Big day today! I’ve just put this one up on Lulu.com and look forward to seeing how it does. If my other stories are anything to go by, I can probably expect around a 100 downloads a month. Durleston Wood is a project I’ve been working on for years, working through the delicate psychology of it and trying to figure out just who these characters are. As usual I’ve grown very fond of them and it’s hard to finally put the book down and say: that’s it.
As with all my stuff on Lulu, there’s a print copy available for which Lulu will charge you £6.24 plus postage. However, the down load is in PDF format and free. This is not a taster or a sample or a teaser or any other kind of sleazy gimmick – it’s a full length novel of 353 pages and you can get it by clicking here. If I can tempt you into downloading it, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.
**Updated Oct 2012**
As with all my work now, I’ve moved away from paper and focus entirely on the ebook market, so those Lulu links above won’t take you anywhere. I have no problem with Lulu, and I think what they’re doing is still great, but I personally believe the future for the serious indy author is in ebooks – and getting your work on the iPhones and “droid” smartphones of ordinary people all over the world. In Durleston Wood is therefore exclusively available on Feedbooks here, for free. Download to your Kindle, iPhone Smartphone or whatever. Thanks very much to all my readers for their comments. I delight in all your mails, and shall always endeavour to answer each of them personally. I initially write these stories for myself, but it’s all the more satisfying to know others enjoy them as well.
This is what indy publishing is all about!
The Rivendale Review 
Michael
Really enjoyed “In Durleston Wood” (look, I’ve even managed to spell it right this time) and have finally got around to posting a review of it on feedbooks and also on my website:
See: http://paulsamael.com/free-fiction-review.php
and http://paulsamael.com/blog/in-durleston-wood
I hope it gets you some more readers.
all the best
Paul
Hey Paul,
Wow, thanks ever so much for that review! That was amazing. You make me want to rush out and buy it! You picked up on things in there I’d sort of imagined I was getting at but wasn’t sure if anyone else would. I’d wondered at some point in the story about making it so that Lillian could be just as much an imagined character as a real one, but I ended up leaving it vague. Great that you picked up on that anyway. Very much appreciated. It’s odd, when you’re writing something like that – you know what it means to you, but never quite how it will chime with a reader. You can only hope it will be in a way that’s positive and thought provoking. From what you’ve written I seem to have managed that. Very gratifying. Thank you very much.
I’m reading your story “in the future” at the moment, and will comment on Feedbooks when I’ve finished. So far so good – really interesting characters. I think I was lucky on Feedbooks – I got in early with the Man Who, which has kept it sort of in the top twenty for a while, and the way Feedbooks link to other works means readers can find my other stuff as well.
It’s like spread-betting – splatter as many of your works out there as you can, from shorts to full length novels, and the download count mounts up.
Do keep it up.
Regards
Michael
Great Job Michael,
You have written perfect lines…I like it.