The Darkness is back …

I have a secret.  The thing about secrets is that the minute you spill the beans the secret is gone and it loses all of its power.  In a sense I have lots of secrets because every book I write has something waiting at the end that I don’t want to reveal until the moment is right. Today I published my fifth book and it is the second in a series of three.  I always say that every book I write is completely different in subject and genre but today I theoretically at least put that idea to bed by releasing a sequel.

That being said I do have a secret.  Writing is much tougher than many people think.  I find the actual creative bit easy and I suspect all writers feel much the same.  The difficult part is the work that goes in after and in my case, my five books constitute a few of million key strokes and that is just the first draft.  Those strokes make up around a half a million words and before during and after each word is  typed, the story has to be conjured up, developed, managed, analysed, re-jigged, bished, bashed and boshed into shape, written, re-written, edited and edited and edited and re-written to within an inch of its life and then checked again.It takes time and commitment.  That’s before you ever try to bring it to market.

Along the way I for one, pour my heart and soul into each book.  I am conscious of only one thing as I write and that is the reader.  I want my story to engage, and entertain.  My desire is to get as close to telling the reader my stories in person as I can.  That is what lies behind my style of writing and possibly why each story can be completely as different in genre, time and place as you can imagine because all I want you to hear as a reader is my voice.  If that comes through then I have done my job well.  If I did this for any other reason, then I would never have got past my first book.

When I originally wrote Darkly Wood it was meant to be a stand-alone book with only a hint of a follow up in my mind.  I was encouraged by fans of the book to go back to the well and after a hiatus during which I wrote three other books, I eventually returned to my beloved Darkly Wood.  I say beloved because I so enjoyed writing the original.  Unfortunately a bout of ill health last year stopped me from writing completely and the follow up near completion, was left on the shelf for ten months.  Setting it free today was a blessed relief and it felt like I had overcome more than the normal challenges of writing, it felt as though I had achieved a very personal victory.

Darkly Wood is a most unusual book.  The original book tells the story of a young girl, first love and a terrifying journey through the place of the title, but it is much more than that.  I created a device, namely a book that she discovers early on called Tales of Darkly Wood and as her physical and personal journey evolves, I treat the reader to some of the stories about the wood.  They are all dark and terrible and connected ultimately to her fate.

I wanted the sequel to feel familiar yet unfamiliar and fresh so I tweaked this same device.  Oh yes I have a secret.  In Darkly Wood II The woman who never wore shoes the setting is familiar and there are some returning faces, but my ‘tales’ device has a tweak.  In book two, many of the tales relate to one very dark and disturbing character, one I simply cannot spoil for you by revealing too much – but I can give you a sense of him.  I considered asking someone to sketch him for me to include inside the cover but I think that would reveal too much.  I do after all, always say that books should be more radio than television so I left this wonderful creature largely to the readers imagination.  It’s not that he isn’t give some description, he certainly is, but I hope that by the end of the book, readers will not just see him in their mind’s eye but hear his voice, smell his odour and feel his presence.

I used the term ‘darkness is coming’ quite a lot in the promotion and that is because this book is so much darker than the original and that is down to one very villainous villain. I do love a good baddy but wait…I have a secret.  Not all is as it seems in Darkly Wood.  Nothing can be taken for granted and importantly, as I made my way through this story, I quickly discovered that I needed more room to complete the story so there will be a third book and that process has already begun.

So what is my secret?  Well I’m lying of course, I have more than one secret and sure Darkly Wood wouldn’t work any other way.  Be prepared to meet the blackest of hearts, see the effect of love and hate, jealousy and fear.  Find out what makes brave and where it can be found.  Get ready to be shocked, surprised, teased, touched and I very much hope entertained.  The darkness has arrived and it is available to download now…and of course if you haven’t read the original, find the link below to begin at the beginning… and oh yes…there is the small matter of my ultimate secret, but for that you will have to wait for Book III Darkly Wood III Crinkle…  http://getbook.at/Darkly-Wood-II

Max Power’s books include, Darkly Wood, Larry Flynn Bad Blood and Little Big Boy

You can find more details about Max Power’s books here : –

http://www.amazon.com/author/maxpower

https://maxpowerbooks.wordpress.com

fhttp://facebook.com/maxpowerbooks

twitter @maxpowerbooks1

Universal book links

http://getbook.at/Darkly-Wood

http://getbook.at/Darkly-Wood-II

http://getbook.at/Little-Big-Boy

http://getbook.at/Larry-Flynn

http://getbook.at/Bad-Blood