FREE AUDIO STORY: Percy, by Leo McBride

Hi all,

With the world pretty much upended at the moment, I wanted to try something different. So here's one of my most popular stories, Percy, from my Quartet collection. It's the story of a homeless man in Chicago who is more than he seems.

But rather than having it hear to read, instead I've recorded it as an audio track. You can listen to it right here, the links are below. It's on Soundcloud and Youtube too.

I hope you enjoy - and if you want to hear more of my stories this way, let me know. Anyway, let me get out of Percy's way. This old man has been waiting long enough. Happy listening.

Oh, and if you want to read more? You can pick up Quartet at mybook.to/Quartet

Listen on YouTube

Listen on Soundcloud

Quartet: Why a new edition?

Author Leo McBride sits down with Inklings Press to discuss the reasons behind his creation of a new edition of his fantasy anthology Quartet. 

So hi, Leo, and congratulations on the new, revised edition of Quartet - what made you decide to revamp the book?

Hi there. Well, I made the decision a little while back. I had picked up a book by someone else and, as I mentioned in another blog post here, there were a number of things wrong with that book and its formatting that made me just feel uneasy. And it made me feel uneasy because it made me think that some of the same things I regarded as flaws with that book were things that could just as easily be said about my own.

What kind of things?

For starters, the cover. When Quartet was first published, in part it was put in print to test out the process of publishing to Amazon. I was in the middle of helping to put together the first publication for Inklings Press at the time too and Quartet helped me test out that process before having to do it on behalf of someone else - several someones in fact with the first Inklings title featuring five authors. So the cover at the time wasn't as carefully put together as it might have been and on reflection, it didn't speak to the contents properly at all.

It didn't look like it had content that was of a fantasy nature, so i don't think it was destined to draw people in who might be looking for the kind of stories it contained. So, I sat down and redesigned the cover, as well as adding some extra content. I added a couple of short author notes after each story to try to explain where in my head the inspiration for the stories came from, and rounded it off with a Q&A discussing why the stories were picked.

And you're trying it out at a new price?

Yes, originally it was 2.99 - take your pick of dollars or pounds depending on which Amazon you use - or the equivalent in other countries. But it is only four stories, so I thought I'd bring the price down. More than anything, Quartet is an introduction to my writing - and I want it to be at a price where people think sure, I'll have a look, rather than being put off by paying more. Will it stay at the lower price forever? I'm not sure, we'll see how it does.

You say there's new content - does that mean changes to the actual stories?

No, the stories are exactly the same, word for word. The extra content, including a new introduction, is everything around the stories, to frame them and to just show a little extra care for the book, to right some of the wrongs from its first publication. Make no mistake, I'm still proud of that first publication - it's just a simple matter of having learned some things about the publishing process and wanting to improve Quartet based on what I've learned.

So what next? 

Well, I have a story coming up in the next Inklings publication, Tales From The Universe, and I also plan to have another anthology of my own out later this year. Beyond that, my main goal is to finish a novel this year. I've got two simmering away, and want to finish at least one of them.

Any hints as to what they are?

I'll do better than hint, I'll give you the first chapter of Fresh Blood that I recorded.




Excellent, that'll keep you busy! Last question for now, what are you reading at the moment? 

Home World by Bonnie Milani - smashing sci fi story that simmers with old school elegance. Reminds me of my days playing the Traveller roleplaying game. Review to come!

Quartet is available on Amazon here: myBook.to/Quartet2

NOW AVAILABLE: Quartet second edition by Leo McBride

Now available on Amazon is the second edition of my fantasy anthology Quartet.

With a new introduction, author notes on each of the stories, a new cover and a Q&A with me discussing the anthology, it is also down in price right now to just 99c in the US or 99p in the UK. Elsewhere in the world, it has a price drop too.

Described as "a great read" by "an author that has fantastic potential", it contains four stories dipping their toe into the world of fantasy - sometimes in the modern world, sometimes not.

You can buy Quartet here: myBook.to/Quartet 

Readers who have previously purchased Quartet can update to the latest edition by simply re-downloading the book. It may take a little while for Amazon to finish rolling out the new edition to each of the stores, so if your edition doesn't update right away, let me know by all means so I can check any problems for you. You can contact me on Twitter where my handle is @chippychatty.

COVER REVEAL: The new cover for Quartet, by Leo McBride

via GIPHY


My short story anthology, Quartet, is getting a second edition. Same stories, extra content - with notes about each story and what inspired me to write them, a new introduction and a Q&A about the stories I chose to feature in the fantasy anthology.

And a new cover.

The anthology will be updated on Amazon during this week - and those who bought it previously should be able to automatically upgrade to the new version. More information on that when it goes live.

But for now... here's the new cover.

Self-publishing: Facing one's imperfections

Originally, today's blog post was going to be a review. But a funny thing happened on the way to the keyboard.
The book I was going to review I won't name. You see, recently, during my free weekend promotion for my book Quartet, I did a bit of tweet sharing for other authors whose books were free at the time, and the book I was going to review was one of those I shared and downloaded myself to have a read.
And it wasn't very good. More than that, it wasn't very good for very specific reasons - and the more I found myself reflecting on those reasons, the more I found myself considering which of those reasons applied to my own book.
Let's take it from the top - the book up for review had a plain black cover with the title simply typed and centred in white Times New Roman about 1/4 of the way down the page, with an ellipsis... before adding "and other horrors". Then a couple of returns and the author's name. It did absolutely nothing to catch the eye.
Then, upon reading the book, the stories appeared to have never been edited, lacking impetus, drive, conflict, and any real reason to engage with them. They rambled on from beginning to end in the fashion of never having had a rewrite let alone an editor's pen cross their path.
And lastly, there was no real theme binding things together, no relationship between the stories.
In truth, the presentation, production and writing quality would have meant a one-star review - for a book that had no reviews posted, so I haven't added one to Amazon as yet. It feels harsh to do so. I may share some advice on Twitter, if I get the sense it would be welcomed.
That's when my thoughts turned to the lessons that I could learn for my own book.
Editing eyes have passed over my work, and changes made accordingly before publication, so I'm reasonably confident there, and there have been approving comments from readers, for which I'm thankful.
But in my weekend of giveaways, two things did seem clear to me. Firstly, the cover as it stands needs to go. When I first published Quartet, it was the first time that I'd tried publishing anything to Amazon - it was essentially my test run, my learning curve, making sure I understood the process before repeating it on behalf of other writers. And so the cover was simply what was there from before, when I had it as a test run on building an ebook to begin with. It deserves better, and so a new cover is in the works.
It's also fair to say that while there are connections in my head between the different stories in Quartet, that relationship might be less clear to the reader, and so the new edition (which readers who have paid for it already will get updated automatically) will also include some support material in which I explain why I wrote each story, and what they mean to me.
It will take a little while to put together, but Quartet deserves better than perhaps I gave it in the first instance. And for that, I have an author to thank who did things wrong, and reminded me that I need to put things right.

You can follow Leo McBride on Twitter here. 

Where in the world can I buy Quartet?

When he awoke, it was nearly dawn. He strained to sit up, but fell back again, his lungs bursting into a spasm of coughing which he turned towards the wall to try and muffle. His head was pounding and his skin felt like it was burning. No. He could not afford to be weak yet. He wasn't far enough away yet. They might still find him here. They might...

"Hello," said a voice behind him and the old man froze. 

Meet the old man who takes a lead role in A Place To Rest, the opening story of Quartet, a collection of four fantasy-tinged stories from Leo McBride.

That first story sees an old man turned fugitive - and the surprising encounter he makes in his flight, and the perceptions that come into question along the way.

The second story, Acquiescence, sees a photographer reflecting upon the images he has captured - and wondering if he has captured more than he realised.

Percy is a tale of modern fantasy, about a homeless man who turns hero, and the realisation that there is far, far more to this man than there appears.

Lastly, The Grandfather Clock tells the story of a boy and his strange connection with the tick, tick, ticking grandfather clock in his family home.

Quartet is available in Amazon markets around the world. Below you can find your local market and a link to Quartet for purchase.

Amazon.com (US and associated markets)
Amazon UK
Amazon Germany
Amazon France
Amazon Spain
Amazon Italy
Amazon Netherlands
Amazon Japan
Amazon Brazil
Amazon Canada
Amazon Mexico
Amazon Australia
Amazon India

You can follow author Leo McBride on Twitter at @chippychatty, where you can hear about special promotions and other projects.

Q&A: Four questions about Quartet with author Leo McBride

The blog catches up with... the writer of the blog in this Q&A with Leo McBride, pen name of Stephen Hunt, to ask a few questions about Quartet, his collection of short stories published earlier this year through Amazon and available on Kindle. 

It seems wrong to welcome you to your own blog but... welcome! Back in August, you took the step to become a published author, with your self-published collection of short stories, Quartet. How did that come about and what was your plan with regard to publishing at that time?

Thanks. And honestly, I'm not sure anything could necessarily be said to fit the word plan - if I could borrow a line from Indiana Jones, then at the time I would have shrugged and muttered "I don't know, I'm making this up as I go along!"

At that time, a few other aspiring writers and I were working on creating a compilation of short stories, Tales From The Tavern, all with a fantasy leaning (about which more here - Ed). Now, while I've done editing work and ebook creation in the past, and we were all very vocal with regard to how one another's work could be tightened and improved, what was missing from our knowledge pool was the actual nuts and bolts process of publishing the book on Amazon, and it occurred to me that the easiest way to do such a thing was... well, to just do it.

I didn't want to do that with someone else's work, so I decided to pull together a few of my own short stories and, thus, Quartet was born. It was a fairly straightforward process - very enjoyable too at times. The excitement of waiting to see it appear for sale was palpable!

So was it just finding stories you had available or was there a process to picking the stories you included?

There was a definite process. They're all short stories, so I'm obviously a little hesitant at giving too much away about each of them for people who haven't read them, but I'm sure I can hint a little without too much worry! While each of them is standalone, I regard them all as linked thematically in some way to the first story in the compilation. That story sees an old man and a young boy in a semi-fantasy setting during an encounter that is important to them both for very different reasons. It's a piece where it gave me a chance to examine issues of trust, expectations and perceptions, loyalty and friendship. The second story, The Grandfather Clock, expands on the connection between different generations, while the third, about a photographer looking back through his catalogue of images and questioning what it was he had actually captured on camera, again looked at perceptions. The final story, Percy, brings the fantasy context to a modern setting, and while it's the least connected to the first by thematic link, to me it feels closest in spirit to the opening. I want to come back to Percy too, revisit him and see where else he'll take me.

They were all short stories I'd written over a period of time, so there wasn't anything new I wrote specifically for the release, rather I cherry picked ones I personally liked and that felt right for the anthology, if that makes any sense.

Certainly it does - so what has the reception been like? 

That's the hardest thing about this process! Everything people have told me has been good, but it's been tricky to encourage people to leave reviews, so I'm grateful for all who do! And, you know, as a new writer, you're putting your material out there and you don't know for sure how much people are really meaning what they say about your work or if they're just being polite. All the second-guessing you do of yourself is torture! But people have spoken to me specifically about elements of the stories and what they liked, and wanting to know more, and wanting to read what happens next, which is, I guess, the perfect reaction you want from someone. Always leave them wanting more... who was it said that? Barnum? I'll take a dose of that medicine. But y'know, for anyone who's read Quartet and not reviewed it yet? Just hinting there!

You mentioned Tales From The Tavern, and since then there has been a companion volume, Tales From The Mists, which also featured one of your stories. So you've gone from not having anything published to having your name attached to three separate compilations inside of, what three and a bit months? So, given that, and we promised four questions rather than five so we're choosing between this and what future plans you have, what has been the most valuable part of the process to you in these three months?

Well, quickly on the future plans, keep an eye on the blog! But really, I can answer a little bit of both. It's funny how your expectations and goals can change. Before August, I considered myself a writer pottering around with ideas. Thanks in large part to fellow authors from the Inklings Press compilations, particularly Ricardo Victoria and Brent A Harris, I've now already taken that step to becoming published. I can pick up my Kindle and there it is, there's my book. It never fails to amuse me that Amazon keeps recommending it to me as something I might like, though! That's always a "Well, no **** Sherlock!" moment. But having done that, I feel like I've become more focused on the end result, in working to finish at least one of the novels I've been working on with the goal of publication next year. I'm not going to get ahead of myself, one is the goal, but given the state of the stories I'm working on, it's not outside the realms of possibility that two might fit into a single year.

Certainly, timing wise, one might more advantageously be published at a certain time of year than the other for marketing purposes - and that really brings me to the most valuable part of the process in the question. The biggest part of this whole process has been the learning curve, the understanding that it's not just putting the book out there and hoping things happen with it. It's hard work to put it in front of people and make them think yeah, that's worth a couple bucks of my money to read while I have my coffee.

It's been great to reach out to other authors, and see how they go about doing things, what they've found that's worked, what hasn't, and hopefully that will stand me in good stead when it comes to publishing that novel! For example, some of the free stories I've put up here on the blog have been great at attracting in potential readers - but you've also got to make sure that the material you make available for free is decent stuff, that it reflects the work you do, otherwise you either put off a reader or mislead them as to your content. I've probably made that sound like more work than fun - which isn't true, it's been a great experience putting all of this together and doing it. Proof of that is that I want to keep doing it!

Four questions asked, four questions answered. Many thanks!

Quartet, by Leo McBride, is available in Amazon stores worldwide. For more on the anthology, including reviews and a direct link to purchase, see this blog post here. Photographs by Shawn Hanna. 

NOW AVAILABLE: Quartet - four short stories of the fantastic

An old man on the run from a kingdom's knights...

A young boy with a strange relationship to a grandfather clock...

A photographer who may have captured more than it seems in his work...

A homeless man who may be more than he seems.

Four stories. Four tales of the fantastic. Four opportunities to explore horizons.

These are the four stories making up Quartet, now available to buy on Amazon, featuring the work of author Leo McBride.

You can buy the ebook here.

We'd love to hear your feedback too, so let us know what you think - either with an Amazon review or in the comments below.

If you'd like a sample of my fiction, try out the free short story Vote Change here.

Comments about Quartet from readers:

"Spending a lovely Bank Holiday with my Kindle.

Have just read 'The Quartet' by new author Leo McBride, aka Stephen Hunt, available at Amazon.co.uk. Not my usual genre, but very enjoyable and thought provoking!"

"Really enjoyed 'The Quartet', especially 'Percy'. Enjoyed the historical twist! However you can't leave it there - what happens next!!"

Let me know what you think - for good or ill! Be delighted to hear from you.