorted tales explores a variety of genres with stories of crime, love and family dilemmas. There are also a few twists and surprises along the way. The common thread running through each story is – consequences.

In HELD UP our heroine is caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and becomes a witness in an unusual bank robbery.

In ISLAND OF DREAMS Joe and Bev are looking forward to returning to the island they visited on honeymoon 34 years previously. Will it still be the same?

In WELCOME ABOARD find out how Helena copes with the job from hell.

These short stories are a great introduction to the work of Heather Burnside. Each one makes an enjoyable quick read with a satisfying conclusion.

————–

It’s only fair to warn you that my novels are quite different from the short stories. Whereas the short stories cover a variety of genres and writing styles, my other books are gritty crime novels. However, the excerpt from Slur, which is in the back of the short story book should give you an idea of what is to follow.

Bye for now and happy reading.

—————

12Mar2015

Free Promotion – Crime, Conflict & Consequences

Posted in Book Giveaway by heatherbwriter

Here’s a chance to grab your free copy of my short story book, “Crime, Conflict & Consequences”, which is on free promotion from today on the Amazon Kindle: http://viewbook.at/Consequences. There are 10 stories in a variety of genres, writing styles and themes so there should be something to suit a wide range of reading tastes.

Here is the book blurb:

In HELD UP our heroine is caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and becomes a witness in an unusual bank robbery.
In ISLAND OF DREAMS Joe and Bev are looking forward to returning to the island they visited on honeymoon 34 years previously. Will it still be the same?
In WELCOME ABOARD find out how Helena copes with the job from hell.

These short stories are a great introduction to the work of Heather Burnside. Each one makes an enjoyable quick read with a satisfying conclusion.

I hope you enjoy the stories.

30Jan2015

Announcing the Launch of ‘Crime, Conflict & Consequences’

Posted in Short Story Book by heatherbwriter

I am pleased to announce the launch of my new short story book ‘Crime, Conflict & Consequences’, which is now available to download on the Kindle at: http://viewbook.at/Consequences for only 99p (UK) or $1.48 (US).

The book has ten short tales, which cross a number of different genres and styles, and cover various topics including crime, love and family dilemmas. There are also a few twist in the tale types. The stories are ideal for an enjoyable quick read during your coffee break or whenever you have a spare few minutes.

Developing my Alter Ego

I am continuing to publish under my new pen-name Heather Burnside and am making a few changes to the blog. I have separated my book writing endeavours from my writing business entirely so the blog is no longer an add-on to my writing services website. I now want it to have its own presence to complement my new identity.

As part of the ongoing development I want Heather Burnside to have more than a blog so that I will be able to showcase my books etc. The first step was to drop the ‘wordpress’ from my URL and pay an annual fee which allows me to have my own name for the URL i.e. www.heatherburnside.com and add more pages to the website rather than just the standard About page and blog that you get with the free WordPress account.

At the moment I’ve only added a books page but I’ve made a few other changes such as the theme and the addition of my mailing list link at the top right of every page. As I publish more books I will be expanding the website and hopefully adding more features.

What’s next?

Now that I’ve published my short story book I can’t wait to move onto my second novel which is also a crime thriller. In fact, I’ve already started work on it, but it isn’t the book that I originally previewed in the back of SLUR. I will be writing that one eventually although it will have to wait a while. There is a reason for this switch, which I will tell you more about in my next blog post. In the meantime I hope you enjoy reading ‘Crime, Conflict & Consequences’.

——————-

23Jan2015

Cover Reveal – Crime, Conflict and Consequences

Posted in Cover Reveal by heatherbwriter

At last, I’ve reached the stage where the publication date for my first short story book is finally within reach. So now that it’s drawing closer, I thought I’d publish the cover image along with the blurb. I’ve used the same designer for Crime, Conflict and Consequences as I used for my debut novel SLUR. He is the wonderful Chris Howard who can be contacted at: blondesign@gmail.com, and once again I’m thrilled with the great job he’s done.

Here is the book blurb:

– In HELD UP our heroine is caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and becomes a witness in an unusual bank robbery.

– In ISLAND OF DREAMS Joe and Bev are looking forward to returning to the island they visited on honeymoon 34 years previously. Will it still be the same?

– In WELCOME ABOARD find out how Helena copes with the job from hell.

These short stories are a great introduction to the work of Heather Burnside. Each one makes an enjoyable quick read with a satisfying conclusion.

—————-

You may have guessed that the dominoes represent the idea of consequences but there is also plenty of conflict in the stories and a little bit of crime too.

If you want to be one of the first to find out when the book becomes available, why not sign up for my reader newsletter? You can find the link at the top right of this screen.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the cover and blurb.

—————-

31Oct2014

My Lucky Find

Posted in Short Story Book by heatherbwriter

Having finally published my debut novel I’m looking forward to following it up with my second one. However, I now know how much work goes into a novel and am also aware that it could take up to a year before my second one is ready to publish. I realise that it would be easier to promote my first novel if I had more fiction books to accompany it and I have therefore found a short-term solution.

A while back I was rummaging through my filing cabinet and going through some of the work that I had done for my writing course many years ago. It’s been so long since I finished the course that I had forgotten exactly what work I had completed. Each module would cover a different type of writing so, for example, there would be modules on writing articles for women’s magazines, trade magazines, short stories for women’s magazines, radio plays, theatre plays etc. Often writers would be required to produce outlines of short stories or articles, sometimes it would be part of a story and at other times it would be a full story.

I had kept all my course notes in my filing cabinet but was surprised that I had also kept outlines for numerous short stories, plays etc. Basically, my brain works like that. If I am studying a module on short stories my brain switches to short story mode and keeps spontaneously coming up with ideas. I jot down the ideas as they come to me and then file them away. I still do this now except they’re usually scenes for novels, which I will develop in the future, and nowadays I type them up on the computer.

Seeing the outlines for so many short stories had me really fired up. I started to wade through my course notes to see if there was anything else I could use. I knew I had lost a lot of work when the computer crashed years ago but didn’t realise that I still had seven short stories fully written. Amazingly, these weren’t just in note form, they were also still on the computer. Another longer story was in my course notes and just needed typing up onto the computer. Then there was a story with the first 700 words written as part of a writing course exercise, which just needed completing. That meant I had a total of nine stories that could easily be used for a book with the addition of one other, which I could choose from the many outline ideas I had kept.

So, that’s my next project sorted – a book of ten short stories, which I should be able to publish in the New Year once I have edited and completed them. The stories are a bit of an assortment. It would have been ideal if they were all crime related so that they sat comfortably alongside the novel. However, as they’re already written for the main part, I prefer to go with what I’ve got rather than writing a book of stories from scratch. That way I can start work on my second novel a lot quicker. I won’t rule out writing another short story book in the future though.

Out of the ten stories, three of them are crime related. Then there are family/relationship dilemmas, a few twist in the tale types and a bit of poignancy. I’m looking forward to finishing my short story book as my next step in the direction of fiction writing. And of course I can’t wait to continue the work on my second novel.