Hi, welcome to AuthorsArk

This is normally where the author tells you things like… My schooling was exceptionally educational. That my life’s work is woven within the chapters of my books. And how my misspent formative years ooze like Dark Matter from my fingertips across a keyboard.

Well, all of the above is true. But it’s also a lie. I did go to school. My life has influenced my writing. And of course, we all have a past. The AuthorsArk website is a path for my future.

I have a great family and a wonderfully supportive wife. The one gift that I do have, I offer freely on this website.

So, if you haven’t read a good book lately, you’re about to. My work on this website is free to download. All I ask is an honest review. Oh, and if you would forward, recommend, hashtag, ‘AuthorsArk’ until your fingers bleed.

The reality of writing a good book turned out to be more daunting than I could have imagined. My first attempt was in High-Fantasy, in a land named Tyrynne. I had no experience, but plenty of energy and ambition. I chose to create a new world that I filled with fictional lives and intricate plotss. Something missing in my own, perhaps?

I wrote two books in my new fantasy land, and then approached a well known, and highly respected editor with the first. I’ll call him, JJ.

Tyrynne, was preceded by a bright and breezy letter of introduction (what’s wrong with that?). A short Bio, a synopsis, and a sentence that still haunts me to today. “I decided to write High-Fantasy genre, because it’s an easy place to make things up.”

LMAO, I was such a dick! My new-found editor was unsurprisingly unimpressed, and showed as much in his reply. Pointing out to me that, “Fantasy is a serious concern.” Making it clear that, “knowing the genre, it’s history, and the people who write it, is as important as the writing itself.” That the authors he knew, could, and often would, talk all night by the fireside on its authors and worlds.

A poor start to the relationship which my prose did nothing to improve, as a couple of years later JJ said, “he was no longer inclined to take my money.”

What a thing to say to a budding author? I was gutted, deflated, and considered burning all my work. Instead, I stepped back, shut down my laptop, and took a few weeks to recover. JJ knew his shit. It was obvious that I had a decision to make . . .

I’m no quitter, so I began to read. A lot. More than I’d ever done before. I scoured the charity shops for novels. I read good books, and many that helped me sleep at night. I began to scribble in their margins. I took notes on books, in the books, about the books, and began to catalogue the scenes I liked from these books. I read voraciously to see how others had told their stories, and learnt how they brought their characters to life. I didn’t write a word for two and a half years, and gathered enough books to start a mobile library. Then I did the unthinkable. I consigned my first four books to the ‘shite’ pile. (600,000 words, what the *@**@*!!).

It was time to start again, but this time better prepared; better equipped to do the job. My secret weapon was, and still is, patience. I fully expected to write a few books before I got it right. I mean, what else have I got to do apart from, work, family, and life in general?

For two years I’d read the kind of books that people were buying. The latest in print, and of course, some Old Masters. To discover how storylines and plots were weaved. How their voices drew me into their worlds. So when I finally set my fingertips to work, on a shiny new laptop, I wrote something very different to anything to what had come before. I wrote, ‘Diary’.

By the time it was finished, I’d realised that High-Fantasy was no longer the genre in which I wanted to write. So I moved on. A decade later I’d written the thrillers you see on this site, all of which are they’re yours to download for free.

(FYI, before AuthorsArk went live, I took another two years to review, and rewrite, all the other books on its pages. As I said, patience was, is, and will always be, my best weapon 🙂 )

My backside slumps into a well worn chair every morning, about 4am-ish My fingertips hover expectantly above the keyboard. A few minutes later the caffeine kicks in.

In those first few moments something happens. Time seems to pause. I forget everything else but the world in which I write. This time is special. Some might say obsessive. I see only a passion. Two and a half to three hours a day, every day, before the day gets going. More if I can; I never miss a day. Nor would I ever want to.

Time frames vary of course. RELIQUARY took the longest, about nine months. THIRTY, took only three. And then all done, right? No! Then comes the rewrite, the consistency checks. It’s the cutting room floor for any words that don’t make the grade. My final act is to print a copy, and offer it for scrutiny to the dreaded, Queen of Grammar 🙂 AKA my wonderful wife, and harshest critic. Who proof-reads and highlights the grammatical errors.

months to write

I never actually intended any of my work to be read by others, not when I started. But as my book count grew, I began to wonder if they really were worthy. I had to decide what to do with my passion, and realised there was only one place to go. The internet. So all aboard the Naked Dream. Time to bare my soul, and offer up my most intimate possession for judgement. Reveal them to the Agents of the Inquisition (You, the reader). After all, what’s the point in spending so many hours tapping on a keyboard if no-one gets to read the end result? So I created AuthorsArk, just for you, and six billion others, if they can find the time.

Pretty scary shit, right? No, not so. Because over the years I’ve learned to piece a novel together, with all its fragile parts. Each time I write a book, I build a bomb. The opening pages initiate a countdown. They trigger a chain-reaction that will build toward an inexorable, and explosive climax. For my characters, and for you.

Each novel is a brand new world in which the characters have to live, laugh, cry, and sometimes die, whilst jacked up on a generous cocktail of emotion, desperation, calculation, and their need to succeed. Their lives laid squarely on the line to tickle your endorphins.

Characters whose lives are no different to yours, they’ve just had a nudge to enact your reverie. It’s your fantasy of danger and adventure, but it’s their lives on the line. All the thrill, but not for real.

So, now I’ve hijacked your attention, I offer you my books. Ready for you, the Inquisition, to download and appraise. Read the blurbs and decide what’s best for you. I think you’ll enjoy what’s on offer at AuthorsArk. The books are free to download, and I ask only one thing in return. That you leave an honest, and hopefully positive, but completely expletive free review 🙂

All the best, Kris