Wednesday, August 31, 2016

No room in your life to read? #thewitchslist

With so many distractions - TV, smartphones, video-games, internet... - some people claim, they no longer have any time in their lives to read! If this applies to you, then you need to stop making excuses and make some room to read. Take a book along for your commute to work, have a read on a park bench during your lunch hour, or go to bed a bit earlier to immerse yourself in a great story before sleeping. Reading - especially fiction - actually helps you relax and get a better night's sleep. 

Need some motivation? Join a book club! Either a physical one, where you go along and meet people and chat about a book you've all read, or a virtual one - there are tons of them online: goodreads, Oprah, Bustle, Richard and Judy - to name just a few of the more well-known ones. 

Talking about park-benches, I once sat down on one to read a book, and ended up chatting to Man Booker prizewinner Kiran Desai! She was also sitting there, reading a book! 

The Witch's List is a great book to get you started - short (around 200 pages), entertaining, intriguing and thought-provoking. One reader described it as the second best book he'd read in the past twenty years. Almost as good as his favourite, Diary of a Wimpy Kid! 

Read a book, free your mind! Start with The Witch's List! 


Friday, August 26, 2016

That amazing feeling...! #thewitchslist #FridayFeeling #FridayBlogs

Hard at work, in the follow-up to The Witch's List, I experienced that amazing feeling yesterday, when a new plot twist comes to mind!
More intrigue, horror, mystery, culture-clash and adventure... coming soon!

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

2 month anniversary! #thewitchslist

The Witch's List was officially released 2 months ago. As you can see by the graph provided by Amazon, sales have been up and down. This doesn't include sales in bookshops and other sites of course, due which I don't have much feedback yet.
My events and newspaper article in The Courier, definitely seemed to have given it a boost in July. Look out for new article in City Life Dundee magazine: citylifedundee.com - coming soon!
Also hope to get some events organised in Paris, when all the Parisians come back from their holidays - la rentrée - as they call it.
Meanwhile I'm busy working on book two of the trilogy.
Please help spread the word about The Witch's List by reading, reviewing, sharing... Thanks!

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

100 likes on facebook page! #thewitchslist

Just reached the hundred likes milestone on my facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/thewitchslist
Thanks to everyone who's liked so far. Please keep sharing, reading and reviewing. I'm currently working on the exciting book two of the trilogy. More mystery, horror, and adventure coming soon!

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Add The Witch's List to your summer reading list! #thewitchslist

The Summer Reading Promotion on booksetc.com.uk is still on for 7 more days. Pick up a copy of The Witch's List for the great price of £6.07 with free UK delivery!
http://www.booksetc.co.uk/features/view/1664-great-books-for-summer-reading/subject:4-fiction

Friday, August 12, 2016

The Witch's List - are you IN? #thewitchslist #FridayFeeling #FridayBlogs

Are you IN yet? First person to name the building in this photo wins a free copy of The Witch's List!
A few hundred copies of the book have been sold since the release about 2 months ago. About 100 people 'like' the Facebook page. Please help multiply these figures by 10... by asking your friends to like the page / blog / twitter account:
http://www.facebook.com/thewitchslist
http://thewitchslist.blogspot.com
http://www.twitter.com/thewitchslist

and to read it and post a review on amazon / goodreads:
http://www.amazon.com/Witchs-List-Andrew-Cairns/dp/1785353489
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Witchs-List-Andrew-Cairns/dp/1785353489
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29006270-the-witch-s-list

Thanks & have a great weekend!

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Another 5-star review just in! #thewitchslist

Writer/reviewer Mark Kasniak had this to say about The Witch's List:
"This story is exciting and at times gritty, and I loved how Cairns developed his characters and how he slowly built the plot of the book. Descriptions of places, customs, and foreign lands were top-notch and really helped to build an image of rural African life in my mind. For the most part the book flowed nicely and didn’t get bogged down being somewhat on the lengthy side; the book’s lengthy worked perfectly for this type of story.
In the end, if you’re a fan of witches and witchcraft, complex relationships, and adventure to foreign lands, than you’ll love the witch’s list, pick it up, you will not be disappointed. Great job, Andrew Cairns!!!"
See his full review on goodreads and amazon:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1723865230?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
https://www.amazon.com/Witchs-List-Andrew-Cairns/product-reviews/1785353489/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_viewopt_srt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=1

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Q&A with author Dane Cobain

Here is a Q&A series with fellow author, Dane Cobain. Be sure to check out his cool blog, http://www.danecobain.com - which includes excerpts of his writing and music.

1. Who are you and what do you do?
My name’s Dane Cobain and I’m an author, poet and musician from the United Kingdom. I do a little bit of everything – I write across multiple styles and genres and just generally focus my efforts on whatever I find most interesting.

2. Name of your book and brief description?
I’ve currently got four on the market:
1.No Rest for the Wicked (supernatural thriller): An elderly priest and a businessman team up to fight mysterious Angels who are hell-bent on destruction.
2.Eyes Like Lighthouses When the Boats Come Home (poetry): Thought-provoking poetry for ages 18+, distilled from 1,000 live performances in this reality and others.
3.Former.ly: The Rise and Fall of a Social Network (literary fiction): When Dan Roberts joins fledgeling social networking site Former.ly, he suspects that something strange is going on. The two founders share a dark secret, that someone is willing to kill for.
4.Social Paranoia: How Consumers and Brands Can Stay Safe in a Connected World (non-fiction): Using real-life case studies as examples, the book teaches you how to stay safe when using social networking sites for business and pleasure.

3. What do you hope the reader will get from reading your book?
Which one? Ha! Well for the fiction, I just hope that people enjoy the story – there aren’t necessarily any morals to them, unless you want to draw your own. With the poetry, I just hope that people enjoy the wordplay, although if they relate to it then that always helps. And Social Paranoia is all about helping people to avoid a social media faux pas.

4. As a child, what did you think you might do with your life?
I wanted to be a rockstar for a while, but I realised it was unachievable and so decided to become an author instead. I’ve always loved words and writing, and making music was just a natural extension of the writing.

5. Was there a point in your life where your view of the world/universe changed?
Good question! I guess it would be when I was around fifteen or sixteen and I was going through puberty. I developed problems with depression (with anxiety thrown in a little later on). The two of those, combined with the amount of time I started to spend reading and writing, had a profound influence on how I see the world, which then gets fed back into my writing. 

6. What do you hope to be remembered for most?
For my work and my work ethic, I suppose. I guess that’s not for me to decide – I just hope that I’m remembered in the first place!

7. With whom, living or dead, would you most like to have a conversation?
It’s hard to decide! Right now, off the top of my head, I’m going to say Tom Waits – he’s just a fascinating man, and I think that he could talk about anything and I’d be happy just to sit there and listen.


8. What key piece of advice would you give to your 16-year-old self?
Keep at it! Being a writer isn’t easy, but it’s rewarding. You just have to give it your all, often with no recognition. If you don’t give it your all, someone else will, and they’ll be the ones who scoop up the readers.

9. Has there been a key teacher in your life?
There’s no one individual that I could highlight, but I have learned a lot from different people along the way. Mostly, I learn from my contemporaries – no writer is an island, and so if you keep an eye on what other people are doing, you can learn from it. Learn from their mistakes so that you don’t make the same mistakes yourself. And learn from their victories, and figure out how you can apply the lessons there to your own work.

10. What do you hope to achieve next in life?
I just want to keep on writing and releasing books that I’m happy with. The ultimate goal is to make enough money from my writing so that I can work part-time (or not at all!) at my day job and focus all of my efforts on doing what I love.

11. Do you think thrillers and politics can make good bedfellows?
I think so, but like any mix of genres, it works either well or not at all. If you’re going to do it, you need to do it right. But I don’t see any reason why not!

12. What drew you to this genre?
I don’t really write in any individual genre – I have an idea that I like and I get to work on it. I don’t really worry about genres until after the book is finished and I have to start worrying about marketing it.

Friday, August 5, 2016

Another great review just in! #FridayFeeling #FridayBlogs #thewitchslist

Top reviewer, Susanne, had this to say about The Witch's List:
"Initially, I was drawn to this book by the terrific cover and I'm happy to say that the book as a whole did not let me down. It was engaging and well written. Having studied in a Scottish University and having done some research in West Africa both parts of this story appealed to me. The descriptions were captivating and the characters were well portrayed. Throughout the story I felt like I was right there with Sandy in the middle of the action, peering over his shoulder. I'm happy to see from the back cover of the book that this is the first of a trilogy. I can't wait to read more."

See full review on her blog:
http://susannesbooklist.blogspot.com 

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

A heart racing page turner! #thewitchslist

Reviewer Christopher Havens had this to say about The Witch's List in his 5 star review on Netgalley:
"A heart racing page turner that will have you rethinking the genre."
See more reviews on:
https://s2.netgalley.com/catalog/book/90954
https://www.amazon.com/Witchs-List-Andrew-Cairns/dp/1785353489
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29006270-the-witch-s-list