Author Paul Dorset - In The Press!!

I've been in the press quite a lot during the past two weeks. Following are some of the links to articles about me. The article is entitled: New Blood: Melrose Offers Something for Older Teens, Young Adults, and Their Parents.

Here are some links:

• http://www.jacketflap.com/megablog/index.asp?postid=999646
• http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/48581/new-blood-melrose-offers-something-older-teens-young-adults-and-their-parents
• http://www.imdb.com/news/ni17686528/
• http://www.buzzbox.com/news/2011-11-05/blood:melrose/?clusterId=6175258
• http://buffaloathome.com/dct/54/id/18784/mid/2135/For-Readers-Who-Cut-Their-Teeth-on-Vampires.aspx
• http://holdyourfuture.com/new-blood-melrose-offers-something-for-older-teens-young-adults-and-their-parents/
• http://www.birminghamtimesonline.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7398:for-readers-who-cut-their-teeth-on-vampires&catid=1:latest-news&fontstyle=f-larger
• http://www.dreadcentral.com/horror-books

To quote one article:

Here at Dread Central we talk a lot about raising your kids to be horror fans, and one of the best ways to do that is through reading. But how do you keep them interested once they’ve outgrown the high school drama and simple romance of typical adolescent genre fiction? one option is Paul Dorset’s New Blood: Melrose.

Dorset, a British native who lives near Seattle, Washington, says it’s important to give young adults books that offer them something to chew on intellectually without being overly graphic, something that both parents and their young adult kids can have fun with and talk about – without blushing...

So, please click a link and take a look...

And then jump over to my author website to find out where you can get a copy of the book: http://pauldorset.com/NewBlood.html

The Dickensian Hippo - A Limerick

A few days ago I wrote a small limerick about a Hippo. It didn't take much time, and was a fun little project. I even got several comments from readers who enjoyed it. Well, in true fashion, a few days away from something often means you can come back to the project and make some improvements. The Hippo limerick proves the point. So without further ado, here's the updated version.

A Dickensian hippo named Roger
Moved into my house as a lodger.
We got along great;
'Til his payments were late.
So I ousted that fat artful dodger. 


Have a great day!

Pet Peeve - Twitter TrueTwit Validation

So as you know, I'm a fairly big and active Twitter user. I also make a point to @reply to people and follow them back to help them grow their network. It's what I do! In all honesty I wish I had another ten hours a day and then I could talk more and be more personal with my followers, but life is what it is and I do the best I can.

But there's one thing that really irks me about some people who use Twitter. And it's not those people who choose to keep their accounts 'private' (that's their choice). No the Twitter users that annoy me are those that use the TrueTwit service. Actually I thought at first that these people were in fact 'true twits' but maybe that's a little unfair! Why do I get peeved with these people? Well, quite simply a lot of them are people that initially followed me and I try to follow back. Seems straightforward enough. Instead, I get some email about having to validate myself in order to follow them. Well guess what, I never bother. Life is way too short to prove to someone that I'm a human being and not a bot of some description.

So nice friendly Twitter people - please, please, please, forget about this piece of software. Does it really matter who follows you on Twitter? Seriously?

Pet peeve over for the day!

How To Live a Synchronized Life (Electronically) - Part One

Part One - The Challenge

As some of you may already know, I live my alter non-author ego in the world of technology. Actually I think this is something that has helped me become a better Indie Author as the proliferation of self-publishing sites and software has evolved.

So today I thought I'd write a little about that other world I live in, in the hope that it is of some use to the rest of you out there. Let me start by defining my day-to-day problems. During a typical month I need to:

• Travel to an office 'day' job
• Continue writing upcoming novels
• Market existing books and generally keep up with Social Networking sites
• Travel for weekends away
• Check my email and calendar from anywhere
• Ensure that everything on all my electronic devices stays synced

It's a tough challenge and something that I am sure most of you are already familiar with. So how have I managed - someone who is supposed to be tech-savvy? Well first off, let me tell you that I still have not found the perfect solution. I live in hope of a fold-up PC with the power of a desktop, the closed footprint of a phone, and something able to give me, on demand, a screen that is at least 11 inches in size. Have I come close? Yes. But I'm still not there yet.

To give you a better understanding of why I need this synchronization, here are a few of my detailed challenges:

• I want to be able to edit my plot ideas from wherever I am and have them available to me when I get home
• I want to be able to write a page or two of my book if I suddenly get a great idea or I'm stuck somewhere with some time
• I want to be able to check and respond to all my emails wherever I am
• I want to be able to sit in a hotel room at 6 in the morning and crank out a chapter of my book
• I want to be able to read what other people are saying about different topics and maybe contribute some feedback to them
• I want to...

You get the idea. I'm no different to the rest of you out there. So that's it, the electronically synchronized challenge.

In the next post I'll give a little background to how I've tried to solve the problems during the past three years; what has worked and what hasn't. And then in the final post I'll write about the solution I currently use and the advantages and disadvantages to it all. I'm getting close to an ideal. Technology may soon not actually get in the way of real work!

Read Part Two HERE

New Blood - The Paperback

Did you know you can get my latest book, New Blood as a paperback? Probably not! And that's because I am always promoting it as an ebook. Well, believe it or not you can buy my latest paranormal thriller in real book form. And just for you today, I have a special offer for you. If you head to my New Blood page, buy the book and check-out using code YQF733H7, you can save $2.00 on the normal paperback price of $12.95. That's a pretty sweet deal!

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A single kiss can get a girl killed. But what if he's the most irresistible man you've ever met? What would you do?

New Blood (Melrose Part 1) - Genre: 16+ Young Adult Urban Paranormal Thriller

In a world where big corporations are controlled by a secret society, Beau is on track to have everything he ever wanted and more. And there is only one woman that stands in his way - As long as she can resist falling in love with the man of her dreams.

In this contemporary tale of power, greed, ambition, love and death, what would you be prepared to sacrifice to have it all? 

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Spotlight: Xannu - The Prophecy

This is the second in a series of spotlight articles on some of my books. Now that I have finally redesigned my official Author website, it's going to be much easier to point people to individual books I have published. Today the spotlight falls upon the first novel I ever wrote, back in 2003, Xannu - The Prophecy.

Although first published nearly ten years ago and published this year as an ebook, Xannu - The Prophecy continues to receive great reviews and calls for the later books in the series. So, what's the book about?

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Genre: Young Adult Epic Fantasy (approx 125,000 words)
Xannu - The Prophecy (Book 1 of The Southern Lands series)


Would you wake up in a hot sweat if you lived your night’s dreams as a soldier battling un-earthly creatures, witnessing powerful magic and fighting to save your own life on a daily basis?

English schoolboy Terry West does. Frequently. After digging up some rune coins near a roman road, he has been living in another world inhabited by warlocks, seductresses, priests and prophecy. There Terry is a soldier, Teern Truthbringer, who has been tasked with finding the Xannu - 'he who will lead the people into deliverance.'

If only it wasn’t real; but it is. Very real. When it all began it was even enjoyable, but now Terry’s life is getting very complicated. Somehow he involved his best friend Joe and although it had seemed a good idea at the time, the consequences had been dire. Then there is Susan, the leggy sister of klutzy school-friend Brian. Why does she keep sending him messages?

Terry is struggling to balance the two lives he leads and every day he is losing his grip on reality just a little bit more. He’s been forced to kill enemies; his companion, the magical woman Maria, is scaring him half to death with her abilities; and his parents are on his back about his school work.

How will he balance the two lives he leads, solve two sets of problems, and understand the lessons he receives from both? Only time will tell. But time is something Terry doesn't have too much of, as everything is unfolding in ways he could never have imagined!

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So, how much does it cost you ask? Currently it's a bargain at only $0.99 as an ebook. The full details are on my website. Why not jump over there and take a look. Just click the link HERE. Alternatively you can go to Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Smashwords and hunt it down. Also, remember, if you jump to Smashwords, you can read 20% of the book for FREE! That's not a bad deal!

Limericks - A Little Fun

I thought it was about time I did something a little different for a blog post, so today I'm posting a couple of Limericks...

Limericks are a good way to get the creative juices flowing if you're ever stuck with something to write. The form and the rhyming, force you to concentrate and also be succinct in what you write. So anyway, without further ado, here's my first limerick - a limerick based on my author name:

There once was an author named Dorset
Whose finger got stuck in a faucet.
He pulled and he pushed,
His finger got mushed.
The moral is gently; don’t force it!

Next up is a limerick I wrote about an unusual pet:

I once knew a hippo named Roger
Who happened to be my paid lodger.
We got along great;
'Til his payments were late
And I ousted that fat artful dodger.

So there you have it - limericks. Read this article at Wikipedia and have a go yourself. It's a fun way to spend a couple of hours!

Spotlight: How To Write & Self-Publish Your First Novel

This is the first in a series of spotlight articles on some of my books. Now that I have finally redesigned my official Author website, it's going to be much easier to point people to individual books I have published. Today the spotlight falls upon my How To for authors, How To Write & Self-Publish Your First Novel.

I initially wrote this book as a series of blog articles on this very blog. And then people kept asking me more questions, and then even more questions. In the end I decided to publish it as an ebook, and then a couple of months ago as a paperback. So, what's the book about?

Here's the introduction:

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Writing and publishing your first novel is tough. It usually takes a long time. Years for most people. It can be soul destroying too. You finally complete your manuscript; you send off samples to agents and publishers, and anxiously watch the mail for the responses. Then they come in, one at a time, rejection after rejection.

How do I know this? I've been there. Does this mean I was a bad writer? No, but I could have used some help in those early days. Sure, I had purchased a few books on writing and I had tried to pay attention to the advice they gave, but there were so many of them and sometimes advice seemed to conflict other advice. It was way too much to take in.

But I persevered with my writing and now I have been writing for several years and I have completed several novels and other books, and my writing is a lot better. My early novels could still do with some major re-editing (which they will be finally getting this summer), but my later works, oh wow I can spot the differences!

So, a few months ago I decided I would go the self-publishing route to getting my books out there in the big world. Things are changing in the book markets and so many people now have Kindles and Nooks and iPads and other electronic book readers. I thought to myself, why not do it myself? I know I can write; I have that confidence. Enough complete strangers have told me they like what I write, so why shouldn't I join that list of published authors? And why should I have to wait for some agent or publisher to take a chance on an unknown author before I get published? So I did it, and now I have the story to tell and the method you can use to generate your own success.

This ebook is a series of essays solely concerned with improving your writing skills and getting your first novel successfully self-published. It is written in a way that you can keep dipping into it, and keep coming back to parts of it, time and time again. It is concise and to the point and it is written from experience; thousands of hours of experience. Every essay in this book is relevant and has a purpose. Every essay will give you pause for thought.

Can I turn you into a bestselling author? No - only you can do that. But I can set you on a path to success. I can give you clear guidelines about what not to do, and how to do things better. And I can tell you exactly how to self-publish that novel. This ebook takes your novel from the beginning and leads you along a path of self-discovery. When you have finished reading you will be Writing for Success and be someone who has a better chance than most every other wannabe author out there of becoming the next Tom Clancy, JK Rowling, Stephen King, or whoever else is your writing hero.

Good luck!


The Book covers topics such as: Creating a good plot, writing in the first and third person, creating believable characters, writing dialog, show versus tell, and lots more besides. There are twenty-four essays to help you on your way to becoming a successfully published author.

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So, how much does it cost you ask? Currently it's $2.99 as an ebook and $8.99 as a paperback. The full details are on my website. Why not jump over there and take a look. Just click the link HERE. Alternatively you can go to Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Smashwords and hunt it down. Also, remember, if you jump to Smashwords, you can read 20% of the book for FREE! That's not a bad deal!