If you have read some of my other blog posts you will know that I managed to write a novel by accident, impressive I know. Death in the Anechoic Chamber my first short story that has just been published in Harvey Duckman Presents… Volume 7, was definitely planned and no accident but just as enjoyable. However, the reason it was planned was because of that first accident and my participation in a writing group.
One review has described Death in the Anechoic Chamber as tech-noir and I love that label and am taking it! It’s a story about why you should be nice to antenna engineers, with a bit of technology explanation to learn about the world which slowly slips out of normality as the story goes on. It came from an idea borne from hours working in an anechoic chamber with other antenna engineers and an over reliance on thriller novels. I tried to put the scenario into my first book, but it just wouldn’t fit as it’s a different tone. Yet the story wouldn’t grow enough to be a novel in its own right. Enter the world of short stories where it fits perfectly. This short story is linked to The Takahē Deception, as it’s the progeny of the lead character that is the protagonist. Death in the Anechoic chamber is set in a world just in the future that is sadly quite the same for women in engineering as it is today, a future I hope doesn’t happen. I’m not going to tell you any more about the actual story, as I’ll leave you to read how it unfolds.
It still makes me giggle just a little bit to say I go to a writing group, not because it is funny (which it is), but because I have spent all my life not seeing myself as a writer. I’m slowly changing that label, but it’s taking time and I catch myself every now and then having to correct my thinking. I’m not sure that my writing group is a typical writing group, but I always come away having learnt something new about the writing world, have somewhere to ask my writing questions to get great advice and somewhere where I learnt a whole heap of other things and leave with a face hurting from laughing.
My writing group is run by sixth element publishing (https://6e.net/) who are the publishers of the Harvey Duckman Presents… series alongside all sorts of other excellent books (https://harveyduckman.com/#!/ ). The writing group used to happen in a pub in the North East, but you know Covid so it’s now on-line. This is good news for me as I would struggle to travel up on a Thursday evening to be there in person. Alongside being fully welcomed by a group of genuine authors and learning about the writing and publishing worlds I struggle to think of other things I have done that have made me laugh out loud so regularly. I now know all about Kindle unlimited, how to publish a book with a publisher, how to self-publish, writing mistakes to avoid, how to optimise your cover art, what not to do when typesetting your book to mention a few. There are also all sorts of other things in the world that have been put right because of our musings.
The writing group has given me a new group of people who feel like friends, even though I’ve only met one of them in the flesh, and opened up a whole raft of opportunities. It’s a very supportive group and because of the members I’ve had the opportunity to write articles for magazines and guest blog posts. I also discovered the Harvey Duckman Presents.. series and have had my first short story published in Volume 7 in eBook and printed format. Remember you can always submit a story to Harvey and become one of us https://harveyduckman.com/2020/09/11/writers-submit-a-story/
Because of the great characters in the group I’ve also expanded the kind of books I read, because I wanted to read their work. I’ve read my first (and not last) steampunk novel and got back into reading sci-fi which I haven’t done since I was a kid. I’ve discovered great authors that I would never have known existed were it not for this group.
So, if you want to read my story, check it out in Harvey Duckman Presents… Volume 7. If you have Kindle unlimited you can read if for free, buy it in eBook format https://amzn.to/2ZRvaPF, or buy it in paper back https://amzn.to/3uGbc8w
There are 8 other Harvey editions to read (if that number confuses you, then you’ll have to click through to find out why), so check them out at https://6e.net/product-category/harvey-duckman-presents/
If you want to follow some of the other authors from my writers group whose books I’ve enjoyed reading, then check them out:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kate-Baucherel/e/B00PVU7W7S?ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_sims_vu00_r1_c0
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Joseph-Carrabis/e/B015JQQ29W?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1614869534&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/C.-G.-Hatton/e/B005ERZU40?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mark-Hayes/e/B014JD4F54?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000
https://www.amazon.co.uk/C.-K.-Roebuck/e/B08QFW2D79/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_9
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Liz-Tuckwell/e/B00AMQ0RDW?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1614869573&sr=1-1
I’m going to leave you with a taster video – if you don’t know what this is, then you need to read Death in the Anechoic Chamber to find out.
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