When I first dreamed of becoming an author, back in the damp and musty days of the 1980’s, there was one image already indelibly etched in my mind about what it was that I wanted to achieve as a writer, and it came from a cinematic masterpiece.
Marty McFly has just come back to the future for the first time and found that his deadbeat parents have transformed into ultra yuppies (and weirdly moved into the EXACT same house as they lived in as deadbeats). Then Biff turns up with a package and the whole family crowds around. They open it, revealing the glory that is the proof copy of George McFly’s first book, which oddly coincides with being about the very thing the whole film was about. ‘Ooooh,’ they all crow, looking at the most generic 80’s sci-fi cover that someone in the props department at Lucasfilm could muster.
I wanted it. Not the book, per se. I wanted the unboxing, the removal of a professionally printed print book, that you have made. A book that without you, the writer, wouldn’t exist in the world.
When the first proof copy of Blood on the Motorway came back, I honestly nearly did a cry. Not because of all the hours I put into formatting the inside myself, or the two previous attempts that hadn’t been quite right. But because I finally had my George McFly moment. Sure, as an indie author I’m not going to be seeing my books in any bookstores anytime soon, and they cost more on Amazon than a traditionally published book, but they’re there. On sale. And there, on my bookcase.
Now, with the release of both A Final Storm and the complete Blood on the Motorway Trilogy, I wanted to give those first two books a revamp, which is exactly what I’ve done. So now, you can finally buy the final book in the series, or any of the books individually, or you can buy the complete trilogy as one doorstopper of a paperback. That last one might set you back a few quid, but hey, it is three whole books of murder and mayhem.
All four books are now reformatted to match each other, and new wraparound covers have been designed for the full series. The whole thing looks, well, chuffing lovely if you ask me. And the best part is that you can go and buy all of them, right now. Even if you just want a really expensive but quite lovely doorstop.
As George says: ‘You put your mind into it, you can accomplish anything.’
